Advice for new bracket racer

[Bill Baer]

Originally Posted by shockme668

Found a 502 going to pick it up next week....thanks Bill...I am going through the car cleaning things up and noticed that the car still has stamped rear controll arms... would it be worth the money to replace them now with after market or just keep them...If yes is ajustable the way to go..Trying to stay in a budget but my safety has no budget......

The first thing you need to do is get a mirror and a flash light and verify that the frame is not cracked where the upper control arms attach. It's pretty common for them to be cracked there. Then if that's OK you can box the stamped steel control arms repace the upper & front lower bushings with poly bushings and the rear lower bushings with Competion Engineering C3165 solid aluminum buishings. Get new grade 8 bolts with locknuts and verify that none of the mounting holes are elongated if they are you need to fix them as well. You also may need to install an air bag in the right rear spring if the car exibits body roll to the right when it launches.
In my experience the bolt on ladder bars and bolt onslapper bars don't work very well and just cover up other problems (slop) in the GM stuff.
Some time back Mr. Gasket and Genuine Suspension sold "no hop" bars that relocated the upper rear control are attachment points higher and improved the suspension geometry but in my experience they tended to loosen up after some use and I am therefore very leery of them.
You also as a minimum need to have the front end alignment checked to verify that you have as much positive caster as possible. You might also consider replacing the front A-arm bushings and coil springs with Moroso trick Springs and 90/10 or front drag shocks which will increase the travel of the front end which can help plant the rear tires.
If you consider the aftermarket control arms they till give you the ability to adjust the pinion angle which could be useful but I myself have no experience playing with pinion angle for chassis tuning
I have seen some very fast cars with the stock or near stock chevelle rear suspension.
All of this may be overkill but, I like you, don't trust those stock stamped steel control arms and I do know that any slop in the GM suspension will result in wheel hop and will break stuff.

Hope this helps