1972 LeMans Daily Driver budget project (redo)

[Brad1970]

Sorry for the redo, but wanted to get a fresh start on the thread...

Back story:
Here is the start of my project. 1972 Pontiac LeMans Luxury. 400ci, TH400 tranny. Not the original tranny & motor from what I've been told by the previous owner. Body is fairly good shape, not a lot of rust & runs great. I bought the car from a guy in Kentucky who bought the car from a guy in my home town here in Arkansas. He had moved to Kentucky from AR 4 yrs ago... small world.

Anyway drove the car 9 hrs back home & not a problem.

[Brad1970]

Got the car in Nov. & started in the trunk with a wire wheel taking off the surface rust & a bit more. Discovered a hole in the wheel well/trunk line (common spot) & in the rear close to the spare tire tie down ( few smaller spots) where the trunk brace is.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I pulled most of the interior & my Father & I removed the rusted out passenger side floorboard & installed a patch. I've been wire wheel brushing the floorboards & what not, & using rust inhibitor paint over the cleaned areas, then using flat black on top of that.

[Brad1970]

I ordered some of the suspension pieces I wanted & got in some of it today. For the front I went with Savitske's SC&C Stage 2 Plus, NASCAR style ball joint (screw in), lightweight arms, with SPC lowering springs 550lb front, 135lb rear & Poly-graphite bushings for front lower arms. In the rear I've ordered Spohn upper & lower adjustable arms with Del-Sphere joints & Vari shock single adj. I'll get those installed in the next week or so...

[Motown 454]

Nice job on the patches it looks good.

[CruizinKev]

good work so far

[Brad1970]

My Spohn rear uppers & lowers came in last Friday & the last pair of Vari Shocks showed up last week... Hopefully we'll get all the suspension parts installed on the weekend of the 20th if the weather holds out... I also ordered some poly rear upper bushings I had forgotten to order with the rest of the stuff earlier this week. Should be in tomorrow.

I measured the SPC springs just for documenting sake just in case someone had questions about them in the future..

The Rear springs are double pig tailed (although I've been told they don't have to be) & are a variable rate (when I talked to Mark he told me the springs were linear, but maybe he was just talking about the fronts)...

Rear springs are about 13.75" uncompressed, 135lbs, variable (shown in the pics) I was told rear factory springs are 14"... SC&C says a 1" drop in the rear from factory stance. Front springs measure around 13" uncompressed, 550lbs, linear (shown in pics). Factory front springs I was told are 16". SC&C says 1.5" drop in the front from factory.

I was a little skeptical about the spring rates until I saw these 2 threads ... http://www.lateral-g.net/forums/show...lle+suspension

http://www.lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=19847


Mark told me these were the spring rates to go with unless I was going to be doing road racing with the car only. Then I might need to consider going higher in spring rate. You want to get a spring rate on your car that doesn't over run your shocks abilities, otherwise it will ride horribly, not to mention handling.

I went with the Vari Shock single adj. as Bilstein HD's may have been too soft for my plans on how I would be driving the car from time to time.

[Brad1970]

Well this weekend was nice & warm enough to get into the garage (thank goodness a buddy canceled my plans to help him move!) & start the upgrade to the rear of the car. This is my 1st time to do all this, so it took me a bit longer to do one side than the other, but isn't that the way it always is?

So I got the car up on jack stands & went to work. As I've read & been told, everything is really straight forward & easy to get to. Getting rusted bolts & nuts to loosen, not so easy. But a little (or a lot) of PB Blaster & WD40 , a section of my hollow jack handle & all those issues went away!!!

I was able to get the original springs, shocks, upper arms & lower arms off. I haven't installed the shocks just yet as I'm getting some longer bolts to accommodate the thicker shock mounts on the Vari Shocks. I also didn't change out the upper rear control arm bushings located on the rear end housing due to not have the tools to remove those (that will be a project for this weekend).

The interesting thing about the Vari Shock I was unaware of was SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED! After talkin to a friend & just some common sense kicking in, I think I've got it. Hopefully that's it for those.

Here are some interesting numbers for those who might have ever wondered (Close estimates):
Weights:
SPC Spring (1) 10lbs
Factory Spring (1) 6.5lbs
Lengths:
SPC Spring length 13.75"
Factory Spring length 13.5"

I've got some other weights for the arms old & new, the new shocks to the old shocks but don't have those with me, so I'll post'em later.

