Please Help with My 68 Chevelle Suspension! - Lateral-g Forums

BadBowtie03 · #1 09-30-2009, 05:12 PM

Hey guys, I have a 68 Velle' that I really wanna do the suspension on the car and the brakes. Because right now it has stock suspension and disc brakes and it floats horribly with the stock 307 springs and crappy shocks and the front discs are pretty bad I think. I really need some direction for the car, alot of advice, and im craving info! I just really wanna get it handling good and stopping good also. I just sold my newer 01 SS camaro and I took the TT2's off of it and put them on my Chevelle with some spacers to make them fit right. Anyways, I am thinking about getting a full BMR suspension set up on the car, but I just dont know yet because of the whole spindle ordeal and the height of them and mixing that with the brakes and all. Because dont you have to have the tall spindles for vette brakes?

Right now my stock discs are really Hard on the pedal, and I dont know if I should just go through them and rebuild/replace parts and see if they perform good enough... or if I should just throw a whole new C5/C6 kit on there when I do the suspension. Like I said, I need direction with the car!

This is what I want with the car: It to handle really good on the street, stop really good and safely, and still be able to somewhat hook at the strip with some slicks.. maybe Qa1's in the front for easy adjustments?

Please offer some advice!

crazycarl · #2 09-30-2009, 05:34 PM

I have a 69 el camino and I am in the planning stages as well. I currently have Monte Carlo discs on mine and it stops all right with the factory booster. You can run a B-Body spindle from what I understand to increase the camber gain and make it handle better. The issue is there isn't much in the way of B-Body brake kits out there.

I am probably going to go with this package for my suspension as it provides everything to make the car handle right and is a pretty reasonable price. Plus, it will work with the stock spindles. I've seen most of the manufacturers parts up close and the finish and quality on the Speed-Tech stuff is really good. http://www.speedtech-performance.com...rod/prd186.htm

Wilwood makes a couple different brake kits that will fit the stock spindles too. Their prices are reasonable and you don't have to buy a big huge booster to get good pedal feel.

Roadbuster · #3 09-30-2009, 08:14 PM

Give Marc at SC&C a call. He has a range of packages and will take the time to talk to you and learn what you want to do with your car.

Jon

BMR Tech · #4 10-01-2009, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BadBowtie03

Hey guys, I have a 68 Velle' that I really wanna do the suspension on the car and the brakes. Because right now it has stock suspension and disc brakes and it floats horribly with the stock 307 springs and crappy shocks and the front discs are pretty bad I think. I really need some direction for the car, alot of advice, and im craving info! I just really wanna get it handling good and stopping good also. I just sold my newer 01 SS camaro and I took the TT2's off of it and put them on my Chevelle with some spacers to make them fit right. Anyways, I am thinking about getting a full BMR suspension set up on the car, but I just dont know yet because of the whole spindle ordeal and the height of them and mixing that with the brakes and all. Because dont you have to have the tall spindles for vette brakes?

Right now my stock discs are really Hard on the pedal, and I dont know if I should just go through them and rebuild/replace parts and see if they perform good enough... or if I should just throw a whole new C5/C6 kit on there when I do the suspension. Like I said, I need direction with the car!

This is what I want with the car: It to handle really good on the street, stop really good and safely, and still be able to somewhat hook at the strip with some slicks.. maybe Qa1's in the front for easy adjustments?

Please offer some advice!

We do have multiple packages available to accommodate whatever level of modifications you desire. Their are a lot of questions that need to be asked though before it is possible to make certain suggestions. For instance, what kind of budget are you trying to stick to? Lets just say you have a $1500 budget. Tighten up the front end with new ball joints, tie rods, and bushings then go through your OE brakes with new hoses, a good set of semi-metallic pads and verify that everything is working properly. You could start with our Level 1 Handling Package for $900 which will upgrade the springs, swaybars, and Bilstein shocks and make a huge difference in how the car "feels". The above will get you the most "bang for your buck" at that budget level but will not address any geometry issues or upgrade your braking abilities beyond 60's technology.

