Suspension sucks

I love the look of these cars and purchased one a few months,aSebring with a 350 chevy and auto trans.It runs good,looks good but if I hit a pothole or bump and I live in Connecticut, pothole capital of the world. in the road, holy shit! Its like the end of the world .Is there a fix? My wife wont ride in it .
I have a Saleen Mustang and a Fox Body drag car ,so Im not naive to tight suspensions but this is so bad I may sell the car if I cant improve it
Suggestions please, Jim Maguire text me if you want 203-996-8450

The consensus seems to be QA1 coilovers up front, progressive springs out back, and some extra bracing to the dash support to prevent scuttle-shake. I also don't recommend running any wheel larger than 16 inches in diameter and keeping tire pressure on the low side (car's pretty light, you don't need to run high pressures).

Thank you so much ! I figured with the limited action this forum has and the fact that info on these cars seems to be hard to get , I really appreciate your information. Im going on line now to see where I can buys parts. Im exicted my wife may ride in the car again,maybe.
Thank you, Jim

Hi Jim,
Welcome to the forum.

Ditto what David says on the QA1 for the front and wheel diameter. Big wheels and low-profile tires make for a miserable ride.
What suspension is on the back ?
We have the simple leaf spring with tube shocks.
It's not great, but not terrible. 60 series tires are at 22 psi front and rear.
What specifically is your car doing ? We've bottomed out a few times, but nothing real bad.

Here is an alternative to the QA1's:

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The Vikings are double adjustable (rebound and compression) for less than the QA1's.

Another potential area for harshness is the strut rod bushings.  The rubber can harden over time and stiffen up the compliance of the front suspension.  Mine was originally so stiff that it would support the bare frame with no springs.  It is also possible to to over tighten the bushings and increase their stiffness. FWIW - My solution was to convert the front end to tubular A-arms and eliminate the strut rods all together, but it's a lot of work.

If you decide to replace your strut bushings while you have the suspension apart for the new shocks, get standard rubber strut bushings.  Resist the temptation to go with poly strut bushings.  The poly bushings are naturally stiff.  Fine for a heavier car, but not something as light as a Sebring.

Viking should also have double adjustable shocks for the rear, too.  I can't confirm this, but being able to lighten the compression dampening, should increase the compliance of the rear suspension.

I also agree with the having enough sidewall on the tire to absorb some road bumps.

I love you guys. I have 17” wheels and 235/45 on the rear and 205/50 on the front Michelin Pilot Sports. 32lbs all around . Leave springs on the rear. I was getting new wheels and tires soon anyway. Any recommendation's ?
Thank you all so much, jim
Tha

If I was getting a set of wheels I'd probably look at the deep dish Minilite look-alikes by Team III. I find they suit the car well.

what size wheels and tires ? please and thank you, jim

I don't have an answer to the wheel question. Unfortunately, these cars (especially the leaf spring cars) are very hard to fit wheels to. That is, unless you like wheels with lots of positive offset. The problem is that even though the car has flared fenders, Classic left the front suspension stock width.

Getting the front wheel offset will be tricky. Remember that if a wheel is listed as being say 6" wide, the actual width of the bead seat is 7". Always add 1 inch to listed rim width. Backspace is measured from the very outside of the rim bead seat. So a 6" rim with 3.5" of backspace will also have 3.5" of front space. This would also be 0 offset. Positive offset moves the rim center closer to the front of the wheel and negative moves it to the rear.

You will also need to know tire width at the sidewall. In the example above, a tire with an 8" section width on the 6" rim would have 4.5 inches of backspace and 4.5" of frontspace. You then need to measure from the wheel mounting surface on the front or rear axles to determine if the tire/wheel combo will fit under the fender or rub in the fender.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

"what size wheels and tires ?"

Well, once you pick the style of wheel you like that only leaves about 50 things to narrow down your choices. What kind of driving do you want to do ?
Autocross - fun in the sun - drag race - highway ?
Unless you want 5 different sets of tires and wheels it comes down to some kind of compromise.
There's a middle ground between maximum grip, being caught in the rain and snow or just being out and about. Also, the availability of what is being manufactured. There is not a lot of performance tires available in 15" anymore. You might try to find a good local tire shop to steer you the direction you want to go.

When I was searching for traction the magic number for rear was 18. At that the ride was better so went to fronts and found 22 was good. Got the good ride but didn't stop an occasional bottoming out. I think cutting the bump stop mount above rear end to allow for more travel is the answer there.

Hey Loren,
Also thought about removing the bump stops but can't remember exactly why i didn't.
Got to thinking about the springs  "Hey - they're ONLY 40 years old, how bad could they be ?"
Turns out the old leaves had a lost a full inch of arc when compared to the new. Believe we've only bottomed once or twice since then.
Can look up the number for anyone that wants it.