The Tri-five Chevys have been collectible since, well, 1955, and for that reason today's hot rod world is still densely populated with these iconic cars. Enter Henry De Los Santos and his sanitary 1957 Chevy. Now Henry is the editor of Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords and also the TEN Network Director for the Ford grouping of magazines. Hmmm, so what does a Blue Oval guy do when no one is looking? You guessed it, he straps on a Bowtie and heads to the garage. In all fairness De Los Santos he is just a total gearhead and frankly if it has four wheels he's interested, but we must admit the sight of him driving a classic Chevy makes us smile.
His two-door post car is also one of our favorites as it combines the good looks of the Bel Air trim with the utilitarian and performance-minded look of the post car. It's the best of both worlds. Of course, the 1957 Chevrolet will soon be eligible for Social Security (how'd that happen so fast?) and while the inherent good looks of the car have stood the test of time, there's definitely room for improvement when it comes to the aged suspension.
None of this was lost on De Los Santos and when it came time to upgrade the front suspension he knew right where to turn, pun intended. After a scanning the online catalog from Performance Online (POL) he quickly found exactly what he was looking for, and as a side note for other "crossover people," POL does offer similar upgrade products for Fords.
As it turns out the entire front suspension upgrade for most vintage cars can be completed with basic hand tools, most parts are simple bolt-on replacements, including the control arms, spindles, shocks, brakes, and sway bar for our 1957 Chevy. The parts were ordered and when the big brown truck backed up to the TEN Tech Center, Jason Scudellari was there to unpack the POL goodies.
Sure enough it was all there, adjustable shocks, new lowering springs, control arms, dropped spindles, brake calipers, drilled rotors, and a sway bar. The good news is every bit of the project was completed with hand tools and a drill. Scudellari was fortunate in that he was working on a very clean, rust-free chassis. Folks back east will no doubt encounter a bit more rust and frozen fasteners during disassembly, but once the old suspension is removed the new parts all fall into place. Remember to be extremely careful removing coil springs and use all the recommended safety steps during this part of the job.
Now a trained professional in a commercial grade facility like Scudellari might knock this job out in a day, but if we were doing this in our home shop we'd reserve a weekend for the job. But in that short time you will have upgraded your entire front suspension and improved virtually every aspect of the car's handling. It will corner better, stop better and have the proper stance. That is a lot of improvement for a weekend job. Follow along with the photos and you'll see this job is well within the reach of the average home mechanic.
What we have here is a complete front suspension replacement system from POL. The springs are 1-1/2-inch lowering springs while the spindle will drop the car another 2 inches.
Let's face it, after 58 years of service it's probably time to upgrade those drum brakes and other suspension components.
Our 1957 Chevy is a very clean car, which will make disassembly easy. Everything you see here will be unbolted and replaced with new POL parts.
Jason Scudellari will handle the installation, and he begins by cutting the cotter pin for easy removal. Cotter pins are designed to be used one time only.
Cutting the pin is easier than trying to straighten it, and once cut the pin simply slides out.
Removing the tie rod end from the steering arm is accomplished by a couple of sharp blows with a hefty hammer on the side of the steering arm; this method "shocks" the taper out of the steering arm.
Using an impact driver Scudellari removes the nuts that hold the steering arm to the spindle.
With the nuts removed the steering arm is removed from the spindle. Now is a good time to clean and paint the steering arms as they will be reused.
The rubber flex lines for the brakes are next up to be removed. Use proper line wrenches to ensure you don't round off the nuts. Another tech tip, if you cut a pole that goes from the dash and depresses the brake pedal about an inch you will get virtually no brake fluid dripping from the open line.
Next the cotter pin is removed from the lower ball joint and the castle nut is removed. The same procedure is used on the upper ball joint. When it comes time to remove the spindle both ball joint sockets will be "shocked" with a hammer to release the taper.
The two lower bolts that hold the shock absorber to the lower control arm can now be removed.
The upper shock absorber nut is removed. There are often two nuts on the top shaft. The top nut is a lock nut that must be removed first, then the second nut can be removed.
