Hello everyone, I have been lurking and using this forums abundance of information on any number of topics covering my car. From knowing what to look for and what a good deal from a poor one, to diagnosing my recent clutch and crank issues. My ride is a 99 T/A WS-6 with currently 58K miles, the car has lived its whole life in Illinois and is in overall decent shape. Im intending this to be a daily driver with an emphasis on maintaining it while improving the ride and handling over any power gains for now. As well as ensuring the car will stay comfortable, aka not a super stiff ride that rattles the interior to pieces while still ensuring the F-body=flex body reputation doesn't continue as i already have a bunch of dimples on the passenger side rear quarter panel.

My questions pertain to whether or not getting the underside grinded and undercoated with rubberized spray on protectant for $600 is a good idea/deal. The underside isn't spotless everywhere but certain areas are rusty but not perforated anywhere yet. The job necessitates dropping the exhaust and moving lines to get to the undercarriage of course.

All the suspension components are pretty rusted and worn, there is a consistent squeak coming from the drivers side rear suspension. the shocks are the stock decarbons which i hear once you brace up the car with SFC are inadequate in ensuring a ride that is comfortable. What would you all recommend in terms of where to start? I want to improve the ride and handling while avoiding a bone jarring/interior rattling ride. I've looked into getting 4 Point BMR SFCs, is this way way overkill or will this be livable on the street as long as I compensate with good quality shocks such as KONI street non adjustable.

Hopefully this first time post wasn't to hard to read and followed the guidelines well enough. I look forward to all of your input in helping me make my T/A the best it can be for my usage. Thanks in advance!

 

Welcome! I myself just bought an 02 formula in June, I'm in Mount Prospect btw..you should bring your car out to some of the local shows, would be cool to see it. I've got a few friends with 4th gens that I usually hang with at the shows too. I'm curious too which shocks to go with, mine are the originals with 67k miles on it..been thinking about either bilsteins or konis. Post a few pics of your T/A when you get a chance.

 

Welcome.

Bilstein shocks would be a nice upgrade for street use with a priority on handling, but don't let that stop you from adding SFCs as well (or even before hand if you wish.) I've added 2 and 3-point SFCs to several F-bodies prior to changing from the stock shocks; this definitely stiffened the chassis but didn't cause the ride quality to be bone-jarring at all IMO. A shock upgrade will offer a more noticeable improvement than SFCs, overall.

When you state "daily driver", do you intend to also drive it in the winter? If so, the undercoating certainly wouldn't be a bad idea. Otherwise, I would skip it. You could certainly do it yourself for much less than $600, but it's a messy job and difficult without a lift.

 

I should've specified, a daily fair weather driver. While I'm at school it's going to stay at my parents house until the winter then spend those months in my grandmas garage. So with SFCs and shocks should tottaly revitalize the ride and handling. I'm just not sure if I should shell out the 500 bucks on 4 point subframes if what you say is true.

Send me some details on shows if there are any this weekend and I'll drop by; I've got quite a bit of work to do on the car, the headlight motor gear stripped, I bought the sequential taillight kit, and my door panels will be free from the tyranny of staples that cause them to crack.

 

I don't intend to drive it in the winter ever, I just mean a daily fair weather driver which will eventually be a second then third and maybe 4th car one day. What meets are going on out in mount prospect? Send me some details I'd love to stop by this weekend.


Phone camera got real lucky with this one.




I have a bunch of DSLR photos I'll upload sometime.

 

If rain driving is going to be a rarity, and it won't even be on the roads in the winter, then I wouldn't undercoat it if it were mine.

I've only ever had the 2 and 3-point versions myself. I felt they were worth it regardless of shock selection, but I don't have any specific opinion or experience with the 4-point version.

The Mt. Prospect event is on Saturday nights at the Metra station on the corner of Rt. 83 and Northwest Highway. Here's a link to the recent thread we've had going in the Midwest section regarding the local weekend shows. If the weather is good, I plan to be at Rosemont on Friday and Mt. Prospect Saturday. I'm sure some of the other members will be hitting Rolling Meadows on Friday as well:

https://ls1tech.com/forums/midwester...ays-5-8pm.html