:drool:
Only a b-car nut would understand.
That's a nice find. I miss my 77, and really, the only reason that I sold it was that it needed more work than I had time for.... which... yours...does...not.. seem... to.. need.
Lemme know if you decide to sell it. The L98 was originally planned for the 77.
As for cheap upgrades, I have a few.
Sway bars. 91-96 cop front bar bolts on. The rear cop bar will bolt on with the correct rear lower control arms, which are still available from GM for about $75 IIRC. I think I have a complete swaybar set still You'd need new swaybar bushings and endlinks (ES sells both), and the rear control arms. You can do this upgrade for less than $200 I think.
The springs you have are soft, and some drop springs for a 94-96 will work. The 78 is lighter, so the drop will be slightly less. Springs are $250 ish new.
You could do cop springs, but they will really raise the ride height of the car, and are not much stiffer than the civilian car ones.
Shocks. Bilstein makes a great set that fit 77-96. Bilstein PN 1104 for the front, and 0929 for the rear. Shox.com has them, as well as other sources.
Last time I looked the fronts were about $100 each, the rears were around $65, but it's been years since I looked.
Body mounts are another nice upgrade. There are some firmer durometer ones still available from GM, and are not as firm as the ES urethanes, which IMO are a bit too much, might as well put aluminum puck in there... not recommended.
Brakes. Find a set of 91-96 front corners. I saw 2 or 3 cars at Parts Galore (the new Warren ave location) with them. These will allow the larger so called 12" rotors and the calipers I told you about in your other post. The bolt pattern will be 5x5, but you can get a set of 3rd gen F-car 1LE rotors that bolt right up, are the same size and are 5x4.75 bolt pattern. I do not know what P.G charges for the knuckles, but if the calipers are reusable, you can do this upgrade for the cost of the knuckles, and the new rotors/pads. So, likely under $150.. This will all fit under the stock 15 wheel.
You can go beefier on the brakes, but you are looking at $600+ for the setup, it's cheaper than the Baer setup, and will still fit in a 15" wheel, ?Baers need a 17" wheel minimum.
Your car likely has a 7.5" 10 bolt. You can upgrade to a 8.5", but I do not know of an easy way for you to keep the 5x4.75 bolt pattern in the back.
You could change to the 5x5 pattern, but the wheel options are not as plentiful as 5x4.75..
Just some thoughts.
Basically, all of the aftermarket suspension mods you can do to a 94-96 Impala SS can be done on your car. The frame is nearly identical, I put a 95 frame under my 77, so the suspension stuff all interchanges.
A good source of suspension info is on
http://www.9c1.com/technical/index.html
And if you want to offload the 78 for cheap.. let me know.. I like cheep
