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I'm a little concerned for you looking at those links. When the car goes through its suspension travel, do the arms end up tipped down front to back? If that is the case, you likely have to drop the rear of the link bars ( at the axle) so they dont go 'over center', meaning they point up at rest and through travel end up parallel to the ground surface worst case. Otherwise wheel hop is going to haunt you. Other option is to push the front mount up into the interior some.

You're probably 100% correct. I did some measuring after I elevated the car. Currently the arms are level at ride height. I did some reading on causes of wheel hop as I'm really no expert. The easiest solution at the time was for me to get rid of the spongy soft rubber bushings so I bought the heim joints and tubing to make some adjustable arms for half the cost of pre made ones I'd still need to modify to fit my car. Still on my list but I was going to do one at a time is get some adjustable shocks on all four corners. The fronts are blown and I figure just get some rears to match the front. And if both of those failed to eliminate the wheel hop I planned on dropping the mounting point on the axle. Since I'm making all new mounts I plan on raising the front about an inch. Maybe multiple mounting choices.

On another side note not sure I've mentioned. These stupid wheels have to be balanced by the bolt circles as the center hole is not true center. Don't ask me why I think it's stupid. I thought it was a mistake until I checke the manufactures website. Anyways I bought some 1" spacers to bolt to the wheels to balance them on a standard balancer as I can't find someone who has an adapter to balance from the bolt holes. Good news is those 1" spacers will also let me mount the stock wheels to destroy. If the weather holds out that may be this year.

Make sure you buy good quality wheel spacers and believe it or not the thicker the better.

RC10th wrote:Make sure you buy good quality wheel spacers and believe it or not the thicker the better.

They look decent enough. The should do their job.

Got a little time to stare and come up with a plan on how I'm going to redo the rear suspension. Nice solid piece of 2"x3" inside of the rear frame rail cut to fit the floor shape. Then I will add a piece of angle that ties the frame rail to the side of the body and to the trans tunnel. Then for the heck of it I'm going to run a piece of tubing from the top of the frame rail to the side of the body again a little higher up.

Just a couple mock up pics so far. I've moved the rear heim joint over to the side of the bracket on the rearend and not in the middle.

There's not much "heavy" structural metal there. Have you thought of running some subframe connectors from the rear up to the front? Much easier to tie in the rear end solidly and add a lot of strength to the car. Also if you do add a cage later you can easily tie it into the frame connectors.

Here's two different versions I found of Chevettes. I personally like the first better.

I thought I took some mockup pictures of what I planned on doing. Which was pretty much just like the blue car. Only problem was the tubing I bought was way too thick. I had the drivers side cut and almost beveled up ready to fit and I decided to weigh it and it was right around 25lbs. I eventually decided against it. I'm trying to only add heavier metal where absolutely necessary. I still need to get it to a scale but I'm hoping it weighs sub 2100. Maybe wishful thinking as the rear end was almost double the weight of the old one. But I've also pulled out 40lbs in just the windows and doors along the way let alone all the other little stuff. That little 4cyl was a tank when I was loading it up on a trailer to a guy who bought it.

It may get some sort of frame stiffener down the road. But at the relatively low power it has now I'm holding off.

60hp to 320hp............ Poor chassis

I made some time to get back on this after work today. The new arm is adjustable so now I won't need to trim the rear of my fenders for the slicks. And I will be able to get the car a full alignment.

Anyways, nothing pretty here just some dirty patchwork and some reinforcing steel. Not going to run a support to the door pillar. Chances are depending on my 1/4 mile time it may need a roll bar. Don't want to have to much stuff to move out of the way later.

Looking good, I hope it takes care of your wheel hop issues. Definitely looks stronger then before. The Heim joints should free up the rear end too.

Simple update, wheel hop is taken care of. Spent a few hours the past couple days finishing up the suspension. Much nicer feeling getting into it and not worrying if the car is going to almost throw you off the road. Still yet to do any finishing touches but it's a lot more drivable now.

No cool updates till probably springtime. Cold is here and I'm just tinkering now.

So I took the car to the scales the other night. Full tank me out of the car.




About what I expected considering the 4cyl weight was either 1970 lbs or 1930lbs, I lost the slip. I think the majority of the weight increase was from the rear end and the heavy steel mounts I've been making.

So tonight I found 12 lbs hiding in the front bumper. Now 2188 lbs and counting!!



Stock on the left, modified on the right.



And you can see the piece in the extra parts picture. This was a risky decision, but every lb counts. Also slightly ricey looking. Trimmed out the lower middle part of the bumper.

It's a featherweight.

romulus22 wrote:This was a risky decision, but every lb counts.

I'm thinkin those aren't gonna help you anyway for what you'll be doing with this car even if it came to needing them...
\
Todd

klavy69 wrote:

romulus22 wrote:This was a risky decision, but every lb counts.

I'm thinkin those aren't gonna help you anyway for what you'll be doing with this car even if it came to needing them...
\
Todd

The risky decision comment was on how I trimmed the lower part of the bumper. I'm not a big fan of how it looks now. But it's not terrible. And you're right. The bumper is just for overall looks now.