Alrighty,need some people to shine some light on this subject.What the heck is a "Wonder Bar" and should i get one?Also should i look into maybe aquireing the following items,sub-frame connectors,srut tower braces,control arms,etc..all my stuff on my car as far as suspension wise is stock.Which brands would yall recommended?Or maybe is there a site i can check out to answer my questions?Any information would be greatly appreciated.Thanx in advance..

Brent

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Toys currently owned:
-91 MPFI Firebird
-97 Grand-Am GT
-96 Extreme Sonoma
-91 Suzuki GS500E
-89 Z28 Camaro(under construction)
-89 RS Camaro

 

The only thing you absolutely should get is subframe connectors and get them first. Many people on the board seem to like Spohn's brand (click on the banner above). This mod will give you a solid foundation on which to build as it ties your front and rear subframes together, essentially making it a full frame car, tightening the car up significantly.
The wonder bar is brace that bolts on between the front frame rails above the front sway bar. It was stock on IROCS I think. It also adds stiffness to the car and counters the enormous pressure that the steering box exerts on front end. Many third gens develop cracks from the pressure. Global West sells them.
Now as for everything else, before you spend a penny, you have to seriously think about what you want the car to do. Drag race, Autocross, just upgrade? And How much do you want to spend?
If you are Autocrossing (cornering) then you want the strut tower brace and wonder bar which adds even more stiffness, boxed or tubular LCA's, larger front and rear sway bars, panhard bar, tubular torque arm, stiffer struts/shocks/springs, poly bushings or solid endlinks and even larger wheels. Basically anything that transfers lateral force to the wheels/tires.

For Drag racing, you can remove the front sway bar, soft struts/springs, again boxed/tubular lower control arms, tubular torque arm, poly bushings, smaller wheels with more compressible tires. If want to spend big bucks, change the rear suspension to a 4-link. Anything that transfers the cars weight to the back of the car on launch so those rear tires have maximum traction.

Just upgrading? Subframe connectors, KYB shocks/struts, polyurethane bushings. You WILL feel a significant improvement. Then maybe a Hotchkis LCA/panahrd bar. That's about it. Most importantly keep those tires inflated to the proper pressure. Some websites to buy this stuff

www.ground-control.com
www.p-s-t.com
www.performancesuspension.com
www.swracecars.com
www.paracing.net
www.tirerack.com/index.jsp
www.summitracing.com
www.artmorrison.com

 

Appreciate the large reply cruzer My car for now is a "daily driver" don't really ever plan on drag racing her or the autocross thing.I just would like to upgrade what i presently have,make things work more effeciently,better handling,tight,sturdy body,etc...stuff on the lines of that.Once again Thanx for the awesome reply.Gonna check out those sites very soon

Brent

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Toys currently owned:
-91 MPFI Firebird
-97 Grand-Am GT
-96 Extreme Sonoma
-91 Suzuki GS500E
-89 Z28 Camaro(under construction)
-89 RS Camaro

 

before you buy check out my post ANYONE THINKING OF GETTING LCAs READ THIS FIRST (or something very close to that). It's fairly recent and on this board. It contains an email I got back from BMR (www.bmrfabrications.com) explaining what kind of LCAs (and panhard too, I think) to get. I emailed them what global west told me and this post has bmr's response. Very helpful and not just a quote from their product description.

 

If you aren't planning on drag racing, then I'd suggest that your mods be more along the lines of autocross/road race, just not as extreme as some of those mods can get.

For cornering, whether it be auto-x, road race, or just the occasional hard turn on the street and driving in bad weather, be careful about those LCA & bushing combinations. Boxed LCA's are really a dragstrip mod and will bind badly in a corner when combined with poly bushings in both ends (making it corner "loose" - which feels just like it sounds, BTW). There's a tubular LCA with poly in one end and rubber in the other (forget whose) and GM's own 1LE parts that are far happier with the cornering stuff.

Norm



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1979 Malibu w/some cornering tweaks and a few other interesting things

 

I posted the reply about LCAs with rod ends not being for the street, as per a BMR email. I said something about that in another post and someone responded that people on here have run rod end LCAs for years with no problems. So I don't know.