67 Barracuda- Brakes and suspension on a 5000 budget- advice needed
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.
This is a
great list, and is in no way overkill for a good handling street car. If “amateur racers” aren’t running this level of equipment they’re not really trying to be competitive. Which is fine, but they’re not gonna be competitive with less than that.
The original strut rod design with its giant, soft, floppy rubber bushings causes alignment changes. Period. The harder you brake, accelerate and corner the worse these alignment changes become. The factory got away with it because of lousy tires and overall too soft suspension. Throw some 245’s up front with big brakes and that lower control arm will start moving around with the slack in those bushings. That does not provide precise or consistent handling.
And honestly, all the OE replacement rubber bushings out there are trash at the moment. Moog rubber is hot garbage. Their ball joints and tie rod ends aren’t good either. Their production changes have made them a product to avoid. I’ve put 100k street miles on adjustable strut rods on my mopars. And I wouldn’t use factory strut rods on anything meant for the street with decent tires.
There’s fancier stuff out there, I run it on the street and love it. But you don’t
need SPC UCA’s or tubular LCA’s for what you want. The rest of the stuff, the sway bars, springs etc are what you need. And really, there isn’t much in the way of cheaper stuff that will do the job. Hellwig is a little cheaper than Hotchkis, but not by much. Most of the things are pretty comparable. You can definitely spend more money than that.
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?
I would run at least 17x8’s all around. In the front with 5.5” of backspace, in the back with around 4.5” if you stay with factory width A-body rear axles. If you go to a B-body 8 3/4 you’ll need more backspace. In the front with 17’s I’d go 245/45/17 like I said before. In the back you can go up to 275/40/17 if you want, you’d need a 17x9 for that. A 245 or 255 would be easier though.
