72 Monte- How do you lift the rear?

[djkroemer08]

I have a 72 Monte Carlo. Right now it looks more of a family car than a muscle car. How can I raise the rear up a few inches to make it look better?

[silicon212]

Install new HD springs and a sway bar.

[MrPbody]

A Monte Carlo is a "personal luxury coupe", it is not a muscle car. If you believe raising the rear makes it look better, more power to you, but it won't make it look like a muscle car.

Adding spacers to the bottom of the springs and extensions to the shocks (MUST be used together) was the most common way to raise the rear of any coil-spring cars "back in the day" when that sort of thing was popular. Failure to use both in conjunction will result in a suspension that doesn't "work" properly, creatng an unsafe situation. Limit the rise to about 2". Another solution would be to install "dropped" spindles, lowering the front instead.

Adding a sway bar will help lateral stability. It will have no affect on ride height. Same is true of heavy duty springs. Moog makes "Cargo Coils" for such applications. 20% increase in deflection without raising ride height (their words).

My experience with those E-bodies is the best thing to do is add the rear bar, install the larger (1 1/4") front bar from a 2nd gen TransAm (yes,it fits) the Cargo Coils, good gas shocks all the way around, fat tires that fit under the wheel wells, and you will have a car that ACTS like a muscle car, at least in the corners. It takes a big block with some added goodies to make a Monte ACT like a muscle car in a straight line. The long wheelbase and added weight over Chevelle has a significant impact on performance. I HAVE seen some monster Montes, though. The rear suspension is still among the better ones for traction. Making all these changes would put it on a par with the '72 Grand Prix SE, so equipped from the factory. FUN cars to drive. A pumped up BBC will make it quite fast at the strip.

Jim

[slingslingbinks]

Air shock's

[Ol'Jim]

Originally Posted by WarlikeBasil

Go for it, most men aren't that particular. They want something tha fits comfortable, non binding and looks good with a T shirt.

How 'bout trolling some other forum, dude.

True, the first-gen Monte's (70-72) were designated as a "Personal Luxury Coupe", but the Super Sport 454 versions were definitely bad-azz muscle cars. I've owned 5 M.C.'s, and 2 of them have been SS454 cars, a 70 and a 71. Still race the 71. It runs very low 11's in the 1/4, and 7.0's in the 1/8 mile. This is a full-interior, 3750# car (without driver!). With NO SUSPENSION MODS other than polyurethane bushings in the rear control arms, and Air Shocks. And it flat-out HOOKS on the track. The factory GM 4-Link rear suspension on the old A-Body cars was truly race-quality, for dirt tracking or drag racing. The SS cars came with huge anti-sway bars front & rear, and they all actually had air shocks, using an automatic leveling system to control ride height, pressurized by an underhood, vacuum-powered air compressor. (This system was copped from the front-wheel-drive Caddy Eldorado & Olds Toronado of the day). It was mandatory part of the RPO Z-20 (SS-454) package. My 71 still has the mechanical linkage above the rear suspension that activated the automatic air shocks. (Of course no longer used). But I can tell you, the wheel housings are cavernous on those Gen-1 Monte's! I run Goodyear 28x11x15 drag slicks on 10" wide rally wheels and they fit with no mods at all. The air shocks will hold up to 120 PSI, but I run them at 32-56 PSI, depending on track conditions. And it does look like a muscle car, IMO. I will try to attach a pic next. When I drove it on the street years ago, I ran BFG Radial T/A's, 275/60x15 on stock Rally's, with about 72 PSI in the air shocks, and it looked good.

[Ol'Jim]

Okay, never have had any luck uploading Pics to this site. Can anyone help? I know you can't upload from a hard drive, so I stored the pics on Flickr, then open them, copy & paste that url into this frame, using Insert Image button, but still no luck, just a box with a red "X" in it...

Just now read about the Manage Attachments" tool, awesome! Hope it works! Trying again...

First pic with 30x10 slicks on GM 15x8 Rally's. It sits about an inch taller in back with those tires. 2nd pic is with 28x11 slicks on 10" wide rally-style wheels.

[Tony Silva]

Air shocks.