help pls???

DrHerb

Newbie
i have a 1978 buick electra w/ a 403 engine.

i need to know if there is a company that makes narrowed/shorter control arms for this car? to bring the "track" in some. if not, how do i bring the track in 1" per side??

also, is this car the b body? g body? ???

will other controll arms from different makes work?

can i use a monta carlo rear? isnt it narrower as well? if not....what one can i use that is narrower. even if by only a few inch's?? 1" on either side.

also, what company does anyone recomend for "air ride"??

Please help me!!!

Thanks in advance,

Chris
 
Just out of curiosity, why do you want to make your track narrower? Doing that will definitely adversely affect the handling.
 
the reason i would like to narrow the track is because the body of the car is a 49 mercury w/ the 78 buick chassis. the frame/floorboard swap was done alot in the 90's which is when my car was built. only problem is the tires are a 1" to wide. shorter control would help tuck the wheels underneath.
 
You could look for narrower (shorter) a-arms from someone that builds psrformance like BMR or Hotchkiss. That would reduce the suspension travel a little but I'd guess you won't be running Baja any time soon. You might need to put softer springs on to get ride height and/or ride quality back.

Another option would be to run wheels with 1" offset from what's on the car. That changes the bearing loading but in a not so bad way. The load would shift toward the larger (inner) bearing.
 
Another option would be to run wheels with 1" offset from what's on the car.

this is the most straight forward answer. just get 4 new wheels with one inch extra backset.

you've already checked out the turn radius for interference issues with moving the wheels back? there aren't going to be rubbing issues on the frame or anything are there?
 
You might try these guys: http://www.fatmanfab.com/

My boss has a '50 Merc with a late 70s Camaro subframe. We had the same problem as you and bought their narrowed control arms. As mentioned above the turning radius will be adversely affected. This thing is like driving the Queen Mary!

i have a 1978 buick electra w/ a 403 engine.

i need to know if there is a company that makes narrowed/shorter control arms for this car? to bring the "track" in some. if not, how do i bring the track in 1" per side??

also, is this car the b body? g body? ???

will other controll arms from different makes work?

can i use a monta carlo rear? isnt it narrower as well? if not....what one can i use that is narrower. even if by only a few inch's?? 1" on either side.

also, what company does anyone recomend for "air ride"??

Please help me!!!

Thanks in advance,

Chris
 
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