Sweet Ryde Vette front suspension

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Sweet Ryde Corvette front suspension

First things first, strip the body off of the frame and cross-measure the frame. The frame should be within an 1/8". If it's not, you'll need to straighten it. Also have the frame sandblasted. Paint, Bondo and Rust can hide cracks and weak points in the frame.

Mark stripped off the front sheetmetal, stock suspension and the original front cross members. Next the boxing plates were installed to re-inforce the frame rails and the welds smoothed. The rack & pinion C-notches were also marked, cut and welded into place.

Front axle centerline was marked on the frame. The "Sweet Ryde" front crossmember was slid up between the frame rails.

The front coil-overs were mounted into the lower control arms, as well as installing the new urethane lower arm bushings. Why do this, you say? We feel the the lower arms, with all of the load, should have 5/8" bolts instead of 12MM. We have custom bushings made to accommodate the 5/8" bolts.

The front suspension is bolted into place and the lower control arms are leveled.

With the suspension all mounted into place, take time to set the camber to 0-.5 degrees positive. Take the spring off of the coil-over and set it at it's ride height. That's the distance it will be when the car is fully loaded and done. Bolt the coil-overs to the lower mount and make a cardboard copy of the upper coil-over mount. Trim the template to where the coil-over fits. It should "butt" up against the upper arm mount and will add strength. Check to make sure that there is enough clearance for the spring when it's put back on the coil-over.

You'll notice that there is a crossmember between the upper arm mounts. This can be removed after the bracketry is completely welded into place. It keep the mounts in alignment while your installing the kit.

Mark made a template of the inner fender panels to determine how to do the cut-outs for the front suspension. This allowed Mark to do a nice neat job on the cut-outs.