[bikerdaveandjenn]

planning out my '63 le mans rear end. i have a 57 pontiac rear. i am building this from scratch and it will be a street driven car with a tri power 389 and 3.90 to 4.11's 29" tire combo. opinions/ things to look out for please.
Dave

[BILTIT]

I would go with 3.08-3.73 gear range for any pontiac powered car on the street, nothing more.

[bikerdaveandjenn]

i have run 3.90's on the street with 400's with no problems. i figure a 3-3/4 stroke 389, roller cam, and a stick can easily handle 4.11's.
Dave

[R 70 Judge]

A coil over and ladder bar set up seems to be the easiest way to go. It has been covered a bunch of times in this section.

Stick or Auto?

I would suggest you copy someone else's suspension set up piece by piece to avoid any confusion. No sense trying to re-invent the wheel.

If you can do the work yourself the cost wont be that bad. If you can't, things will get expensive really quick. These cars are definitely NOT cheap to build!

[spartazoo]

Ladder bars and coil overs are the way to go. I have never even come close to doing anything like this and I did it myself. I takes information from this site, common cense, and the ability to measure twice and cut once.

Having said all that, I will let everyone know how hard the chassis guys laugh when they see my handy work tomorrow when I drop off the car for them to finish the welds and build a drive shaft.

[beemergary]

Coil overs and ladder bars are easier than you can imagine. The hardest part is knowing what wheels and tires you want to run to get the right width. Gary Beemer 810-6882182

[sdbob]

I started with a 57 Pontiac rear then went to a 57 Olds as the Olds was narrower.Check your rear with tires and rims then measure.So you see what rims you need.I've seen 63's with leaf springs that really looked simple and back yard cheap.the only hard thing was the shock mounting cross member.Double triple check your rear locating brackets.I dropped down vertical straight lines from the front spindles(making sure they were straight ahead)Then measured from (from those points)left front,to right rear,thenright front to left rear.I wanted those dimensions within.125"(1/8").The car you want level and the floor level(or blocks on the floor leveling the 4 points).I haven't finished my 4 link because of other things job,family moving,career choice.I will though.Good luck.

[spartazoo]

The first thing that I did was buy the rear rims and tires I was going to use. I then marked the center of the wheel on quarter panel. After that I removed the transaxle. Once that was out of the way, I set the wheels and tires under the car. I then measured the width from the back of the rim to the back of rim. Once I had that measurement I ordered a 9" rear housing and axles. If you give a chassis shop/moser/etc. that measurement, they will easily be able to build it.