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im an a-body guy, but it should still apply.

for a PT car o a budget, heres what i would do (and mostly did)

1. rebuild front with rubber LCA bushings (little more effective spring rate), use the moog offset UCA bushings instead of tubular (cheaper, and almost as effective), poly strut rod and leaf spring bushings. use hardened steel washers between the LBJ and spindle to build in some negative camber, and if theres a taller spindle swap (like m-body), do it for more negative camber gain.
2. weld and reinforce the K-Frame, LCA's, and add subframe connectors
3. biggest sway bars that ADDCO offers (local to me when i bought mine. great bunch of guys)
4. 1 inch t-bars, oval track or hotchkis rear leaves
5. spax or bilstein shocks
6. Power steering: use the FFI stage 3 box. good box
7. move as much weight as you can between the axle centerlines, and reduce weight as much as possible
8. 17 inch wheels with good tires
9. great brakes (im running 11.75 rotor upgrade with 11X3 rear drums, power booster, braided lines, but am contemplating going 13 inch front, 2 piston calipers and 11 inch rear, single pistons for a 4 wheel disc upgrade and less unsprung weight
10,. good seatbelts and seating. the car WILL be faster if the driver is not flopping all over the place.

im running down mini-coopers and CRX's with my duster on the autocross course, and have driven it over 1000 miles in the last month with no complaints about the livibility of the suspension or brakes on the street.

hipe that helps
Michael

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That is a great low budget handling approach. But I wouldn't run Addco front sway bars on a 66-69 B-body or 64-72 A-body. You end up buying extra brackets to get them to mount nicely.

That is almost identical to what I ran in my Barracuda from 1993 to 2010.

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Since you are in Portland you should make it out to PIR and watch Tim run 150+ mph in his '68 Valiant. Firm Feel is just across the river and they have everything you need to make your B-body handle.

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I will probably put on some stock later a body or e body brakes at first and then eventually will do a viper brake swap! The other thing I noticed is that I read an article about an XV motorsports 68 charger. They said that they used some special rear leaf springs that are softer than stock but they actually help the b bodys grip better than any stock or heavy duty spring. Do you guys agree with this? I was looking to do at least a 2 inch drop in the rear and can't find anything for them.

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A leaf spring made for handling and road racing is different than a stock or drag race leaf spring. The softer rear is trying to get the car to plant coming off the corner. They have other important features also.

These are the Hotchkis rear leafs I run. They have two thick under leafs that go almost to the front eye AND one thick upper leaf over the eye to help against wheel hop under braking.

They drop the rear 2". But that will depend on what you are comparing it to. I had worn 40 year old 340 springs and it dropped about 1.5". But that would be more if they were new repro springs, or XHD, or Super Stock springs, etc... So if you rear tires aren't 30" diameter or something. I think you will have plenty of drop.

From a practical sense, you need to figure out how low you want the front K-member and headers... Then work backwards.



Mid rear eye to get drop....



Mid front eye to get drop...



Lower front spring hanger.