Hey, just heard about this site today from a buddy of mine, looks great!

I'm Andrew, I own a 94 Camaro RS (not officially called an 'RS' that year, but I like the name). Originally the 3.4L/T5 base model t-top car, such a slow 'piece.

So far I've gutted the engine harness, engine, trans, read and half of the rear suspension. Replacing it with a rebuilt 355 (11:1, 224/234, single plane, ported S/R Torquers, etc....), Super T10 4 speed tans ('U' casing - 3.44 first gear - wide ratio) and a 8.5" 10 bolt )posi with 2.73's - strong but not enough gear). I'm just waiting for the engine to come back from the machine shop, then the installation will begin.

As for suspension, I killed the LCA setup, built a dropped 4 bar/link setup to rid myself of the forsaken torque arm. Made an adjustable panhard bar when I had some spare time, should work well. 98 LS1 springs and stock shocks/struts. Homemade subframe connectors, re-welded strut towers and part of the front subframe. Built a pre-loadable strut tower brace. Bigger sway bars from an 84' TA (20mm rear, 25mm front) but still everything using rubber bushings.

That turned out a littl elonger than expected, sorry for the long post.

Nice to be on the site, hello to everyone

BTW: Its my birthday next Friday

Welcome, and early Happy Birthday! Nice to see a fabricator type on board. My husband is one of those - he built a '62 CJ5 with mostly GM running gear. Stripped the whole thing down to the tub, painted himself and built a nice Buick V6 for it. Took him six years to finish it.

We all here are afflicted with the f-body habit so you will fit right in! Interesting you put a four link in a 4th gen, tres cool! You're gonna want a nice suspension under that sucker when you finish, we can definitely help you with that here. First off you are not going to want that little front swaybar for long. A 32 or 35mm would much better suit, especially if you upgrade the stock shocks (POS).

Welcome to our 'addiction' and the site.

I'm pretty sure you meant a '35'mm front sway bar, as my 3rd gen is a 36mm. (WS6) Mine is setup much like an American/Sedan car.


Julie, what color did your husband paint himself?

Welcome, Andrew

Everyone on this board has a different opinion on spring rates. The car can be set up to handle quite well with stock LS1 rates - that's what I'm running, more or less. Depending on what you plan to do with the car, they may be a little soft, but maybe not.

I think everyone would agree, though, that the stock shocks SUCK.I think they got worse in the later years too, as GM tweaked them to "improve" the ride (translation: make them more floaty and seasick).

Since you're putting so much work into the project anyway, I'd ditch the OEM shocks for some Konis or revalved Bilsteins.

Mike, Hubby painted himself, the Jeep and the garage red! You can still find red in our garage, and that was years ago he did that paint job!

An '84 Trans-Am does not come with anything close to a 35mm up front. I think the WS6 package was a dream Herb Adams had at that point. I have a spare car to match my race car and made the mistake of putting the bar from it on my race car to try and deal with some push. This is a great recipe for a spinning f-bod as I found out. Detroit Locker, big bar in back and little bar in front = big trouble!

Thanks everyone!

Yeah the shocks are terrible, but for right now I'm just wanting to get it driving, ALL of my $$$ is tied up in the engine/trans/rear, the bushings and shocks/struts are the first to go. New struts are soooo expensive, it'll take a good 3 weeks to save up for a nice set.

35mm? Maybe I measured wrong, or I don't know how to measure. Either/or, its a big improvement over the stock v6 bar. I think I'll go buy a camera today and take some pics for everyone.

I fab up everything I can, saves money and its fun. Did everything with a cheap angle grinder, hand drill and a MIG welder.


I would like some advice though. I have some stock 16x8 98 TA wheels (might not be original TA pieces, but thats what I got them off of) with 245/ZR50 16 Kumho Ecstra Supras all around, and they're very worn down so I'm looking to buy either a new set of wheels/tires or just new tires. Whats the general consensus on a good street tire that can be flogged a little?

welcome to our little corner of the universe.

Keeping the car driving is IMHO a big part of keeping it fun. Ya gotta do whatcha gotta do - we all have someday lists

The stock V6 front bar is 28mm hollow. The standard V8 (not WS6, SS, or Firehawk) bar is 30mm hollow.

The Firestone Firehawk SZ50 is a very good street performance tire. I think it's been discontinued, but Tirerack still has them for a slightly discounted price. The Kumho Ecsta MX is highly regarded, but I don't think they make it to fit a 16x8 rim (need 17x9). The Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 seems to be getting lot of good comments, especially in the rain. Be careful, there a lot of very different Goodyear tires with very similiar names.