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Thinking about doing the Van Steel front and rear conversion on my non original motor 66 big block coupe. Any thoughts, recommendations or suggestions?
Thinking about doing the Van Steel front and rear conversion on my non original motor 66 big block coupe. Any thoughts, recommendations or suggestions?
What do you believe you will gain from this? I'm not sure that this isn't a solution seeking a problem.
Shocks and rear spring have about 100,000 miles on them since I got the car back on the road about 12 years ago. Also, ball joints and control arm bushing are worn enough that getting proper alignment is difficult at best. As it turns out, left front lower control arm is damaged and needs to be replaced. With having to spend a pile of cash to replace stock type parts, I thought the coilover setup would be an improvement. But, that is why I put out the question. A lot of members on the forum are a lot smarter than me on suspension issues.
Shocks and rear spring have about 100,000 miles on them since I got the car back on the road about 12 years ago. Also, ball joints and control arm bushing are worn enough that getting proper alignment is difficult at best. As it turns out, left front lower control arm is damaged and needs to be replaced. With having to spend a pile of cash to replace stock type parts, I thought the coilover setup would be an improvement. But, that is why I put out the question. A lot of members on the forum are a lot smarter than me on suspension issues.
So many suspension parts are worn out or damaged, right? Since most of the various suspension parts are the same as full sized Chevrolets of the era, OE replacement parts are not that expensive unless you buy them from a "Corvette parts house", in which case they are likey off the shelf Moog parts reboxed with the usual "Corvette" price markup. Most everything can be bought at local parts stores that sell Moog parts and most do.
Rebuild the front suspension with new Moog bushings and ball joints. Renew the rear suspension bushings and rebuild the rear spring with new liners and install new link cushions and buy a set of adjustable shocks like QA-1 or Spax. They are expensive, but worth the price if you really want to get the ride/handling dialed in. If you don't want to spend the extra doe, just buy a set of "Delco" replacement shocks, which most guys seem to be happy with for normal cruising around.
A lot of these "aftermarket suspension kits" are expensive scams. There have been many threads on the subject, so you would be wise to do some searching on this site.
These cars were very well engineered. I've never understood why so many guys who realize that they have an old, tired, worn out car think they have to "re-engineer" it. The least expensive and best outcome is almost always replacing worn out or damaged parts with OE replacement parts to bring the various systems back to as-new operating condition.
I did a lot of research into suspension "upgrades" as I'm in the middle of converting my '64 coupe to four wheel disc brakes. On the advise of SWCDuke, and a number of other forum members with much more experience than I have, I limited the suspension changes to adjustable shocks (I went with RideTech, but QA1 and Viking are also good brands), a 13/16 front sway bar off a '73 with poly bushings, and Global West Del-A-Lum control arm bushings. I'm also going to be running Avon CR6ZZ tires. For a street car, anything beyond the above modifications is overkill. Van Steel, Ride Tech, Detroit Speed, etc all make really nice stuff, but if you're not racing the car on the Pro Touring circuit, its all a waste on the street.
There was a good thread a while back on here about "coil overs" explaining how they're simply a packaging solution that provides ease of adjustment for a track car. A spring is a spring and a shock is a shock.... again, if you're not racing your car regularly, and making constant adjustments for varying track conditions, then a coil over set up is overkill. In fact, I had coil overs on my C5 many years ago, and eventually went back to a factory mono-leaf style set up as I could never get the coil overs adjusted to my liking....probably more my lack of experience, but the point is, if you throw a bunch of adjustable suspension components at your car, without the knowledge or ability to dial them in properly, you're actually spending a lot of money to make the car less enjoyable.
I run Global West arms and coilovers with Viking shocks. I am really happy with the setup and I think the price was reasonable even when compared to stripping, powdercoating and rebuilding the stock arms. The only real advantage to coilovers is that you can adjust the height and therefore stance of the car exactly how you want it and that was enough reason for me !
Coilover Conversion
