There have been several of the "box Chevys" on my local CL recently. The one I've had my eyes on for weeks/months is a '82 Malibu, but have also notiiced several very nice late '80s Caprices. I haven't really ever owned a "big" car (mostly small, foreign, 4 cylinder powered cars) so I want to know can these be made to drive/handle decently? By which I mean, drive less like a boat and somewhat like a older German sedan?
I had a 84 that was respectible for a giant sedan. Get wagon sway bars and springs monroe sesatrac shocks it was pretty good.
tHe generic answer is "Yes." 88-90 Box style caprices with the 9C1 package handled decent right out of hte box. 1.25" frt sway bar, coupled with a 1" rear, stiffer springs and large shocks (insert blues brothers reference) made it decent. Add in that the entire suspension can be adjusted, large fender openings for big rubber and big brakes and you got a pure win package IMO.
Personally, I want an 88/89, recaros up front, a/C, stereo, LQ9, T-56, 17x10's with 285/40/17's on all four corners and the suspension set up to turn. Tehn tackle one lap.
Yes for sure. A good friend of mine autox's an impala. They have the same basic suspension as the 80's caprice. His handles really well ( no really well for a boat, really well). It does have tubular control arms with poly bushings, and giant sway bars. I swear the rear sway bar weighs 60lbs and is 2.25" solid. He runs 315 Hoosiers on the rear and 295's on the front. He's also running ctsv brakes and a 383.
The down side is that he has spent 10's of thousands of dollars on it to get it to handle almost as good as a stock miata.
Years ago, he got probably 80% of the handling benefits just by using chains as suspension droop limiters. It was much cheaper and still handles decent.
Yes. Apply the same formula as most other RWD cars. Lots of front spring, a little less rear spring, front bar the diameter of your thigh, soft to non-existant rear bar. Add really wide wheels with wide sticky tires (shouldn't be an issue with a caprice), enjoy.
Remember that those front control arms have been used in roundy round dirt racers for decades so gettng good, cheap aftermarket parts isn't all that hard.
The suspension is essentially the same as the 1994-1996 Impala SS so you can do a lot of backdating with OEM and aftermarket parts to improve the handling. For that matter, this applies to all full size rear wheel drive GM cars from 1977 up through the 1990s.
Yep, I have a 77 Olds Delta 88 and it handles decently for a boat stock. You got to remember that the wheelbase is much smaller than the overall length.
Does anybody have a "formula" to follow. This is relevant to my interests.
the 77-96 B body shares the suspension with the 73-77 A body and the front suspension of a 71-81 F body.
there's a lot of stuff out there for them- i'd look for a set of 94-96 Impala springs, sway bars, and steering box for a good start.
Surprisingly on my friends impala it's the sway bar that's huge. I don't really understand how it works. It Aldo doesn't attach to the chasis ???
The whole time I owned a 'box' ford I really wanted to try out a 'box' chevy, especially a mid 80s two door version.
The extra displacement and suspension options looked more impressive than the merk.
In reply to mw:
It doesnt have to,it just transfers the load from one lower arm to the other.
While searching for pars look for a steering box from a z-28/ TA to get a quicker ratio.
Wally wrote: In reply to mw: It doesnt have to,it just transfers the load from one lower arm to the other. While searching for pars look for a steering box from a z-28/ TA to get a quicker ratio.
Caprice cop cars and taxis are the best place to get a tight ratio steering box for a B body- should be easy to find since probably more than half of every Caprice built after the mid 80's was a cop car.
94-96 spindles are the ones to get- they all got the HD brakes and they made the spindles lighter and stronger for the last 3 years. if the Caprice you get has the small 5X4.75 bolt pattern, you can just get brake rotors for a 90-92 1LE Camaro or Firebird and have the big brakes with the small bolt pattern.
You'll need to log in to post.
