Need a 1st gen 68 camaro suspension for daily driving that is actually available

[68conv455]

So I'm really disappointed in the Detroit Speed Kit 2 that I bought for my 68 Camaro. Purchased from Jegs in September with an Oct delivery. Then December delivery. then January delivery. Now reportedly no date of availability. Four months of waiting down the tubes. I expected this to be a fall project so I took apart the original suspension and here she sits on blocks.
I decided on the Detroit Speed because no modifications were required and the front spring rate was 550 lbs/in. I'll be running an LS3. At the time I considered a ridetech front but the spring rate was 650 lbs/in. and I thought that might be a little stiff for a car that would see limited to no track use. All the members of my family including wife and adult kids will be using this car from time to time.

I'm looking for a suspension that will give me positive tracking at 75mph and have a more modern feel.
Other mods that will be part of this build include:
Borgeson 12.7:1 PS box, ridetech Truturn, Wilwood 12" disks all around, and LS3/4L70E. Have most of those parts. Nothing planned yet for the rear suspension.

So please help direct me to a capable suspension that is actually attainable in this market.
I'm not a fan of the stock set-up because the car was squirly over 70 MPH and 4 wheel drums won't bring me down from 70 as fast as the car in front of me.
Thank you in advance for your suggestions.

[Bad94]

For a driver I would look into the ridetech street grip kit. Very nice kit and great for drivers.

[chevelletiger]

I just bought the whole speedtech arms and spindles for my chevelle,great customer service.
ridetech is great also.

[ryeguy2006a]

I'm very happy with the Speedtech Arms I have.

[Mkelcy]

Your car is likely running on bias ply tires with a stock specification alignment. Put on modern radial ply tires and a modern alignment, and it will be vastly improved. Stock UCAs/LCAs with delrin or delalum bushings are perfectly capable (I wouldn't use the stock LCAs with coilovers), you just can't get as much positive caster out of them as you can with after market control arms. The camber curve can be improved with tall upper ball joints still using stock arms. What subframe bushings are you using - solids or stock rubber? Wheel and tire sizes? Rear suspension? Sway bar?

Packages are all well and good but, as you've discovered, you have to like the vendor's idea of a "good" suspension.

[68conv455]

Thank you for the input. I have a few things to research tonight.
Regarding Mkelcy's post for more info, here it is:
Not sure on subframe bushings. They look excellent and were replaced 20 years ago during a P.O. restoration. I assume stock replacements on almost no miles.
Wheel and tire plans are Vision 55 rally 18x8.5 with 235-40-18 front and 18x8.5 with 255-40-18 rear. All wheels with the +10mm offset (front hubs are 1/8" outward due to wilwood conversion)
Didn't pull the trigger on wheels/tires yet. Stock rallys have 235-70-14 radials and are date-coded 2001. Same time the restoration was completed.
I believe rear suspension is a stock rebuild. Has mono-leafs and 10 bolt open.
Car has the 327/2speed auto set-up. Converting to Ls3s/4L70E
Car is corvette bronze w/black interior and my goal is to have it debugged in time for HR power tour.
Was thinking I'd do the car in three phases. 1. Front suspension/steering 2. LS3 drivetrain 3. Rear end, rear suspension, AC
Delivery issues are blending 1 & 2.
The car is a convertible.
Thanks for your help.

[BonzoHansen]

We put a street grip setup in guys 74 Nova, essentially the same as a 1st gen. He loves it. For a street car its a nice setup.

[68conv455]

Thinking about the QA1 handling kit 2.0 or Speedtech road assult kit for front suspension. Both have what appear to be comparable packages.
I like the fact that front ride height can be dialed in w/o pulling springs.

[jorgezee1]

Your car is likely running on bias ply tires with a stock specification alignment. Put on modern radial ply tires and a modern alignment, and it will be vastly improved. Stock UCAs/LCAs with delrin or delalum bushings are perfectly capable (I wouldn't use the stock LCAs with coilovers), you just can't get as much positive caster out of them as you can with after market control arms. The camber curve can be improved with tall upper ball joints still using stock arms. What subframe bushings are you using - solids or stock rubber? Wheel and tire sizes? Rear suspension? Sway bar?

Packages are all well and good but, as you've discovered, you have to like the vendor's idea of a "good" suspension.

This is a good option!

I am currently on the DSE setup and to be honest I like my stock setup better for street cruising than the DSE stuff. The DSE kit is stiffer in comparison and feels a lot harsher on daily commutes. This is really only felt when you are on not so flat roads! If on a smooth road DSE feels great, lol.

My favorite setup so far is stock control arms with del-a-lum bushing a billet cross shaft running bilstein shocks. S2 global west front spring and rear L16. I would not say I regret the switch, but I will say I miss the day to day driving feel of this setup.

[Josh@Ridetech]

I vote for the streetgrip if you're looking for a daily driver. We have two on the shelf right now.

When those are gone, we'll be looking at about 2-3 weeks on the next run to be put on the shelf.

On a side note, the front spring rate on the coilover kit is higher due to the motion ratio of the control arms. It sounds high but it's not, it's still a cruiser spring rate, they drive really nice.

