67 Barracuda- Brakes and suspension on a 5000 budget- advice needed

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This is what I decided to go with

Qa1 Upper control arms $350
Qa1 strut bars 229
BAC LCA bushings, pivots, boxing plates 190
Hellwig 5906 front / 6907 rear sway bars 494
Proforged lower ball joints 83
Proforged Tie rod ends and sleeves 163
Hotchkis Leaf springs HSS-24385 380
Hotchkis shocks 79020015 520
Firm Feel 1.06 Bars, boots, adjusters 495
Firm Feel Shackles/bushings 135
PST Idler arm 79
Total so far: $3118
Torque boxes and subframe connectors are forthcoming at some point after my welding improves.

Brakes:
Doctor Diff’s Cobra style 13” Disc Brake Kit $1035
15/16 master cylinder
distribution block
front brake lines 125
73- up knuckles 155

Total with brakes: 4433 and by the time I cover all the incidentals that I know will come up, I should be close to 5000.

I think this combination will give me what I'm looking for and more. I expect a firm ride, but not overly harsh.
I'm opting to do all this work myself with the help of the forum. I've never really done suspension work, so it should be an adventure.
 
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3- there's nothing really streetable in 15" with a treadwear rating under 400.

First stop is the tireshop and get rid of the skinny pizzacutters .

Because I didn't realize that there are no 15” performance tires made anymore, I’m abandoning the Cop Wheel idea (still my favorite Mopar look though) and going with 17’s. I really like the American torque thrust original wheels American Racing VN3097765 American Racing VN309 Torq-Thrust Original Vintage Silver Painted Wheels | Summit Racing, but they appear to only come in two flavors for a 17” rim with big bolt pattern: 17 x 7 with 4 in. backspace and 17 x 8 with 4.5 in backspace.

Will the 17 x 7’s work on the front of my car with my suspension combination and a 235/45/17? A 245 would be better...

How about the 17 x 8’s in back? How much tire could I safely put back there?
 
After reading through this and several other threads, this is what I decided to go with. Basically much of the same stuff that other members are using:

Qa1 Upper control arms $350
Qa1 strut bars 229
BAC LCA bushings, pivots, boxing plates 190
Hellwig 5906 front / 6907 rear sway bars 494
Proforged lower ball joints 83
Proforged Tie rod ends and sleeves 163
Hotchkis Leaf springs HSS-24385 380
Hotchkis shocks 79020015 520
Firm Feel 1.06 Bars, boots, adjusters 495
Firm Feel Shackles/bushings 135
PST Idler arm 79
Total so far: $3118
Torque boxes and subframe connectors are forthcoming, but I don’t weld well enough yet, so it’ll have to wait for awhile.

Am I missing anything here?

Tomorrow I’m ordering:

Cobra style 13” Disc Brake Kit $1035
15/16 master cylinder
distribution block
front brake lines 125
73- up knuckles 155

Total with brakes: 4433 and by the time I cover all the incidentals that I know will come up, I should be close to 5000.

I think this combination will give me what I'm looking for and more. I expect a firm ride, but not overly harsh.
I'm opting to do all this work myself with the help of the forum. I've never really done suspension work, so it should be an adventure.
Are you building a road racing track car?
 
After reading through this and several other threads, this is what I decided to go with. Basically much of the same stuff that other members are using:

Qa1 Upper control arms $350
Qa1 strut bars 229
BAC LCA bushings, pivots, boxing plates 190
Hellwig 5906 front / 6907 rear sway bars 494
Proforged lower ball joints 83
Proforged Tie rod ends and sleeves 163
Hotchkis Leaf springs HSS-24385 380
Hotchkis shocks 79020015 520
Firm Feel 1.06 Bars, boots, adjusters 495
Firm Feel Shackles/bushings 135
PST Idler arm 79
Total so far: $3118
Torque boxes and subframe connectors are forthcoming, but I don’t weld well enough yet, so it’ll have to wait for awhile.

Am I missing anything here?

Tomorrow I’m ordering:

Cobra style 13” Disc Brake Kit $1035
15/16 master cylinder
distribution block
front brake lines 125
73- up knuckles 155

Total with brakes: 4433 and by the time I cover all the incidentals that I know will come up, I should be close to 5000.

I think this combination will give me what I'm looking for and more. I expect a firm ride, but not overly harsh.
I'm opting to do all this work myself with the help of the forum. I've never really done suspension work, so it should be an adventure.

that’s a lot of fancy parts for aggressive street handling.

Are you looking to lower the car a bunch?

the Hotchkis leafs will lower the back a bunch. It dropped my rear about 1/2” from 50 year old hammered original 340 rear springs. I did not run the lowering front hangers that would would be ridiculously low and would have taken a bunch of shims to get my pinion angle right. Without the dropped front hangers took reasonable amount of shim.
 
