1967 Chevy El Camino CPP Stage II Pro Touring Kit Install - Chevelle

1967 Chevy El Camino Cpp Stage Ii Pro Touring Kit Install Rear Suspension Complete

1967 Chevy El Camino Cpp Stage Ii Pro Touring Kit Install Side View

Chris Gordziel was happy to report that the El Camino is now a pleasure to drive on the street, handles great, and has a much improved ride. He can also now hit the brakes without worry of plowing into the guy in front of him.

Chris Gordziel was happy to report that the El Camino is now a pleasure to drive on the st

The great thing about buying a beat-down classic A-body is that you don't need to hock household items or sell off family members to medical science to afford one. The bad thing is that it has a low buy-in for a reason-lots of wear, lots of tear. Then again, making treasure out of trash is what this hobby is all about.

Take Chris Gordziel's '67 El Camino for example. He picked up this hunk of classic Chevy iron for a measly $1,500. Of course, for that price it barely ran, had a few "rough" panels and was sketchy to drive on the highway or any road with a slight bend. His first task was to get it running by dropping in a freshened-up big-block, and a mashed in fender was fixed, along with a few of the more unsightly blemishes. With this done, it was time to address the items that were conspiring to make using the Elky a real buzz kill, namely the handling and brakes.

1967 Chevy El Camino Cpp Stage Ii Pro Touring Kit Install Stock Suspension

The suspension under Chris Gordziel's '67 suffered from a terminal case of being old and worn-out. Over the years the springs had sagged to the point where little spacers needed to be added to keep the fenders off the front tires.

The suspension under Chris Gordziel's '67 suffered from a terminal case of being old and w

Stuffed into the handling is the steering component. After all, even a car with a great handling package will suck to drive if it has vague, unresponsive steering. For handling, Gordziel decided to go with Classic Performance Products' (CPP) Stage II "Pro Touring" kit (PN 6467PTK2). The kit comes with front and rear tubular control arms, front QA1 coilovers, rear QA1 shocks and drop springs, along with front and rear sway bars. His '67 was rolling on tired four-wheel manual drums, and Gordziel lived in constant fear of eating the bumper of the car in front of him. What he found was CPP's Big-Brake kit (PN 6467FRBKBB), which included rotors, calipers, hubs, spindles, parking brake cables, brake lines, brackets, and everything else needed to convert to four-wheel disc brakes. To these kits Gordziel added in a 500-series steering box (PN CP50004) and a power brake booster kit (PN 6772CBB4), which included the proper disc/disc proportioning valve.

1967 Chevy El Camino Cpp Stage Ii Pro Touring Kit Install Removing The Lower Control Arms

Before the new parts could go on, the old junk had to come off. One area that gave us problems was the driver-side lower control arm bolt. To get it out we had to dent in the header a bit. It's OK, they were pretty ugly already. If they were nice, we would have needed to unbolt it from the head and lift it up a bit.

Before the new parts could go on, the old junk had to come off. One area that gave us prob

Now, a big pile of shiny new powdercoated parts is cool and all, but we wanted to see what the gain would be from dropping such a big stack of cash. Gordziel realized beforehand that the stock 15-inch wheels wouldn't clear the new brakes so we picked up a set of Vintage Wheel Works rollers and some Nitto tires before our baseline tests. It was also important to test the suspension and brake upgrades on the same rubber.

With all the parts on hand we grabbed our tools and headed over to where Gordziel works at Best Of Show Coach Works in San Marcos, California, for a little quality time on their lift.

Putting It All To the Test Sure, the new parts look great, but what we wanted to know is how much better the '67 would perform. Now, to keep this a suspension test and not a tire test, we made sure to install our new 17-inch Vintage Wheel Works wheels and Nitto 555R tires for the before testing. This way we have a true before and after testing of the suspension and brakes.

Yeah, they look sweet, but more importantly these new TIG-welded tubular control arms from Classic Performance Products (CPP) are much stronger than what was put in the '67 over 40 years ago. The arms are made from 1.25-inch 0.120 wall DOM tubing and have thick 1.5-inch 0.188 wall pivot barrels. This ensures the pivots stay true even under stress. They come preassembled on new billet chromoly 4130 cross-shafts and pivot sleeves. These sleeves capture both sides of the bushing, unlike the stockers that are only retained on one side. As a result, they're much stronger and better resist flex. As a safety measure they incorporate an interlocking shaft and sleeve design so that the bolts can't work loose. The fact that they came with new ball joints already installed saved us time.
Yeah, they look sweet, but more importantly these new TIG-welded tubular control arms from
CPP's coilover system is based around billet QA1 single adjustable shocks. Before going in the car, we dabbed the shock threads with some antiseize and installed the ride height adjustment rings.
CPP's coilover system is based around billet QA1 single adjustable shocks. Before going in
And here's the sweet QA1 shock in place with its 10-inch 550-pound spring. The coilover shock assembly was bolted to the lower control arm and then raised up and through the frame. Once in place, the top of the shock was secured to the frame using the supplied hardware.
And here's the sweet QA1 shock in place with its 10-inch 550-pound spring. The coilover sh

With the new control arms installed, the rest was crazy easy to do. The main reason is that the front spindle, hub, steering arm, and brake parts came completely preassembled from CPP. The bearings were packed and brake pads installed, so all we had to do was toss the whole deal between the control arms and secure it in place.
With the new control arms installed, the rest was crazy easy to do. The main reason is tha
The twin-piston calipers will be a huge leap forward from the old drum brakes, and the zinc washed, drilled, and slotted rotors should work as good as they look. The powdercoating and zinc cost a bit extra, but they both ensure that the parts will stay looking great for a long time.
The twin-piston calipers will be a huge leap forward from the old drum brakes, and the zin
Here you can see the difference between the tiny solid stock sway bar and the 1.25-inch hollow CPP replacement bar. A bigger bar is the quickest way to tame body roll in any car, and the big-block '67 really needed help in this area.
Here you can see the difference between the tiny solid stock sway bar and the 1.25-inch ho

The frame bushing mount holes didn't quite line up so we needed to elongate the holes just a bit using a drill.
The frame bushing mount holes didn't quite line up so we needed to elongate the holes just
With the sway bar installed, the front suspension was put into the done column. When the Elky was back on the ground, we set the ride height using the coilover system.
With the sway bar installed, the front suspension was put into the done column. When the E
Check out this vintage rear suspension. It's all original with the exception of the way-cool air shocks. The exhaust system is cut off the way it is so that we could fit the larger rollers onto the car for testing. Gordziel assures us that he will fix their funky routing once the install is completed.
Check out this vintage rear suspension. It's all original with the exception of the way-co

Much like the front, the first step for the rear is to start getting rid of the old stuff. Unfortunately, to get the drums off we need to pull the axles.
Much like the front, the first step for the rear is to start getting rid of the old stuff.
To pull the axles on our 12-bolt we had to loosen the pin retaining bolt and drop the pin. Just make sure that you don't turn the axles at all with the pin out or the gears will fall out of place. With the pin out, we removed the C-clips and carefully slid out the axles.
To pull the axles on our 12-bolt we had to loosen the pin retaining bolt and drop the pin.
The new CPP kit came with new longer wheels studs. A big hammer knocked the old ones out, and we used an impact to pull the new ones into place.
The new CPP kit came with new longer wheels studs. A big hammer knocked the old ones out,