anemonarium

I recently got new 18x9.5 wheels for my 99 'zam with 80k, and I have a little 4x4 effect going on (i think). To further complicate things, my rear passenger shock sounds like a ghost pirate ship. I frequent pot hole/rough roads.

So i'm looking at shock setups to buy and I cant make up my mind. I have about 300-400 dollars allocated in my stagnant car-fund. Here are the options, maybe c=someone can help me.

1. Buy bilsteins for all fours, stock springs, call it a day. More of a preventive maintenance option i guess?

2. Buy two of the koni sport rears for 100 a piece, in preparation for possibly lowering later on. Fixes the rear noise, but chances are I wont have money for koni fronts because they are ridiculously expensive.

3. Find some other cheaper shocks that have a lower spring perch like the koni fronts, and use the heater hose mod to lower the car 3/4". People hate anything other than bilstein/koni so i might get yelled at, but I dont take it on the track so anything better than decarbons...

Does anyone have suggestions or solutions? Something to kill two birds with one stone on my budget?

Here is a pic, lemme know what you think. The car is dirty in the pic because it was raining for a week straight before I took it.

VinR1

iTrader: (17)

Bilsteins and cut your stock springs - theres a thread full of pics in this same section

anemonarium

Im afraid to cut them, a lot of people say it handles like **** when you do. Enough to not consider it from my perspective... I'm open to it though. Since i'm on a budget I cant be picky i guess.

Another thing I was thinking about was that if I got the rears only I wouldn't have to hassle with getting a panhead bar and an alignment. Damn this is adding up quick.

z28bryan

iTrader: (7)

If your thinking of ever possibly going with lowering springs in the future then I definitely recommend konis.

anemonarium

Do you guys think there is way too much wheel gap? Sometimes I look at it and think it's ok in person but this picture looks like a 4x4. If the concensus is that it's not that bad i might just get bilstiens or rock the rear konis.

Honestly with the koni sale, the rears off car adjust are pretty cheap...

emspitfire

this is completely off topic but really like the wheels. what brand are they?

anemonarium

OEWheels c6 z06 replicas, brushed face/black interior. I like the deep dish chromes a little better but these were cheaper and black on red is sweet.

the impaler

I think your car sits fine, it's nice to have some suspension travel when you drive on the street.
I put bilsteins on my car and the difference from the stock shocks was unbelievable. The car drove like an old truck before, and fantastic afterward!

anemonarium

Thanks impaler, i think you are right. Since i drive on terrible roads the little extra clearance is a good thing.

I went ahead and ordered the bilstein HD set from ws6store. They were the cheapest option and had free shipping.

I woke up and realized that 700+ dollars to lower the car 1" for daily driving is retarded. I could spend that money on subframe connectors or get headers installed...

the impaler

that's pretty much the same conclusion I came to. The ws6store has a great deal on those shocks! I got mine abut a month ago.

JD_AMG

Depends on what you are going for, but honestly SFC's or headers wont make anywhere NEAR a difference that good shocks (none the less good shock/spring combo) will make.
I have LT headers and 3 point SFCs, neither made even a small fraction of a difference that Konis made on my car.

anemonarium

I meant that bilsteins with stock springs + headers or SFCs > the extra costs of lowering properly with konis and supporting mods. Or to better word it, spend the DIFFERENCE of bilsteins and koni/panhardbar on vroom mods.

That's the way I see it from my particular perspective. Just trying to get the most out of my small budget is all!