1968 Chevelle with Corvette C4 suspension.

[Tiger]

Dear All,

I've been posting on P-T.com for a few years and I've also been bouncing back and forth on lateral-g for a few years now so some of you might know me.... Indeed I've never made a thread about MY car tho so I figured its about time to let you know whats done, what I'm working on and what the plans are....

The car:
The car is a 1968 Chevelle coupe I bought in 97/98, I drove it for a few years and even drove it from Norway to Italy when I moved here.
When I bought the car it was nice-from-far but far-from-nice, it had a roller-cammed SBC, a M21 and a 12bolt so it was great fun.
About five/six years back I decided it needed an upgrade, I worked on it regularly for some time and then due to allot of circumstances the car was parked in the garage and the doors shut.

What have been done:
The front part of the frame have been modified to accept a Corvette C4 front suspension, QA1 coilovers and Porsche six-piston Brembo calipers and 14.25" x 1.25" rotors.
The engine and trans sits in the boxed frame, the engine (for now) is a 355cid SBC with ported fuelie heads (future plans are for more inches and nicer heads). The trans is a D&D Viper T56.
The rear of frame has been narrowed to accept the Corvette C4 rear and QA1coilovers, the rear is all installed and spot welded.
One stainless header done, one to be finished

What is to be done:
Install front and rear sway bars
Buy and install rear 14.25" rotors and Porsche four-piston Brembo calipers
Lift the body and blast it, finish the floor and firewall
Paint, bodywork, wheels, driveshaft, wiring, finish exhaust, plumbing, etc, etc

I’ll post some pics and update this thread as I procede with the work.

[68/CamaroFL]

Sounds like a great project! :twothumbs keep us posted!:pics2:

[93Polo]

Like the project and I agree PICS???

Are you using MovIt parts for the brakes?

Good luck on the project.

[Tiger]

Here are a few pics, do you like it?

[Tiger]

Like the project and I agree PICS???

Are you using MovIt parts for the brakes?

Good luck on the project.

Lamar,
I made the hats (way to many hours to do again!) and brackets myself and used Porsche Cayenne six piston calipers and Audi RS4 rotors.
On the rear I plan to build a hat out of the original vette rotors and bolt Wilwood 14.25" rotors to that and then make up a bracket for the rear Porsche Cayenne four piston calipers.

[93Polo]

André, Awesome work on the chassis and brakes.

I've had my '70 Chevelle for 16 years. Since then a 93 Polo Green Corvette and a C5 have come and gone. I did a MovIt 322mm Porsche 993TT Rotor/Brembo (BigRed) caliper front kit on the C5. I always liked driving the C4 better than the C5.

So your project combines 3 of my favorite aspects on those cars. My Porsche sourced Brembos were amazing and your setup should stop even better. :smoke:

[bosses son]

Andre, who did your chassis work for getting the C-4 suspension under the car? Looks like an awesome project!

[67rstbkt]

Nice work, paisan :1st:

[CruizinKev]

sweeeet! looking good! :twothumbs

[Tiger]

André, Awesome work on the chassis and brakes.

I've had my '70 Chevelle for 16 years. Since then a 93 Polo Green Corvette and a C5 have come and gone. I did a MovIt 322mm Porsche 993TT Rotor/Brembo (BigRed) caliper front kit on the C5. I always liked driving the C4 better than the C5.

So your project combines 3 of my favorite aspects on those cars. My Porsche sourced Brembos were amazing and your setup should stop even better. :smoke:

thanks!
I should be good if I ever finish it, fighing with the hours of the day.:enguard:

[Tiger]

Andre, who did your chassis work for getting the C-4 suspension under the car? Looks like an awesome project!

A very very slow worker did it all.... ME :1st:

[Tiger]

Nice work, paisan :1st:

Thanks, I'm indeed just a rental paesano tho, I'm originally Norwegian...

[Tiger]

Thank you KEV,

Managed to partly mnount the front swaybar yesterday, but took no pics, will do soon tho.

[DaveJS]

Trying to do the same thing on a 65 2DR wagon any tips you could give me?

[Tiger]

Trying to do the same thing on a 65 2DR wagon any tips you could give me?

Its allot of work!
well, If I were to redo it I'd make a jig and put the frame on that one, I did allot of temporary bracing but thats time consuming.
Then I'd also make a "dummy" to pick up the rear axle mounts from under the vette, after you have narrowed the frame just put the dummy there, make the frame attachment points, unbolt the dummy and bolt the axle in.


SPOTWELD EVERYTHING FIRST!

[Jim Nilsen]

AWESOME, I can relate and you are doing a great job. I like the brakes and someday have to upgrade my car.

