Low dollar verses high dollar susp upgrade

[64skylarkls1]

Hey all,

I'm a newbie to this forum and to this 60's and 70's era of car collecting. I've been a street rodder (pre 1949 cars) for many years but also have a 98 WS6 Ragtop TA. I recently purchased a solid 64 Skylark convertible as I've wanted to do a mid 60's mild custom for some time now and this car is the perfect candidate. The power plant will be a LS1 with 6 speed from wrecked 02 camaro.

In recent weeks I've been researching suspension for this early A body and and I'm not yet convinced that the benefit you get from the upgrades is worth the big money spent. It's a no brainer with a '32 Ford that came with a straight axle. Dropping in an independent front suspension made a huge impact on not only the performance but also in safety.

Front end: This A-body came with a nice independent front suspension. I want the car to be about 3 to 4 inches lower all the way around. As long as the stock A arms are in good shape with new bushings, why not just use 2" dropped front spindles, cut a coil out of the original spring, pick up a used heavier '66 stablizer bar and finish it off with a good stiff shock? Can someone convince this engineer that spending more money up front will yield enough benefit to justify it?

Same goes for the rear suspension. I know the rear axle should probably be changed going for a posi unit but again, its all relative. I'm not taking this car to the strip, it will be my daily driver when finished. I'm thinking new bushings in all the pivot arms, a 1" stabalizer bar, shorter coil springs and a stiff shock.

Once again, could anybody convince me that spending thousands of dollars on the aftermarket goodies is going to be worth it? Is there good hard data to back it up? I will be going with disc brakes front and rear as I have the components already and the performance gains are undenyable.

I'm sure interested in what you all have to say.