Covid..........like it is for everything........

 

china.....start and stop...

 

So everything is made in China?

 

feed stock for most…yes… thus why some are more affected then others ..
The dirty chemical manufacturing is off shore and limited here..

i bought 6 bags of river rocks from ace hardware…it was made in china. Rocks!
currency manipulation is real

 

It’s gotta be frustrating as heck for VS , finally got the VBP machine to make their own springs all ready to go and can’t get any raw materials

 

The other issue for plastic molders is that when they have customers with very specific recipes they can't be changed with other materials. Also smaller runs trying to get parts to as needed means more mold set up's that cost time and money. Big time cost increases all around for the end user.

 

Same with many grades of steel like that used for crankshafts...Ive read even Mercedes and BMW source their crankshafts from china these days. In part its also because there is no protections for the environment or the workers over there so its much much cheaper.

 

I think the technical aspects on the composite spring have been covered, so I'll just stick with my own experience. I have the Vansteel 360# spring cut 1" shorter and using QA1 single adjustable shocks. I find the 360 to be fine for street driving. I really like the QA1's adjustability. At their lowest setting I can manually bounce the rear end up and down 1 to 2 inches just using my arms (I'm 6' tall and 185 lb). At the highest setting I need to push hard enough to raise my feet off the ground to move it a quarter inch. So, as I progress through various changes I'm sure I'll find a preferred setting. And if I want to run a rally someday I may want to stiffen things up temporarily.

As for getting a 1" shorter spring, it was in my opinion a mistake. I did it to allow room for a larger rim some day. However, the shorter spring buys some room only for a 16 or 17 inch rim. The issue then is if you go larger it will likely be 17 or 18 inch. Then if you look at 17" tires you'll find very little selection. So, it's more likely you'll go to 18" At 18 inch the spring will now be inside the tire rim, the standard length spring will be fine.

Meanwhile, the shorter spring puts the bolt at a sharper angle which results in the bushings in the trailing arms being much more compressed on one side than the other. That alone is probably not a good situation, especially if using poly. Also, it raise the bolt head higher in the TA box making it a real PITA to get the anti-sway bar mounting plates into box between the bolt head and the top of the TA box. I am talking hammering the sucker. Concerning the bushings, I recommend rubber in this application. For what little we drive most of these cars, any durability gain from poly will take years to show itself. And even with the standard length spring, there is still some asymmetric loading on the bushing which the greater elasticity of rubber can better deal with IMHO.

 

I send an email to Van Steel to know their recommendation.
Thank you all for the info!

I'm feeling that the 330 will be good... We will see what they say.