With the top nuts off the shock shaft the shock absorber is removed through the bottom of the lower control arm.
While the car is being supported by the chassis, you must support the lower control arm with a jack to prevent the coil spring to come flying out. After the control arm is safely supported the spindle can be removed.
The coil spring is compressed so it has stored energy that can be very dangerous. Slowly and carefully lower the bottom control arm until the spring is completely decompressed. Then the spring can be lifted out of the upper spring pocket.
The stock coil spring is on the left, while the new POL unit is on the right. As you can see we will drop the car 1-1/2 inches by using the new lowering springs.
Once again the impact gun makes quick work of removing the two bolts that hold the lower control arm crossbar in place.
The lower control arm is now removed and placed in the pile marked "swap meet."
The upper control arm bolts can be a bit tight to get to, but after removing the two bolts the control arm is ready for removal.
With the upper control arm out of the car we have removed all the old suspension from our 1957 Chevrolet.
Now the fun begins, installing the new tubular control arms from POL. These control arms are fabricated from 1020 heavy-wall DOM tubing so they are super strong.
With the upper control arm bolted in place we'll move down to the lower control arm.
The billet crossbars on the POL control arm fit precisely to the 1957 Chevrolet frame. New bolts are supplied with the kit to attach the control arms to the frame.
The new lower control arm is in place, note the urethane bumpstop on the control arm and the beefy crossbars that hold the control arm in place.
The new lowering coil spring is now inserted into the upper spring pocket on the frame.
A rag protects the powdercoat finish on the control arm while it is slowly raised to compress the spring.
The spring is now compressed between the urethane lined lower spring pocket and the upper spring pocket on the frame. The upper control arm can be rotated upward to make room to install the spindle.
The hub, rotor, and caliper were all preassembled on the 2-inch dropped spindle. Here Scudellari is installing the assembled spindle on the upper ball joint.
After bolting the upper control arm to the spindle the spindle can be lowered down onto the lower ball joint.
Now tighten both the upper and lower ball joints pulling the taper of the ball joint down into the spindle.
When torqued down be sure the castle nut slot aligns with the cotter pin hole in the ball joint. Then install the new cotter pin and bend the ends over.
Things are looking good with the spindle and brakes bolted in place. This will be a huge improvement in braking.
The original steering arm is bolted to the new spindle with the supplied grade 8 bolts.
Lock washers under the bolts ensure they will stay in place, a drop of blue Loctite can also be used here. The tie rod ends and new cotter pins can now be reinstalled on the steering arms.
Our new POL adjustable shocks will give us the perfect ride and better handling. After installing the lower rubber bushing and washer slide the shock up through the hole in the spring pocket and thread the nuts on the top shaft.
Compress the shock and install the two lower bolts that hold the shock to the lower control arm.
We opted to use new braided stainless steel lines from the stock frame tabs to the brake calipers. Changing from drum to disc brakes will also require a new master cylinder.
With the springs, shocks, and brake lines installed we turn our attention to installing the new 1-inch antisway bar up front.
The sway bar drop link bolts to the tab on the lower control arm. Urethane bushings sandwich the control arm tab and the sway bar with the tubular spacer in the middle.
With the sway bar links installed on both sides of the car the bar is rotated up to meet the chassis. Holes are marked through the chassis mounting brackets.
Center punch and drill the holes to attach the sway bar to the chassis.
This clever U-bolt mounts the sway bar bracket to the chassis. Simply feed it in one hole and out the other.
Presto, the U-bolt is now two studs awaiting a sway bar bracket.
The urethane bushing and sway bar bracket fits over the studs perfectly. A dab of urethane bushing grease prevents squeaking.
And that completes our suspension upgrade. Obviously the same procedure was done to the other side of the car. In the end by using POL parts we gained an aggressive stance along with improved braking and handling. That's a lot of improvement in one suspension package and the good news is it can all be done in a home shop.
And this is what we have to show for or efforts upgrading the front suspension. The car has a much improved, aggressive stance that's backed up by better performance. Yes, this is a Chevrolet any Ford guy would be proud to own.