Building a fixture and building my own frame is how I did the back half but I cheated and put a C4 front frame section up front, it saved a lot of time and looks like it belongs there I have been told.

I really want to see more pics of the suspension to see how it all looks under a Chevelle.

How many people told you that Corvette suspension wouldn't fit ?,LOL

Get it done and enjoy !!!!

[DaveJS]

Tiger I have an entire parts car and an extra frame to perform this on. How did you determine ride height and coul you move the engine a tick more forward?

[Tiger]

AWESOME, I can relate and you are doing a great job. I like the brakes and someday have to upgrade my car.

Building a fixture and building my own frame is how I did the back half but I cheated and put a C4 front frame section up front, it saved a lot of time and looks like tit belongs there I have been told.

I really want to see more pics of the suspension to see how it all looks under a Chevelle.

How many people told you that Corvette suspension wouldn't fit ?,LOL

Get it done and enjoy !!!!

Thanks, I'll post some pics of the underside to show you guys.

How many people told you that Corvette suspension wouldn't fit ?,LOL
"that wont fit, just go for polybushings in the original 4-link. never heard that....today at least :o)

[Tiger]

Tiger I have an entire parts car and an extra frame to perform this on. How did you determine ride height and coul you move the engine a tick more forward?

Dave,
To determine the height I welded vertical square tubing to the framerails at the right height and angle and had it sitting on the flat floor in my garage with some old iron heads on top of the frame.
If I had to do it again I'd use a jig and weld the frame to it.

You will not be able to move the engine more forward if you use the vette crossmember, unless you raise the engine allot.

One thing I'd do is to make a build book with all measurements and such written in it, I wrote a little here and a little there

[Jim Nilsen]

Thanks, I'll post some pics of the underside to show you guys.

How many people told you that Corvette suspension wouldn't fit ?,LOL
"that wont fit, just go for polybushings in the original 4-link. never heard that....today at least :o)

I was at a car show/swap meet one time early in my build and I told a guy I was putting the C4 suspension in my 67 Camaro, he told me you can't do that it won't fit, I had to reply that it's too late and that the stock suspension won't fit anymore because the Vette suspension was in the way,LOL.

You are absolutely right about building a fixture, that is what I did and it made the ride height easy to do when you just put the body over it all and start welding it in.

Looking forward to the pics.

[Tiger]

Here are some pics of the car underneath

Sorry, I get some error message, I'll try again later.

[Motown 454]

Nice work the car is looking great, but I don't see the new pictures.

[Tiger]

trying to post pictures again for the 100th time, I had some token problems whatever that is(my token is broken :hand:)

[1971CHEVELLE]

Looks Awesome keep us posted

[bosses son]

looks great, are you going to run the stock spring or switch to coils? i would advise to run the stock spring if you could.

[cobraguy65]

Nice project! I am doing a similair build with a firebird.

Kyle, could you explain your recommendation on the stock spring? I have consider both directions on my build.

[Tiger]

Hi All,

I've been doing a few updates to the car but nothing big, I've made the end links for the front sway bar with rodends and measured and drilled the frame (two of four holes), now I Nneed to take the lower a-arms off, drill the other two holes and weld in the nuts. other than that I've been mocking up the fuel system and have found out that I need other fittings :o)

I'll have QA1 coilovers in all four corners but thats reversable, anyhow please let me know why you wouldnt use coilovers?

[shortrack]

awesome set up.....Id love to see it done.....love 68-9s!!!!

[bosses son]

Nice project! I am doing a similair build with a firebird.

Kyle, could you explain your recommendation on the stock spring? I have consider both directions on my build.

The C-4 suspension was designed to only have the forces of a shock on the stock shock mount. Most people bolt there coil over right to that with out doing any sort of bracing. This puts the weight of the car on the shock stud. The way Corvette mounts the spring is at the center to top of the knuckle and in the middle. When you put the coil over on the shock stud it moves the pivot point on to a lever arm that really stresses a piece of the knuckle that was not designed to take a load like that.
I know that lots of people do it and most haven't had any problems. Having worked with the stock springs quite a bit they are very adjustable on height and its really easy to change the height on the fly. All you need to do is lengthen the bolt that goes from the knuckle to the spring to get the the car to sit lower. We have also been able to change the spring rate on the stock springs by removing material from the front and rear side of the spring (making it skinner when looking down from the top). The stock springs last much longer than a coil, and don't seem to have problems with holding up heavy cars. our wagon is a perfect example.

