I have the front subframe out and being sand blasted / painted. I want to put in tubular control arms and upgrade to front disk brakes. Does anyone have recommendations of what brands or products to use or avoid?

My recommendation is to leave it stock, if everything is straight.
I have Global west uppers and lowers on my 68. Everything was so worn and bent up there I used them to get the alignment I wanted. I like them with the adjustable coil overs. BUT. Beware that they don't have steering stops so the tire can rub at full turn. The bump stops are in the wrong positions. I had to weld some stops on the frame to match the stops on the arms. Made for Nova, I think, and flogged as Firebird. I talked to Global west about them, they didn't seem to give a sht.

Put stock disc brake setup and repop stock control arms and KYB shocks on mine years ago. Perfectly fine for cruising. I wouldn’t go overboard unless you’re road racing or autocross

I too have found GW to have poor non-existant customer service on 2 occasions now. recently.

I have Wilwood brakes and Hotchkis suspension. I am using only a couple small parts from GW.

Switch to 1 1/4" sway bar.

Depends on what you are going to do with the car. Cruiser, spirited street driving, Autocross?
On my '68 I used the stock control arms, Addco 1 1/8" sway bar, KYB gas shocks. I'm running 17" rims with Wilwood disc brakes. If you are contemplating using larger than 15" diameter rims then I suggest running aftermarket control arms. The additional caster will help the car track better on really bad roads with short sidewall tires. On good roads, no issue. (We have some really bad rural roads in NW Indiana) The larger than stock sway bar is a huge improvement over stock.
I drove my '68 with 4 wheel drum brakes for many, many years. Factory discs or aftermarket, switch to discs! Even in fine condition the drum brakes suck. Of all the modifications I made to my car I love the brakes the most. A lot of go is nothing but scary without a lot of stopping power.

I have the GM single piston generic front discs from the 70s on my manual drum-drum 1968. No power booster but seems to stop fine, just a little more foot pressure than the power front discs. In an emergency they would get pounded on either way. Been there.

I have always had drum brakes. Latest car has manual drum brakes. To start with, what's the point of upgrading your brakes in the rear. I love my bird but the weight distribution is pathetic. Run your car up to 60mph and lock the park brake down and lock em up. Not very impressive ehh!

Disc powered or manual will help on front end. If we could get anti-lock disc brakes, then we would have something. Can you get anti-lock repops?

The sub-frame will be back next week and all the parts for the front end are Christmas presents. I went with front disks and I am rebuilding the rear drums (I have all the parts for the rear drums except the e-brake cables). By February I hope to have the body as a 'roller' again.I will also be changing it to power assist brakes.

Any recommendations on the booster? Do the smaller ones offer as much assist as the larger ones?

I used an 8" dual diaphragm from The Right Stuff. I was told they work just as good as a regular sized one but also works good when you are making less vacuum. Also attached a couple pics of my front sub frame rebuild for your viewing pleasure!

I used a 9" dual from Master Power Brakes. In full disclosure, I bought a 9" dual booster / master cylinder unit form MPB. The master cylinder was a dud - couldn't bleed the system so I purchased a Wagner to replace it. The booster failed a couple years later so it was replaced by a Tuff Stuff 2224NB 9" dual booster. I'm not sure if Tuff Stuff has booster mounting brackets, I used the MPB brackets. I can't recommend MPB stuff due to my experience.

ooppss I misspoke, I got mine from the Right Stuff https://www.getdiscbrakes.com/

Love this rims in the first pic!

LOL, thanks man...lol Had to make and use them since I had limited space in the garage back them. They work well!

Before and after

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipOUJZR9OaESfgG67YxXsP6xggaiw_l3pGYtQjGp

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipNBIg_vgrJRaoFB3c0UWpjjUG3c9eUSzTevHSIZ

Looks good man! Keep the pics coming.

I spent the past 2 days putting together the front end. I have attached 2 pics. The close-up shows the disk brakes. There are 4 bolts that hold everything together. One of the 2 lower bolts is too long and will have to be cut off so it does not hit the support for the sway bar. One of the upper bolts is too short and does not reach the locking part of the lock nut. The other pic shows the mostly completed front suspension. I still have to install the steering linkage, the grease fittings, and pump some grease into all the fittings. Then I'm off to do some welding; I need to fix a hole or two in the floor pan, fix the shifter cutout (a previous owner made it bigger), and replace the trunk floor.

