Wheels, brakes, suspension sequence

MitchDart said
OK- Newb question here. '64 Dart 270, everything stock so far, recently purchased but has been neglected for years.

I need advice on sequence of upgrades. The suspension front and rear is soft and sad, feels like a sailboat gong around corners and hit any bump at highway speed and it's a white knuckle scenario. Drum brakes are decent for now.

I want to upgrade to some 15" rims, disc brakes, and obviously needs suspension work. The intent is to make it a daily driver with slightly more aggressive than stock stance, but nothing close to a hotrod.

My thought is new wheels and tires first, then have suspension fixed/ upgraded with the new wheels on, then disc brake upgrade. Is that the right sequence to avoid double work?

Caveat is that I'm not "doing the work" unfortunately, no space, no tools, no skills. So I'll be paying to have the work done.

Any suggestions or advice? Much appreciated.

Well, here are some things to think about:

1. The 10" drums for the small bolt pattern (4" bolt circle) are now obsolete and you cannot buy them at parts stores.

So

You may want to consider upgrading to the larger 4 1/2" bolt circle 10" rear drums. I think that these are still available.

then you would want matching bolt pattern disc brakes. This would mean that you need to find the 73 - 76 a-body front disc brakes and also the upper control arms to go with them.

If you are running the original engine for your car (slant 6 or 273 v-8), you may want to swap a 73-76 8 1/4" rear axle. If you plan to put a bigger small block in, you may want to hunt down an 8 3/4" axle (they are expensive, but stronger). The 8 3/4" axle was made from 67-72 for the a-bodies (I'm not sure if they were available from 64-66). However these years used the small bolt pattern 4" bolt circle. You can get replacement axles that will fit the 8 3/4" axle with the 4 1/2" bolt pattern.

You should figure out which way you are going on your brakes so you know what bolt pattern rims to buy when you get new rims and tires, so you don't have to buy them twice for the different bolt patterns (4" vs 4 1/2"). Or wait until the suspension and brake upgrades are done to get them.

We need to know what engine you have now and plan to use in the future to give you some options for upgrading the suspension for better handling.

You may want to do the suspension upgrades before the brakes as the front brakes would be easy to change with rebuilding the front suspension.