clip for 1956 buick

[ghaskett]

Anyone know of a clip that would work on a 56 Buick.. or upper/lower control arms that are ball jointed. Obviously, I'm looking for an easy package or setup. I want to get away from the stock front suspension setup. Thanks.

[Guest]

58 pontiac lowers bolt on, but most are now soup cans produced from the scrap shipped to China. Uppers work too if you weld a piece of angle iron over the hole where the knee action shock bolted on the top of the frame. I printed the info and it's somewhere in an unindexed notebook. I think the process was laid out at webrodder site. My friend welded an after market one on his 56 century, said it went on and works great. I'll ask what brand and repost later.

Edited January 4, 2014 by Guest (see edit history)

[ghaskett]

58 pontiac lowers bolt on, but most are now soup cans produced from the scrap shipped to China. Uppers work too if you weld a piece of angle iron over the hole where the knee action shock bolted on the top of the frame. I printed the info and it's somewhere in an unindexed notebook. I think the process was laid out at webrodder site. My friend welded an after market one on his 56 century, said it went on and works great. I'll ask what brand and repost later.

Thanks for this info. Look forward to whatever else you can come up with. Thanks.

[56 Buickboy]

I too am upgrading my 56 Buick front suspension based on this crankshaft coalition article below. My car was far from roadworthy when purchased here in NZ. I wanted to modify the front end for disc brakes , the ability to add more caster and camber, lower the car and improve the steering with a Delphi steering box. It is still a work in progress but the box is mocked up and currently working on the lower arms.

http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/wiki/1937-1957_Buick_Oldsmobile_Pontiac_suspension_upgrade

I also have the June 95 Rodders Digest article swapping A-arms on a 55 Pontiac using 58 Pontiac lower arms.

I imported 58 Pontiac lower arms based on the crankshaft coalition article and will be using CPP 30101 dropped spindles from a 65 Impala.

http://www.classicperform.com/Store/1955_1970_Fullsize_Cars/CP30101.htm

When I mocked up my front end I found the 58 Pontiac lower arms are a direct bolt in but approx 2 inches shorter than the stock 56 Buick original lower. One article somewhere suggested just move the A-arms out 2 inches from the centre, but that will cause bumpsteer. The article above has been modified to say the arms are in fact different lengths on some models.? I have found an engineer who will lengthen the 58 Pontiac arms to correct the ball joint placement and ensure good geometry.

More information

A great article on here from Dan. http://forums.aaca.org/f118/1957-buick-super-build-339266.html

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=107777

http://www.wilwood.com/BrakeKits/BrakeKitListFront.aspx?year=1956&make=Buick&model=Super&modoption=

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=215512

http://www.fatmanfabrications.co/products/mii/mustang-ii-frame-stubs/ fatman make a frame stub to fit a Buick.

Hope some of this is useful

Ross