Having read the title, you’re probably thinking, a whole suspension rebuild & upgrade on the cheap? Well, yeah, and here’s how it works out. This is actually a fairly straightforward operation if you’re persistent in spending the time… I also did a few extra things like cleaning and repainting to make it look prettier, but you can skip that if you’re feeling the pinch of cost and/or time. The cost of new bushings was about $100, lightly used shocks were about $20 on eBay (score!), GTV6 rear springs were about $60, and I think I paid my mechanic about $100 to replace the big bushing at the front of the deDion triangle. So counting that up, it’s about $300 including bits & pieces (I chose to replace all the bolts holding on the half shafts since I needed to disconnect them to drop the deDion). You could, of course, drop it to $200ish by replacing the bushing yourself.
As I mentioned, the procedure is pretty simple. Be ready to sacrifice some blood or at least some skin, but it’s basically a matter of unbolting everything to get your suspension bits out, replacing the bushings and then putting them back in. Oversimplify? Me? While I was in there, I also replaced my transaxle mounts, which cured a driveshaft vibration and some clunking. One of the mounts had completely fallen apart! Finally, I replaced my clutch and brake lines – it’s amazing how something so cracked up after 30 years can still work.
Rear suspension dropped. Notice the rear springs and shocks are out, and the halfshafts are disconnected. All the parts had nasty goopy undercoating on them, which required either sandblasting or wirebrushing.
All the cleaned up parts. Since I’d removed the undercoat and paint from them all, I repainted using some black Krylon (I think) for the main parts and silver for the fasteners.
Back on the car!
Tags: alfetta, repair, suspension
Rusty But Trusty 
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