Since I no longer have a place to actually do it myself I've had to resort to paying a place to do it. I was recommended to Big O Tires which is right next to where I work, so it's rather convenient. They estimated $350 with alignment, this seems rather low. This is everything included in the vansteel poly rebuild kit.

 

Thats a damn good deal. does that include the tie rods too?

I am having a mechanic friend do it and he is charging me 30/hr. With tie rods and new power steering I think its going to be close to 300.

Of course its been like a month now car is apart in my garage. You won't have that problem at a shop.

 

I'm just wondering if that estimate sounds a bit low. I remember back awhile ago and called the shop I USED (they backed up next to a pole, scratched the paint and the place that fixed the paint didn't do a very good clean up job and ended up screwing up my sidepipe heatshields) to go to and they wanted like nearly $1000 to do the front end rebuild. Is 3 hours really feasible for upper and lower ball joints, upper and lower control arm bushings, outter and inner tie rod ends and the idler arm? I imagine the tie rods would basically be part of the alignment process anyways.

This was just a phone estimate and I want to have it done before saturday for autocross.

 

Getting ready to have it done myself...I have all the parts on hand, ~4 hours labor = ~$300. Seems like a steal if they're including the parts too

 

Sounds like the plan is to get you in there and "Oh, by the way, it will take more time = more $$"
It is a Lot of work to get the control arms off, cleaned up, new bushings and reinstalled. The Tie Rods are a piece of cake on a lift. I would get that price in writing with a detail on what exactly they are doing.
Seems Way low to me

 

not necessarily, if they have a guy that knows what he is doing
and has all the right tools i believe it can be done in 3 hours without a problem especially with an assistant which most of these places now
have a gopher type position at their disposal.

 

A skilled technician working in a well equipped shop with an assistant at his disposal can do this in a few hours......................
However, I would ask for a written estimate detailing exactly what they will do so there are no "oh by the ways!"

 

I would find it hard to believe someone could do it in 3 hours. Even if they could, they would bill for 6 hours. A shop that does this for a living could do it in 1/3 the time as most of us.The A-frames have to come off to change bushings. The right upper is the worst. Either the shroud has to come out or the stud. If they are willing to do it for $300, then let them do it. I would assume they are thinking 6 hours at $50 per hour.

 

I'd watch them do the work!

Back when I lived in Calif.. I had Big-O do my GTO. They didn't grease the left front bearings, and I ended up almost trashing my spindle on the way to Reno. The Reno Big-O called California (Vallejo) and got it fixed correctly - No charge.

I do miss Big-O Bigfoot tires!

 

Hah so I went and dropped it off there today. I knew that phone estimate was wayyyy off. It's $80 an hour for labor here and I brought my own vansteel parts. They gave me a rough estimate of maybe 8 hours, probably less. I think I forgot to mention the control arm bushings over the phone to the other guy yesterday and that's probably where he figured like 3 hours or so. Ball joints and tie rods are easy and that's probably why he figured that.

I'm going to check it over real good before I leave the parking lot with it. Hopefully it'll be done soon.

 

uh huh

 

Well good news and bad news, essentially. Good news is they're not trying to push it out as fast as they can, which means they're doing it right. Bad news is they won't be done with it until tomorrow. Price stays at $640 regardless, though. In all honesty I think that's a fair price, as long as they do it right. I still wish I could have done it myself, but until someone buys that damn 55" TV sitting in the garage and we throw away a ton of crap I won't have a place to work on it myself.

Speaking of which, anyone want a 3 year old 55" Phillips big screen? It just had the masterboard and speakers replaced and has a good picture. We'll take $500 for it...

 

Little update, not done yet. The super elite pro dude (I forget what exactly they called him) had to leave early or something today so only the minions with only simple mechanic skills were around. It's mostly done, just the idler arm needs to be bolted up and then needs to be aligned. I did a close inspection of all of the bushings, tie rods, and ball joints and it all looks excellent. They actually followed some of the directions from the Corvette fever article I had printed up and left in the box with the parts. They're going to finish the alignment and such tomorrow when the big pro specialist guy is in. Since they're doing a rather decent job I may let them go ahead and install my new aluminum radiator for me, while they're at it.

