[Nicks67GTO]

Originally Posted by HWYSTR455

Ah, so you don't have the 'S' or sticky ones. You have to make compromises depending on the amount of street duty you see, there's no way around that. If the wheels are inexpensive enough, you could always buy another set, run stickies on those, but not many go that extra step. (or have the cash to do so)

They're not 3 years or more old are they? Tires do get harder over time. I've run the regular 555s before, and same as you noticed push/plow, but was always fairly predictable IMO.

You can look at what others run for tires, see what works for them. Vehicle weight is a big factor, don't always go by the tires lighter cars are running.

.

The tires were new in December. I figure I will end up with about 5-6K miles on this car per year so if I need new tires every season.... I guess it's part of having fun. Unfortunately im probably going to have to go to a 40 series tire too. The only 45 series tire I can find in 245 and 275 in a Pirelli Pzero

[HWYSTR455]

You should be running 40s anyway, and considering how you have it lowered, it will still look proportionate.

In general, I need rear tires every year, front tires every 1.5 - 2 years. Not sure why, but the rears don't seem to quite last as long! And that's with regular, non-sticky tires. Sticky tires last about a summer for me, and I do about 10k+ a year miles. (as a reference)

Could always pull a trailer with an extra set of wheels & tires, do a receiver hitch, they aren't too unsightly. I contemplated cutting a hole in the valance and put some trim around it to make it look nice. Can throw a cap on it when there's no hitch, dress it up some. I was going to pull a pop-up camper, paint it like the car, but the kids grew out of that kind of camping so I bailed. Someone was going to give me a trailer and 2 jet skis, thought about it again, but then I bought a pickup.

.

[Nicks67GTO]

A few weeks back I took a trip to St Paul for the Street Machine Nationals to Auto X. While at the track, I encountered a guy with a g-body that had a SC&C chassis like mine. He had pony'd up for the SC&C HD Chassis brace. This is a very common upgrade for G body guys. It triangulates the front frame rails and apparently even GM recognized there was an issue because they used a stamped version on the performance G body cars.

I had kind of scoffed at it a bit at first but then talking to this guy about his, he was very impressed and he said the difference was instant and very noticeable, even over his stock ones he had removed. Marc had talked about how the front frame rails on these cars move under load and that the steering box takes all the abuse under steering conditions. This brace triangulates everything, ties it all together and distributes the load and A body cars really could have used these and really benefit from them...

So I bought one. $217 shipped. It looks like about maybe $30 bucks worth of material if you wanted to hack one together yourself. This one is nice though and has bends where they need to be and it has a nice coating so ok.... Ill be the guinea pig.

I will say I'm impressed with how much of a difference this made. My G body guy was right, it made the car much more snappy and athletic feeling. I had about 3 hrs installing it and the difference was pretty noticeable from the first corner I turned even at slow speed. I'm not sure how the frame rails move that much under load? You would think that they would wreck body panels with that much movement but they must, because the steering feels much more responsive.

Here it is





The instructions say you have to center the piece, drill 2 3/8" Holes in the frame rails and 2 5/16" holes and tap for 3/8x16 in the engine cradle. That didn't go well for me. I ended up stripping the tapped holes in the cradle upon final TQ....so I got a 1.5" hole saw out and made a little room to get some nylocks and washers on the back of the bolts that go in the cradle. Oh well, at least its not some numbers matching frame and there was a hole there anyways so....



I also ended up having to use .195" washers to space it down a bit to miss the swaybar. It says in the instructions this might happen so I was prepared. Inside the frame I had a buttlap weld right in the middle of the hole I drilled leaving a very uneven surface. This was leaving my bolt angled. I tried to get away with just tightening it down but I snapped a bolt off upon final TQ inside the frame rail. I used on of the thick washers to take up the difference inside the framerail and leave a flat surface for the nut to snug up against. Just a bench grinder and file was all that was needed...



So I got that all done, TQ'd it down to 35 ft lbs all the way around, checked for interference and took it for a drive....this gentlemen is a great picture as to why you don't buy hooker super comp headers...

[1966geeto]

Was told the same thing by my alignment guy really old school he told me they used to have to re spec the frames when they came off the delivery trucks after being chained down the front frame rails would tweak. He had some tools from that GM sent the dealers to strap the frames down and re measure everything. He re impressiond my cross member to correct a camber problem. The kit looks like t would do the trick in stabilizing the front end.

[400 4spd.]

Originally Posted by 1966geeto

Was told the same thing by my alignment guy really old school he told me they used to have to re spec the frames when they came off the delivery trucks after being chained down the front frame rails would tweak. He had some tools from that GM sent the dealers to strap the frames down and re measure everything. He re impressiond my cross member to correct a camber problem. The kit looks like t would do the trick in stabilizing the front end.

I wonder if that would explain so many with the left front corner being low?

[Nicks67GTO]

Originally Posted by 400 4spd.

I wonder if that would explain so many with the left front corner being low?

I had the frame that's under my car straightened before I boxed/coated it and checked by the same shop after it went under the car. The front lower ball joints were within 2mm of each other. That's way closer that the factory ever dreamed of having them according to my frame guy. With that said mine has that driver side front lean to it. I had to mess with shimming and i'm now at just under a 1/2" difference side to side and i'm done messing with it. I don't know what it is but these cars just have a damn lean.

[HWYSTR455]

Originally Posted by Nicks67GTO

I had the frame that's under my car straightened before I boxed/coated it and checked by the same shop after it went under the car. The front lower ball joints were within 2mm of each other. That's way closer that the factory ever dreamed of having them according to my frame guy. With that said mine has that driver side front lean to it. I had to mess with shimming and i'm now at just under a 1/2" difference side to side and i'm done messing with it. I don't know what it is but these cars just have a damn lean.

The frames twist along the length, that's where the lean comes from on some. And that is what the brace is supposed to combat, that longitudal twist. Once the body takes a set, on a 'leaned' frame, you have to straighten both. If not, once you bolt the body back up to the frame the body will just pull the frame back to where it was.

Jack up the car on the frame on the front side of the side that leans and leave it for a couple weeks. Do that a couple times and the lean will be gone. You could even loosen the body bushings while it's jacked up, then tighten after the couple weeks when you let it down. Could help hold it from tweaking again.

Careful though, you could impact panel alignment, have to watch as you jack it up.

.