[SinisterSpeed]

If the street grip is even in your consideration you'd better grab one of those two.
Myself and another member took us 4 months to get ours. My rear shocks just finally showed up about a week ago after ordering back in September.

If you go that route, I will tell you, the front says 2" lowering coils. It actually ended up exactly the same as stock if not 1/2" higher.
The rear 1" lowering kit +$89, simply tells you to remove the 3/8" spacer you're instructed to install in with the rear leaf kit and add a 1/4" plate under (I'm assuming for shock travel). I'm no math wiz but I have no idea how adding 1/4" = 1".
In addition, unless I'm an idiot removing the 3/8" plate is actually going to raise the rear of the car since it's going to move your spring UP closer to the rear end and result in a larger wheel well opening rather than a smaller one. However, I might be misreading something or just plain lost on something I've done 100's of times on leaf sprung vehicles throughout my years. Maybe there's some wizardry going on with all the science and stuff... who knows.

Then, to top it all off, the rear 1" lowering kit comes with a page that is supposed to be a paper template to cut your new front springs.
In my case the front end was all put together 2 months ago. I questioned the ride height not looking like the images on the RT website and was told that's just a general height but it's common to have to cut your springs in order to actually achieve the desired ride height. I've been driving it to insure the springs are actually settled. Then I planned on either cutting or adding drop spindles.
Because even with these 2" lowered coils I have 1.5-2" of wheel well over the 235/40/18 tires.

So, in turn, seems like a great kit, rides good but on my car the front is actually level or even higher than the rear. Plan on making some adjustments (cutting coils) or adding drop spindles to get the look advertised on their website.
But it does seem to ride really well IMO.

If you're planning on doing steering, RT sells ProForged and another brand (I can't remember right now).
I wanted the ProForged ones, RT was backordered w/o any ETA., Jegs had about 1 month wait until est shipping 1/27/22 this morning it changed on my order from est shipping yesterday 1/27/22 to next est. ship date 4/22/22.
I canceled the order and Summit has in stock 7 left, ships today $283.

AGR box same deal, everyone seems to be out of stock, call AGR themselves, They seemed to be great over the phone, I ordered last week, mine was supposed to ship 1/24/22 per the phone convo at the time of order.
I haven't heard anything as of 1/27, so I called yesterday for a follow up to see if it actually did ship and if there was any tracking info available. I'm currently waiting to hear back but so far I have no reason to believe it didn't ship.

[SinisterSpeed]

Just as a point of reference.

Stock 1967 suspension prior to RT Streegrip install


On the alignment rack, right after RT streetgrip installed (minus the rear shocks, and 1" rear lowering kit that were backordered).


The stock stuff is most likely soft and wore out which is the whole reason I was replacing. Bushings mainly were totally gone! I figured while in there, probably needed to update the springs and shocks. Hence the whole RT streetgrip kit is exactly that. Shocks, Springs, Bushings.

I will say the rear seemed to settle in and come down probably 1" from this photo. But doesn't it look like my car got taller with a 2" drop?

[jorgezee1]

I can only state what I know, but when I installed the street grip on my 68 camaro I had to cut the coil to get the fender to sit right above the tire. I was running a 26" tall tire and the sat at about 24 3/4-25" from floor to fender lip. On the rear I ran a 1" lowering block, although I did not use the ridetech lowering kit, I just bought a 1" (actually (2) 1/2" block stacked ) lower block from calvert racing. I will have to find a picture of the camaro I can only find the spring picture on my phone at the moment.

Nice setup, by the way. It is really smooth and did well on uneven pavement.

If you want to build a cheap but good setup. Again I will say my preference is the Globalwest bushings, GW springs with Bilstien shocks for a street cruiser. I believe all in I was at about 1000-1200 a few years ago so might be a bit more now.

This is with the coil cut as per the template. I still have these in storage and can measure if needed.

[SinisterSpeed]

I can only state what I know, but when I installed the street grip on my 68 camaro I had to cut the coil to get the fender to sit right above the tire. I was running a 26" tall tire and the sat at about 24 3/4-25" from floor to fender lip. On the rear I ran a 1" lowering block, although I did not use the ridetech lowering kit, I just bought a 1" (actually (2) 1/2" block stacked ) lower block from calvert racing. I will have to find a picture of the camaro I can only find the spring picture on my phone at the moment.

Nice setup, by the way. It is really smooth and did well on uneven pavement.

If you want to build a cheap but good setup. Again I will say my preference is the Globalwest bushings, GW springs with Bilstien shocks for a street cruiser. I believe all in I was at about 1000-1200 a few years ago so might be a bit more now.

This is with the coil cut as per the template. I still have these in storage and can measure if needed.

Good to know I'm not crazy!
I just finally drove the car with the new T56, Gears, and the rear shocks installed. Wow what a difference the rear shocks made.
It actually drives really good now. I will go back and add a 1" block in the rear and probably end up cutting those coils to get it down where I really want it.

[68conv455]

Ended up going with the ridetech dual rate coils, shocks, upper/lower control arms, sway bar & shocks.
Not the Street-grip kit just the front end stuff.
Was quoted 4 weeks on the longest lead time. Hope it works out.