Full frame conversion on 2nd gen?

[Ryoko]

The weather isn't allowing much work right now, so I'm just fantasizing some ideas. I'm curious if anyone has done a full frame setup on their second gen. I see there are some that bolt into the existing subframe and rear spring mounts with very little in the way of modifications needed. The good points are that it (allegedly) stiffens the car, gives you rack and pinion steering, and you get 4 corner coil-overs and a rear 4 link as well. The down side is that it is freaking expensive. I know you can accomplish mostly the same thing by doing it piecemeal and save a lot of money. But the unitized packaged seems cleaner. Thoughts?

[firebirdparts]

Stiffness goes a long way, but it does seem like you'd want IRS, in this day and age, if you were going to go to that much trouble.  It would have to be all custom made, so why not make it fit something better than a 4 link?  Maybe somebody might argue that it's not really better.  I drove my 1988 Turbo Coupe to work, and I love the way it drives, but I think intellectually that the suspension is primitive.  Junkyards gotta be filling up with Cadillac CTS's and whatnot now.   I guess I presume drag racing is no longer the end-all and be-all.

Looks like they're offered by Roadster Shop, Schwartz, Art Morrison at least.  could be others.

[ryeguy2006a]

Yeah, you could build your own, but it takes a lot of patience, skills and most importantly the knowledge of suspension. I think knowing how to get all of your measurements and how the entire suspension works together properly is the biggest reason people go with aftermarket frames. I've seen some folks on pro-touring.com build their own frames, but many of them CNC plasma cutters, frame tables and many other specialized equipment that they can lean on.

If you had the space and time to do the research, I think for the guy in his garage could do a lot with the right motivation.  I'm sure that if you found a wrecked C4 or C5 Corvette, you could rob the suspension off of it and get it all to play nicely with a custom built full frame for very reasonable. I'll bet you could be all in for around $1500-2000 with the right deals.

If you wanted to spend a bit more on these Dobbertin brackets, and found a wrecked C5, you could do it for pretty reasonable too. Just get square tubing and weld it together for the chassis to sit down on.

https://rick486.wixsite.com/dobbertinperformance

[Ryoko]

I have plenty of ambition, but not a lot of space for the tooling needed to make a custom frame. So an off the shelf solution is the order of the day. This is one package I found:

https://roadstershop.com/product/full-chassis/1970-81-spec-camaro-chassis/
This one looks interesting and one of the better priced offerings. (Still pricey, though.) It also is mostly bolt in. But I'm not crazy about having to use their custom fuel tank which drops to 19 gallons.

There was also this:
https://www.schwartzperformance.com/chassis/1970-1981-f-body-firebird-camaro-chassis/#!
But I would prefer a more substantial frame up front for safety reasons.

And also this one. It's a modular system:
http://www.cachassisworks.com/cac_70-81CamaroFrameSystem.html
This one allows you to do a section at a time. But it also requires some surgery to the rear frame rails and intrudes into the interior.

All of this is still just flights of fancy. But I know I need to do some chassis upgrades since I'm looking to put up to 600HP in my project (Butler) and it would be nice to have a classic car with modern road sense. (Not interested in drag racing.)

[ryeguy2006a]

All three of those are a great off the shelf solution. If you have the coin to come close to that you will be better off with a full aftermarket frame. With the factory frame and aftermarket components, they are limited by mounting points. Only so much they can do. Where a full aftermarket unit has much more flexibility and can really optimize the geometry. And with a full frame you will be much more rigid than even a subframe with frame connectors.

[JJ 109]

I also agree would be very nice.

Primarily comes down to budget and how much work you want and able to do.