I got an 84 camaro and i was wondering, whats shocks and springs i should go with. i usally drive hard and take corners hard, so what would be best for my kinda driving?


thx

 

I too focus more on cornering and have found urethane end links on the sway bars to be HUGE in helping the car stay flat. The best thing is you can do front and back for $25.00 and install them in twenty minutes. I would bet that you would see far greater handling gains by investing your spring/shock budget in some 16 or 17 inch wheels with new sticky rubber. Best bangs for your buck but its your money.

 

Subframe connectors, STB, good shocks/struts, poly bushings all around, bigger swaybars, upgrading all your supention parts, better tires, roll cage.

 

Speaking of Bilsteins... Anyone know where to buy them cheap? Or Koni's?

 

They pop up on ebay from time to time.

These don't look too bad.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=2469467763

 

Yeah I know of some Rice drivers around here using these and they don't seem great to me as a passenger anyway. Actually a friend of mines younger brother put the Tokico cheapo kit on his SiR and I think it handled worse than stock but you can't tell these youngsters anything these days... especially anything that has such a nice box lol.

 

for now, leave the springs, stock... in most cars the biggest diff you will see is with shocks, sway bars, and tires. with thirdgens, because of the flexy chassis, you have to add wonderbar, a STB and SFCs to that list.

assuming you have the basic braces that every thirdgen owner should have, first thing i would do is decient shocks... after that, you can skip right to the aftermarket swaybars if you're serious... if you only want good, and not great cornering, then the factory IROC or WS6 bar sets are ok. use poly bushings on the arms.

lowering the car from a performance HANDLING perspective creates its own problems.. you'll probly want LCA relocation brackets if you lower it with springs so you have more bite coming out of the corner.... you'll want a bump steer kit, and a full length TQ arm that you can adjust the pinion angle with.

as far as tire size, 16 or 17 inch is good... 16 is a cheap option since you can just get later 3rdgen rims... 17 is about ideal... YES there is somthing as to large of a wheel.. you do want some sidewall... not to mention, the rotational weight (thing gyroscopic force) of the larger rims is greater....
if i could pick any size, 17x9.5 rims for the front, 17x11s for the rear.. if you're doing autoX with its ultra tight corners, you might want to drop that to 17x10 or just 9.5s all around so you can rotate tires.

so my order would be:
get the chassis at a stable state: SFCs, wonderbar, STB.
get the shocks upto snuff: if they're new then skip and go back to it.. if they're worn, fix now.
get some swaybars and poly endlinks.: will make the largest diff next to shock/struts

 

Shocks up to snuff sounds great but what shocks meet your snuff rating. I am in need here and need an affordable option

 

note(i dont want to type shock/struts a billion times so just assume i mean both)

how much do you have to spend, and what condition are your shocks/struts in now?



if you have 120k on your car, and your running the orignal GMs, and you only have $20, i say go buy the $9.99 red ryder specials from autozone.

if you have good(not worn) standard replacement shocks\struts, and only have $20, i say wait a lil while and move on to other things..

meanwhile if you have some money, but it would take forever to save more, and you need shocks now, get some KYBs...

if you have the cash, Bilsteins or konis...


tell me what your situation is, and we can work out your best option

 

Well the situation is I used to make great money in advertising but work has dried up so I have to be cautious with the funds but I love my cars very much and have already exhausted this years "play dough" so to speak on upgrading the brakes and new rubber. I bought C5 front brakes and 99 LS1 rears to put on my 87 that I have already done considerable mods to. I want Koni yellows but I think I may have to ride it out this year on my crappy monroes and replace the rears with perhaps the same as the factory Bilstein rears are toast. I was kind of hoping for the unknown white knight cheapo that works well but perhaps I am asking for too much. I was trying to find some on ebay but I have not found anything that seems to be a bargain because in this case thats what it will have to be. How about the de carbon shocks from 4th gens? Any good? Thanks.

 

*Forgets about tokico shocks.
Thanks

 

Don't want to hijack the thread, but does anyone know of a good, affordable STB for a carbed engine? i see a ton of "cheap" STBs but they're for TPI cars.

If I'm doing a really budget-oriented rebuild of my suspension, is the strut tower brace going to make THAT big of a difference? Or should I put that money elsewhere?

 

I think most would recommend doing SFC first.

 

Agreed. SFC and wonderbar then STB. I used Southside connectors but after buying them it would be a breeze to fab your own out of 2x4 inch rectangle tubing. These style stich weld into the rocker panels the whole length of the car so the improvement is much better than pt to pt style.

 

Subframes and wonderbar are in the mail already. Hehe.