1952 Muntz Jet. A build from a beginner.

[52Muntz]

The suspension



Unfortunately an unlimited budget is something that I don't have. Therefore, to get the major components to make my resto-mod, I had to buy them piece-meal as my budget allowed. The first major purchase was going to be the suspension. Why? Well I figured the old Buick suspension was one of the first items to come off when I disassembled the car, and to get the Jet off the jack stands and back on tires a new suspension was going to be needed sooner rather than later.

With that decided, I needed to figure out what suspension to get. As mentioned in a previous post, the front and rear framework from the Buick allowed me to purchase one of the many available off the shelf g-body designed suspension systems. Ultimately what suspension system is used comes down to the intended use of the car. In my case I had decided that I wanted this car to be a cruiser - something that would be just at home flying down the highway as it would going slow through town. I'm not looking for a 1/4 mile car or track car. I wanted a suspension system that offered comfortable cruising but also versatility. To say I did a lot of research would be an understatement. I looked at air ride, and coil over, and the stock g-body setup and all the iterations contained therein. I looked at several manufacturers and read reviews wherever I could find them on the internet. As I kept looking I couldn't help but notice that the brand RideTech continued to pop up with mostly positive feedback.

So, I started focusing on RideTech suspensions. For the g-body they offer several levels and kits - everything from just coil overs to full computer controlled air ride kits. Honestly, I didn't know what to get. It would be one thing if I knew what the car looked like before - like if I was putting a new suspension on a car I already knew well. But when all you have is a shell of a car sitting on jack stands, a car that came to you with different sized tires on each corner and a suspension not originally built for that particular car, it's hard to know if you'll get the ride height you desire when it's all done. It would be a major bummer if you find you bought the wrong ride height suspension and you hated the look. It was that unknown is what ultimately drove my decision to the more complicated, yet more versatile, air ride suspension. I had heard the positives and negatives of air ride but in the end the decision really came down simple fact of wanting to be able to control the ride height of the car without first knowing exactly what that car was going to look like. It was as simple as that.

Now to decide the type of air ride within RideTech's inventory. That wasn't too difficult a decision either. The g-body suspension on the car was flat out tired. The bushings were old and cracked. The different components were covered in a light surface rust. Could they be brought back to life? Sure, but at what expense of time and overall functionality to the completed Jet. In the end I chose the Level II kit that included the air ride components as well as new control arms, ball joints, rear links, etc. Obviously the car is not yet running but I believe in the end it'll be the right decision and it'll give me the functionality I was searching for.