I recently bought an ‘83 Camaro for my first project. It already has some performance upgrades. I want to replace the stock parts that are older than me, especially the suspension, before I focus on giving it anymore power. I want to get an idea of what I need to replace to make it ride better and be safe.

Suspension is effing expensive 😂 If I save up for an expensive suspension kit will that include everything I need? I’m wanting to keep things somewhat affordable as I have other plans as well lol. I don’t wanna spend 3-5K on suspension to find out I still need more stuff. Honestly I’m 21 and it would take a long time to save that up 😬

 

The car hobby is a rich man's game. But I was doing the same thing at your age, so no judgement here. Put high quality new shocks on it (Koni, Bilstein, etc), nice grippy tires, and spend the rest of your money on maintenance of stock equipment, a helmet, and track time.

 

Don't think you need an expensive kit. Founders Performance makes some nice stuff for reasonable prices. Trailing arms, panhard bar and strut mounts. KYB make good struts and shocks and are more affordable than the Koni's. Not as good but much better than stock.
If you need to replace the front end wear parts, tie rods, ball joints, idler arm, etc. You can get good quality replacements still branded A/C Delco from Rock auto. You still probably should budget 1K but this way you can replace what you can afford.

 

I got a great set of tires I’ve had a couple people tell me they’re worth about 1500. I’ll have to check tomorrow and let ya know what they are.
Im looking to make it a cool daily, it just rides like sh** right now lol. I like the power but I dont want do so much that it can’t be a daily ya know. I assume with more performance parts comes more maintenance and just not ideal for a daily.

 

I was worried I would have to spend much more that a grand to make her ride better lol. Appreciate you !!

 

You can easily spend a grand and not really make a dent in what needs to be done, depending on what you think needs to be done. For a decent ride new struts and shock and springs will help with the ride quality but it's the bushings and ball joints and tie rods will help with your ride quality as well. All of your ware items like ball joints, tie rods and bushings are all fairly inexpensive but the two items where you should spend some money are the Struts, shocks and tires, when it comes to handling those are the items that are going to make a difference.

 

Going through and replacing all the worn-out rubber bits with poly bushings, etc. will make a world of difference. Toss in some new shocks/struts and it'll feel like a different car.

These cars handle really well on (fresh) stock equipment. Just depends on what your goals are.

 

As regards to safety, new tires, fresh brakes (and swap out the soft brake lines to the calipers). That'll make it as safe as it ever was in 1983. . . .which is to say. . . .don't hit anything