I am currently in the process of restoring a 71 Dodge Demon. It came factory with a 225 slant 6 hooked up to a 904. What i am doing is swapping out the drive line and putting in a a 360 with a 727 and an 8 3/4 posi. What i am looking for and have no experience with at all is an upgrade to my suspension both front and rear. I dont need something overly expensive nor do i need a high performance racing kit. What i want is something that can handle my car well on the street. I have no clue where to begin. I have read a little on Hotchkis, PST, and RMS.

Need advice!!

I have found that a sway bar for the front with some good shocks like Bilsteins, or QA1's along with a torsion bar for a big block a-body work very well. Pretty much the same recipe for the rear, only I've used superstock springs. Most of this can be sone without breaking the bank to boot. Oh and by the way "sure-grip" is the appropriate term for a Chrysler product using a limited slip differential, NOT posi. Leave that term for the bow-tie deadheads.

I just did this on my Duster about two years ago. I bought a set of 340 torsion bars from a member here and rebuilt the front end with basic rubber Moog parts, I bought them from Rock Auto. I added a aftermarket Addco swaybar to both the front and rear. The rear springs I used ESPO's 6leaf + 1 with the sway bar. Their 5 leaf springs are also great and cheaper then the 6 leaf ones. It handled and drove great. If you do not have disc brakes I would highly recommend upgrading.

The sway bars were abut $250. Just a front would help if the budget is tight.
Suspension parts from Rock auto were about $300, ball joints, bushings, etc

Rear springs were a little over $300

Does anyone know if the polygraphite kit from PST is decent? How about a complete kit from Hotchkis? Should i look into changing out everything or keeping a few things stock? I have drum brakes and dont have the budget nor am i interested in a disc conversion

Go to Advanced Auto parts website,order all Moog Stuff,right now you can get 20% off and free shipping to your house.I just saved $100 on my order.

The guys at www.firmfeel.com will have everything you need. Torsion bars, shocks, anti-sway bar, etc. You basically just need the factory 340 type suspension on there or one step better than that.

Find a nice home for the slant.

You will need to upgrade the brakes/ bolt pattern.

If you go with the Poly bushings, I would suggest that you keep a rubber bushing in the LOWER control arm. The poly transmits more road noise and harshness to the driver. Its probably safe to say that most of us are accustomed to a softer ride in our daily drivers, and while an old car cannot directly compete with the comfort of a new one, every little detail helps.

yup. Especially for a street car its more important to get the aligment with the caster and negative camber to the factory max (or a little more) than to have less complient bushings. Unles you are running very agressive tires, its going to be hard to take advantage of the switch to poly. For the front sway bar, go with the poly and use greasable bushings.

Go for the top of the line factory handling package sway bar, front torsion bars, leafs. Consider the option to go as high as 1.03 with the t-bars and a 1.125 sway bar as was just said. The most important thing is to replace all wear items. Unfortunately the one that many people try to skip is the rear leafs. This is also a wear item. Since you are starting with a /6 car, unless the car started with a Heavy Duty option, odds are these should be replaced even if it has under 80k miles on it. Some people may think I'm nuts but leafs do fatigue due to cycles (standard engineering design for springs is 1 million cylces) and abuse (excessive loads, or torque). Also the interleaves wear, corrode and sometimes the bushings do as well.

Basically the same thing for the brakes. For the drums to work as well as possible make sure everything is in top shape. Watch out for warped or twisted shoes. I my experience adjust frequently (do not rely on the auto adjusters) so they are all even.

Tires are about the most important thing you can do for traction. Get the best you can for the terrain, wheel size and ride height. Speaking of ride height, set the car near the bottom of the factory ride height specs or a a little lower (like the '67-69 Barracudas). Keep the rear ride hight stock or a little lower using a combination of (a) spring arch and spring rate to keep the static hight and (b)multi-position rear hanger. Of course if you're upstate and need more ground clearance then keep everything stock hight or a little higher.

Assuming your car did not come with a front sway bar, look at Firm Feel's for a non-weld on solution. Finally, but not last, look for some performance oriented non-adjustable shocks. Skip the KYBs. You're better off with one of the better parts store shocks. IMO the high speed damping is way over damped unless you think its funny watching coffee get shaken out of the most ardently held cup.

just use stock 73-6 parts, especially if your are planning on going with the LBP axles.

honestly, unless you road race the car, your not going to notice the difference on street. especially if you dont have the correct wheel tire combo to go with the suspension.

if you insist on full suspension kit, i like the stuff firmfeel.com offers.

You might also check Amazon.com for Moog parts. I bought my lower ball joints there, and they were quite a bit cheaper than Rock Auto, plus they offer free shipping.

Roger