today we're going to continue the suspension upgrades on project bedding with a set
of adjustable coil overs adjustable front control arms and a set of brand new lowers
so this suspension will be installed on project betty brandon tell them about the control arms
we're using here so the things that we're going to start with is the spc controller they're tubular
control arms they also drop into the shelby drop mod so it gives you a better alignment
better set up for your control arms when you lower your vehicle also you can adjust your
camber your caster also your adjustable strut rods then we also the lower control arm from cj classic
and then with the shocks we're gonna go with the qa1 pro coilovers now these coilovers are gonna be
a billet aluminum body they're gonna be adjustable for both rebound and compression and we have
400 pound springs on there which would be a good spring for a v8 small block in this car would give
us good handling without being too much of a harsh ride nice thing with all this stuff it's going to
be direct replacements for the factory components both the spc and qa1s are made right here in the
usa we're going to start by removing our shock and a shock purchase just remove all these bolts
once you have it unbolted just twist it
and then you can remove all your
purchase
when removing your shock remove the shock bolts not the purchase bolts
remove your shock we have this nice spring compressor to compress the spring for these big
old springs on this car now if you don't have that you can rent it from any auto parts store or use
a jack and slowly depress it so what we're gonna do is get this all hooked up get that spring up
now there's two different ways you can do it you remove your spring purchase or remove the whole
control arm since we're replacing controller we're going to remove the whole assembly
i'm now just pulling my control arm out
now you can release your spring
remove your cotter pin and ball joint
nut
so
okay so we grabbed our new control arm as you can see there's a r for right side that'll be top
and if you have it on the left side it'll be left since we're on the right side slide your bolts in
in the location and then put your nuts on sbc gives you these shims this is a half degree
the thicker one and a quarter degree for the thinner one and now i'm not going to put any in
until we go for alignment but keep these with you when you take it for alignment spc offers these
nice seal ball joints also they give you these nice slots to give you one degree or negative
degree of camber so what we're going to put ours right in neutral right now for alignment
do
reinstall your controller back into the
spindle
then go ahead and tighten everything
down
my tighten up your bolts at the back of the control arm with a three-quarter
now to remove our lower control arm we remove our
strut rod and then we can remove all the other parts
so usually you disconnect your sway bar from the control arm but since we're replacing
our sway bar with a bigger one we'll remove the whole subway bar with the control arms
remove your lower ball joint off the spindle
remove your inner bolt on the control arm
with good forward design to remove this bolt you have to remove this
brace so get this brace out of the way so we can get that one bolt out
now that this side's off we're gonna jump onto the other side
grab your new controller slide into the spindle put your nut on
then slide your control arm back in the
body
once you have your controller into place tighten everything down and then we'll jump onto the
coilover grab your strut rod now the instructions give you a detailed way of how the washers the
bushings the spacers all go together so read that before installing so the nice part about
this adjustable rod is these two nuts let you move the rod in and out to set the wheel right in the
wheel well that you need to also set your caster so get these tightened down then we'll get to
alignment
before i install our new qa1 coilover i have to assemble it i already put never
seas on the threads put your lock ring on first with a little bit of a boss going up
scroll that all the way down
then install your spring seat
then take a little bit more and overseas put it on this lip and put your ring on
once that's in place grab your spring and we'll start installing this now sometimes you run into
this when using parts from different manufacturers the spc control arms are designed to use the stock
spring perches the ql1 coilovers have their own mounts where the spring perch would go
in this case though the qa1 is a little bit wider than the factory perch not a factory arm which is
flat it's not an issue but on the tubular arm this is going to sit down a little bit so what you have
to do is basically just grind the edges off of the bottom of the qa1 bracket to make it fit
now with your shocking spring all in place now we're ready to put our bracket on what you have
to do is compress your suspension up a little bit to get the shock
into place bolt it down with the factory hardware and then bolt your shock down
after you have the bracket bolted down slide your shock bolt into place
put your washer and nut on then tighten it down
with this side all assembled we're gonna jump on the other side get everything tightened down put
the wheels back on and then we're done now i know brendan made it look easy but the front suspension
your classic muscling isn't that hard of a job to tackle betty is sitting right now with our lowered
springs and coilovers the car's got a nice flat stance to it once you get some weight in here with
an engine it's gonna sit even better so definitely keep it here for more updates on project
betty you