Gonna beat this dead horse like he stole something! 71 Chevelle...

[danheit]

Yes, I've researched, looked, searched and read...and read....and read. I'm still not finding the answers I would like. Here's the backstory, followed by the dilemma. For starters, always wanted a 71/72 Chevelle. Neighbor had one growing up, that's what got me started. Love at first sight. Fast forward about 30 different muscle cars and 20 years, I bought my first Chevelle New Years Day 2015. It was a project, but a VERY solid body with virtually no rust...or interior...or engine. Brought the car home, ordered AMD replacement panels for what needed replaced (mostly due to poor body work and dents, ie. hood, deck lid, rad. support, battery tray, etc.). Bought a built 396 to go in the car. Bought a Hotchkis Upper A-arm B-body spindle conversion setup. Got upper arms, spindles, lower ball joints with my stock lower arms. That was to help with the handling a bit, as well as swap me over to disc brakes. Right now, the motor is sitting in the car, front fenders are in my driveway, front suspension is all over my garage, and the project looks like it will never end. I got to where I REALLY wanted a finished Chevelle to drive while I worked on this one. Found a heck of a deal on a RUST FREE 71 Big Block SS Clone. Black Car, pea soup green interior, bench seats, all that fun stuff. Car has a 396/t400 setup with a 10 bolt. This is a Malibu with drum/drum setup, Orig. A/C Car, blah blah blah. The car runs great, lots of fun to drive, it's what I always wanted. Aaaaand then, after a few weeks, I got bored. The body roll is like no other, Acceleration is fun, but I'm not a straight line kind of guy. I've done road courses, and was a driving instructor for the police dept. I worked for a few years ago.
Fast forward to my dilemma. I have one car already finished. I plan to keep this one. I put my unfinished project up for sale for $6K, which is a deal, considering everything I have for it. Now I'm at the "WHERE DO I START" crossroads with my new Chevelle. Here's my layout for my car. This is going to be a daily driver. No two ways about it. Fortunately, I don't have to drive it to work, as they give me this great F*rd to beat up on. I will do very minimal autocross/road course racing, as there aren't many events near me that I have seen. Also, I have not seen a lot of people doing A-bodies on autocross. I'm guessing this is due to the weight and sheer massiveness of the car.
Currently, I have virtually no budget. All of my $$ got tied up in buying this car. Until I sell my other Chevelle....and my boat...and probably one of my trucks... I won't have ton's of extra $$ to play with. I have always been a "junk yard upgrade" guy. From Jeeps to Novas to whatever, usually there's great bolt on swaps that come from the junk yards.
I want to do brakes, stiffen up the car a LOT so that when I take a corner, I don't end up in the passenger seat with feeling like the car is up on two wheels and 10mph, and then I will worry about the go fast stuff later. I'm running a 15" set of corvette ralleys that came on the car, so brake options for now will be limited. I can't afford to drop even $500 on a set of wheels, plus I like the look of the current setup. I'd actually like to built a bit of a "sleeper" when it comes to the handling. I'd like my car to handle like a new corvette (eventually), but still look like nothing has been done to it.

Plans:
Kore3 brakes for the C4 style swap using my original spindles/drum hubs -- Unless there is a better/cheaper alternative
Poly body mounts
Fat anti-sway bars from somewhere (this is where the junk yard info would come in handy)
Grand Cherokee steering box swap
Eventually a set of coil overs and tubular upper and lower control arms, but I'm WAY far off on that



Is this a good place to start, or would you experienced guys suggest differently? I only want to do this ONCE, so I'd like to have a good setup to start with. I'm not in a big hurry, so I don't mind saving up for the big ticket items. I'm also not against used parts, as long as they're in good shape. I've never messed with tuning of suspensions, it's always been motors for me.

VERY long story short, I need guidance and HELP! Here's what my car looks like, so you see what I'm starting with....

[fleming23]

Tough to offer much help when you don't have much of a budget to work with (only because I could easily spend $10k of your money ). I would try to find a junkyard JGC box (as you mentioned) as that should really improve the steering. I believe some of the later G-body cars had some heavier duty sway bars you might want to look into.

I have a 70 Chevelle and it does feel like a tank in comparison and I have every UMI suspension part available, coilovers, 18x9/18x10 wheels, JGC box, etc.... It could certainly become something competitive but it would require some work, and MUCH better seats. Even the TMI sport seats don't do much.

Love your 71 (except for the half moon lens covers) mine had those when I bought it and was the first thing to go.

Look up the recently announced ridetech Street Grip line-up. They have that set-up on a White 71 Chevelle with Corvette Rally's (shown below)

http://www.ridetech.com/info/streetgrip/

[hotrodalex]

Hellwig sells good sway bars for pretty cheap.

I'm not sure how much the brakes you're looking at cost, but I went with a front disc conversion from Right Stuff and it worked well. (I upgraded to rear discs this summer as well, but mostly just because I hate drum brake maintenance, not for improved stopping power)

Stiffer/lower springs and shocks, plus new upper control arms and tall upper ball joints will round out the handling and give you a pretty decent handling car once you get a modern alignment.

[TheJDMan]

I agree that you might be a perfect fit for the newly announced ridetech Street Grip system. They should be shipping by the time you get your other car sold.

http://www.ridetech.com/info/streetgrip/

Very nice looking Chevelle by the way!

[bret]

streetgrip systems start shipping January 5, 2016. Orders being taken now, first come, first served.

That white Chevelle pictures above rides better than my CTSV Cadillac. AND it corners and transitions exceptionally well...much better than we'd even hoped for. [ask anyone who was at the SCCA meet in Bowling Green about a month ago ] It is currently my favorite hotrod.

