I have the urge to go old school with the cuda, should I?

[dodj]

Like Shane I too used the PST 1.02 bars. I personally don't like the Hotchkis arms. For the $ you get a well engineered arm -geometry- but the drawbacks include alignment hassle and the life expectancy of a heim joint on a driven street car is questionable. Best bang for the buck is the Moog offset bushings. If you really want (or need) to buy uca's, I would look at these.
https://www.qa1.net/suspension/street-performance-racing-suspension-components/control-arms/mopar-control-arms
I don't have them myself but they offer the caster advantages without the heim disadvantages. I have the offset bushings in stock uca's.
While you are there, check out their single adjustable shocks. I bought a set last year. I think they were about $600. I was in Minneapolis for a car show and picked them up from the QA1 factory.
If you are taking the fenders off, I added these,  they will help your car out a lot along with the sub frame connectors.
http://store.uscartool.com/E-Body-70-74-inner-fender-brace-kit.html
I then put on 255's on the front and 315's on the back. (Dr. Diff 1.5" spring relo kit)
I don't see much advantage to changing the stock strut rods. Minute gains.
And while my car probably can't quite keep up with Brad's, it wouldn't be too far behind..lol

[torredcuda]

What do you have for leaf springs, PST doesn`t look to have much selection?

[dodj]

I have MP XHD rear leafs. For the light a$$ on these cars (at least with a 440 in the nose) I find the spring rate acceptable. I added a 7/8" rear sway bar which made a very noticeable difference in road manners.

[usraptor]

15" Polished American wheels with traction bars.  About as old school as you can get.   

[torredcuda]

15" Polished American wheels with traction bars.  About as old school as you can get.   

Looks great and love the traction bars.    I have the Torque Thrusts on it now but not sure I can find any decent sticky tires in 15" size.

[RUNCHARGER]

I day2ed my orange car but much better than we could have done in the 70's. Rear sway bar, bigger front bar, bigger disc brakes etc. An extra 50 cubes wasn't something we could afford to do in the 70's either. Aluminum heads and a way better intake manifold that wasn't available back then either. I also tried the 70's headers and threw them away and put on TTi's after dragging them on speed bumps a few times too.

[HP2]

OK, latest idea is to go old school but more of a road racer look than the jacked up L60`s and tunnel ram. What combo of factory and aftermarket parts can I use to achieve decent handling on a budget? I`m thinking the 11.75" front rotor swap, obviously heavier torsion bars, springs and sway bars and I`ll be adding subframe connectors, spring mount reinforcements and such. I`d love to go full Hothckiss or something but budget won`t allow that, even doing it in stpes would be OK, what should I do first?

Working with these assumptions; you have small black that will remain a small block, you want to car to remain driveable during these upgrades with no more than a weekend of downtime for an update, and you want to progessively improve it  on a budget, you want to to feel and perform better without necessarily being a autocross racer. I'm also purposely leaving wheels and tires out of this equation. They would actually be the first thing I settled on. If you sticking with 15" tires, this  does become a challenge and will  be a big influence on budget. Really good street 15" tires don't really exist and you may find yourself running a somewhat lesser tire or a d.o.t. racing tire. Your goals for end product and budget along the way are prime considerations.

First, chassis reinforcement. Add SFC or torque boxes and some front end reinforcement. Without a solid foundation, improvements are spitting in the wind. These can cost $20 in materials if you build and install your own to many hundreds if you buy complete packages and have them installed. Firming up the uni-body will allow even the parts you have now to work better together. I'd hold off on spring reinforcement plates, control arm gussets, shock mounts or other doo-dads until later as they add little to this equation.

