Anyone out there actually driving a 69 coupe (or 1st gen.) with an added rear sway bar? How does it handle? What sway bars do you have? I'm thinking about adding a thicker front and a rear sway bar to my 69 coupe, but I wanted to get some real life experience of how they handle first. I realize there are a lot of other variables to consider also. My suspension will basically be stock with the sway bars and frame connectors. I didn't want to go with poly bushings because of the potential squeak.
Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks,
John

Forget the rear sway bar on your 1st gen. Usually the addition of a rear sway bar will cause the car to oversteer (front end push in a corner) Spend the extra money and get good shocks and a decent front sway bar and you will be much happier.

On the 69 I owned back in the 80's I installed Quickor 1.25 front and Quickor 7/8" rear bars and Konies all around. The only other add ons were multi leafs, bolt on traction bars and poly body mount bushings. The rest of the suspension was stock. I didn't put a lot of thought into the combo...I just bought it and bolted it on.
The car handled pretty good compared to without all that. I didn't try it without the rear sway bar, but most will tell you that a good front sway bar, a good set of multi leaves and good shocks on the rear will be best. Making sure the rest of your suspension components (Tie rods, bushings, ball joints etc.) are in good shape will go a long way too.

The trick on the rear sway bar is to not go too large in diameter and not over tighten it. Leave it loose so it just controls the roll without interfering with the rest of the suspensions ability to work.

On my 68 (current car) I'm following the wisdom I've read on Camaros.net and just using a Hotchkiss front bar along with the rest of the suspension upgrades I've done (Global West tubulars, QA1 front coilovers and QA1 rears, solid body bushings, GNX quick ratio box, solid tie rod sleeves and all brand new stering linkage). The car is still in a rolling build status, but driveable (about to swap the tired 396 for a ZZ502) so I really haven't pushed it with my new front suspension...still need to renew/build the rear suspension, brakes and differential inb this 68 too.

I'll say stick with just a front for now and improve the shocks, springs and the rest of your suspension components before you consider adding a rear. You'll likely find out you don't need one.

If you do buy one..wear safety goggles when drilling the holes you'll need to drill to mount it....I didn't and ended up sitting in the emergency room for a few hours trying not to blink due to a metal sliver that fell into my eye...you don't want to experience this pain..

Tim

I have a buddy with stock springs and a set of F/R Adco bars, he removed the rear bar because it really didn't do much and it was in the way of the exhaust he installed. The front bar does the most, a rear bar may be needed if the front to rear spring rate is not ideal.

Thanks for all the good info!! Sounds like I'll try a good front sway bar first and then some of the upgrades on Pozzi's site. What things should I look for in a good front sway bar?
Thanks,
John

most of us use the Addco or Hotchkiss, in 1" or 1 1/8". both work good, the Addco is solid, heavy, and less expensive. The Hotchkiss is tubular (hollow) light and pricy.

The Addco 1" is pretty inexpensive, may come pretty close to the large damper if you have one, my buddy has the Addco bar on a Z/28 and it's lowered a lot and the bar swings pretty close.

The Hotchkis 1 1/8" bar is almost the same rate as a 1" hollow bar. If you have multileaf rear springs and wider rear tires than in front, then a rear bar starts making more sense.