67 Olds 442

Its a 67 442. The car is new to me and I'm trying to get a list made of the things I can do to upgrade the car and make it a nicer ride overall. I've done some searching but its hard to determine a good order of suspension purchases. Not finding a whole lot about the 67s either.

What is usually the order of suspension upgrades to make the car handle better. I'm not looking to lower the car because the headers are already close to the ground, and the springs and shocks seem to be good. Car also has front disc, and rear drums.

Should I start with Sway bars, trailing arms, tie rods, a-arms, or none of these????

Educate me please.

aliensatemybuick

There is a well-documented (don't have a copy handy, but a search of the archives here may turn up the magazine article) mod for improving these cars' handling using spindles from late model B-bodies (I think), which apparently changes the steering geometry to give much tighter handling. I think it may, however, lower the ride height, all other things (like rim/tire size) being equal. Prolly it could benefit from a tighter ratio steering box as well.

My own '67 442 handles great. Very little body roll, and tracks real nice. As far as I know, the suspension is stock (I've had people comment on how high it seems to sit (see pic attached), and their related doubts over how that could translate to good handling). Yet I take it on highways on occasion, and am consistently amazed at how nice it takes the on/off ramps. I used to own a '66 BTW, and that thing was a mess, very sloppy handling. My car's orginal steering box means more turns lock to lock, and I find this can get hairy when shifting (mine's a 4 speed) during sharp turns, but I have no plans to change it. I tend to be a "don't fix it if it aint broke" (and sometimes even if it IS broke) kinda guy

chrisneu68olds

Couldn't find a reference to that article on here, but I may not have looked deep enough. I do want to follow this thread though.
Do you remember what magazine it was by chance?

11971four4two

My driver car has an HO specialties steering / suspension conversion. WoW. No more body roll , and steers way better than factory 72 Abody.

They used GM Fbody spindles ,(gives you 4 3/4 bolt pattern rotors) , master cylinder , calipers , prop valve , lines and hoses. You source these from parts car/ junk yard.

Benefits are bigger brakes , improved steering geometry and used to be junk yard parts (not chinese parts). The Ball joints and outer tie-rod ends were the only parts you had to buy from HO Specialties.

You use your stock front control arms!

The conversion requires a radical adjustment in alignment specs. AND you need factory exhaust manifolds (WZ).

These days you can likely find an outfit that will sell you the whole conversion as a kit.

Cheers!

aliensatemybuick

I really can't find the article, spent some time looking here and through my E-mail archive, but have to move on. Its common swap for Chevelles too, so I bet you can find all kinds of info. on the net. The later B-bodies do have the 4 x 3/4 bold pattern. I think if you use those spindles, you may need to use a custom tubular upper a-arm. Never did the swap myself, only heard good things about it. I did find THIS doing a quick i-net search:

http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles...t/viewall.html

I gather per what the other poster said and what I saw on my quick search is there are companies that will sell you the whole kit n kaboodle, which will beat scouring junkyards and mixing/matching parts. Just bring money!

Good luck!

11971four4two

I did some digging and found some copies of June 1987 Hot Rod article titled Knuckle Sandwich A+ Handling for 64-72 GM intermediates.