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Because I didn't realize that there are no 15” performance tires made anymore, I’m abandoning the Cop Wheel idea (still my favorite Mopar look though) and going with 17’s. I really like the American torque thrust original wheels American Racing VN3097765 American Racing VN309 Torq-Thrust Original Vintage Silver Painted Wheels | Summit Racing, but they appear to only come in two flavors for a 17” rim with big bolt pattern: 17 x 7 with 4 in. backspace and 17 x 8 with 4.5 in backspace.

Will the 17 x 7’s work on the front of my car with my suspension combination and a 235/45/17? A 245 would be better...

How about the 17 x 8’s in back? How much tire could I safely put back there?

now that you are spending more money on tires and rims, I’d delete some of the parts on your list.

Rear: 17x8 in with 4.5 backspacing with 245/45/17. With 8 3/4 and new large bolt pattern axles

Front: 17x8 with 5” backspacing with 245/45/17. And bend in bottom front fender lip. *if your Cobra caliper disk swap moves the rim out, rub 5.5” backspacing

OR buy a 1965 to 1967 B-body rear end and run 5.5 backspacing front and back with 17x8 rims.

1965 to 1967 B-body rear ends drum to drum are cheaper overall than A-body rears converted to large bolt pattern.
 
that’s a lot of fancy parts for aggressive street handling.

Are you looking to lower the car a bunch?
I’m looking to lower the car an inch from stock. Hotchkis says they’re good for that, but if it’s going to be more, I may have to think about a different spring.
 
I’m looking to lower the car an inch from stock. Hotchkis says they’re good for that, but if it’s going to be more, I may have to think about a different spring.

well, I’d imagine your current springs are 50 years olds?

do you want it 1” lower than what you have now.

Tire diameter effects height too.

what tire do you have now? And what is the measurement to the top of the rear fender lip?

mine is 24 5/16” to top of lip on my 1968 barracuda that has same lip as you. That’s with a 24.6” diameter tire (12.3 radius)

if I had 245/45/17 tire my lip would be .55” ~ 1/2” higher to make it 24 13/16” to top of lip

image.jpg
 
well, I’d imagine your current springs are 50 years olds?

do you want it 1” lower than what you have now.

Tire diameter effects height too.

what tire do you have now? And what is the measurement to the top of the rear fender lip?

mine is 24 5/16” to top of lip on my 1968 barracuda that has same lip as you. That’s with a 24.6” diameter tire (12.3 radius)

if I had 245/45/17 tire my lip would be .55” ~ 1/2” higher to make it 24 13/16” to top of lip

View attachment 1715688168
Yes, my springs are original. The PO put on some kind of shocks with big springs around them that i think makes it sit high. It’s 27.25 inches high with 245/60/14 wheels. I figured that an inch under stock would be more like yours.

47E7AB85-F834-475B-9A9D-C1E2F9EE4334.jpeg
 
Yes, my springs are original. The PO put on some kind of shocks with big springs around them that i think makes it sit high. It’s 27.25 inches high with 245/60/14 wheels. I figured that an inch under stock would be more like yours.

View attachment 1715688175

well with 245/45/17 tires and Hotchkis springs you’re going to drop about 2 3/8” in the back.

to make it look decent most people make the car look at least level wit the top of the front wheel lips at same height.

That will result in a low front. Don’t run headers other than Doug’s or TTI and no deep oil pans
 
No, but I-35 between Austin and San Antonio is a road racing track most of the time. I plan on using it every day and it will see some aggressive driving.
Unless you have money just to piss away that laundry list of parts you have there most amature racers dont have in their track car.
All a great street car needs is a good set of tires, shocks and sway bars and its game over. Of course good brakes are always a blessing.
 
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Unless you have moey just to piss away that laundry list of parts you have there most amature racers dont have in their track car.
All a great street car needs is a good set of tires, shocks and sway bars and its game over. Of course good brakes are always a blessing.
I’m sure some would agree I’m pissing away my money. However, I’m not sure what is so fancy about the parts I’m using. The adjustable struts and tubular arms are used to get good alignment settings similar to our modern cars. They’re not all that expensive and they come the ball joints and bushings. My originals were rusted out and needed replaced. The proforged parts were the same price or cheaper than Moog. The shocks are 20.00 more expensive than Bilsteins and I suspect most amateur road racers have those.
 
This is what I decided to go with

Qa1 Upper control arms $350
Qa1 strut bars 229
BAC LCA bushings, pivots, boxing plates 190
Hellwig 5906 front / 6907 rear sway bars 494
Proforged lower ball joints 83
Proforged Tie rod ends and sleeves 163
Hotchkis Leaf springs HSS-24385 380
Hotchkis shocks 79020015 520
Firm Feel 1.06 Bars, boots, adjusters 495
Firm Feel Shackles/bushings 135
PST Idler arm 79
Total so far: $3118
Torque boxes and subframe connectors are forthcoming at some point after my welding improves.

