suspension advice?

[69tobe]

i have a 69 chevelle. I need advice on what type of suspension i should get for good handaling and a great ride, verry smooth. and anything els i need from it. also do i need to take the body off the frame to install it?

[Derek69SS]

You don't need to take the body off the frame to do any suspension work, but if the body mounts are original, you may want to replace them... you do need to lift the body up a bit to do that job.

For a smooth ride, stock type parts are going to be the best. Rubber bushings help absorb a lot of the little bumps, road noise, etc. Stock (soft) springs with some good stock-replacement gas shocks like Monroes or similar will be the smoothest. Put some bigger sway-bars on it, and a quick-ratio steering box, and it will feel pretty decent in the turns too.

If you're not going to really push the car's limits, that's really all you need...

[69tobe]

ok cool, thanks :) this is gonna help a lot

[69tobe]

any more advice would be great form anyone

[shadowgray396]

Hotchkis suspension parts on it will change the handling more like the new cars. I have heard good things about their product.

[Ms Grumpy]

I have the Hotchkis suspension on my 72. The car no longer drives like a mushy boat. I am really glad that I did it, and yes it does handle more like a newer car. The total cost of it was well worth every penny.

[earthquake68]

I think Derek has the bead on what you want. It all depends on what you plan to do with the car. The GM A-body suspension is one of the best designed in my opinion. It does a great job of providing a smooth ride with capable cornering characteristics. It will also plant the tires hard on a drag race type launch at the track. (since we don't street race because it's dangerous)

There are things you can do to upgrade the suspension, but there's a trade off somewhere. If you want it to corner like it's on rails, you'll give up ride quality. If you want to stand the car up on it's rear bumper, it probably won't turn corners very well. You get the idea.

About the best system I've come up with for all-around performance was new stock rubber bushings everywhere, Moog variable rate rear springs and gas charged Gabriel shocks. New stock springs in the front will go a long way to stiffen things up. DO NOT get big block springs for the front. If you do, the tires will have more give than the front springs will. I made that mistake once before and my Chevelle didn't ride quite as nice as my 1981 1 ton crew cab dually.

Now having said all this, I've heard Hotchkis makes great stuff.

[Derek69SS]

Everything Hotchkis offers will stiffen the ride...

...for good handaling and a great ride, verry smooth...

I read this to mean ride quality is most important and performance is secondary.

Hotchkis sells great springs/shocks/sway-bars, but honestly I wouldn't recommend anything else of theirs... There's better products for less money when it comes to some of the more "serious" handling improvements.

[Chris69Chevell]

You don't need to take the body off the frame to do any suspension work, but if the body mounts are original, you may want to replace them... you do need to lift the body up a bit to do that job.

For a smooth ride, stock type parts are going to be the best. Rubber bushings help absorb a lot of the little bumps, road noise, etc. Stock (soft) springs with some good stock-replacement gas shocks like Monroes or similar will be the smoothest. Put some bigger sway-bars on it, and a quick-ratio steering box, and it will feel pretty decent in the turns too.

If you're not going to really push the car's limits, that's really all you need...

To replace the body mounts with the body on can I do on side of the car at a time? Please explain.....

[chevymaher]

To replace the body mounts with the body on can I do on side of the car at a time? Please explain.....

Yes loosen them all then you can do one side at a time.

[shadowgray396]

Use some PB blaster penetrating oil first before you try to loosen them up. Other wise you will spin the cage nut.

[Bow_Tied]

I put hotchkiss 1" lowering springs in my '69. The fronts are amazing, great ride and handles ok with the stance I wanted. The rears however were to soft and the back end sagged. And it was worse with extra load. I added air bags and that helped a lot.

[Ken Hayes]

This was mine with 1 1/2" lowering springs in the front......and then with 2" lowering springs on the rear.