Gabriel

iTrader: (6)

I'm looking into getting some springs soon and had a question. I like the look of f-bodies whose rear ends sit just a bit higher than the front. There's a few cars on here that look like that and I think it looks great. I was wondering if it would be a good idea to mix the front and rear springs up to get this look. I don't want to go too low, and I will probably keep the stock shocks until I can afford some good ones. Would BMR fronts and Eibach rears be a good choice? Or maybe BMR fronts and keep the rear stock? What would look good and still handle well with stock shocks?

IMJ

iTrader: (1)

I would look into some dms springs they drop the front about 1.3 in and the back 1 in and they look sort of like what you are looking for.

OldeSkool

You can get Koni SA's.. they have a lower perch that allows you to drop the front with stock springs... you get a bit of a rake, you dont skimp out on shocks (which are not something that you should skimp out on) and you'll have the proper shocks for whatever springs you may decide to get later.

jimmyblue

iTrader: (11)

Hotchkiss F/R made mine look like it was dragging ***
a little. Hotchkiss F and stock R, w/ heater hose and
lose the donuts, put a proper rake to it IMO. No pic
handy. Substituting air shocks out back makes it all
adjustable, if your "natural" rake is back-end-low.

Gabriel

iTrader: (6)

IMJ, I tried looking for the DMS springs (Google), but their website wasn't very helpful. I couldn't even see how much they were or what size etc. they had. Did you get them somewhere else? OldeSkool, Konis may be a little too pricey for me right now. And Jimmyblue, I read and reread your post but I confused. You have hotchkis front and rear springs or fronts only? Thanks for the help so far guys.

kyles2000z

iTrader: (8)

you can also put a spacer in the rear springs to raise them up however much ya need to.

DONAIMIAN

iTrader: (18)

Your description screams coil overs.

jargan04

iTrader: (1)

OldeSkool

except that he said Koni's are a bit much...

NotSoStock99TA

I'm running BMR springs up front w/monroe struts and stock springs out back (b/c the BMR's were too soft and let the axle hit) w/Tokiko adjustables. Pretty sick rake to my ride, but the rear does sit at stock height, so if you are trying to get rid of wheel/fender gap then maybe you could do the garden hose mod on the rear springs to drop it about 3/4". Some advice tho...don't skimp on shocks...they are very important if you want good handling...I would wait to get the whole setup at once so you don't have to reapeat steps and kill your ride w/the stock shocks.

Gabriel

iTrader: (6)

Do you have a link to a walk through on the garden hose mod? Search is down...

Gabriel

iTrader: (6)

What about just cutting the stock springs? They match well with the stock shocks and I would still get a lower COG. Have people done that? Is it advisable? All I really want it for is appearance and slightly better handling, not looking for a miracle...

DONAIMIAN

iTrader: (18)

Revalved bilsiens are always an option. Some dont like them as much as the koni's, but it is an option.

Powered By V8

iTrader: (2)

Speaking of revalved bilstiens, and they the next best bet to koni's (cost wise)?

DONAIMIAN

iTrader: (18)

I belive so. Im waiting on a set of stock shocks to drive around on so I can send my bilsteins off to bilstein to get the work done on them. I plan on running them with Ground Controls.

Sam Strano

iTrader: (41)

Not really.... stock shocks are pretty poor to start with and really don't match near as well as they should. HD's would have been a perfect stock shock (which incidentially is why you shouldn't use them with lowering springs!). Anyway, when you cut springs, you stiffen them in relation to what you cut. If it's 10 coils to a spring, and you cut one full one off, you just made it 10% stiffer. And of course you shortened the length of travel the shock has to do it's damping it.

To summarize. Stock shocks lack rebound control to start with. Cutting springs raises the rate, making the damping worse. Cutting the springs shortens the travel, making the damping worse.

And we are talking very small changes in the Cg.... It's not worth messing up the suspension over. For that matter, I have coil-overs on my autocross car. I don't run it low at all. I'd be nice for Cg, but going very low on this car leaves you with next to no suspension travel.

Sam Strano

iTrader: (41)

How good revalves are is dependent on what's being done to them. When I do Revalves, I consider the package, the use, what settings I'd run if the car had Koni's, as well as the low and high speed damper forces. While anyone can have a shock revalved "stiffer", that's a generic term and doesn't mean all revalves are the same. Far from it.

I've done the math, and I no longer get involved with used shocks. Too much trouble, and what I found what by the time a customer removes his old shocks, reinstalls others, ships to and from, pays for Revalving it's actually *more cost effective* to buy new ones, and have your old HD's or SLP's left to sell. The car is not laid up waiting for the shocks, you get shocks valved with much more detail because it's someone who does it for *your* car, and understands *your* car vs. a guy who just works @ Bilstein who is a generic tech. They do good work, I have them do the work, but I supply the damping rates and one thing I tend to do it bump the low-speed rebound in front to give quicker response and slower pitch and roll, which is different from most standard revalves that only add high-speed. Also, I use a ready built, appropriately valved rear shock which costs less than revalving a 4th gen HD rear.

Sam Strano

iTrader: (41)

Last post, but I just recalled something important.....

Before I started, revalving Bilstein's was not done for this car. SLP's are not so much revalves as just an alternate valving (one size fits all, meant for a specific spring). I did it for one simple reason: We needed more control then HD's can offer, and Koni's are out of some folks budgets, or beyond their wants. I do revalving to offer bang-for-the buck performance. Nothing more, and nothing less. Like everything I do, I don't do the valving rates half-assed, and ask a lot of questions to determine the valving we want.

I just wanted to point out how and why "revalves" came about, and that they are not some generic valving work, but each set is specific to the car and use. Even if two folks call me with all the same parts, they could get different valving rates based on the type of driving they do. FWIW

And no, you should not mix springs unless you know the rates, the heights and how they interact. You can if you are really knowledgable about springs and have tried mixing and matching rates before and seeing what happens. Most folks haven't and don't understand. Unless there is a specific reason, do not mix and match springs. It's a bad idea.