I bought an aftermarket kit with spindles, calipers, splash shields, rotors etc, had the same problem the attaching hardware were not correct. I had trouble with the calipers and pads as well. Eventually I just used the new rotors and put the rest of old GM stuff back on after refreshing it.

Some time in the past the shifter cut out in my car had been molested. I didn't know how to weld back then, but I do know about riveting aircraft skins, I make an aluminium layover patch to cover the hole.

Nice

Nice job! Looks great!

Thanks..

I picked up a console to fix up and install, but after I got that done I liked the looks of the stick coming out of the floor. I gave the console away.


With the sound deadening and carpet over I don't get much sound coming up from the tranny. Those things are noisy, sounds like something is amiss when I have the windows down and idle beside a concrete wall or no-post. Yes, even over the noise of the exhaust.

Yeah I've always thought it looked a bit more like a race car with no console like that.

After a trip to the local Rural King (they have the best selection of grade 8 and grade 5 bolts locally) I just replaced the bolt that was too short and cut off the one that was too long.

Looking good under there, keep up the good work and the play by play with pics. Really like to see a project coming together.

I was checking out your pictures of your completed subframe and I noticed the motor mounts. I didn't have those. So I looked them up and ordered them.

I noticed you had left out a few of the bolts for attaching them to the subframe. Does something else attach to those bolts as well and that is why you left them out or did you just not install them yet?

I'm ready to bolt mine on but I don't want to have to take it back apart to install something later on down the line.

The front sway bar came in last week (late Christmas present due to out-of-stock) and I went to put it on. It is much bigger in diameter than the factory piece. There were no instructions. I looked online and Hotchkis had a PDF for installing their sway bar.

The new bar is wider and the bracket to mount it to the frame did not line up with the factory threaded holes. The Hotchkis instructions said to use the front hole and drill a new hole for the rear mounting hole.

When I installed the bar and lined everything up. the retainer butted up against the spring pocket on the frame and I could not mount the bar as per the instructions. I had to use the factory rear hole and drill a new hole for the front mount. I hope this does not come back to bite me later.

I flipped the subframe to make it easier to access everything.

The last item to address is the steering box. I'll have the new one next week,

Yes, you have to drill another hole.

I strongly recommend you weld a .25" plate of steel over the frame to beef it up at the bold in location, otherwise the frame will crack.

OH man you had to drill an additional hole in the front??? You don't know how much trouble you just created!!


( just kidding) 😉

I would however suggest you install clamps on the bar on the inside of the frame mounts like the stock ones had to maintain the position of the bar or it may tend to shift to one side or the other. I found mine so far over one way that the end was making contact with the outside of the upper spring pocket of the frame.

Would I install this extra support on the inside of the frame or between the bushing and the frame?

Ah! Good old aftermarket 'bolts right on, no special tool required' so called upgrades. Here's a pic of how well they made my tubular control arms to accept stock style shocks.

Well that worked as well as the arms.

1

Mine was outside. I will look for a pic.

Another 3-4 hours taking everything apart, stripping off the paint, welding plates on, painting, then reassembly.

Dam that's a lot of work to mount a sway bar. Good job though. What size is that bar anyway? Mine's 1.125" and I didn't have to do any of that. Could you have re drilled the mounts to match the orig frame bolt locations?

I did not need the plate either...until the frame cracked. I use to drive her hard. Anything less is just pussy...lol

The sway bar is 33mm (1.299").

I think the next thing I should tackle would be the brake lines, fuel lines, and clips on the front end. Any brands better/worse than others?

I'd rather put a few hours in now than have it break after I think the car is 'finished'.

Wow that is a huge bar. Makes sense now why the original holes wouldn't work.

I set the block in just to make sure it fit properly and there are no clearance issues. The heads each have 2 bolts holding them on and the oil pan has 4 screws in it. Looks like everything clears.

The engine sits a little to the passenger side. Is that normal?