is there a recipe for making a B body handle?

Specifically a last gen roadmaster wagon. Not to turn it into a race car but something to spice it up a bit.

There's a great build thread somewhere in the internet where a guy did a neat job on a 2 door square body Caprice. It was a tan color...I'm trying to find it, but maybe someone else has it bookmarked or remembers where it is.

Basically, the B-body underpinnings stayed the same from the square body of the 70s through the end of the run in '96. That is to say, you should be able to mix and match good factory parts from either body style to come up with a good combo. 9C1 parts would be what I'd round up...plus some good shocks and a refresh of the suspension bushings.

I think that some circle track parts might come in handy at the front end (suspension arms and such)...but you'll have to do research on what works.

stiffer springs from a circle track car, sway bars, and a 9C1/Impala SS steering box will go a long ways towards making it better.

1- from the factory, many GM B-bodies were missing body mount bushings. GM did this on purpose to reduce NVH. You'll find bolts and washers, but no rubber. Adding those rubber bushings is cheap and easy and it ties the whole body together with the frame.

2- even though the rear 4-link is pretty well angled, its flimsy. Fab up or buy some trailing arms, or even box the factory ones. Don't do urethane bushings in the rear. They bind and often cause factory trailing arms to crack. Some have noticed a very nice rear combo by boxing the arms, new rubber bushings, and a panhard bar.

3- the front arms aren't too bad, and aftermarket offerings don't save any weight, they just add stiffness. A good rebuild up front with some Delrin bushings, some SS springs (or aftermarket) and Bilstein shocks all around. You will do some good by dropping the car for two reasons; obviously lower CG, but also because it gets the LCAs a bit more parallel and it gets the UCAs in an inward arc as its compressed. From the factory, the first couple inches of compression puts you into negative camber (tilted out) which is terrible in body roll.

My 96 SS has Intrax lowering springs, Bilstein shocks (PNs 1104 and 0929 IIRC), new rubber bushings all the way around, and it handles pretty well. My next upgrade would be sway bars. Suffice it to say, the car handles better than the seats. Any more grip and I would have to get some better butt-holders.

Don't forget the black 15 inch circle track wheels and fat tires to match.

I'm going to resurrect this one because sitting on my trailer is an LT1 Caprice sedan. Hehehehe!

I've got to get mine to run right, first. but if I decide to keep driving it (rather than use it as an engine donor for my Malibu) I might like to do some maintainifying (if you've got to fix stuff, might as well get some better performance, right?).

ClemSparks wrote: I'm going to resurrect this one because sitting on my trailer is an LT1 Caprice sedan. Hehehehe! I've got to get mine to run right, first. but if I decide to keep driving it (rather than use it as an engine donor for my Malibu) I might like to do some maintainifying (if you've got to fix stuff, might as well get some better performance, right?).

awesome.

cop and impala sway bars are same diameter. pmt fabrication sells some really nice tubular rear control arms on ebay. i put their extended ones on my SS, and an mmc driveshaft from a crown vic p71. it's longer than the stock shaft by the same amount that the extended control arms move the rear axle back. i pioneered this swap then when the cat was let out of the bag, the crowd was pleased and i think the cost of crown vic driveshafts went up if someone with a b body was looking for one.

I was immediately thinking Mopar.

...moving on...

The recipe to make almost any car handle: Biggest tires you can stuff in the fender wells. Large sway bar. Stiffer springs. Better shocks. Replace crappy stock suspension bushings with polyurethane or something better. Cut off or remove any dead weight. Aftermarket steering box. Some cars also benefit from new a arms with improved suspension geometry.

To paraphrase Dr. Hess, you might want to try the ol' gas cap trick: Unscrew gas cap, roll Miata under, screw gas cap back on. You sometimes have to replace the gas cap.