Rear frame supports.

Personally, I've never even heard of DMR.

DickMillerRacing did a 3 part article regarding coil spring cars in Popular Hot Rodding;
Nov 1997, Dec 1997, Jan 1998.

I have Nov & Jan, a friend borrowed Dec and never returned it

I was on his site today. I think tberes a link to each of those articles at the top of.his main page.

That article tells you all you need to know, and it all applies to EVERY chevelle, GTO, 442, etc, from 64-88. When I started racing my car, we thought the twist was PLANTING that passenger side tire. But the steering to the left because the car went right when it left the line proved otherwise. It was shown that the torque on the housing wanted to rotate the passenger side UP into the car. Then we got into moving the bars around treating the car as a 4 link, and looking for the imaginary point of intersection. From the factory that point is WAY forward in the car. So companies like Lakewood made their no hop bars that raised the upper bar mounting point on the rear, or Southside Machine made their lift bars that dropped the rear of the bottom bar. This changed the angles and brought the intersection point back and hit the tire harder. Airbags were put in the passenger side spring to counteract the body roll. Now anybody can get adjustable upper control arms, and solid lower bars, more readily making traction much better and easier to attain. Moser even sells 12 bolt housings for the 68-72 Chevelle with the upper mounting ears raised up for better bar geometry. A lot has been learned and is more affordable to the masses in the last 20 years from when that article was written. Up till that point only the fast "class" eliminator cars had that stuff because it was expensive and it was kind of secretive to keep every advantage that they could find. Back in the early 90's when I started with my Chevelle, I had no money for fancy suspension parts. So it was boxed stock arms and airbags at first for me. Let me say, I have a couple of photos of the car rolled over with the passenger side tire on the ground and the driver side about a foot and half in the air.

Im waiting for.a.call back from edit  miller.  Ill be ordering a set of rear support bars.  I really like how they attach and stay closer to the frame.  I will report back when i get them.  Lots of positive info on the bars on the impala forums.  I definitely want a set especially for the 4 speed.

The editing of D-I-C-K miller is cracking me up.

Lol Didnt notice that. Im typing on my phone. That is funny.

dynchel wrote:The editing of D-I-C-K miller is cracking me up.

I know, that's why I kept typing "DickMillerRacing" as one word.

Joe73 wrote:I was on his site today.  I think tberes a link to each of those articles at the top of.his main page.

You are correct, I forgot about that.

Thank you Limey for posting the articles.

Joe73 wrote:I was on his site today.  I think tberes a link to each of those articles at the top of.his main page.

Wow - that's a blast from the past.

I remember memorizing those articles back in the day.

K

Got my dickmillerracing rear support bars in the mail and installed them.  This is my third set of rear support bars that I'm trying.  I'm real picky (actually a pain in the *ss) when it comes to things like this.  I need them to be a quality piece, do its job and install easily.  

First I purchased the global west bars.  Real nice product, welds and powdercoating was real nice and came with mounting hardware.  I wasnt a fan of the way they mounted on the rear crossmember.  You have to drill a hole and bolt it to the bottom of the stamped steel crossmember.  The crossmember is kind of thin for my liking and the bars mounting point is a couple of inches below where the upper control arm mounts.  Wasnt a fan of that since upon acceleration the upper arm wants to pull rearward at its mounting point.  And where I had to drill the hole put it almost directly in line with the verticl support for the upper arm mounting.  Shimming would have taken care of the problem but I chose to pass on the bars.  I decided I wanted to go bolt to bolt especially with stick tires and the "hit" of a 4 speed.  

Then I purchased some PMT bars.  REAL nice pieces.  Real thick tubing, welds are excellent AND they're adjustable.  Came with mounting hardware.  Well, they didnt sit flush against the frame which meant I would have to tighten the control arm bolts to pull it in flush.  Bars were about 1/2"-3/4" away from the frame.  Didnt like the fact that pulling the bars into place might "tweaK" something.  I ended up returning them.

Now I have the dickmiller bars.  They're also real nice pieces, nice welds and paint.  NO mounting hardware which isnt a big deal since they only need 2 6" bolts to put them on.  I positioned them on my frame to get a quick eyeball.  They matched up perfectly.  So I switched my 4" front lower control arm bolt to a 6" bolt.  When I installed the bolt I only let the thread peek through the other side.  Glad I did.  These bars lay nice and flat at its mounting locations.  They will not go on if the bolts are all the way through.  Thats how perfect the fit is.  You actually have to thread your front lower bolts into the arms.  I did use a .030 stainless washer on the frame before installing the bars so there's no bar to frame contact.  Another stainless washer and nylon lock nut will be on before final tightening.  

Took some pics from different angles for you guys.  I'm really happy with these bars.  They tuck in nicely and I dont see any issues with muffler interference.  

Here's some pics.  

Stop, you're making me want to change my global west bats to these.

Joe I see it attachs to the Control arm bolt .... But whats the other bolt it attachs to? Or do you have to make that Hole ?

I think it goes from upper control arm bolt to lower control arm bolt.

Yes, the bar has a "cylinder" that the lower control arm bolt goes through. And its flat steel with a hole in it that simply goes over the upper control arm bolt. Its a precise fit.
BTW, the brake line on each side by the upper bolt had to be pulled down slightly so it didnt touch the support bar. Just fyi.

I can tell right away that those are NOT the bars he sent me 15 years ago.

Now that's how you support the rear cross member. Looks great.

I am glad I found this post and mentioned: "DickMillerRacing."

That's why in the other thread from 2013, I said they mount between the 2 bolts. Because that was the way I had seen them mounted. Apparently the global west ones were a different design.

Yes, bbmalibu, thanks for posting edit miller racing.  Very nice product.

And the forum adds the word "edit" when you use millers first name. Thats why I mentione him as dickmillerracing in my post. Pretty funny.

bracketchev1221 wrote:Apparently the global west ones were a different design.

I think the Global West support bar advertising is a little confusing.

"By installing rear adjustable supports from Global West Suspension, now you can add support between the upper frame cross-member and lower arms pivot point on any A-Body.".........True.

"Did you know? The factory used stamped brackets in the same location on many big block cars.".....Not our cars.

The Global West bars do not support the rear cross member, at most it adds support to the lower arm.

Anyone who installed the Global West bars (or anything not like joe73's pics) should strongly consider selling them on ebay and buying the DickMillerRacing support bars.

Though the global west ones are better than nothing. The miller bars that connect the upper and lower bolts is how it should be done. And I said before, you can weld a diagonal plate on the lower forward mount triangulating it to the frame. Rather than it looking like it was just glued to the side of the frame.

bracketchev1221 wrote:Though the global west ones are better than nothing.  The miller bars that connect the upper and lower bolts is how it should be done.  And I said before, you can weld a diagonal plate on the lower forward mount triangulating it to the frame.  Rather than it looking like it was just glued to the side of the frame.

I agree with welding that lower control arm mount. I've broken it more than once.

Real good thread.

I can add that I have been using the DMR suspension pieces since the late 90's. I have the full setup on my 10 sec '71 Monte and the upper arms and no-hops on my '70 chevelle.

Going to install the upper arms and no-hops on my '75 454 S3 as well. I just bought the global west bars not realizing they did not mount arm-to-arm.

have to think about that now...Great Thread