Traction bars

[whitetop]

Chevyandpontiac

If you want to be extra correct the original nuts on the hardware for Lakewood bars were black phosphate.

[Spooky]

Looks like Drag Dimensions bars, but I don't know the application

[NorCam]

Just finished restoring the Lakewood bars for my Nova. They turned out nice as did the original hardware which I had to strip a few coats of paint off to clean it up. Bars are mounted back onto the car now and look great. I used T-bolts on the front holes and the original J-bars in the back two holes.


T-Bolts and Lock Nuts used for the front 2 mounting holes on main spring pad.


Bars completely restored with original hardware cleaned up and threads chased.


Loosely installing the bars before loading weight back onto the suspension


Both bars are reinstalled with wheels and tires back onto the car. Minor adjustments will be needed once the car is completely loaded down with weight.


The finished look after reinstalling the Lakewoods. The newer water slide decals are a nice finishing touch.

[HawkX66]

I'm replacing the yellow Lakewoods with the black J-Bolt ones. My black ones look a little different than all the others that have the extension going out behind the axle. Also, mine have a different plate welded on for the front j-bolts. Are these any better or worse performance wise? I don't have anything on it right now and I'm sick of the wheel hop and having to get out of it... Once I weld a new shock mount on for the driver side I'll paint them and get them on there.

edit: Looks like they're Competition Engineering

[NorCam]

Bought this cool pair of old square Lakewood's from Tim S. a couple years ago for use on my 69 but have since decided to keep it stock. I got busy on the bars yesterday after blasting them clean, filling in some light pitting and gave them a couple coats of paint. I'm going to sand and finish spraying them today and will trim a better set of snubbers for them once I find my stash. Also need to order another set of Traction Action decals to finish them off. Next up today is chasing the threads on the original set of J-Bars and cleaning all the nuts which are now soaking in evapo-rust. More on these when they're finished up in the coming week. I will be listing these for sale in the classifieds once they are complete. These are not an easy set of bars to find these days and were only made for a couple years in 68/69 if I'm correct. I was lead to believe the rectangular bars started appearing in 1970.

I've also got a pair of the longer rectangular Lakewood's from the early 70's period complete with NOS hardware that I am considering making available once these are done. More on those later.

[bbbentley]

Did the earliest Lakewood Traction Actions come in white?
Reply #351 of this thread shows Jenkin’s G.T. With white bars. I have a set of early bars and when I stripped them, there is evidence the bars started out white. There is no yellow anywhere. Thanks sYc

And...the earliest bars show the J bolt going through a thick piece of bar stock that is twisted & welded to the bar, opposed to the angle iron that a saddle goes up against. I would like a little history and dating. Mine have the twisted bar stock as shown in post #392 of this thread. ( that catalog is apoarently from 73 based on application chart at bottom of the page?)

[L_e_e]

Anybody recognize these?, installed on a 2nd Gen Camaro.
Kind of unique with the main tube being trapezoid rather than square or rectangle and the original color appears to have been orange.

[LS7]

I believe those are made by Ansen.

[bbbentley]

Did the earliest Lakewood Traction Actions come in white?
Reply #351 of this thread shows Jenkin’s G.T. With white bars. I have a set of early bars and when I stripped them, there is evidence the bars started out white. There is no yellow anywhere. Thanks sYc

And...the earliest bars show the J bolt going through a thick piece of bar stock that is twisted & welded to the bar, opposed to the angle iron that a saddle goes up against. I would like a little history and dating. Mine have the twisted bar stock as shown in post #392 of this thread. ( that catalog is apoarently from 73 based on application chart at bottom of the page?)

[chevyandpontiac]

Those are ansen, here is a picture of them