[Judgemint]

On my 63 lemans, it has the 326 A/T. I want to convert to a regular drivetrain. I was thinking on going with ladder bars and coil overs, but I dont know how good that would be on the street, cornering etc, how about a leaf spring set up out of a 78-79 firebird, camaro this will be a street car with ocasional strip use. it will have a 455 with a 9' in it

[Judgemint]

On my 63 lemans, it has the 326 A/T. I want to convert to a regular drivetrain. I was thinking on going with ladder bars and coil overs, but I dont know how good that would be on the street, cornering etc, how about a leaf spring set up out of a 78-79 firebird, camaro this will be a street car with ocasional strip use. it will have a 455 with a 9' in it

[tom s]

I have done 2 of them,ladder bars with coilovers is the easy way.I would use the bars with poly bushings for street use.The first one I did was coil springs with traction bars and rode verry rough.I have a coupe with a 421 and a convert. with a 400.Both have laddr bars and coilovers.Tom

[Judgemint]

Thanks for the reply. can you give me kind of an idea on the best way to do it? at the rear of the frame on both sides right were the thin frame rails end and the thick part of the frame begins, it is all rusted out there. I was thinking maybe on making a cross member across, like some 2x3x1/8 square tubbing. to run the front part of the ladder bars. I want to run fairly wide tires so I need to move them in a little. Do you need to weld a crossmember in the back as well? I get a little confused with this. Thanks

[Judgemint]

Also forgot to mention, those cars of yours must be nothing short of a blast! Any pictures posted anywere to veiw?

[Doug]

J'mint: Quite a project you are tackling. Probably simplest overall way is to use ladder bar/coilovers. If you want to use a "stock" 9 inch rear try to find a mid-60's Mustang/Cougar setup. Maybe a late 50's/ early 60's T'bird or some other Fomoco may fit (width). The bigger engine Mustang/Cougars had 9".
I built one of these in 1970 using a 57 Pontiac leafspring rearend and a 1965 tripower 421/Muncie 4 spd. I've got another project car now that I'm planning on using a 57 Pontiac leafspring/67 tripower 428/Muncie 4 spd.
If you are thinking about a leafspring, you should be aware that the driver side frame rail behind the wheel is about 1 1/4" farther outside of the centerline of the car than the passenger side is. ( This offset was made to accommodate gas tank filling spout on the driver side, even though the 63 cars were changed from side filling to filling behind the license plate. However, the 63 wagons still fill on the side.) Another thing to realize is that if your leaf springs are moved much closer together than the frame rails, the rear spring mounts will be in your gas tank.
For my project I'm using leaf springs the same length as a GMC/Chevy pickup ( 52" overall). In the rear they will mount in the frame rail areas.
I have made up pieces of 1/4"x2"x2" angle iron and 3/8"x8"x12" plate for the front mounts. For each side of the car I have a 6" long piece of angle welded to the outside face of the frame rail and a 6" piece welded to the inside of the rocker panel. The face of the lower flange of these angles is flush with the bottom of the frame rail. The 8"x12" plate fits up flat against the faces of the angle. On the bottom I have two other 6" long angles that are drilled for the bolt for the leaf spring eye. These lower angles, the plate and the upper angles are drilled for bolts (9/16")that go through all pieces and sandwich them together. The plate extends back to where a tab of plate about 3"x4" can be welded vertically to it. That tab extends up to where it can be bolted on to the small crossframe member in the same holes where the original control arms are bolted on. (This tab makes a "cleat" to tie all the stuff together.)
For the car I built in 70, the only floorboard cutting I did was in the transmission hump area, none in the tunnel area. I've seen that a lot of guys cut the tunnel too. I don't know why. That 70's car had 68 GTO front coils and the full 57 Pontiac leafs. I don't know if that springing kept my driveshaft out of the tunnel. It rode stiff and sat up a little but had a good looking stance. It would come out of the hole straight as an arrow even though it was a single track differential (probably a 3.23 or less gear). It would leave twin strips of rubber for about 40'. I would feather it out of the hole about 1,800rpm, dump it at about 40' and start grabbing gears. I had 7.10x15 tires (skinny). Best time for quarter was 13.28@108mph. Even with those skinny tires it would flat kill Road Runners, 396 Chevelles and 400 GTO's.
Clutch pedal linkage is a big problem. In 70, I used my original pedal linkage. That stuff is hard to find. I've got some for my current car.
Hydraulic clutch is probably the way to go.
Look real serious about upgrading the front brakes ( and single stage master cylinder to two stage, etc). I know a guy that is putting discs from an 84 Buick Regal on a 63. They look like they will work but I haven't seen the finished product. Get a bigger radiator. You may want to look at subframe connectors of some sort. If you use ladder bars you may want to use something like a panhard bar link.
I'll be out of touch a few days. Drop me an e-mail. Maybe I can take some photos and give you some sketch drawings of my leaf spring mounting design.
P.S. Exhaust system can be difficult. (Nobody has shelf items like headers, etc.)

