quote:What is involved in taking off the suspention and replacing with a modern material? Will I need special tools? Will it affect ride quality?
Removing old rubber bushings is not easy. That will be the worst part. I think there is a article on this at Mike Dailey's http://www.panterplace.com site.
Just standard tools should be all you need.
Stock rubber replacements are available, but $$$. I have the graphite/poly bushings from Dennis Quella and have no squeaks nor a rough ride. Dennis's installation involves drilling and tapping for a zerk fitting at each bushing so you can continue to lube them as the years go by. You could do the same at home very easily; loose zerks are at any parts house.
I would suggest you look into sphere balls for the sway bar mounts on the a-arms(Quella has a new recessed bolt head style, or the tried and true units from Hall). These really free up the sway bars to work as intended. $50-$100 each at the vendors, you'll need four. And if you still have the stock steel strap bushing mounts for the four chassis mounting points for the sway bars, think about getting billet aluminum replacements. The stock steel strap units, especially the fronts, are well known to break. The same units are used on the a-arm mounts, but they don't seem to be the ones breaking. The billets are really not seen up front, but the rears hang out for all to see. Buy basic plain aluminum units and take the rear two to a local polisher; should cost no more than $20-$30 for the two. Cheaper than having the vendors polish them ;-)
A good winter project.
Larry