I'm going to be doing some suspension work here really soon and I'm thinking about going with hotchkis. As of right now I have the stock shocks, stock mono-leaf spring, and the stock coil springs on a 68 base coupe. If I buy the hotchkis, I was planning on a pair of their coil springs, a pair of their rear leaf springs, their sway bar kit and a set of some good shocks. My questions are:
1)Is this a good choice?
2)How much will this suspension package lower my car from stock?
3)I have a small block but can I go for the big block coils to make my car handle better?
4)Should I go with bilestin shocks or edelbrock IAS?
5)Should I buy mono-leaf shocks or multi-leaf shocks?(I currently have mono's but if I buy the hotchkis, they will be multi leaf)

Sorry about the long post and thanks in advance for any help, it'll be much appreciated.
Donnie

68camaro123- the Hotchkis will lower your car 2 inches in the front and 1.5 inches in the rear. If you use the multi leaf rear shocks you will need to buy the lower plate to have the proper mount for the shocks. The Hotchkis product is first class. A good shock to consider is the Bilstein.

if you are running the stock springs all the way around I gaurantee that you won't drop as much as advertized. After 30 years your stock springs are sagging a bit. I swapped to stock replacement stuff from my old stock springs about a year and a half ago and my car stood up an inch or two all the way around. I will eventually go with the Hotchkiss stuff to bring it back down to where it was before. They look like good pieces.

I have the Hotckis kit and I love it. Gives the car the stance it should have had from the factory. The small block springs are rated at 600 lbs. You wont need bib block springs.

------------------
Jay
69 SS-350 4-speed
Hotchkis suspension

I just put the Hotchkis front springs on my 69. I am pretty happy with the performance and ride, but the tires (235/60 R15 mounted on 15" Rally's) now rub when I turn the wheel too far. A full size Chevy truck has a better turning radius than my Camaro does. I like the stance that they give pretty good, but since I drive mine so much, I am going to use some spacers to raise mine back up about an inch.

Cameron,

I have 235/60/15 on a 15x7 rim also and they dont rub at all, even with a passenger. MY rims did rub a little with 15x8 rims. I have 15x8 on rear with no rub at all.

------------------
Jay
69 SS-350 4-speed
Hotchkis suspension

Jaybird,
I wish I were that lucky. I have 15x7 rims also. My backspacing may be different than yours. Do you recall what the backspacing on your wheels is? Mine don't just rub a little, they rub quite a bit. They rub even more so with a passenger. The odd part about it is that I can't figure out where it is rubbing. I can't see any marks on the tires that would explain the rubbing. There are marks on the inner side walls where the tires used to rub the frame rails before I lowered it. I can't cut the wheels that much now because they are rubbing on something else. It sounds like they are hitting a sheet metal edge. Maybe I need to investigate more before I raise mine back up.

my nova rubs the backside of the inner fenderwell, where it sits next to the frame, on the drivers side. doesn't rub enough to hurt anything, but makes a hell of a racket and gets everybody's attention when i make a tight left turn.i am pondering ways to cure this..maybe the BFH?

Well, I'm going to be buying 15x8 rims here pretty soon, what backspacing do you guys recommend? And then what size tires would be best?
Thanks,
Donnie
P.S. I don't know if this helps clearance but I'm going to be doing the guldstrand mod.

Cameron,

Mine are 15x7 with 4 1/4" bs. I also have rebuilt my suspension with poly bushings and new shocks. I also have a 1 1/8" sway bar. Your car may be rolling over more due to the smaller sway bar on your car. Stock is only 11/16". Oh yeah, I also replaced my sub-frame bushings with poly bushings as well. If you havent replaced any suspension bushings or sub-frame bushings I strongly recommend doing so. It helps handling, body alignment/lean, etc.

------------------
Jay
69 SS-350 4-speed
Hotchkis suspension

i have a question along the same lines, i was also looking at the hotchkis line, and was wondering what the difference in ride height would be. i have 295-50's on an 8 inch rim in the back, and 215,65's on the front. with no air in my airshocks the multileaf sits my car 3 inches above the fenderwell. a hard bump at 60 will put the tire into the fender edge where the chrome mounts, but with 30 lbs of air the problem goes away. my question is how will my ride height be affected by the hotchkis springs, and will there be a difference in how high the car will be raised between empty airshocks, and kyb's? with kyb's will my car be more likely to bottom out than wiht empty airshocks. will the car come up or down? this is a 67 350ss. oh by the way i dont run with empty airshocks all the time, i just noticed the difference when i burned a line coming back from the track.

Thanks for any help

------------------
67 rs/ss 360 blue w/black vinyl top
m20 muncie