[Killo.Richards]

New owner of a 1972 Nova Coupe. I just drove this bad boy 1200 miles and the steering and suspension leave a fair amount to be desired. Does anyone have some recommendations on upgrades? I was looking at the QA1 stuff but figured I'd come here and see what the cool kids do. I don't anticipate driving far in this rig. Would like a cool street cruiser with periodic longer hauls (couple hours on highways).

 

[ericnova72]

A good fresh front end rebuild with stock parts and polyurethane bushings and good shock absorbers will do most anything you need unless you want pro-touring bling or plan to auto-cross race it.

Same in the rear, new leaf springs, poly bushings, new shocks.

You don't need aftermarket fancy llke tubular arms, coil-over shocks, or lightweight front subframe...unless you just want all that fancy stuff.

When you check steering and tie rod llnkage for slop, don't forget that there is a wear point in the tie rod stud in the pitman arm on the steering box. New pitmans are available.

 

[kso]

Agreed w/ all that (my experience is w/ the similar early Camaro) except to add; have a look at the subframe-to-body bushings and replace too if they're all slopped out...having mushiness right in the middle of the chassis is not too confidence-inspiring when the speeds get up there and also maybe consider a newer quicker-ratio steering box.

 

[Killo.Richards]

Thank you guys, will definitely save some money by NOT buying the fancy/sexy tubular stuff. Is the hot ticket to ditch the rear mono springs for multi-leaf or upgrade the mono leafs with new monos?

 

[ericnova72]

You focused more on street/strip or drag race??
Or just a nice highway driver?

 

[Killo.Richards]

You focused more on street/strip or drag race??
Or just a nice highway driver?

In a perfect world, this would be setup to roll around town, have some ooomph to sit you back in the seat if I step on it. I don't see myself running it at the strip, I simply don't have the money for that sort of thing. Also, I don't think driving this badboy on the highway would EVER be my first choice (after the trip I just took). Mainly a short distance, cool cruiser with some balls.

I ended up ordering an energy suspension kit to go through all of the bushings because it doesn't look like they were ever replaced. I also bought the QA1 sway bar. I'll start there and work my way through stuff. She's got mono leafs and I read those aren't good from a safety standpoint.

 

[ericnova72]

Actually, the modern mono leaf is the way to go, either single mono or split mono. They have been refined a lot compared to originals.
Added plus is you don't have to monkey around with the spring perches on the housing tubes, like you would if converting to multi-leaf.

Does your Energy Suspension kit have the parts for the rear leaf spring eyes also?

Do you have any plan or wish for rear traction aids at all? Simple slapper bars for that 60's thru early 1990's look, the more advanced underrider-link type bar( Calvert Racing 's Cal-Trac bars, Competition Engineering's Slide-A-Link, Smith Racecraft Asassin Bars).

 

[Killo.Richards]

@ericnova72 truth be told, I don't have any problem with traction at the moment...kind of unfortunate. I'm not sure what the story is on the motor. She's got a few ponies but not the kind that throw you back into your seat and leave you with a feeling of satisfaction. The first thing I did when I got her home was pull the plugs, they had oil on them. I also developed a bit of an oil leak somewhere along the trip. I do have a 454 (80 over with a few goodies in it) that I had built a number of years ago for another project that hasn't even been fired. It's sitting at my ex-wifes house about 3 hours away and I need to grab it at some point in the near future. I'd love to throw that into this Nova at some point or do something a little more exciting with the motor but I'm getting ahead of myself. I need to get the suspension stuff sorted out, look at the leak, run a compression test to see if it's the rings in this motor.

The energy suspension kit does appear to have the parts for the rear leaf springs. I'm sure it's going to be a ton of fun installing all of those bushings.