major suspension upgrades....tips and opinions WANTED!

[amp88fan]

Ok so heres the rundown...its a 78 El camino ss. I am planning to to build a fast car,but not a 10 sec ride....i built the motor up last year and quickly realized i had way to much motor and way to little handling. blew the rear end after a few nasty burnouts,so the engine was pulled and went into another project...im about to pull the body off to fix the floors,going to cut it all out and fab al new floors,door pannels and dash out of aluminum.Other than that the only rust issue for the body is the pass side rocker.

Now for the chassis...the only frame rot i have found so far is on the insde of the rear framerails under the bed,looks like an easy fix.....as i said the handling was bad and the rear end blew...I started to put it back together i bought a fresh 10 bolt with new moser axles and welded 4:11 gears...i replaced all the rear control arm bushings with oem rubbers and put it back together with a new set of duralast varible rate springs ....but now i am going to upgrade front and back...I have looked at several rear suspension sets and like the one HOTCHKIS has some others are cheaper but so far i like theirs.

The front is whare im having trouble making up my mind...I have been looking at tubular control arms that work with stock spindles but they are pretty exspensive and i wonder if just replceing the stock rubber with poly bushings would be ok for the control arms........Im also going with a HOTCHKIS steering rebuild kit with all new tie rods,sleeves,pitman arm and center link.
Damn sure going to get the HOTCHKIS front and rear sway bar kit.......


Now that ive spent all my money on those new parts i want to do a cheap brake upgrade to disc in the rear,i have read snips here and there on useing later blazer brakes any info on this wold be great.

 

[drknow90rs]

Talk to Ed miller at www.flynbye.com He's the best. I've used him on some of my f-body projects. I would go with F-body, LS-1 rear brakes. They can be easily adapted to the 10 bolt rear with a kit from him. Welded rear gears? Is this a drag car? The answers to your suspension questions will be easier to come by if you tell us what you are looking to use the car for. For example: My 90 RS camaro has an eibach pro kit with KYB adjustable shocks. Del-alum bushings all the way around, and huge Global west swaybars. The ride is terrible, even with a kidney belt!! (Lol, just kidding about the kidney belt, but you get the point!) That car was never built to drive on the street.... If it's just going to be a street cruiser use some airbags, you'll like the ride.
Good luck!

 

[amp88fan]

The answers to your suspension questions will be easier to come by if you tell us what you are looking to use the car for.

Yea this is basicly gonna be a drag car with an occasional backroad cruise to do burnouts with my son....I know the welded gears are not that street friendly,but i do plan on drag racing thing every chance i get!

 

[drknow90rs]

Then I would definately go with adjustable coilovers, all the way around. I figured the car had to be primarily, a drag car with welded gears!

 

[amp88fan]

Then I would definately go with adjustable coilovers, all the way around. I figured the car had to be primarily, a drag car with welded gears!

Well after doing some checking I think coil overs are just gonna be out of my grasp for right now,Im setting aside about 1500.oo to start...I looked at several sets and although you can get them to work with stock a-arms,to really take advantage of adjustability of coil overs you need a good set of upper and lower adjustable tubular a-arms...Which i do plan on eventually getting....but for now i am going to concentrate on making it hook up and go strait........oh and FAST TOO!