NEED HELP WITH CHOOSING BODY BUSHINGS

[LIVE4RDO]

I'm looking to do a frame off in order to clean up and POR 15 the frame. Obviously this is the time to replace all the body bushings.

As far as I understand (please feel free to correct me), I have 3 choices:

Polyurethane

Polygraphite

Rubber

Once again, this is what I was told so far:

Polyurethane - cheapest, nices looking, best handling, but lots of squeeks and horrible drive

Rubber - nice ride, but most expensive and only aftermarket available, allows the most flex during cornering

Polygraphite - I don't know much at all.

I'm building my 78 Malibu, 2dr, 4 speed, big block for just a regular street driving, occasional track and maybe some autocross in the future (I've never tried it before)

I appreciate any feedback, because I'm very confused.

 

[melloelky]

their's also the option of alumimum ones also,you got to ask yourself do i want the stiffness that the alumimum provides?i went with the poly ones from energy suspension.think of those as a middle of the road or happy medium between the oe style rubber oones and the stiffer alumium option.anythings gotta be better than oem rite?there are a bunch of fplks on here that run the alumium ones i'm sure they will let you know how its worked out for them.mines a street car so the poly was the only way for me to go.just my 2cents

 

[Doober]

I have Energy Suspension poly bushings for mine... but the car is still in pieces so I don't know how they'll ride. I'm pretty sure the whole squeak/noise thing is with suspension bushings. Poly bushings won't be doing much moving outside compression under the body.

 

[Supe]

I'd go with rubber for a mostly street car. The rubber bushings of today usually are of a higher durometer and last much longer than those of 30 years ago.

 

[toxicbu]

i used hockey pucks
mine's a drag car strait line only lol

 

[Norm Peterson]

I'm looking to do a frame off in order to clean up and POR 15 the frame. Obviously this is the time to replace all the body bushings.

As far as I understand (please feel free to correct me), I have 3 choices:

Polyurethane

Polygraphite

Rubber

Once again, this is what I was told so far:

Polyurethane - cheapest, nices looking, best handling, but lots of squeeks and horrible drive

Rubber - nice ride, but most expensive and only aftermarket available, allows the most flex during cornering

Polygraphite - I don't know much at all.

I'm building my 78 Malibu, 2dr, 4 speed, big block for just a regular street driving, occasional track and maybe some autocross in the future (I've never tried it before)

I appreciate any feedback, because I'm very confused.

Since you mentioned street use, I'd recommend the polyurethane. Unless something in the frame or body sheetmetal is cracked or broken, there will not be enough movement at the body bushings to make them squeak.

Appearance of body bushings is kind of a non-issue, since you can't see them unless you go way out of your way to look at them.

Stiff bushings are at least as important in a car that's used to corner hard as in one that's dragraced hard. In both cases you're trying to make the separate body and frame act like a structure that's stiffer than the sum of the individual stiffnesses.

I would advise against aluminum because of the street use. Aluminum + steel + water + maybe a little salt = a weak battery that will start corroding your resto work


I have 88A poly in most of the body bushing locations in the car shown below. They never squeaked, no matter where or how I drove the car. Didn't particularly notice any additional ride harshness, either. I think in some other thread here there's a list of what else I did to that car, which has always been built with hard cornering as top priority.