Thinking about suspension upgrades.

We4ever

Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2019
My T-type's shocks are gettin pretty squishy and I was wondering if there were any basic upgrades I can do while I'm under there. I live in a mountainous area, lots of narrow twisting roads, and its embarrassing to hold up traffic in a car this fast. I'm not trying to make it a sports car, but some improvement in lateral grip would save me some white knuckle moments.

The only problem I have is I cant lower the car, I need the ground clearance to mountain goat the car up the driveway. A brake upgrade might be in order too.

Any ideas? I've never touched the suspension on any of my vehicles before.
 
A change to Bilsteins & a modern tire design made a noticeable improvement. I have 17" wheels.
 
For whatever reason I haven’t found an aftermarket wheel that I like on the car. I’ve never been a fan of putting modern looking wheels or tires on an old car, messes with the proportions. I just put a new set of bfg Radial t/as. 225 60 r15 in front and 255 60 r15 in the back.

My steering is quick and light as it should be, however car displays tendency to understeer especially in high speed sweeping corners and highway ramps. Body roll isn’t too bad but could be improved. It’s a t-top car so it’s pretty much a noodle
 
One thing you might want to keep in mind is these cars were designed for going straight really fast. Not so much cornering.
 
I hear you on the wheel sizing. Mine had 17" when I bought it. Anything much larger looks too big.

You might try contacting Turbo6inKY on handling upgrades.
 

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One thing you might want to keep in mind is these cars were designed for going straight really fast. Not so much cornering.
Gonna disagree with this... yes all stock with 30 year old worn out parts they can drive like a spongy brick... but there are some great suspension upgrades out there.

check out the Ridetech sticky’s in this forum and call Scott at GNS... he is a straight shooter.
 
A bigger rear sway bar will help tremendously with understeer. Bilstien shocks will stiffen it up alot.

I agree completely with captndave737. I also have a T-top car. The things that really changed my car's handling were :
1. HR Rear Sway bar.
2. Bilstein shocks - really made a difference on road perception.
3. Upgraded steering shaft. Getting rid of the rag joint was huge for steering feel.

I have since put the Bilsteins on the shelf for QA1 adjustables for drag racing, but the Bilsteins were my favorites for road feel.
 
I would start with replacing all the body mounts first then go from there.
 
I say do a Jeep steering shaft , throw some airbags in the rear and some frame bracing like the rear seat brace and the front V brace . That’s definitely the cheapest way to go to improve the handling of a turbo Buick. Of course you can throw a lot more cash at it but this is just the cheap easy stuff to do imo
 
Lots of great input, thanks guys! Handling upgrade is a must for me. I know its a muscle car, but where I live the roads are narrow and twisty with lots of blind corners and hairpins. This is as much for safety as it is driving enjoyment. My ego needs protecting as well. Yesterday I took the car on the blue ridge parkway, having the time of my life driving the car at the ragged edge of grip and going as fast as my courage will allow, only to look in the mirror and find I'm being savagely tailgated by an elderly woman in a 20 year old Subaru outback....


I've been getting a plan together for what I wanna do to the car over the winter. I've got some work to do in the interior and top and door seals to replace. I just noticed today my exhaust manifold has a big ass crack in it too, so I may as well do exhaust and suspension together. I'm a filthy poor person so this has to be done on the cheap. I can afford the parts if I get em like Johnny Cash, but I'll have to do as much of the work as possible myself. I have basic hand tools, air impact, and air ratchet.

So my plan is at the end of November, putting the car on jack stands and do the following:

1: Polyurethane Suspension bushings and body mounts (do I need any special equipment for this? never done it)
2: New motor and transmission mounts.
3: Bilstien Shocks all around. (Airbags make me skeered, they seem to add a layer of complexity that I don't need in my life.)
4: Replacing all ball joints, end links and other wear items in the suspension. (open to recommendations on brands)
5: Front and rear sway bars (Looked at the H&R rear, its awfully expensive. How does it compare to something like UMI or summit or whatever?)
6: Frame Braces
7: Oem replacement exhaust manifold. (I'd prefer to just put headers on since i'll have lots of access during this project, however its not a priority and cost will be the deciding factor)
8: Oil pan gasket while i'm down there, Transmission filter, gasket, and fluid ( still have the factory cork gasket on there and its starting to weep)

This should keep me busy this winter, is there any other maintenance I should do while I have all this apart? Brakes are good for now, I wanna upgrade them too, maybe next year.
 
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Just watched VenomGT87 do the jeep steering upgrade on youtube. That looks pretty easy, I'll probably do that too.
 
Black urethane & anti-seize for less squeaks.

Research anti-roll bars. I believe the HR style might be geared more towards Drag Race applications for a straight launch. The bar that was offered by ATR was thought highly of. Not sure if that design is still available.

The body braces was the easiest modification I made. Kirban's back seat cross bars plus the 3 bars up front. I had to remove the front cross-bar when I changed the Intercooler. I would like to replace that cross-bar someday. This looks promising: https://scandc.com/product/scc-heavy-duty-chassis-brace-86-87-buick-grand-national/
 
Gonna disagree with this... yes all stock with 30 year old worn out parts they can drive like a spongy brick... but there are some great suspension upgrades out there.

check out the Ridetech sticky’s in this forum and call Scott at GNS... he is a straight shooter.

Well it turns out I live about an hour from gns performance, so I’ll just take the car down there and have a chat with them.
Black urethane & anti-seize for less squeaks.

Research anti-roll bars. I believe the HR style might be geared more towards Drag Race applications for a straight launch. The bar that was offered by ATR was thought highly of. Not sure if that design is still available.

The body braces was the easiest modification I made. Kirban's back seat cross bars plus the 3 bars up front. I had to remove the front cross-bar when I changed the Intercooler. I would like to replace that cross-bar someday. This looks promising: https://scandc.com/product/scc-heavy-duty-chassis-brace-86-87-buick-grand-national/
I like that a lot
 
1: Polyurethane Suspension bushings and body mounts (do I need any special equipment for this? never done it)
There are some good threads on the board that show how to do the body mounts.
Remember to remove the bumpers before you start jacking up the body or you’ll be replacing the bumper fillers too.




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***** If stuff is worn out on your cars suspension of course get it fixed but my car handled a LOT better after I replaced the front sway bar with a hollow one from I think a Camaro or some other car (it's been a few years..) The rear I replaced with an ATR bar and it made the original sway bar look like a coat hanger!!! I replaced all 4 shocks with KYB as they were much less than 1/2 the cost of Bilsteins, and I put polyurethane bushings on the front end links of the sway bar. All of it together cost me about $500 or so and the car handles really nicely on exit ramps, and twisty turns. It goes without saying you need good tires... I have Nitto drag radials on the back (I think 255/50/15's), and 245/60/15's on the front made by BFG. I made rear frame braces out of old pipe and just bolted it all down to look like the commercial ones I saw for sale. I also have air bags to raise the rear a bit and preload the right side for traction, etc...

If you become rich you can spend any amount of money on making your car handle like a slot car, but what I did above *really* made a very very noticeable difference in the handling of my car, for not that much money.
 
yeah all the bushings sure look factory original, shriveled, cracked, and hard as a rock. I’ve been putting it off too long.
 
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