Our Level 2 package for $1999 includes the above items plus upper and lower tubular A-arms for the front, and upper and lower boxed control arms for the rear (plus control arm braces). Up to this point the mods remain fairly reasonable but start getting pricey when you begin addressing brake and spindle options. You can use your stock spindles with an aftermarket brake kit from Wilwood, Baer, or Kore 3, factory B-body spindles as listed in a post above, Heidts tall spindles (that retain OE brakes), or even ATS spindles if your budget allows. So, as you can see, the options are limitless and could be discussed to great lengths. The best option is to call and discuss your plans in detail and we can make the appropriate recommendations based off you goals, budget, etc.

BadBowtie03 · #5 10-01-2009, 01:50 PM

hey crazy carl, yeah that package does look really nice! but it is kind of on the expensive side! I kinda wanted to do all the suspension and brakes for around 3,000 - 3,500 bucks.

Brett, thanks for commenting! I talked to "dennis" i think it was, on the phone the other day and he helped me a good bit. I like the idea of yalls full kit and then substituting the QA1's in there to help me with adjustability. But, the only draw back I can think of is... I was wondering how I would do the brakes with the whole kit. If I would just run the stockers, or go with some kind of willwood or c5 upgrade. and I know that plays into the spindles and what not.

oh and roadbuster, i will give sc&c a call and see what he has to say. Thanks for the advice!

Anybody have any other suggestions? thanks guys!

crazycarl · #6 10-01-2009, 02:16 PM

There are several different packages you could look at from Speed-Tech. My suggestion is if you are considering components from ANY manufacturer to give them a call to discuss different options. If you want to lower the car you will need to either change the spindles or the a-arms. AFAIK there is at least one company that makes a different mounting position on their lower a-arm to drop the ride height.

Brakes: Wilwood, in my opinion, makes one of the best brake kits you can get. They've been in the business longer than anyone else and are easy to deal with too. They have lots of different options and they're a lot cheaper than you would expect. They also don't require adding any other parts to your system. Worst case scenario you might have to get an extra hole machined in your factory spindle. This is most likely the route that I am going to go. 12" rotors with four piston calipers seem to be about 700 and rears about 650. They don't sell direct but they can still guide you in the right direction.

Every time I've seen an article about budget brakes in one of the articles you always end up spending another 800 on a hydro-boost system, vacuum booster or some other weird piece that makes a clutter under the hood.

My two cents. My policy is always call the manufacturer for specific details like specs. Mark Savitske knows his stuff and is a cool guy but unless you plan on buying through him I wouldn't waste his time.

crazycarl · #7 10-01-2009, 02:21 PM

Oh, and Brett from BMR is a really cool guy too. I got to talk to him at Columbus in 2008. He really puts a lot of thought into making a good product.

Blake Foster · #8 10-01-2009, 04:41 PM

We have a compplete track time package for the "A" bodies

http://www.speedtech-performance.com...rod/prd186.htm

here is a link to the kit
includes front and rear everything you need

BadBowtie03 · #9 10-01-2009, 05:39 PM

I went on summits website, and I was looking at their wilwood brake kits... but there are a TON of them on their. Why do alot of them say "manual type" does that mean I have to run a manual master cylinder or am I mistaken? If I did get one of those kits, would i eventually be able to run them with different spindles? thanks

BMR Tech · #10 10-02-2009, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BadBowtie03

I went on summits website, and I was looking at their wilwood brake kits... but there are a TON of them on their. Why do alot of them say "manual type" does that mean I have to run a manual master cylinder or am I mistaken? If I did get one of those kits, would i eventually be able to run them with different spindles? thanks

If you end up using the stock spindle, it looks like Kore 3 and Wilwood come in roughly around the same price.

Wilwood has a 4 piston, 12.2" rotor kit for a little over $900 (they have a cheaper, 10.75" kit also available but I wouldn't recommend that) and Kore 3 has a C5 caliper, 12.8" rotor kit for about the same price. I have used kits from both companies and you can't go wrong with either.

Below are links to kits from both manufacturers:

Wilwood

Kore 3