Need some suspension/brake advise...

[Ole Rusty]

Hello all, this is my first project car and am looking for some advise from all of you. Couple of days ago I bought a 70 Chevelle that my wife and daughters picked out while I was in Iraq. It's in good shape overall and we immediately set to stripping it down to nothing. 6 work hours into the project now and my wife and I have the front end off and my daughters have the interior completely stripped out. How much more fun can you get??? This weekend we're hoping to get the body off the frame and start the build up instead of the tear down. Problem is, this is my very first project car and am slightly nervous about the ways to go from here. Truth is, I've got more money than time for the project (but both aren't unlimited) but I still want to do everything with my family. Learning together as we go.

We're gonna have the body off and are starting the frame up. My dream is to build an all around driving p/t car, not a show car, so that is the approach I am taking. I want to start with suspension and brakes, so I'm concentrating completely on those two areas for research right now. Here's where my questions begin.

Suspension--I'm looking for advise on the best kits for good performance. I like the idea of Heidt's/DSE/Hotchkis/something like that. Is it worth getting dropped spindles and new tubular A-arms? In all of your experiences, what would you all say is a good kit to get?

Brakes--Many friends are suggesting to just get a swap from another car. Our Chevelle has 4-wheel drum brakes. I'd like to go 4-wheel disc, but is it worth it? Anybody try anything other than vaccuum-powered? Is it worth it to swap out of another car? $600 sounds much better than $2000 but I don't even know how to start.

Any advice would be appreciated. Sorry for the length of the question, just so excited. Thanks--Mike

[importkiller69ss]

well i used to have a 70 chevelle and man did i love it ..bought it when i was 15 built ir for 3 years and wrecked it after only six months of driving..i never got into the p/t theme until i got my 69 camaro which i have now..but for most things i think it still applies....hotchkis has great coil prings and i think they have a tvs system that has everything you need for that chevelle...4 coils 4 trailing arms swya bars and i know they make tubular arms for them too...that is well worth it in my mind that is what i did on my camaro...next thing is that the brakes can be very expensive if you go with say bear or wilwood i know you can do they ls1 or c5 conversion for way cheaper that is what i am doing now........on the front it is easy and you can reuse your stock drum spindles....you jsut have to read up on the conversion and it has been talkes about alot on this site just do a search on ls1 brakes or c5 brakes...it will cost half as much and still be just as good....you alos use either a hydra boos system or the m/c from the donor ls1 car....drop spindles i heard hurt the handling of the car but they are an alternative to lowering the car but liek i said i heard they hurt the handling.... but if you have a lot of money and want to buy a break kit and saive some time and the hassle of hunting down parts do it i know it is well worth it but for me being only 19 and in college i couldnt afford it when i could do front and rear ls1 brakes for under 400...hope this helps if you have any questions on the conversions or whatever just pm me or email me at [email protected] hope this helps

[DeepBlue68]

Since you're still in the very beginning phases of the build, my biggest piece of advice would be to look at what you're going to use the car for and choose a realistic set of parts according to that usage (and then try like hell to stick to that mindset). Of course it would be nice to build the thing with completely new tubular control arms, coilovers, etc. (every bad a** part you can think of), but that is one big way for the budget to get out of control in a real hurry.

I just had a reality check with my suspension/steering budget, as I'm getting ready to do a whole bunch of work in about a week. I had to cut back on a bunch of things (control arm bushings, steering box, etc.) because the price skyrocketed. But the more I think about it, my car will be street/road trip driven 99% of the time with an occasional track day and even less frequent trip to the drag strip. So when I look at it, there's really no need for me to spend thousands of dollars on rack and pinion, tubular LCAs and UCAs, mini-tubs, etc. because the vast majority of the time I'll never see the difference between them and less expensive parts. Just something that I have been thinkin about a lot lately

[mikey]

I hear that brake drums make some pretty cool flower pots paper weights:idea: Seriously go with disc brakes now matter how fast you can go or how well it turns it's no fun when you can't stop fast safely. Put your safety items first then go from there. Best of all just have fun building and driving it.

[Marcus SC&C]

Mike,first off it sounds like your wife and daughters are very cool. You`re a lucky guy! On to the car,Deep Blue has some great advice there. Be honest with yourself about what you want out of the car and what your budget it. Plan the build,then build to the plan! You`re going to want disc brakes at least up front. Factory 11" discs with good pads and a booster will get you by but if you want some serious stopping power you should look toward more modern systems similar to C5 or LS1 brakes. You can adapt factory parts if you`re handy and on a strict budget or buy complete systems from Baer,Touring Specialties,SSBC etc. You`ll need to decide what dia./style of wheels you plan to run before you make the final decision on brakes. No matter what system you go with a Hydratech hydraboost will give you more line pressure at the wheels and better stopping power.
As for suspension you can start with fresh bushings,a set of Eibach springs all around and some good shocks like Bilsteins or adj. QA1s and the car will drive and handle quite a bit better. Tubular this and that mostly looks cool,be careful how you choose to make sure you`ll be getting real performance gains as well as looks. We like to improve the really poor factory geometry then tune from there. Our Stage 2 package corrects the camber curves,RC location and about 80% of the factory bumpsteer with all bolt on parts. Combined with the springs and shocks above,1" front and rear bars (smaller in the rear if you drive aggressively and or have big power) and a good performance alignment and you`d have a very solid package. If you want to spend a little more money,get more trick and wring even more performance out of it you can go farther with AFX tall spindles up front and Edelbrock/Currie arms out back too. Sounds like a fun family project any way you slice it! Mark SC&C

[Ole Rusty]

Thanks all for the advice. Mark, like the site and the packages but I'm just wondering about how well your products have been tested. They look very interesting and would like to know a lot more about them. Thanks--Mike

[sinned]

Mike, the products Marcus sells are 10X the product Hotchkis puts out. I wouldn't install a Hotchkis part if you gave it to me. They do nothing for improving the poor geometry and focus only on making factory parts look pretty so the average garage builder will buy them, hey if they look good than they must work good. Do yourself a favor and don't spend a nickel on the typical "kits" available from Summit or Jegs. Do some reading in the suspension threads of this site and chevlles.com, there is an abundance of information on what really works and what simply looks nice and drains the bank account.

[Ole Rusty]

Thanks for the advice. Mark's products look very interesting, I was just worried about them because they look so unconventional. I think I might go with them, I've heard good things about them in other forums as well.

Thanks-Mike

[protour_chevelle]

Thanks for the advice. Mark's products look very interesting, I was just worried about them because they look so unconventional. I think I might go with them, I've heard good things about them in other forums as well.

Thanks-Mike

Just made the connection hahaha. I thought you were local to me. Bummer :offtopic:

I pretty much said what Dennis did over at the other forum. Crazyness.

-Matt