[Jim Nilsen]

The C-4 suspension was designed to only have the forces of a shock on the stock shock mount. Most people bolt there coil over right to that with out doing any sort of bracing. This puts the weight of the car on the shock stud. The way Corvette mounts the spring is at the center to top of the knuckle and in the middle. When you put the coil over on the shock stud it moves the pivot point on to a lever arm that really stresses a piece of the knuckle that was not designed to take a load like that.
I know that lots of people do it and most haven't had any problems. Having worked with the stock springs quite a bit they are very adjustable on height and its really easy to change the height on the fly. All you need to do is lengthen the bolt that goes from the knuckle to the spring to get the the car to sit lower. We have also been able to change the spring rate on the stock springs by removing material from the front and rear side of the spring (making it skinner when looking down from the top). The stock springs last much longer than a coil, and don't seem to have problems with holding up heavy cars. our wagon is a perfect example.

The stock springs also give a stabilizer effect as it goes through its motion. The mounting points can be changed and make it even better.

Mike Lamm has a book about the C4 Corvette that should be read to get the complete engineering of them.It's titled "the New Corvette, A-Z51.

I stayed with the fiberglass spring and was glad I did.

[Tiger]

good to know guys, I'll make the brackets sturdy enough to go with coilovers and try a bit with both coils and fiberglass to see what I like best.

thanks for the kind words everyone.

[Tiger]

hi all,

here are some pics of the swaybar work as well as a shot underneath the car that I liked.

[Tiger]

Hi All,
Sadly I dont have the camera but in the last month I've done allot of work, here is the list
-finished the drivers side stainless header.
-completed the stainless oval exhaust from the headers to the rear axle.
-finished the front sway bar mounting and a strenghtening crossover in front of the engine.
-mocked up the pil cooler for the power steering.
-mounted the Moroso accumulator and the remote oil filter inside the drivers front fender.
-adapted the 14.25" rear wilwood rotors to the vette spindle and made a temporary bracket for the Porsche rear Calipers, final brackets will be made of billet aluminum.
-Fixed the mounting of the rear I-beam.
-allot of small stuff that I have forgotten.

I'll update with pics when my camera gets home.

[RS_Customs]

Cool build Andre! I really like the brakes! Any chance you have some more info on the caliper brackets you built? Thickness? Hole locations? This gives me some ideas for the build David and I am working on.

Robert

[Tiger]

Thanks,
If you are referring to the front brackets they are made of 3/8" steel with welded nuts on, let me know if you want detailed pics.
The rear ones will be carved out of 7075 aluminum but they are not done yet, I'll post pics when the rear brakes are done.

[RS_Customs]

Thanks,
If you are referring to the front brackets they are made of 3/8" steel with welded nuts on, let me know if you want detailed pics.
The rear ones will be carved out of 7075 aluminum but they are not done yet, I'll post pics when the rear brakes are done.

Sorry, Front were what I was typing about. Pictures would be great! I will pm you my email address.

Thanks
Robert

[454bug]

Hey Andre',

It looks like you've been really busy the last few months! Everything is looking great!

Very impressive skills with the fabrication work. Keep up the great work. You're getting there little by little.

It's crazy how life gets in the way of our projects!

[Tiger]

Hi All,
Robert got his bracket pictures by email, hope they can be used. Nice project you are into too.
Ray, as you know I'm BIG fan of your project and work so the kind words are worth gold.

Yesterday we spent the evening in the machine shop and CNCd the brackets for the Brembo's...the suckers wont fit, this is due to the new SKF hubs being about 1mm shorter than the old ones. anyhow next time it should all be done..... then its mockup, mockup and more mockup :o)

Roberto, the guy making my brackets is awesome he does most of his work for big name motorcycle companies, but even being overworked during the days he spend his evenings with my crap...

[Tiger]

Some random pics for you guys
41629416314163241633416344163541636416374163841639 41640416414164241643

[454bug]

Man, that is being resourceful/creative with the brake hats and the caliper brackets!

GOOD STUFF!! :1st:

I really like the transitioning from round to oval to round exhaust!

[FadedSS]

great work man! love that 68!

[vette427-sbc]

Really nice work André!
Do you have any CAD or solid works drawings of the calipers? I picked up a set of cayenne brakes too and I'm trying to model some brackets before I machine them.

[Tiger]

Just a little update.
I have been travelling and working a lot at my job in the last months but now and then I've also done some small stuff on the car putting together a few loose ends, nothing worth an update tho.
I boult a new trans crossmember before xmas and today my buddy and I managed to get together to finish the rear brakes, this was a big step forward!

[singer69]

Wow you are a true artist and that is a work of art. Keep up the great work. Thanks for the inspiration.

[Tiger]

Wow you are a true artist and that is a work of art. Keep up the great work. Thanks for the inspiration.

Thanks for the KIND words, sadly speed isnt my strongest part but I'll update as soon as there is more.

ciao

[sparky427]

Do you have any pictures of when you were building the front suspension? Great job