Young Angus

Please suggest lots of ways to make my '67 XR wagon handle better. Its currently pretty original and normal...like its not lowered and it just has normal suspension and brakes and some pretty ordinary 12 slotters with not so fat tyres (not sure about the size exactly, they arent real skinny or anything but they're not fat).

How do you make a car like this handle much better and better to drive?

I was thinking about putting in an XW/XY steering column (collapsable for safety reasons) and with it a power steering unit from the same vintage fairmonts, then maybe some better suspension and perhaps lower it a little with some fatter tyres/rims.

What does everyone think? Please just throw heaps of suggestions at me here, i plan on keeping this car for ages and really want to make it a joy to drive...well much more of a joy anyway

shard351

Start with the basics first:

1. Replace any worn ball joints,tie rods, idler arms, steering gear etc.
2. Get a decent wheel alignment.
3. Get some quality tyres
4. Uprated dampers ( I have Koni dampers which are excellent but expensive)


Then how far you want to go is up to you and your budget. The above is the basics to get what you have operating correctly. From there I would add:

5. uprated lowered springs including the rears and thicker swaybar upfront.
6. polyurethane bushes
7. If you are really serious, a good mod that the Group N racers employ is to reverse the upper ball joints (still bolts in the same holes). you will need to grind away part of the upper wishbone to prevent the tyres rubbing and weld bracing back in to support it (best left to the professionals). This brings the top of the wheel closer to the wishbone and gives you much more adjustability of the camber.

xbgs351

Are you talking about the four holed balljoints?

XFFAIRMONT

*Shocks, i use the koni adjustables but these are quite expensive.
*Springs ive got heavy duty 5leaf in the rear and cut the fronts which i think is illegal not shure but and thing a bit stiffer than standard is better
*Lowered is the way to go this makes a bit of a difference.
*swaybars, This was the most noticeable in the xy. I put in a 24mm K-Mac in the front and know theres no body roll it used to be terrible.
*I think low profiles would proably make a difference but i'm not goin that far as it doesn't suit the older cars so much. Maybe a 50 or 55 profile looks pretty good and would get less roll than a 60-65profile tyre. Just these basics make a suprising difference.

So pretty much what was previously stated.

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shard351

Yes, the four holed ball joints