Project Bad Penny - more changes because done is boring

[Steve1968LS2]

Weather still looks iffy for this weekend. I am crossing my fingers.

Me too.. would be nice to shake down the car, but it has to come home Sunday/Monday no matter what.

[HectorM52]

True.. but Dave modified the bar to accept more holes. I will grab a picture when I'm up there later this week.

Yes please - I want to see this too!

[David Pozzi]

Here's Penny's new rear bar, courtesy of Hotchkis.
I cut the bar ends off and welded on my own ends with multiple holes for more adjustment, also put set collars on each side of the bar to make sure it stays centered.



Here's a shot of the end link left side, note Penny has a raised floor in this area with thicker frame rail piece welded above the stock frame rail, this is where I anchored the end links. These are 8.25" long, but I may shorten them more after the car is on it's wheels to set the bar angle. I think on a stock rail the end links would be 5.75".

[HectorM52]

That's a BEAUTIFUL setup.

Keep up the AWESOME work.

[Steve1968LS2]

Cool deal Dave, can't wait to try it out and then add the new front goodies.

After Costa Mesa I will pull all that stuff off and get it powdered and made pretty.

The new bushings, bearings, and ball joints should be here Monday from Pfadt and I secured another set of C5 control arms for the modifications.

[Damn True]

Here's Penny's new rear bar, courtesy of Hotchkis.
I cut the bar ends off and welded on my own ends with multiple holes for more adjustment, also put set collars on each side of the bar to make sure it stays centered.



Here's a shot of the end link left side, note Penny has a raised floor in this area with thicker frame rail piece welded above the stock frame rail, this is where I anchored the end links. These are 8.25" long, but I may shorten them more after the car is on it's wheels to set the bar angle. I think on a stock rail the end links would be 5.75".

Noted.

Given the differences in the front suspensions between BP and the setups in mine and Shipka's cars what do you reckon the odds are of he and I needing a similar setup?

[Steve1968LS2]

Noted.

Given the differences in the front suspensions between BP and the setups in mine and Shipka's cars what do you reckon the odds are of he and I needing a similar setup?

I can't possibly see how the differences in your front suspension will offset the lack of a rear bar.

ie, get a rear bar ;)

[Damn True]

I dunno...roll centers? Just askin.

[David Pozzi]

I think you'll need one. If the rear roll center were high enough you might get by without one but you'd be running the top hole on the bellcrank and perhaps have 350 lb rear springs or higher. If you add enough rear spring and roll center height, you won't need a bar, but the rear RC will be pretty high, and the springs stiff.

A leaf spring Camaro would have a roll center about the height of the center of the axle.

[bonecrrusher]

Source of the heimjoints and the threaded tie rod bar for those swaybar endlinks?

[Steve1968LS2]

Took Penny to a shake down autocross event at Marina.. the rear bar certainly helped and the tires were much better once broken in. Thanks to Dave Pozzi for all the hard work!

I still need a real alignment.. right now at -.80 caster.. would like to have 1.5+

Here's a couple of shots.. I found out from Mary today that we were only a couple seconds off the CP class and they were on race tires. That was nice to hear.

Body roll seems to be greatly reduced. Will be going to a 500# front spring to help increase weight transfer.

[Steve1968LS2]

Pics of finished rear suspension:

[Steve1968LS2]

We also scaled the car. Here's where we ended without the driver. The front to back was 52.4

With driver we were 52% front to rear. The back was 10 pounds off left to right and the front was 25-pounds heavy on the drivers side. That means I'm pretty well balanced unless I have a passenger.

[Damn True]

https://www.pro-touring.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=53503

[Mkelcy]

I thought I read somewhere that you went back to the smaller front (anti)sway bar. True, and if so, why?

[Steve1968LS2]

I thought I read somewhere that you went back to the smaller front (anti)sway bar. True, and if so, why?

Yea, we worked hard to get the 1.25-inch .20 wall hollow bar on the car but the front got too stiff when combined with the new rear bar. So we went back to the 1-inch solid bar.

It's a process.. lol

[Mkelcy]

Yea, we worked hard to get the 1.25-inch .20 wall hollow bar on the car but the front got too stiff when combined with the new rear bar. So we went back to the 1-inch solid bar.

It's a process.. lol

Do you still think you need more bar on the front? (I ask because my 21st Century subframed, Lateral Dynamic 3 link rear end '68 is creeping ever closer to assembly.)

[Steve1968LS2]

Do you still think you need more bar on the front? (I ask because my 21st Century subframed, Lateral Dynamic 3 link rear end '68 is creeping ever closer to assembly.)

I don't think so, but I'm keeping the front bar just in case. Fine tuning a suspension is a tricky deal. I will be going from 550 front springs to 500 to see if I can get more weight transfer in braking, but that might make the bigger bar work better.

As they say, "Your results may vary" lol

[Steve1968LS2]

All the parts for my front suspension upgrade have arrived. This should fix many of the shortcomings of the factory C5 deal.

ZR1 type wheel bearings, better lower HOWE ball joints, Pfadt bushings, and Raceseng Design drop uprights.


I still need to confirm but it looks like street price on the uprights will be in the $1500 per pair range. While that sounds pricey (and it is a stack of cash) it's pretty cheap compared to other alternatives on the market. Go price some LG arms if you want real sticker shock. lol

[Krazed]

Very nice Steve! Glad to hear it's all coming together more or less smoothly.

I do have a question though, what type of rear suspension is that? I can't say I've ever seen it before your car.