Thread: Checkered Flag Racing Suspension systems Indiana

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When we jacked up the camaro to put on the Alston clip I watched the bumper rise before the rest of the car, yeah that attachment point for a unibody isn't much and if your rails are rusted that pocket holding those cage nuts and the cage nuts themselves are something I wouldn't risk, lets just say I am not a fan here, and the bunper was attached to those frame rails which clearly was rusted away from everything else. Yes aftermarket tubular arms, a new brake kit, new steering etc, you might as well weigh doing the swap, thats why we went Heidts on a '65 mustang its actually cheaper! They do make two different aftermarket a arms, the narrow, that uses the strut rod and the wide that eliminate it. I would recommend reading some suspension books, great reading and understanding why the parts are used, and what not to purchase, and yes the geometry must be right, if it is in every case so far I have done it was a huge improvement, thus the reason they are making so many of these kits, ask anybody who has used one of the reputable ones. If you want to use Checkered Flag, ask for refrences from somebody that installed one and has actually used it and see what they say, my speculation on something I know nothing about might not be a great idea to listen to. This company could be the next great kit who is selling reasonable to get a niche in the market place, clearly I have know idea, I won't bad mouth something I don't know about but can vouch that Heidts and Alston are nice additions. Homework time, your doing that and won't regret it that way later best of luck Matt

You guys are just great. I love the debate. I converted my stock drum brakes to discs a while back. I built a BBC for this Nova and went a little overboard HP and torque wise. So I took the front end off and the SBC out in order to clean up the frame rails, fire wall, and etc. I seem to be one of those people who doesn't know when to call good enough. I started scraping and sanding rust off the rails and soon decided that I had to pull it all apart and get down to bare rails. I will tell you that I HATE DEALING WITH RUST!! The plan was not show car stuff. I was just going to clean it up enough to paint it with POR15. This Nova is in really good shape so I don't want to screw this up and make a mess. That is when a friend put me on to Checkered. I work in Indiana all the time so I think I'll schedule a trip over to the shop. That is after I bone up on suspension and steering! I'll keep you all posted on how this goes and what I wind up doing.
Thanks

Originally Posted by twolaneblacktop

You guys are just great. I love the debate. I converted my stock drum brakes to discs a while back. I built a BBC for this Nova and went a little overboard HP and torque wise. So I took the front end off and the SBC out in order to clean up the frame rails, fire wall, and etc. I seem to be one of those people who doesn't know when to call good enough. I started scraping and sanding rust off the rails and soon decided that I had to pull it all apart and get down to bare rails. I will tell you that I HATE DEALING WITH RUST!! The plan was not show car stuff. I was just going to clean it up enough to paint it with POR15. This Nova is in really good shape so I don't want to screw this up and make a mess. That is when a friend put me on to Checkered. I work in Indiana all the time so I think I'll schedule a trip over to the shop. That is after I bone up on suspension and steering! I'll keep you all posted on how this goes and what I wind up doing.
Thanks

Back in the late 80's, I determined that the next thing I should try to accomplish as an "amateur engineer" would be to build a complete independent front suspension system from scratch. Trying to find a place to start, I read several books that were authored by respectable writers, but couldn't gain a foothold into the project. Finally, on the advice from a fabricator friend, I bought and digested a book called "Tune To Win" by Carroll Smith. Mr. Smith was employed by Ford Motor Company to go to LeMans as the crew chief on the GT40 project with the goal of beating the Ferraris.

In the back of the book, Mr. Smith included a section for constructing scale "paper dolls", using pieces of heavy paper cut from manila folders and such and put together with stick pins so that you can design the suspension and then work it through bump and droop with your fingers, observing characteristics which are measurable and which can then be converted to full scale mathematically.

I followed Mr. Smith's instructions and found myself with a whole new understanding of how an IFS works. I then went on to design and build a very nice IFS from scratch, around an MII rack and pinion, and using 7/8" chromoly tubing for the upper control arms and 1 1/8" for the lower arms. All American coilovers were used. This front end was attached to a homemade frame that went under my '27 T roadster. The nice part is that once you know how to do this, you can build an IFS around ANY rack and pinion that you want to.

I'm aware that there are computer programs that are available to do this, but they were not available when I went through this exercise.

Anyway, what I'm suggesting is that you make yourself familiar with all the aspects of what it takes to build a good, solid IFS before you go looking at something that someone else has engineered and put together for sale. You really are not prepared to go shopping yet.

Here's the book on Amazon if you are interested in pursuing it.....
https://www.amazon.com/Tune-Win-scie...=carroll+smith

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