Is the Van Steel complete assembly actually worth the money difference over CSSB complete assembly price? The Corvette guys in Wisconsin also had a substantially lower price than the VS, any thoughts? I am going to do the complete assembly so I am not interested in the do it yourself advice. I have my reasons for it, one being that the PO of my car gutted the e-brake assembly so kind of a two bird with one stone deal for me. Any advice will be appreciated. Oh yes, 1968 427/390 4spd coupe.

 

I bought the rebuilt ones from vtec, they were way nicer than I could have done. I think they were ~$325 exchange with powder coating, new e-brakes, and studs a few years ago for my 77. Jim does good work and can rebuild yours if want to keep them. Don't forget shims, bolts, and the giant cotter pin.

 

I will check them out

 

I have had both of my trailing arms rebuilt by Van Steel. They might be a bit more expensive but their quality is second to no-one. They gave me the "Million Mile Warranty" when I had both trailing arms rebuilt. They also rebuilt several other parts for me and they did splendid work on everything they touched. They are very detail oriented and did a great job rebuilding the trailing arms.

When buying new shims for your Corvette be sure they are the ones made of Stainless Steel so they don't "Rust in Place" or together. I bought two sets and made the alignment technician VERY happy. He pulled the chunks of rusted together original shims and was very glad he did not have to re-use any of the original shims. He reset my Pumpkin and got it where it was supposed to be. He pulled all the shims and started the process all over from the beginning and the result was the best handling C3 it had ever been.

The very first thing I fixed on my C3 was the "Emergency brake". I will not drive my Corvette without a working e-brake. My Master Cylinder "froze" in position while I was cruising home at 70+ mph. It was like there was a brick under the brake pedal. Had it not been for the four speed it could have been ugly but I drove the rest of the way home using the gears and E-brake.

 

Not sure where your located,,, Bear,s in Pennsylvania, near the Ohio boarder have a very good reputation,, prices are on their website, along with all the corvette services offered,,,

 

That would be Bairs. They are very good and good to work with.

 

I bought a pair of new trailing arms from Corvette Mods a few months back and they are very high quality......$400 for the pair.
https://www.corvettemods.com/C3-Corv....html?pid=6564

I had to carefully slice the weld for the park brake cable bracket and weld it on top.......I then touched it up with POR 15......you can barely tell.

Jebby

 

looking for the complete assemblies, not interested in building them out right now, thanks

 

Ah….I see that now.
But the bearing pack on these is a fairly precise setup and few know how to do it correctly and the GM spec for bearing endplay is too loose.
Van Steel is a top notch outfit with a rep to uphold….so if the price is substantially higher….I am going to tell you there is a reason for that.
Of course there are a lot of guys in a garage that can set them up proper for way less….just have to find them.
I do not see how anyone can rebuild these for $325 each…..as mentioned above.

Jebby

 

Van Steel is $409 per side plus shipping both ways so in todays upside down world you might need to double that. Find the closest vendor to your location that provides this service to keep your shipping cost down.

 

Closer to $1100 per side when ordered as complete units

 

https://www.ecklerscorvette.com/1965...cid=b1k5_p0z6w

In the notes you'll see these are built by Van Steel

 

yes I saw that, as I put in my original post I want the complete units. I want them on hand before I take my car apart. Not interested in having my parts sent across country and waiting for god knows how long to get them back. Looking to do a straight swap out.

 

I can't say anything about driving the car with them yet, but I purchased the coil over rear setup with new trailing arms and heim joint struts from Van Steel couple months ago. I have the drivers side done and the passenger side in work. I am in at $3K. Very nice stuff. I also am rebuilding rear calipers and changed the rubber brake lines as well as the hard caliper lines. I have not pushed to hard to complete as other honey do house things get attention also. I found other problems in my 1975 coupe brake system and had to change the master cyl, both hard lines from master to distribution block, and a left front block to wheel line. I picked up the Motive power bleeder to use when I get to the point of bleeding. So far the Van Steel parts fit great and no issues with assembly.