Some of you may recall my posts last month about my 67 GTO dream car purchase.
The ultimate goal is this: www.gmachinechassis.com but the cashflow to do that will be slow. In the meantime I'm looking for some middle-of-the-road solutions.
I could replace all the bushings with solid or urethane bushings. That's cheap, but it won't correct the terrible camber curves. I can go with B-body spindles with some Afco tubular arms, but I'm looking for your opinions on :
1- places to buy cheap new or used race parts
2- how would you set it up.
The goal is to make it a competent street car with road racer capability.
Have you looked at www.speedwaymotors.com? I get their catalog in the mail and they've got a TON of good stuff for what seems like decent prices. And they're active in the community too.
oddly enough, I have dealt with speedway many times before in the context of kustoms and street rods... I just didn't think of them for "new" race parts.
Really? I know for a fact they're an Afco dealer ( I was just perusing). Not sure if they have what you're looking for but I figured it would be a good place to start.
I get so frustrated with Afco's website. They used to be a suspension fab company. I used to go to their website and buy tubular circle track arms for $40, and they were all listed by length, offset, size, etc. It was literally as easy as measuring and then buying. Now its a bunch of Dynatech and USBrakes stuff. If you go to the control arm section, it lists about 15 part numbers with no descriptions.
I just looked on Speedway Motors and I'm again slightly disappointed... About all they sell in the way of 67 Abody suspension is Global West stuff. Great stuff, but $750 for four arms isn't what I was hoping for. I want to buy a 10.25" arm with a 2.5" offset and 7" bolt spacing (for example) for $50 each like I used to.
I know I sound like a 90-year-old republican, but are there any sources like that anymore?
A good example: Way back in about 2000 I needed a set of upper arms for my 66 bonneville - just basic arms so it would roll. I bought these from Afco for $38 each plus shipping and they actually ended up staying on the car. They're still there today.
What about Joes Racing Products? They sell A-arms in different lengths.
Now we're getting closer. Didn't find any offset arms, but I think I can engineer around that.
They have 10 deg offset arms.
What about making your own? There are places which sell the ball joints housing and then you just need to get tubing.
ST_ZX2
Reader
1/20/11 4:03 p.m.
www.freakride.com
Not sure if that is the ticket...
That idiot who can't spell wrote:
They have 10 deg offset arms.
I meant front/rear offset, as in having the ball joint to the front or rear of centerline. The 10 deg offsets are just at the ball joint mount.
I could make my own, but my TIG welding sucks. Maybe I could engineer them, buy the parts, and have someone else TIG weld... but then I'm back to the expensive part.
JFX001
SuperDork
1/20/11 4:07 p.m.
Maybe:
http://www.umiperformance.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1
ST_ZX2 wrote:
www.freakride.com
Not sure if that is the ticket...
Looks like really nice stuff, but its $1100 for front arms.
I used these guys twice, good stuff; reasonably priced as I remember.
http://www.energysuspension.com/
Dan
A short list of stock car racing suppliers & builders. I have delt with all of them ast one time or another.
http://www.stockcarproducts.com/
http://www.stockcarproducts.com/afcoindx.htm
http://www.portcityracing.com/
http://www.howeracing.com/
https://www.lefthanderchassis.com/v2a/LHC_v2a.asp
Well one place that on the cheap...a hum low cost side. UB Machine.
http://www.ubmachine.com/index.html
BUT warning...if it's not in stock go else where...several time the wait period was so long i gave up. Never have them make something to your drawing...get the wrong part and never gets fixed..
Why the heck not make your own arms?
http://www.aa-mfg.com/pdshop/shop/
A&A is GREAT, love those guys. It's aways in stock and as listed.
I can't make a bracket for 4x the cost to buy it from them!
Day motorsports in Tyler TX is great to deal with. Wish i had know about them when i traveled to Tyler for work.
http://www.daymotorsports.com/
Capital Motorsports is my local place (well there 3 hour drive but normal get it next day)
http://www.cmwraceparts.com/
44
You guys rock. So many good links. My little head is swimming :)
There are several GTO guys over on the Performance Years Pontiac board who have built up their cars for road course work, but for the most part they have shopped at Global West or one of the other places...probably no low dollar solutions there.
don't forget theres adjustable height ball joints too.
curtis73 wrote:
The ultimate goal is this: www.gmachinechassis.com but the cashflow to do that will be slow. In the meantime I'm looking for some middle-of-the-road solutions.
From looking at their website, do they just sell chassis? And is chassis the plural of chassis? Anyway, the G Machine concept seems cool, if you have a good body to drop on top of one.
$18G holy E36 M3 for that chassis.
93EXCivic wrote:
$18G holy E36 M3 for that chassis.
That seems like a lot, given what that gets you. Not to say their engineering expertise and know-how aren't worth anything, but there is a lot of margin in a chassis that costs $18k.
dyintorace wrote:
93EXCivic wrote:
$18G holy E36 M3 for that chassis.
That seems like a lot, given what that gets you. Not to say their engineering expertise and know-how aren't worth anything, but there is a lot of margin in a chassis that costs $18k.
Mike at Schwartz (gmachinechassis) is very forthcoming with information. I can buy a basic frame only for around $3000 (still expensive) and then he said he would just give me the parts list and I can order my own parts. He said that the point right now is to get their name out, not make little bits of profit by marking up and retailing all of the chassis parts. That's my basic plan - get the frame and shop for parts like control arms, steering rack, brakes. I have time, so instead of dropping a ton of retail cash at one time, I can find some eBay and CL bargains.
I'm trying to work a deal with him to do a B-body prototype with my 96 Impala SS