'71 Camaro Control Arm Redesign

[searly71]

Hello all. I'm a new member here...I'm from Mesa, AZ (near Phx) and I've got a '71 Camaro SS that's an 'all original' (for now) daily driver.

I'm a mechanical engineering student at AZ St Univ and I'm designing upper and lower control arms for my '71 as my senior design project (I'll be graduating in May!). I'm getting started in studying chassis design and choosing the angles and lengths. Once I know the geometry I want, I'll create a CAD model and do a stress analysis, then fabricate the uppers and install them. I'm looking for advice/comments anyone has on any of these things:

*perceived OE alignment angle shortcomings (like very little caster)
*experiences with tubular arms (from global west or heidt's or wherever) and their alignment angle changes
*chassis software recommendations (right now I'm using Perf. Trend's Susp. Analyzer demo)
*x,y,z coordinates of pivot points (ball joints, etc) for inputing into chassis software...I'm going to try and measure these today
*anything else that might help

Also, does anyone know what years the control arms on a '71 are interchangeable with? I think the uppers are the same from '70-'77, but not sure.

I'll be glad to share everything I learn from this...THANKS...