When I put out the word that we were looking for parts for the suspension of our ’75 Laguna project car (Project Talladega), we got all kinds of good advice from a lot of experienced guys. But one letter in particular from reader Glen A. Brewer stood out. It seems he’s tackled virtually all of the problems we’re dealing with now—only he did it 20 years ago, and with almost zero help from the aftermarket. Glen’s letter is a little lengthy to be completely published in the magazine, so we're running it here in its entirety. If you’ve got any GM A-body built between ’73 and 77, Glen’s experience may be of help. Take it away Glen:
“After reading last month’s October issue, with the teaser bit about your new Laguna, I was tempted to write, but hesitated. Yesterday, I received my November issue and read your column, Bangin Gears, and felt I had to write.
“Back in the late ’80s, I had a ’74 Laguna S-3—white with a Bloodstone Red vinyl top, Metallic Red stripe to match, and the Bloodstone Red striping down the side. When I got it, it had a 350 for motivation, but that was only to last as long as it took to get the parts necessary to drop in my 454.
“The reason I am writing you is the November issue about cross-platform compatibility. I learned about this subject while building my Laguna. Back then, there was no interest in these cars, the Internet wasn't around, but gas was relatively cheap, compared to today.
“What I learned was, the front control arms from a ’73-up F-body will fit, so any aftermarket performance arms for that platform will improve the handling. I used upper arms from Vette Brakes, the only maker back then. They had improved caster/camber curves. This was also back when if you wanted poly bushings, you torched out the rubber from the OEM bushings, cleaned them out, and pressed the poly bushing into the OEM shell, so I did.
“Before Baer came along and simplified the big brake kit, you had racing kits. That's it, and the price didn't fit the budget. Well, back to OEM. The “B” car Caprice or wagon, but not the Impala, had 12-inch discs in the front, with a 5-on-5 bolt pattern. Take the spindle, it fits the ball joints, and if you are short of funds, grab it all until you can buy new rotors and get calipers kits to rebuild the calipers. Ca-ching. Factory big-brake kit. For the rear, there was a company, forget the name, out of Colorado that made a rear disc kit using the rear caliper, out of what I believe was a Seville. That's a Cadillac. Butt ugly too. The brake rotor was from a Lincoln. I used Performance Friction pads for the front, and a semi-met pad for the rear. This brake set-up lead to the need for an adjustable brake proportioning valve, and why the rears didn't get the “good” pads.
“Now, you remember I mentioned that the front rotor was a 5-on-5. That was for a reason. Again, back then, Bassett was the name of the game for NASCAR. The “official” NASCAR wheel was a 9.5 by 15, and cost a couple hundred bucks each. Ouch, that hurts. Bassett’s standard wheel was a 10 by 15, and you gotta have that style wheel to pull off the look, and mount a big tire. Thing was, they only came with a 5-on-5 bolt pattern, but we licked that problem in the front, so what do we do with the rears? Well, we get new axles with the needed bolt pattern. Well, long ago and far away from me was a guy who worked out of his garage that heated treated and cut/resplined Ford axles or any axle that would fit for your application. He would make these axles for $95 a pair and, you could buy C-clip eliminators for the 10-bolt for about $125. That guy’s name was Greg Moser. Told you it was a long time ago.
“So, we have a 10-inch wide wheel we wanna fit into our Laguna. What are we gonna do? Nothing! We have the 5 by 5 pattern needed, and we have a Laguna that has a cavernous wheelwell front and rear. This wheel will bolt in using a 295/50-15 tire, with ample space on all four corners. For wheels studs, I used a Ford truck piece that was a 9/16th, selected due to the shank size requirements to fit the axle and rotor. This was a stud about 2.5 inches long (for the look), and the nut was a 1 inch with the proper taper to fit the wheels. For the center cap, I measured the inner diameter and sat down with some wheel catalogs and my trusty Mr. Gasket book, and found some shiny ones.
“The springs I sourced from a NAPA Master chassis catalog, my bible for all things that fit. NAPA uses TRW/Dana, so the parts are readily available everywhere. The front spring I think was around 600 lbs and from a station wagon, and the rear was like 180 lbs from a Torino. It's been a few beers and years ago. Both springs were selected based in spring rate, load rate, and overall free height. The fronts I still had to cut about a coil or less off; I was able to install it by hand using no spring installer to compress the spring, just some grunt work, but hey, I was young and full of it. The rears, because of the dual pig curl style ends, couldn’t be cut, so they were installed as is. They were like 9 inches installed height, which was about an 1.5 inches shorter than stock, and about 10 percent stiffer. The springs were about 1,700 lbs load in the front, and 900 in the rear. This is load rate, not spring rate. I had to juggle load rate versus spring rate to balance the ride and handling, since there were no aftermarket performance springs for this car. You have to work to get the proper rake, or at about 130 mph, you'll get some significant lift.
“I did manage to find a ’75 slope nose to bolt on. Have you lifted that nose? It's a two man job. Also, I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere in your articles, but you know the ’75-76 came with window slates for the rear quarter glass, right? I found a pair of them as well. Good luck finding some now.
“As mentioned, for motivation, I used a 454 I had from my ’79 Camaro. After Holley came out with their Pro-Jection throttle body, I installed that 950cfm, along with a complete MSD ignition that included the timing master, rev limiter, etc. I hard wired it all together and mounted it to a plate that was suspended from under the package shelf. I ran the wires down the tunnel to the coil, which was mounted inside the cabin on the firewall, and passed the coil wire to the distributor.
“Unfortunately, digital cameras weren't around, and I just wasn't smart enough to document the build. The Laguna went bye bye when I picked up an ’87 Monte Carlo SS.
“Well, thanks for reading. Sorry it was so long, and I hope I gave you some ideas. Oh yea, the long support rods under the hood—keep them, they work. And if they're missing, get some. Also, technically it's a Laguna S-3 as there was just a "Laguna" in ’73.”