One thing I've figured out, though, the retard previous owner replaced the nice fiberglas spring with a stupid 9 leaf steel spring. I never had a chance to really look at it before because I've never had it on a lift in front of me. One of the many things I'll have to change.

 

I just ordered the $153 (rubber) on sale kit. Didn't think about having someone else do it... but gee, what a GREAT idea!!

 

Glad it's working out for you...do you have a copy (or link?) of this article? I'll be taking mine in next week and it would be nice to have some extra details. Soon as all the parts come from VB&P I'll be stylin'. $640 was your final price for the suspension work/alignment?

Thanks loads,
Steve

 

You might consider a Guldstrand 7 leaf...1 1/2" shorter than stock...works great on the 69....

 

Nah I prefer composite or the original fiberglas. Not a fan of steel springs, actually.

Another update, I went ahead and let them put the radiator in for me and it turns out that the Northern Factory radiator is not a direct drop in fit. It's about 1/4" thicker and the upper radiator hose is a bit wider. Basically the stock upper brackets don't work for it but the bottom ones do and it CAN fit with few modifications. Basically they're going to adjust the upper brackets and cut out a little bit of the rubber lining stuff so it'll sit in tight. They originally figured an hour to put it in but now it'll be a little more costly because of the fabbing needed to be done. Not a big deal, since the guy doing the work is a hot rodder and seems to take pride in his work.

Price for the suspension was $640 for installing and comes with the alignment. This was at a Big O down the street from me. It may be less at other places because san diego shops charge a lot more for labor.


Here's the tech article on the front suspension rebuild of C3s. http://www.corvettefever.com/howto/39038/

 

Kalway, I had my front end done back in Jan by a local frame shop with a great reputation here in Houston. They do lots of customs etc. They charged me 9.0 hrs of labor to install bushings, all ball joints, idler arm. That came out to $585 in labor. Then they charged me $225 to spread the crossmember (sagging from weight). Then $99 for a 4 whl alignment. Roughly $900+ in labor once you add it up.

They may have ripped me some but, I was confident in their ability so I paid it. All in all, it cost me $1500 once I bought bushings/ball joints/idler arm/4 shocks. BUT the car drives really nice and its straight as an arrow. My only complaint is the slop in the steering cylinder or gear box, one of the two has slack in it right in the middle. I used stock bushings and KYB shocks..

 

Wowza! I paid like $200 for my parts from vansteel (poly rebuild kit) and the $640 for the install and alignment. I also paid $308 for my radiator and it's probably going to cost ~$100 for it to be installed. So for under $1300 I've got my whole front suspension rebuilt and aligned and have an aluminum radiator in. Not bad I guess. Wow all that money adds up quick, though. I installed the KYB Gas-a-justs myself a few months back so those are already good to go.

Can't wait for tomorrow, though! Autocross shall be fun with the new bushings.

 

So I got the car back today. New northern radiator and the vansteel poly bushings are in the front end. MUCH better ride now. The engine is MUCH cooler with the new radiator, too. The thermostat doesn't even open all the way now. Temp guage barely reaches 180 and usually sits around the 170 area now, even while hot rodding it down a wide road. The real test for it is tomorrow at autocross. We'll see how it holds up when it's revved hard in first gear all day on hot asphault.

Going through bumps and such now no longer makes my want to grind my teeth. The front end's alignment is pretty much dead on and the back is about close as it can get with the shape it's in. The rear was already pretty close, though, since it was aligned only a year and a half ago. The right rear still has about .05" toe out I believe but what do expect for 25 year old suspension? Got out for like $812 in labor for all of that work and I looked it over real close before taking it out and made sure they test drove it also before I left with it.

Only thing I want them to double check tomorrow morning, when I bring it back, is the brakes feel like they have a bit more travel than before. It used to be the brake pedal was real firm and you barely touched it to get them to apply. Now it feels a bit more like my girlfriend's focus and has more travel. I'm guessing that they might have fixed a previous brake issue in the process of fixing the suspension but I want to double check and make sure there isn't any air in the system now. Anyone else have rather long brake pedal travel?