Brakes:
Doctor Diff’s Cobra style 13” Disc Brake Kit $1035
15/16 master cylinder
distribution block
front brake lines 125
73- up knuckles 155

Total with brakes: 4433 and by the time I cover all the incidentals that I know will come up, I should be close to 5000.

I think this combination will give me what I'm looking for and more. I expect a firm ride, but not overly harsh.
I'm opting to do all this work myself with the help of the forum. I've never really done suspension work, so it should be an adventure.

I may be missing something here, but it looks to me this plan is going to leave you with BBP up front and SBP in the rear.

Was this your intention?
 
I may be missing something here, but it looks to me this plan is going to leave you with BBP up front and SBP in the rear.

Was this your intention?
No, not my intention, just the consequence of upgrading the brakes. When I started all this, I hadn't really thought through the bolt pattern complication. I needed to add an 8 3/4" eventually anyway due to the engine swap, so I guess those plans just got moved up to now.
 
No, not my intention, just the consequence of upgrading the brakes. When I started all this, I hadn't really thought through the bolt pattern complication. I needed to add an 8 3/4" eventually anyway due to the engine swap, so I guess those plans just got moved up to now.

Bolt pattern complication is where it all started for me, lol. It pretty much forces one to redo both front and rear brakes and apparently in your case, the entire rear axle assembly.

It’s a rabbit hole, man. That’s why I’ve resigned myself to spending the $8,000.00 and just buying it bit by bit. Even then I may just rebuild the stock suspension for the sake of being able to enjoy driving the car while I acquire parts for the end game plan.
 
I'm well on my way into the rabbit hole. Thankfully, my stock suspension is ok enough for me to drive the car a little while I scrape up enough extra for a rear end.

that’s why I suggested the 65-67 B-body rear end. You might be able to get one for $300 as opposed to an A-body one for $900 after new axles.

also I would cut some stuff out of your list that will give you less seat of the pants results.... Like: adj strut rods, tubular tie rod adjusters, new LCA pins and trick bushings,

then get SPC UCA’s to address the added alignment adjustment. Also, that piece of metal on top of UBJ on the QA1 UCA’s can get in the way of high backspace rims now or in future.
 
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Unless you have money just to piss away that laundry list of parts you have there most amature racers dont have in their track car.
All a great street car needs is a good set of tires, shocks and sway bars and its game over. Of course good brakes are always a blessing.
I would add that boxing the factory LCA's would improve the stock suspension and is inexpensive to do.
 
No, but I-35 between Austin and San Antonio is a road racing track most of the time. I plan on using it every day and it will see some aggressive driving.
Ok so what's special about this route; on a map it shows 80 miles/76min, of fairly straight road.
If you drive that route every day/5 days a week/50wks a year, that comes to 20,000 miles. How many soft-compound tires is that, all used up, mostly driving straight lines.
There's gotta be something very special about that route, that is not apparent on Google-Map.
 
Ok so what's special about this route; on a map it shows 80 miles/76min, of fairly straight road.
If you drive that route every day/5 days a week/50wks a year, that comes to 20,000 miles. How many soft-compound tires is that, all used up, mostly driving straight lines.
There's gotta be something very special about that route, that is not apparent on Google-Map.

1 set of good tires
 
NewYou can see how things are adding up with the rear end and 17” rims.

This is blowing through your $5k budget

I would try to replace the 67 Kmember with a 68-72 v-8 piece. Then weld the LCA anchor holes and couple braces around the steering mount. You’re in Texas, I’d image you could find one semi local. If you found a 73-76 k-member you could run the narrow sway bar that will allow for big backspace rims. And you wouldn’t have to buy that special kinked Hellwig or the narrow Hotchkis.

The 67 idler arrangement negates the stiff tubular tie rod links, bigger tie rods, boxed LCA’s...

it’s like putting a wet noodle against a piece of titanium
 
I would add that boxing the factory LCA's would improve the stock suspension and is inexpensive to do.

If you can weld it yourself or have a buddy weld it for free.

Biggest gain on that is if your LCA shows separation near the bushing.
 
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that’s why I suggested the 65-67 B-body rear end. You might be able to get one for $300 as opposed to an A-body one for $900 after new axles.

also I would cut some stuff out of your list that will give you less seat of the pants results.... Like: adj strut rods, tubular tie rod adjusters, new LCA pins and trick bushings,

then get SPC UCA’s to address the added alignment adjustment. Also, that piece of metal on top of UBJ on the QA1 UCA’s can get in the way of high backspace rims now or in future.
AutoX will the QA1 UCA's work with the stock 14 inch rim or say a 14 in Crager S/S?
Sorry to step onthe thread.
Me bad
 
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