Allright Guys (& Girls),

Wanting to rebuild the front suspension on my '81. My choices for bushings are rubber and polyurethane. Whats better? I need your feedback, thoughts, ideas and advice.

Thanks

  Depends if you want it original, or better.  I've heard some coplaints that poly bushings make more noise and squeks than rubber, they do last a lot longer than rubber ones,

Poly will wear longer and give somewhat better handling, but will give a harsher ride and be noisier. The poly bushings should be used in concert with a well thought out and equipped suspension system...shocks, springs, etc.

A lot depends on what you plan on doing with the car...pleasure driving, racing? Are you going to own it long term?

By and large, I think you're better off staying with oe type bushings...cheaper, easier to install and will last a long time with basic and regular maintenance.

  Hi, this is Flandy.  If you want the best go with a poly-graphite bushing.  It looks more like rubber, but the graphite tends to act as a lubricant, thus eliminating squeks and othe standard poly bushing noise

I rebuilt my suspension with poly.  Glad I made the switch!!  The ride isn't harsh at all in my opinion.  Feels a lot better than it did actually, but my stock rubber bushings were shot.  As far as noise... I don't notice any, but it would be a little tough to notice over the sidepipes! You can't go wrong either way, just depends on what you were looking for. 

I too went with poly.  I haven't noticed any noises but I too have side pipes.  I changed out the springs and did a complete front end makeover.  Tie rod ends, upper and lower "A" arm bushings, sway bar bushings, bottom out bumpers, ball joints etc.

It seriously tightened up the front end as all items were shot to begin with.  As Hokie said above, the ride isn't rough so much as tight.  if you move the wheel, you move the car.  It does seem to grip better.

Hope this helps.

I went with poly when rebuilding the suspension on "BIGBRRD".  Lubed everything as it was being put back together so hopefully that will keep it quiet for awhile.  Can't really speak to whether or not that has helped as the car has been at the body shop since June.  But it did stiffen up the ride some in the little bit of driving we did, noticed the cracks in the road more afterwards (more thumping).  But then the T/A's suspension was supposed to rival the Vette's so guess a firm ride is to be expected. 

I rebuilt my front suspension with rubber.  Poly all the way around seemed to harsh of a ride, when we installed them on a friends Vette. I did use poly on the sway bar brackets. Rear spring "donuts" are still rubber as well as the main cross member for the rear housing to the upper frame. The one thing that did make a difference was to put an aluminum disk in place of the rubber bushing. This is the bracket that connects to the frame above the pinion of the rear.

Thanks for the input. I guess I have a decision to make. Does any particular vendors products stand out from the others?

One thing I do know is I do plan on keeping it a long, long time.