We were discussing how and what to write this time about Dennis' car and after writing a whole entire bit on the parts he was going to put on the car it sounded tacky and salesy (Yes we created a word) The purpose of this build thread is to give a perspective from the customer to the shop and back. How this project grew and blossomed from what it was to what it will be we will go over small decisions from a 50 foot view and then look at it from a distance.
Dennis: We now have upper arms, Wilwood brakes, fresh coils & new shocks (We never took pictures because we werent too impressed. It was a means to an end for him with his 15" wheels.) How about my leafs?
We took a look at his leafs which were Maier 200# leafs from the first time he built his car. Since the car was stored on jack stands there was not a need to replace them. They still looked pretty good after all those years. Dennis also had custom delrin bushings made for most of the car back in the day by the same lathe that is used in the suspension shop today.
As awesome as those old bushings were we recommended front urethane bushings and a rear rubber bushing with shackle kit. This lets the leafs float and flex so the rear of the car wasn't so chattery. Then we regained control of the back with a panhard rod kit by Maier.
We mentioned that power steering might be a good upgrade from his manual steering with a shelby quicksteer kit. With this setup he was able to keep good Ackermann characteristics while still allowing the thing to turn without being too slow of a ratio to respond when the chassis gets out of shape. Not to mention a solid feeling in the steering wheel that wasnt too hard, yet didnt float down the road like a caddy. Added control when sliding around a corner and also parallel parking is always a win-win situation. We created a homebrew kit with an ABS box that has a 14:1 steering ratio that is powered by a KRC pump.
Dennis then asks, "Anything else?"
Mike replies with, "No more until you get rid of those wheels and tires off the car, then roll them off a cliff. No matter what I do, the money will be wasted with those tires as your contact point."
It seemed like I just told him that his favorite hunting dog is a terrible hunting dog. He looked like I had just kicked him in the gut. This was the first time we believe he saw there had to be a large change to achieve what he was looking for.
Dennis then called up a while later and said, "Lets order some wheels and tires..."