The old springs came right out with little or no assistance with the shocks off on both sides & the new springs of course go in without issue.

The drivers side uppers was a real pain due to a brake line being right in the way for a socket to fit, so it was slow going on the removal & re-install of the of the bolt. I'm sure an air ratchet would have made short work of it & save my shoulders a lot of aching! But after a few minutes, it was done...

At this time, it's just waiting for the shocks to be installed & wheels put back on, then the initial drive & then tightening up the rear uppers & lowers after it settles.

Enjoy the pics...

[4spdharry]

nice poncho

[Brad1970]

Helpful videos...

Rear upper control arm bushing removal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPXf1OR9Lnk

Rear upper control arm bushing install:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPMd2x_DYxc

Front lower control arm bushing removal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ5FkOoT5QE

metal sleeve removal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG1hQlw6xMk

[Brad1970]

more weight numbers:

Monroe Shock: 4.5lbs
Vari Shock: 4.0lbs

Factory Rear Lower Arm: 5.0lbs
Spohn Rear Lower Arm: 5.0lbs

I don't have the weight for the Factory upper arm yet, but the Spohn Upper Arm is:

3.5lbs

[4spdharry]

VFN one piece fiberglass front end

[gto406]

Looking good Brad, keep at it!

Cheers,
Brian
'72 GTO.

[GM_muscle]

looks like a good car to start with good luck.

[Roadbuster]

Great looking project!

I gotta start weighing my parts!

[Brad1970]

So I got my shocks installed this weekend... didn't take long at all. Used new bolts & nuts... I didn't realize Lowe's carried #5 rated bolts & nuts, glad I looked.

As I said got'em installed, drove it around the block just to settle the suspension a little. Wheel gap is a little more than what I expected but it's MUCH improved over what it was. We'll see how it looks when I upgrade the wheels & tires someday soon hopefully. Speaking of, while removing my wheels I noticed that the lug nuts were all different sizes (outside) & I was having to use different ends of the wrench to get some of em off, so I went & bought all new lug nuts, I may have to replace some of the lugs as I think they were cross threaded... it's always an adventure!

This weekend is the front suspensions time... hope it all goes well. Gonna replace the bearings while I'm at it. Might as well...

Enjoy the pics...

[4spdharry]

looks perfect

[ponchopwr70]

Nice lemans! You def have all the right parts on there.

[Brad1970]

Short worded update (pics will follow tomorrow)... Front suspension installed. We left the lower control arm bolts "loose", drove it & then tightened it up... End result is that the drivers side is about a 1/2 inch lower (measured from the bottom of the frame to the ground) than the passenger side... Any ideas why this is?

Over all the stance looks great! the front is LLLOOOWWW. The frame is about 6" (plus or minus) off the ground (right in front of the door). The rear stand about 2" taller than the front. It needs an alignment & I'm upgrading the front sway bar. Then I'll be able to return focus back to the interior....

[Brad1970]

Alright folks, we start of with the process to the finish and some other stuff in between...

My thanks to my buddy/co-worker/Pro-Touring member JeffT for the use of his shop, lift, knowledge & assistance on this. It would have taken twice as long if not...

Here we see the front in all it's glory minus the rotor as we already had it off. Pic of the original spring & the SPC spring SPC spring length bout 14" Factory spring length 16.5" or about, Factory lower arm down, spring removed, old shock busted, couldn't hold the arm & spring in place all old parts out

[Brad1970]

Ok now here is some of the fun... So if you've taken a look at the You Tube videos on how to remove the rubber bushings out of the A arms, here is my contraption from pieces bought at Lowe's... the pipe itself is 2 1/2" in circumference & about 3 or 4" long. the rod is a threaded 3/8's diameter rod. Works better if you actually can find the heavy duty cast screw on top to drill the hole thru, which I didn't so I improvised & used some large washers as well as the sheet metal ends. The round bushings came out no issue, the enlongated (oval) bushings just got the center & sleeve pulled out, but it made it much easier to remove the exterior sleeve with a air chisel... Also found some addtional weight savings... 30 some odd years of dirt & debris & rocks... Hindsight I should have bought all new nuts & bolts & sanded and painted... but I didn't... so that'll be a project for the future. Arm installed more to come....