[tom s]

The car I am running now uses 31in ladder bars,we have a Xmember running between the unibody rails,inside the car we have a backing plate,the x member bolts through the unibody rails and the backing plate.The rear uses a x member welded between the unibody rails where the original suspension was.The coilovers attach to it on the top and on brackets welded to the rearend on the bottem.There is a panner bar that connects from one side of the rear of the ladder bar to the inside of the other unibody rail,that keeps the rear from moving RtoL.My car can be seen on the CP board,member #59.Email me for any help.Tom

[patric]

i too am looking to make a '63 lemans into a speed-worthy car. for the rear end, what setup should i install to make it hook-up on the 1/4 mile and handle daily driving. i am interested in installing a big block and i wanted to know what should i put in the back?! a leaf-spring, coil-overs or a 4- link?? which of these will be the best choice? i'm looking for reliability, performance and cost effectiveness?
patric.

[martygre]

I own a 63 tempest and was wondering if a 64 tempest rearend would switch over any input would be appreciated.

['ol Pinion head]

Marty,
Welcome to the board.

The '64-72 A-body rearends can be made to correctly fit in a '63 LeMans-Tempest, but it boils down to ton more work than going leaf springs. Currently involved in performing this mod with modified '67 A-body upper control arm mount crossmember in my '63. No walk in the park.

Tom S, has the easiast (no leaf spring) solution in ladder bars & coilovers solution (see above). What course of action you take depends on what you want to do with the car.

[Doug]

Ditto to OPH's comments. If you are going to put a solid axle under it, I would go with a strong unit ( 9", 12 bolt, Dana 60) so that you could run about any size engine you want. Otherwise, I would suggest keeping the car as an original type swing axle car. Read my above comments and if you have any questions drop me an e-mail. Lotsaluck!

[White Warrior]

I use a ladder bar with coilovers and a panhard bar. Had the car out yesterday and did a 1.25 and 1.27 60' time with 10.5by 29.5 M/T tires
There are pictures of the rear suspension on a real nice site called. Littlebigchief.com Go to the featured race car picture and click on it.
I used to run a narowwed 62 Pontiac rear but just switched to a 9"ford with a 12 bolt center section
[less friction] Dave Johnson

[Lemans1]

how much power, if any, can the stock rears/diff take?

[tom s]

I bought a 63 326 HO lemans when the came out.It had a 3 speed with a 3.90 posi{saf t trac} rear.The car ran and survived with the a tripower and a lot of hot rodding.I put a mild 389 in the car,went to Pomona,I broke the trans so bad that part of the case broke out.I drove the car home,took it to Jess Tyrees shop in Fullerton and we put a 57 rear end with welded boxed traction bars as the Ford Thunderbolts used,we cut the stock springs and used the factory sub Xmember.The car rode like ****,performed good with the added 421.There is a pic of that car in Petes book,I think pg145.I have done a couple now and have found that the suspension I copied from Daves White Warrior is the easyest and works the best.Tom

[Lemans1]

Ouch! So I guess my mild 400 is out of the question. Thanks for the info.

[tom s]

I think if you drove it with stock 650-15 tires,NEVER raced it it would live,a big sticky tire that HOOKS will not be kind to that Corvair trans axle.Tom