I am restoring my 69 conv with a 427 and am just about ready to lift off the body and take apart the frame components.

Ok, I have seen allot of upgrade parts out there and my question is has anyone tried them, do they work? Worth the money?

By upgrades I mean as far as all out mono spring front with mig A-arms and mono glass rear spring ect... (the works)

Or leave the front springs as coil over and just do the back?

I have to go through all the bushings anyway and the prices are not that bad for new aftermarket parts, like I noticed where my rear sway bar mounts to the trailering arms its starting to tear the metal!

I do not want to apply 500hp to this suspension and have it fall apart being that its from 69. I do not plan to race the car it will be a show car and weekend cruiser but I still want to do it right and not cut corners.

Any responses on good or bad options and things to stay away from and things that are a good way to go let me know.

Thanks

 

If it's just going to be a waxer, save yourself a lot of time and money and just put the stock rubber bushings in the stock suspension parts. It's pointless putting a lot of specialty equipment on a vehicle that never gets exercised.

 

Well I see what your saying but by not (racing) I ment taking it to the track and playing bumper cars with everyone else

For example my show condition boat has a 1200hp blown 540 in it and goes way over 100mph on the water

I want a suspension that will take the abuse when that time comes

 

No question at all. I would up grade your almost 40 year old suspension but not w/the front mono spring (instead I would spend the money on rack & pinion steering "steeriods" I think they are called check spelling). Everything else sounds like a good investment. Post pic's

 

If I had a 69 427 vert I would keep it as close to stock as possible. This is coming from a guy with a totally modified 63 SWC. Since you are doing a frame off get a 1969 NCRS judging manual to use as a guide for correct parts and finishes. Just as easy to do it correctly and you have a good chance at recovering some or most of your investment if you ever do decide to sell.

 

Amen.

Save your time and money. If you're not using it for autocrossing or track racing, the stock suspension is more than good enough.

 

Fair enough that the stock suspension is good enough as I did enjoy the way it handled and ran out before I took it apart.

As far as a stock restoration thats not going to happen as the original 427 was gone along with the 4 speed and rear end, also the whole interior was changed out and all but a few parts of the ac setup are gone too

So I figure make the car what I want it to be since you will never have a TRUE numbers matching car and I am not in the market of restamping parts and trying to pass them off as original.

I plan to keep the car true to the 69 look without flaring or adding anything to the body except the hooker side exhaust and torq thrust II rims.

I will probably build a 427 out of a Dart competion block with aluminum heads and a electric fan cooled radiator setup. I have a 71 muncie and picked up the correct rearend for a BB car

Just looking at the time and money points of repairing and fixing all the old suspension that has seen some abuse over the years and just taking it off and boxing it up and putting on new and improved parts

Ok so far I like the mono rear spring, have heard 3 people that have tried it and love it.

I see Ecklers sells some stronger trailering arms, since mine are rusted and starting to tear that looks like the way to go huh?

Replace the tie rods, ball joints, front springs, sway bars, and shocks and I should be good to go. The guy I bought it from allready put on new calipers and rotors and replaced a few of the lines.

And replace all the U joints in the half shafts and drive shaft.

Everyone think that original driveshaft will hold up to 500hp?

 

Talk to Van Steel about trailing arms. I think they might have some on sale right now - check the stickys.

 

Those arms look great

Now on the offset do you need shorter half shafts??

Do they make standard ones without the offset?

 

I snaged a set of Van Steel's loaded offset trailing arms a few year's ago. The off set just get's you more room for tire, keeps the same location of the wheel, thus same hafe shafts.
When i opened the box the first thing that came to mind was Art Work!
Go Van Steel !!

 

Many of the upgrades are worth it. Some not so much.

If you are concerned about breaking stuff and you aren't drag racing, the biggest thing you need to do is stay away from heavy flywheels. 3" half-shafts with solid Spicer U's have proven to be pretty durable if you don't get them in a bind by running too low. As for the differential, it's not cheap, but a 12-bolt IRS diff is far stronger than the 10-bolt design. I think every C3 should have a solid diff. cross-member locating kit installed. It's not a bad idea to blueprint your stub axle bearing clearances, and you might ought to consider changing to 1/2" lugs while you're at it (I like Guldstrand's HD stubs).

Another thing to do is toss the eccentrics and install a set of adjustable heim-jointed (not to be confused with poly bushed types) camber struts with camber lock plates. And, if you need tire clearance, the double offset TA's may be a requirement. BTW, you can get a shortened spring, too.

Finally, be careful not to get caught up drag strip mods (particularly, eleminating camber gain) that compromise suspension geometry for most other types of driving. Thus, I wouldn't bother with DragVette's 6-link for your purposes. There are several things you can do in the rear suspension to improve handling, but that's the topic for another thread.

 

Ok since your not keeping it stock, VBP Performance Plus system is what I got. If your looking at building an engine here you go: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1735609

 

Compared to the stock suspension, the VBP suspension will give you much more control. The stock suspension was "wallowy" IMO.

 

Once I get the frame ready for re-assembly it will be a while so I will have to do some more searches on suspension

anyone have pics of there upgraded suspension?

 

heres mine http://forums.corvetteforum.com:80/s....php?t=1413107
another forum member http://s65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...sc=6&start=all

 

Very impressive!

What differences did you notice from stock to the new suspension?

Would you do it again?

The last link I see he got his stuff from VBP, is yours also from there?

 

yes, i got the tubular Aarms n mono spring from them

 

I think I might go with there street and slalom kit, it looks like it would be the right one for now, and those upgraded offset trailering arms too

So I have 2 vette rear ends one small block and one BB

This 12 bolt IRS ?? What is that and where do they sell it?

Thanks again for the help.

PS got the body all loose tonight and ready for lift off onto the temporay frame

 

I've got two 12-bolt IRS diffs.

First one was done by a local shop that's long gone. 4.11:1 with Moroso posi. Proved too deep a gear for my purposes, and the posi tended to ratched violently coming out of sweepers when trying to put down power.

Second one ws done by Henry's Machine works. 3.55:1 with Eaton posi. If I ever sell my SA, it stays with me.

Currently, Tom's diff seems to have this market in hand. They've got a lot of hardcore C3 rearend stuff. Here's a link to the diff...

http://www.tomsdifferentials.com/catalog.asp?pg=22

BTW, you do NOT want to completely eleminate camber gain for anything other than drag racing.

 

One other person has mention Steeroids here adn with your new suspension they will make a huge difference to the driveability. So another vote for modded front suspension but with Steeroids! And if you are keeping your rear suspensionlargely stock in appearance then fit Smart Struts (VB&P) for another big handling gain.