Suspension Rebuild and "Springs"

Out of your list, the only thing you'd still need is the lower control arm bushings and ball joints. Everything else will be taken care of in the TVS kit.

The TVS kit is pretty awesome, but for my money it includes some things that you don't need, and is missing some things that you do. In addition to being more expensive than some of the other options out there.

One of the biggest things is that Hotchkis uses heim joints on their UCA's. For a track car, that's awesome. On the street, I'm no longer sold on the idea. I wiped out the heims in my Hotchkis UCA's on my Challenger in about 7k miles of street driving, which included weather. Hotchkis did replace those heims, and now includes boots that cover the heim joints. But, I don't think the heims will last anywhere near as long as bushings on the street, and changing them isn't the most enjoyable thing ever. The heims on the struts rods aren't as big of a deal, as they don't see the loading that the UCA's do.

This is what I would do (and have basically done on my Duster...)

  • 1.06 (or bigger) Firm Feel torsion bars - $355
  • Tubular UCA’s (PST, FFI, etc)- $350
  • Adjustable strut rods (PST SR 14385)- $279
  • Solid tie rod sleeves (PST SAS 440S)- $49
  • LCA boxing plate (PST LCAPLTMOP621)- $14.50
  • Greasable LCA pins (FFI w bushings)- $135

    Hellwig Sway bars
  • Tubular front 1 1/8” (#55905)- $142
  • Solid rear 3/4” (#6907)- $237

    or E body rear ( for B rear cars)
  • Solid 7/8” (#6908 )- $180

    Afco leaf springs
  • 20231M (121 lb)- $320
    Or
  • 20231 (142 lb)- $340

    1” bushings for shackles
  • Energy suspension (2-2117G)- $9
  • Bilstein RCD shocks (RCD-70-56663)- $400
For a grand total of $2,311, if you use the more expensive A body rear sway bar and 142# springs. :D

But, that includes the torsion bars, shocks, and reinforced LCA's with greasable pivots, which would cost an extra $885 to add to the TVR kit. So, you're looking at a savings of $675. And you're pretty close to comparing like to like with that. True, you don't get heims, or the hotchkis sway bars (which are awesome), but everything will basically function the same on a street car. You also don't get the Hotchkis rear springs, which a lot of folks have had problems with. I have the 121lb Afco's on my Duster, and they work great. I listed the 142's for the 111" wheelbase cars, probably a better idea. The 121's sit just above "zero arch" on my Duster. They also have a reinforced front section for improved handling, they're basically circle track springs.

And you can use your extra money to put in some frame connectors and torque boxes, or buy better brakes, or a Borgeson steering box, or a set of Mustang rims, etc. etc.

Just my .02...

Sorry, I didn't see this till now. I guess I could piece together a kit. I'm still on the fence. However, luckily Summit sells things separately so maybe I can modify your list a bit. I've heard about the boots for the heims and I've used them before in my off-roading vehicle. They seemed to hold up pretty well, but those were just tie rods that barely experienced any load. However, it definitely seems like Hotchkis has put some more engineering and testing into their parts and I do plan on taking it to the track and have some spirited driving sessions. The other problem with UCA's is that I have the small ball joints still and won't be able to swap over for another year. I know Hotchkis sells both the ball joints and arms w/ ball joints separately, but that means I'm going to need a tool to either replace the ball joints or replace the entire arm (if I go with a firm feel or pst). I also already have the Bilstein shocks installed with about 1000 miles on it so we can take that off the price. The AFCO springs seem to have a little bit of a higher spring rate as well for roughly the same price.

As far as the other stuff. I'm thinking about fabbing my own subframe connectors as it doesn't look all that difficult. I'd upgrade my brakes with Dr Diff stuff probably in a year when I swap over to bbp. I might go ahead and buy the Borgeson Box when I do the suspension rebuild. I know I'm going to need a new pump at the very least. And I can get a set of Mustang rims for cheap or maybe for free from my friend. He has a set lying around in his garage he isn't using although, I'm not really a fan of the look it might be cheaper to go with those at first instead of buying new wheels all together.

The only problem is I don't want to get too ahead of myself as I'm still pretty new to working on cars and stuff.