[danheit]

While I'd love to spend the $2K on that nice new system, I just can't see the value in 2 sway bars, some poly bushings, a couple tall ball joints, 4 shocks and 4 springs. That just doesn't seem like $2K worth to me.... I feel like I can spend that $$ elsewhere that would be better utilized. I did sell my other Chevelle, for full price....in one day (which I now regret pricing it as low as I did, but oh well!), but I'm going to sink that $$ into the small loan I have on the one I just purchased. Right now, it looks like I need to dig into the motor and track down a possible wrist pin knock, then I'll swap over to some poly bushings. After that, I'll start looking into brakes. This is going to be a slow process, but I think it will be well worth while. I do kind of kick myself now though, as I put a Hotchkis tall spindle swap on the Chevelle I sold, and I kind of wish I would have just kept that for myself and put it on my car, but oh well.

[vintageracer]

While I'd love to spend the $2K on that nice new system, I just can't see the value in 2 sway bars, some poly bushings, a couple tall ball joints, 4 shocks and 4 springs. That just doesn't seem like $2K worth to me.....

I guess the above statement means you have the engineering ability, manufacturing capability and the upfront money needed to produce your own suspension package that is equal to or better than the ridetech system for less money????

[danheit]

Engineering ability, yes. Manufacturing capability, no. Upfront money, clearly this wouldn't have been posted if that were the case. HOWEVER, as I stated in my post earlier (had you read that far back), I have no aversion to used parts. From what I've seen, I can do poly bushings for around $200, find a good set of sway bars for around $300, I saw a full Hotchkis upper and lower tubular arms for $500 on CL the other day, there's a grand. Find some used QA1's and lowering springs and I'm in below $2K with full tubular a-arms, hence my comment of being able to piece it together cheaper. I certainly don't mind the harsh comments, and I absolutely understand that research and engineering goes a long way into the price of these parts, as I have an extensive background in mechanical and automotive engineering (and the degree to go with it, thank you). Lastly, don't judge a book....

[TheJDMan]

Is this a good place to start, or would you experienced guys suggest differently? I only want to do this ONCE, so I'd like to have a good setup to start with. I'm not in a big hurry, so I don't mind saving up for the big ticket items. I'm also not against used parts, as long as they're in good shape. I've never messed with tuning of suspensions, it's always been motors for me. VERY long story short, I need guidance and HELP!

You ask for our advise and we provided you with information on a VERY nice suspension package for a VERY reasonable price considering some of the high end suspension setups that are also available. What you initially perceive as a collection of parts, is in fact a carefully selected list of matching components which have been installed and tested in a car very similar you yours to verify that they work exceptionally well together. So you can come on here and ask for our recommendations and trust that we know what we are talking about, or you can spend the next several months attempting to collect junk yard parts for maybe less money and hope you have the suspension knowledge to put together half the package of the one we suggested to you. As for finding used parts, GOOD LUCK! While they do occasionally show up, normally when someone decides they are ready to move up to the next level of performance, I would not hold my breath waiting for a used suspension to show up. Bottom line, if you can assemble a list of parts that perform half as well as the ridetech street grip system, given your level of suspension experience, then you will have accomplished something special. Otherwise you would be smart to listen to our recommendation. Whatever you decide I wish you the best.

[csouth]

Engineering ability, yes. Manufacturing capability, no. Upfront money, clearly this wouldn't have been posted if that were the case. HOWEVER, as I stated in my post earlier (had you read that far back), I have no aversion to used parts. From what I've seen, I can do poly bushings for around $200, find a good set of sway bars for around $300, I saw a full Hotchkis upper and lower tubular arms for $500 on CL the other day, there's a grand. Find some used QA1's and lowering springs and I'm in below $2K with full tubular a-arms, hence my comment of being able to piece it together cheaper. I certainly don't mind the harsh comments, and I absolutely understand that research and engineering goes a long way into the price of these parts, as I have an extensive background in mechanical and automotive engineering (and the degree to go with it, thank you). Lastly, don't judge a book....

You can piece together a system and there is nothing wrong with that, but you're comparing used prices to new. You said you're a "junk yard upgrade" kinda guy and there is nothing wrong with that by any means. What you fail to acknowledge is that the reason why companies like Hotchkis and ridetech exist is because there are no junk yard suspension upgrades for a 71/72 Chevelle. The upper and lower control arms were not made because they look cool, but to allow the necessary camber\caster changes required for improved suspension geometry. The GM A body is one of the most popular platform muscle cars around, if there were junk yard fixes for the deficiencies in the suspension we'd all know by now.

Don't use the Hotckis B Body spindle setup. While it fixes the positive camber issue, it increases bump steer because the steering arms are not in the correct position for an A Body. Hence B Body spindle.
Use the JCG Steering box as it is a proven inexpensive way to improve the steering on these cars.
Offhand, I don't know of any sway bar from a car other than an A Body that will fit this car. As you said, you can find a decent set for @$300

My advice to you would be to wait until your Chevelle is sold and buy the parts you want(new or used) within your budget.

Good luck in your quest...

[danheit]

Guys, you're absolutely right. After some time sitting back and looking at the system, it looks like a good route to go. It's just a tough swallow for me to drop $2K, on anything. HOWEVER, I acknowledge the quality of the parts, and the suspension package as a whole. When it comes time, I'll most likely head this direction. Thankfully, my other Chevelle is sold, however that $$ is already allocated to paying towards the small loan I took out when I purchased my newer Chevelle. Sometimes I lose sight of saving to buy the right parts, vs. the "I want it now" syndrome. I certainly do put stock in the advice given, and seeing that so many see this as a great way to go, I'll certainly be giving it a lot more consideration. Thanks for all of your help.