dogpile71

Im thinking of upgrading my 71 suspension. I have seen some pics of coil-overs on the C3. I just cant seem to find enough info or even find anyone thats done this.

Any suggestions or comments on suspension upgrades??

Thanks,

4DLuvOfSpeed

Try this link: http://www.acp-euskirchen.de/zubehor.html
If you can understand German, maybe you can order one of these:






[Modified by 4DLuvOfSpeed, 2:10 PM 3/17/2003]

dogpile71

These are the pics I have seen. Hopefully there is English speaking person that has done this or has a better method of upgrading.

Thanks for the input!!

Ganey

FE-7 w/ VB rear spring for less wt. Chevy did not consider FE-7 appropriate for the street w/o 73 up body mount bushings which should help eliminate the creaks that some complain of w/ early Vettes.
You might want to see 77 Facts on my website.
After that, then larger dia. wheels & the rear is the place to look for upgrades like adj. struts, lowered strut mount to rear end & coils.

VegasJen

last time someone else mentioned this i got into a whole buttload of trouble but i just can't seem to learn my lesson. why do you want a coil over suspension? what has been done so far to your car? it's just my stupid ole opinion but for anything short of a full tilt race car, it's beyond overkill.

dogpile71

The car is original at this point.

All Im looking to do, if possible, is get as close as possible to a "new" car feel out of my 30 year old car.

I figure with todays technology there has to be a few easy solutions out there for suspension upgrades. I know the coil over is overkill but what better solution is there??

All opinions are just that opinions but I learn from other peoples opinions and experiences. What I hoping is someone has upgraded their steering and suspension and loves what they did and would love to share in the experience.

Thanks,

Twin_Turbo

to get a better feel you will need something else than coil overs. You will need to stiffen the frame, modify the IRS to have upper struts too (so the camber doesn't change as much w/susp. travel), adress the front suspension (see other topic here on forum), use lightweight stuff (brake calipers, rotors, hubs) to reduce unsprung weight. Last but not least you will need to install a rack and pinion steering and get rid of the sloppy stock recirculating ball system. There's a lot more you can and have to do... it's just not simple bolt on stuff.

VegasJen

VB&P front monospring and update the tire technology. there's 'steeroids' and other fixes for improved steering feel and response. there are a couple other things you can do to improve other aspects of the suspension feel and performance that will likely yield more advantagious results. 'smart struts' for the rear suspension and revised front suspension geometry for the front. there are several forum members working on the best solution for that now but the concensus is a longer upper ball joint to effectively heighten the spindle and revise the geometry. in factory form, the c-3 has been designed to go positive camber both front and rear when the suspension loads. 'smart struts' was designed to eliminate this for the rear and several of us are working on a similar fix for the front.

burners

Speed Direct is in the process of developing a semi-coil over front suspension package. A fully optioned package will allow for adjustability of the shocks in both compression and rebound as well as ride height. Here are some pictures of the development parts.

Twin_Turbo

...looking at the middle picture, is it me or is that steering rod bent?

burners

It's an optical illusion due to the light reflecting at an angle off of the rod.

dogpile71

Thanks for this info. What company is doing this?

Personally do you think this is the way do go or am I just running down a rat hole with this whole coil over mess.

Is there easier ways to improve the suspension that would give as good of a result?

Input anyone??

Thanks,

Schmucker

I'm putting them on my car. Basically we are making a new rear end crossmember to set the tops of the coilovers up higher. We are not mounting them in the same spot as the stock shocks. We are then making a bracket to come down off the back of the trailing arm. This will also be nice because we won't need a shortened monospring for extra wide tires and such for the future. Just offset trailing arms. For the front we are making a disc to set up in the stock coil spring location. It will have a bracket on it for the top of the coilover to go into. This will have a threaded rod on it that goes through this disc and will bolt into the stock shcok mount on the top. Or as another possibility for additional strength we will have a bracket on the top with bolts running through them down through the disc resting in the coil spring location. We will then bolt the two together to pinch it into the frame. The lower part of the coilover will bolt in similiar to stock, but strengthened a bit too. We are going to use HAL/QA1 12 point adjustable coilover shocks. Then I can set it up to cruise around and cut some corners, change it some more so I can pull wheelstands at the strip, or change it to handle like it's on rails. Also allows me to change ride height with greater ease too. I plan on putting 17's on next winter so I'll want to lower the car a little. I also plan on adjusting each corner to get an even weight distibution onto each corner.

dogpile71

Hope you plan on taking allot of pics! Im very interested in how this turns out!