Second, offset upper control arm bushings and a radial friendly alignment. A big drawback of the stock mopar suspension is the lack of positive caster and the interrelationship of caster to camber and how one is compromised for the other. $400 control arms accomplish this too, but, we are talking budget here.  Offset bushings are  less than $50. They don't give the range that new arms do, so to offset this, you also install .125" hardened washers between the  lower ball joint and spindle. This increases negative camber so you can dial in as much positive caster as possible with the bushings.  The alignment, careful selection of a shop is required here. They  MUST be willing to work with you on custom settings and not use the OEM settings.The settings you want will be as much positive caster as possible, up to around  7*, negative camber not to exceed -1* and approximately .125" negative toe or toe in. For a basic 26" tall tire, I think this is  around -.5*

Those two changes are the foundation of improvement that all cars should have, even if they are a stock restoration, IMO. You may  find your car so improved you may or may not want to purse further changes depending on personal preference and  ultimate goal.  These changes are so good, you could still go with an old school street racer look and have an enjoyable car that is safe to drive. Also, from this point forward,  you start running into  incremental compromises as you  upgrade pieces individually that aren't matched to each other. Eventually it all comes together in the end.

Next, shocks with an eye towards the future suspension rates. Install and forget it shocks would be the RCD Bilsteins.  At $450+ this is not a cheap upgrade, but will be a significant upgrade. If you prefer to tinker a bit, single adjustables can give you a range of options to explore so you can change settings for more comfort,performance,  and use to different environments (street/drag/handling). If you  are OCD and can keep great notes, then a double adjustable shock may be the ticket. I say this because the many hundreds of combinations of compression and rebound possible in a double adjustable shock means you can easily and quickly end up in the wrong end of the spectrum and produce a worse handling car if you don't recall where you started.

After that, front sway bar. A 1.125" solid unit can be had fairly inexpensively found from Addco, Sway Away, Summit or numerous other providers for around  $150. The 1.25" hollow bar Hotchkis is trick and gives a high rate with lightweight, but will be easily 2x+ in cost at $350+.  Pick your budget here. This will produce a car that somewhat understeers because of the big step up  in rate compared to the stock sized (.890 or something) bar you are replacing. Leave your stock rear bar in  place.

Next step depends on if you want your car to understeer severely of oversteer somewhat and they should probably be done together or one as soon after the other as possible. If  understeering severely is okay then find a 1.06-1.10 torsion bar. If oversteer them  step up  to a Mopar XHD leaf or equivilent. These will be around 140# in rate. These two pieces will finally balance out the car and  finalize the overall build. T-bars can be found  through Hotchkis, Firm Feel, and a few others. They are pricey at $300+ in most places. Sometimes you can luck out and find old stock MP bars for a couple hundred or someone upgrading who will let them go cheap. You can disconnect your rear sway bar to restore a bit of balance if you need to  wait on the leaf  upgrade.

Leafs will run  $200-500 depending on source and how custom  rate you decide to go with. Firm Feel will custom build rates and there are a host of oval track suppliers who have some big rates too.  However, be aware if you get a reproduction Mopar Oval Track spring, they require new front hangers because of a difference in front segment length. Stock style, XHD, and Hotchkis do not have this concern.


So there you go. My  opinion  on your set up in a nutshell.

[torredcuda]

Great info! Your assumptions are pretty right on althougI think I will eventually upgrade to 17" wheels and tires when the budget allows, I`ll kep an eye out for a used set I can maybe afford and sell the 15`s to recoup some cash. I guess the interior is coming out and the welding can commence. Fortunatley I have the skills to everything myself so I don`t have to pay a shop. I`ll get the offset bushings ordered up also.

[torredcuda]

Did the first step finally, ordered UScar tool sub frame connectors, I`ll make my own torque box reinforcements and a few other pieces as I work in a sheet metal shop.

[ZEN357]

If it was me, I'd leave it as stock looking as I could and build the engine, transmission and rear end.

[jimynick]

Did the first step finally, ordered UScar tool sub frame connectors, I`ll make my own torque box reinforcements and a few other pieces as I work in a sheet metal shop.

Good call! I installed the USCT SFC's, torque boxes and frt inr apron reinforcements and the car is quite a bit stiffer than when new. I know everybody recommends the over 1" TB's but I bought a set of .960" ers I think they were, from Mopar and my trade price was less than $200 and the car handles well. Mine is a street car only and if you were to race it, then go another way. I think you'll be happy with the way the car drives when you're done. Also, if you haven't already, the Firm Feel stage 3 rebuild will give you a near new car feel through the wheel. Good luck!