Hey Guys....we bought this Camaro last year and never really liked the way it handled the twisties in the hills around here in Central Texas. I dont really expect it to handle quite as good as my '70 Corvette with independent rear suspension, but I dont like how it shifts over on a curve when hitting a bump in the road, that gets my attn ever time! I feel I have to use two hands on the wheel to maintain control over 50mph, something is just not right.

After speaking with a few 1st Gen Camaro guys at a local Cars/Coffee event, they highly recommended changing out the control bushings on the front arms.
After further discussion, I decided to take it even further by replacing the original control arms with aftermarket tubular control arms and installing coilover springs, that way I can adjust the height of the car.
We will also inspect the front sway bar and determine if an upgrade there is worth it and also determine why the rear end is so high? [does not have air shocks]

There seems to be a lot of questions about suspension upgrades on this forum but not a lot of answers. I have not seen a good write up either so I thought I would share my experience in order to help someone else out down the road.

This upgrade will be budget friendly, not a $4,000 Hotchkis upgrade kit that most of us cant afford to put in our cars.

So first off, here is the car as she came to us...




My '70 Corvette on my local fav road....





Pic of the lower control arm and what appears to be [new?] shock, spring and link...





Pic of the upper control arm with a large number of shims [not visible in this pic]




I order a set of tubular control arms from Auto City Classic in MN and received them today. They were a bargain at $250 and look fantastic! The welds are nice, come powdercoated with new stainless cross shafts and ball joints installed. These were recommended to me by a buddy.




https://www.autocityclassic.com/a-ar...-arms-ca001-2/

I've also ordered QA1 coilovers but have not received them yet. Stay tuned...

 

Nice,looking forward to a road test report.

 

Received the QA1 coilover shocks [$240] and springs [$151]. I was happy to find out that these are made in Minnesota [rather than China]

QA1 has a state of the art manufacturing plant, click the video link if you have any interest...




I called tech support and he recommended 400 lb springs for the type of driving I do.

Plan to bring these to a buddy's shop and get 'em installed next week. Stay tuned...




BTW - tech support suggested buying the springs from a distributor, they can be cheaper. These came from Summit...

 

Well I'm going to stay tuned. I built a 67 and a 69 20 years ago and can't even remember what I did on some and sold them all when 08-09 wanged me.

I've just picked up a 67 and want to duplicate my former BBC 67 but use an LS3 and mostly use it to road race. Both the 69 and the 67 I used the tubular a arms along with new bushings and an upgraded sway bar and the QA1 shocks so I could adjust ride height and rebound for the 1/4 mile and road course. I told global west when ordering one was for a BBC and the other setup (69) for a sbc. The 67 was the race car and rode great. The 69 was a pro touring setup and road so dang stiff it rattled my teeth.

I'm looking forward to your results. Are you also using a drop spindle? I cannot remember what I did there, maybe it was just using the QA1 to lower the front???

Im also at a loss as to what the offset is for the widest wheels I can get in front and back. I know we cut 1/2" off the bumpstop in the rear, but...don't remember what wheel info I used to fit 12.5" tires in there. I know they stuck out a bit so I put on some Fiberglas flares, but any info you have on any of this is helpful to me. Thanks!!

 

You may have gotten some bad info. On a rag top the first thing you need to do make the car more ridged. You may have noticed when you jack up the car from under a control are the tire is pretty high in the air before a second wheel states to lift. The handling issue is you end up with 3 wheels on the ground under load around a corner. Stiffening the suspension will make this worse.

There are several kits out there to stiffen up the body.

Just a heads up, GM marketing approached GM engineers about making a Z28 convertible Rag Top. The engineers said it will not work, Marketing pushed hard cause then knew they could sell them. GM engineer said without changing the body design the harder suspension of the Z28 could bend the car to the point the body would need pulled back on a frame machine just to do an alignment. This did happen to them in testing and would happen while under warranty. The softer suspension was actually protecting the uni-body.

https://www.jegs.com/i/Hotchkis/515/...iABEgIW5fD_BwE

 

Totally agree with Gorn. We did a frame off on my 69 ragtop. First time we set it on the ground we could tell something wasn't right. Used a smart level and jacked up at 4 suspension points until level and one side of suspension was just barely hanging while other side was completely compressed. Welded in a main hoop roll bar while level and completed 6 other roll cage points.. Set car down and it all body panels fit like they should. Added frame connectors and eliminated the factory band-aid vibration dampers at the corners (almost 200 extra lbs).