hey camaro pros! any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. i am kicking the idea around of doing my own design ladder bar/coilover setup on the back of my 68. mainly for the purpose of adjustability, greatly reduced axle wrap & something different from the convetional leafs w/ cal tracs (although thats a great setup). the ladder bars would mount to the front leaf spring hanger. the bottom bar would have currie johnny joints (similar in design to a heim but much beefier & rebuildable) & then the top bar would intersect with the bottom bar about 2/3's of the way forward to the front mount also with either heims or johnny joints at both ends. with a ladder bar design like this, pinion angle would be adjustable. then up top using a shock x-member & panhard bar mount similar to the fatman fabrication rear wonderbar setup. then running coilovers to adjustable mounts rear of the axle. my car is not in any way a g-machine or corner carver at all (15 x 3's up front). i'm building it more along the lines of a pro street car but without doing a back half or cutting the floor. also, does anyone have any first hand experience with the DSE quadralink suspension? i would rather buy a link/ladder bar system thats tried & proven than build one (although i do have the means, just not so much time). thanks for your thoughts in advance, bill.

I've owned 2 prostreet cars here recently. One a 67 chevelle black with 4 link and also a 31 chevy 454 with a 4link. I've ridden in ladder bar set up cars and don't care for them. Too stiff for just the street. Ive helped a buddy with a DSE kit in his 67 and think it's a great set up as far as install. Car is yet to be on the road. Yes we did get into the floor boards a little bit but it didn't require him losing the back seat. I would go with a proven set up before fabbing my own up. Should something go wrong who knows what the outcome could be. I;d either live with what you got now or become committed to do it right to elimanate the problem. You can do the DSE with very little work to the floors.
RandyB

Hey Bill - I've had good luck with a type of ladder bar similar to your descriptions. They were marketed by Jegs as the Jegster S/S Suspension Bars. The bottom bar is 1.5"x2.5" square tube with round tube/poly bushings in front for 5/8" bolts. Upper link is round steel tubing with LH + RH threaded heims for pinion angle. Front heim of upper link bolts to bottom bar about 2/3 of length back.
Haven't seen them in the catalogs for a couple years, maybe they didn't sell. They're perfect for the pro-street look on my 69. My old floorpans were shot anyway so we welded in a 2"x3" crossmember and sectioned in the new rear floors around it.
Welded in two pieces of 4" square tube into the crossmember for exhaust to pass thru. Using a wishbone/coilover combo also helped with exhaust clearance.
With mini-tubs and rear frame job, I still have the full interior with back seat, stock fuel tank just fits, M/T sportsman 31x16.5 tires on 15x12 Welds, 12 bolt narrowed 5" per side, and you can't see the exhaust system.
This ain't no g-machine. Don't care. It's enough work just to keep it going straight.
There was actually a bunch of work to fit these tires and not look like a hack job, but well worth the effort.
I have pics of the bars, and completed project, but not sure I know how to send them to you. Hope this helps.............DC

hey don, your jegster set up sounds similar to what i have in mind. can you send some pictures? is the front bushing designed to mount to the leaf spring pocket or does this setup need its own x-member to mount it? thanks for the info. bill.

Hey Bill - Due to the mini-tub and frame job, the stock spring mounts were removed. We welded in a custom x-member to the weld-in frame connectors.
However, if you were going with coilovers, and removed the leaf spring plates from the axle, maybe you could weld on ladder-bar or 4-link mounts in that place on the housing, and use the front spring mount on the car.
Chassis Engineering for example, sells individual brackets, etc.

One of my primary goals was keeping rear seats. This worked fine.

I'd be glad to send you some pics, but don't really know how.
Any ideas appreciated..............DC