Frame or chassis options for A bodies

This is almost identical to the set up currently on my Duster, most of it has been on it for the last year and a half.

-1.12" Firm Feel torsion bars (300 lb/in)
-Afco leaf springs, 120 lb/in with Afco leaf spring sliders
-Hellwig 1 1/8" tubular front sway bar
-Hellwig 7/8" rear sway bar (e-body application)
-Hotchkis non adjustable Fox shocks
-13" Dr. Diff cobra style front disks, 11x2.5" rear drums
-16:1 flaming river manual steering box
-18x9 front rims with 275/35/18 BFG KDW2's, 18x10 rears with 295/35/18's same tires
-lowered to ~1" clearance from frame to .375" thick LCA bumpstops, ~5" from ground to K-frame, 4" to the Dougs header flanges
-Milodon road race oil pan (baffled, trap doors, 6qts)
-3.55 rear gears with 833, 68-70 B rear with 1/2" spring offset
-frame stiffening: subframe connectors, tubular radiator support brace, torque boxes, "J" bars tying firewall to front frame rails above radiator support brace, shock towers tied in and reinforced to J's. Stock LCA's boxed

-currently running non adjustable tubular UCA's and stock LCA's, soon to be replaced with Bergman double adjustable UCA's and gusseted QA1 tubular lowers for easier alignments and additional frame to LCA clearance for further lowering.

A couple of notes on the car- it's not too stiff for the street. The key is good shocks, and the Hotchkis Foxs are the best I've tried so far. They work better for the really large bars than the RCD Bilsteins I had before, at least in my opinion. The car is my daily driver, and I haven't had any issues like my dash screws being rattled out. Also, the rear bar doesn't seem to make the car too tail happy. I'm on the lowest of three settings though. The 1/2" spring offset and 295's play a part in that though. I suspect like autoxcuda found some courses will be faster with the rear bar while on others it may need to be disconnected. The 3.55 gears aren't ideal for my cam or short courses, but they keep me from getting run over on the freeway until I can go T56.


Thats in the same vane as my 69 Valiant, I run 1.14 torsion bars and Viking double adjustable shocks and the ride is good. I have 19" wheels for the car but I most run 15" cop wheels with 225/60 coopers because the streets are so bad around here (plus the car looks better on black steels). Not to stiff the way it is but I think I will drop the torsion bar size down to 1.03 this summer and bump up the compression damping on the shocks a bit.
I was going to run a rear bar but with the adjustable shocks I don't think it is necessary at this point. My springs are home made jobs as I don't feel you can just buy some off the shelf kit springs and have them work on just any car, A bodies that I have owned have had close to a 600lb weight spread from the lightest one to the heaviest.