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Suspension Installation

Steps for adding some cornering fun to a '67 Firebird

Our subject '67 Verdoro Green Firebird is a numbers-matching 400 car with 83,000 original miles. The car was cosmetically restored in the early '90s and retains its original interior and drivetrain. The car needs a mechanical update, and an improved suspension is critical to building a strong foundation for future upgrades.

Modern Upgrade

This led us on a search for a complete suspension upgrade. John Hotchkis of Hotchkis Performance recently developed the Hotchkis Total Vehicle System (TVS) for the 1st generation F-Body. This was the one stop shopping we'd hoped to find, so we solicited Hotchkis Performance's help in making our Bird fly between two points bounded by curves.

The Hotchkis TVS is a complete suspension package engineered to perform and designed to be strong. The kit for our '67 Firebird includes tuned sway bars, sport coil springs, competition leaf springs with new shackles and U-bolts. A complete hardware package that includes bushings, nut-clips, brackets and end-links is also provided. We also elected to go with the optional Hotchkis Performance shock absorbers. These units are built to Hotchkis' specifications by Bilstein and offer superior dampening. All of these parts are offered as individual components, but the components are engineered to work best as a complete system.

Tire Change

Prior to installing the new suspension, we removed the original 14-inch Rally II wheels and their Redline tires and replaced them with a set of 16x8 American Racing Torq-Thrust wheels mounted with BFGoodrich Comp TA Radial tires. Our Bird was now about to swoop down on Hotchkis Performance's facility in Santa Fe Springs, California to install the new suspension components.

We rolled our clean '67 Verdoro Green Bird up on the rack and we were ready to go. Though the TVS kit had been installed on several other F-bodies (Camaro), our '67 Firebird was to be the shop's first Pontiac F-Body TVS install. Gary Pinkley, the product engineer, intensely involved in the development of these tuned packages, told us that the install would be straightforward. He was confident we could get it all done in one day. His only caution was on the installation and removal of the front coil springs.

Install Tips

Hotchkis recommends that an experienced mechanic perform this job. And to this point, they do not provide installation instructions on the front coils. Those who have experience with a front coil spring change know that the factory springs are much longer than the replacements and have a great deal of stored energy. Improper handling can result in a huge surprise as the factory spring is launched from the A-frame when the spindle and control arm is separated. We recommend the use of a good quality spring compressing tool if you're going to attempt this on your own. Of course, if you're an experienced hand and own a torch, you'll find little trouble with the removal.

The rear leaf spring install was rather uncomplicated and further eased by the fact that the kit includes all new hardware. If you've worked under an old car, you're familiar with the amount of old dirt and rust. It's nice to get beyond that when installing new parts. This is particularly important as related to the front spring hanger. The nut-clips are nearly always corroded and usually break when removed.

Benefits

The Hotchkis competition rear multi-leaf springs offer a high spring rate and are biased to the front. This front bias eliminates spring rap-up under hard acceleration and keeps the tires planted. As a result, the competition multi-leaf rear spring does not require the use of the factory traction bars. Good thing, as the Hotchkis rear sway bar is engineered to mount to the rear axle at the same point as the factory '67 traction bars.

Next was the install of the rear sway bar that mounts a bit differently from other kits. The Hotchkis rear sway bar uses a "dog-bone" design end-link that mounts to the floor pan, not the rear subframe. The floor pan is sandwiched between a stud-plate and the end-link brackets. The bar itself is mounted to the axle tubes with U-bolts in a conventional manner. (See the photos for the installation steps.)

With the new Hotchkis shocks installed, the car was lowered off the rack, so we could admire the new stance. The big-block coils dropped the front about two inches and the competition multi-leaf rear springs dropped the rear about 1-1/2 inches. We started with that typical 1st-generation stance—slightly lower in the rear than the front. The new springs gave us a very aggressive looking stance with the rear a bit higher than the front.

Handling Test

Our Bird's new stance just begged for a test drive. We took it for a run through the neighborhood and were impressed at the handling over stock. Now we only had to validate the new suspension, so our next step was to take our Firebird out to California Speedway for another Hotchkis test session. Cruising at 70 mph down the highway gave us the chance to test the new suspension in a real-world situation. The highway ride is firm and responsive, very comparable to a well set up 4th generation Trans Am.

On the track, we'd hoped to enter the course at about 55 mph and maintain speed throughout. After a couple of roundtrip passes to get familiar with the car's performance, test driver John Hotchkis himself was ready to put our Bird to the test. Would she soar through the cones? Could we go away confident that our newly suspended '67 Firebird could carve a corner. One look at John's face after he finished his final run confirmed he was very pleased. The car ran a very respectable 58 mph through the slalom. John was confident, with a quick ratio steering box and our new engine upgrade, the car will do better than 60 mph. "Running a musclecar through (the cones) at 60 mph is cool," he said. We couldn't agree more. It is always cool to cruise in a musclecar—especially in a bird of prey like our Firebird.