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best factory suspension and brake upgrades for w body



I do know that the F Body brakes will fit with 16 inch rims. I have the standard factory aluminum 5 spoke wheels.

29 inches from the ground to the bottom of the fender opening in the front and the rear with the Police Strut/Springs but I also have 225/55/60 tires versus 225/60/16 OEM tires. The 55's are about 1 inch shorter than the 60 series tires-225's. I actually don't mind the height since like the police struts/springs used on the Impalas, Chevrolet purposely raised the height of the car from the earlier versions of the police packages since the Police were damaging the fronts of the cars with the standard ride height. The car never bottoms, floats, or sways like before the change AND the treaded rear sag on these cars is finally gone! With 5 people in the car now the drop is 1 inch and solid as a rock!
 
There is a lot of good info on this thread. But I'm wondering if anyone has tried making their own trailing arms. It doesn't look like it would be that difficult to do; some basic welding and machining. Just a thought.

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^I've thought about that. But for 20 bucks a piece I'd rather just buy the tubulars. Hell all the rear is doing is getting drug around with the rest of the car most of the time. Tubulars would be just fine for what I do with it. I've been driving the car a lot more lately. I really don't think these cars need sway bars as much as they need stiffer springs. I don't know what the spring rates are but I would think the front needs at least a 400 sr to handle the way it should and a 120-140 sr for the rear. I'd like to try to find something like that for springs that maintains stock ride height and go with Monroe sensatracs for struts to maintain a smoother ride since it is a family car
 


You're better off getting the GMPP bars or something of that nature instead of spring rate.

You need good shocks (IE Koni, Bilstein etc) to handle that spring rate, and it won't be as comfortable as stock springs with bigger sways.
 
usetaboost said:
^I've thought about that. But for 20 bucks a piece I'd rather just buy the tubulars.
Click to expand...

Care to share where these can be found?

I'm VERY "into" junkyard tuning/performance. So far I've added 00-05 IMP caliper brackets and rotors, IMP strut tower "brace" and have picked up an S10 ECU tray and a 99+ coolant tank for my 98 GTP. I think the concept of using the factory "parts bin" to upgrade a car is AWESOME. Did this a lot when I had my various early watercooled VW's.

I recently found a few police impalas at a local pull a part. I've read the thread, but I'm still unclear as to what parts will benefit me. They all appear to be 06+, except one.

If I had to make an educated guess, I'd assume sway bars, front control arms and trailing arms?
 
I've found a few more things about sway bars. Don't know if I posted them or not. There were at least 4 different front sway bars offered by gm for the 97-05 w body cars. You could get anything from a 28mm to a 36mm. I'm going to keep an eye out for the 36mm for the front. The only 2 different sizes I could find on the gp was 15mm and 17 mm, then the 19mm gmpp. I too am an advocate of using factory parts for upgrades. I like stuff that looks stock. I plan on getting ls1 brake calipers some day if I find some in the jy. There isn't much you can do outside of adding coolers and some light suspension and brake mods but for people like me just trying to make the daily driver a little bit better, these parts are fine. I'm considering the impala fleet springs and struts. I suppose that will come down to cost in the end.

The rear trailing arms can be purchased almost anywhere. I have a local naparts warehouse that stocks a lot of these common parts. Because they buy in large quantities they are usually cheaper than the typical oreillys and autozones.
 
usetaboost said:
I've found a few more things about sway bars. Don't know if I posted them or not. There were at least 4 different front sway bars offered by gm for the 97-05 w body cars. You could get anything from a 28mm to a 36mm. I'm going to keep an eye out for the 36mm for the front. The only 2 different sizes I could find on the gp was 15mm and 17 mm, then the 19mm gmpp. I too am an advocate of using factory parts for upgrades. I like stuff that looks stock. I plan on getting ls1 brake calipers some day if I find some in the jy. There isn't much you can do outside of adding coolers and some light suspension and brake mods but for people like me just trying to make the daily driver a little bit better, these parts are fine. I'm considering the impala fleet springs and struts. I suppose that will come down to cost in the end.

The rear trailing arms can be purchased almost anywhere. I have a local naparts warehouse that stocks a lot of these common parts. Because they buy in large quantities they are usually cheaper than the typical oreillys and autozones.
Click to expand...

I dont know about the 04-05 GPs, but 97-03 only came with two different sway bars. Stock and the Police/GMPP ones.

The rear trailing arms you see at the auto parts stores are not any better than stock. None of them are tubular like the GMPP or aftermarket ones.

I know the GXP's are boxed but I've read not all GXPs came with them.
 
You may be right. I have yet to check the olds intrigue. If I get a chance to go to the yard again I'm going to find a gls or whatever the hell they are and try to get the numbers off the tag.
 


Just did the 00-05 impala brake upgrade today. Found some good brackets and almost brand new pads & rotors that were definitely in better shape than my existing brakes. It only cost me $38.00 and I gotta say its a noticeable improvement.

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