Hi,
i am still restoring my 68 convertible corvette. I have to change my shock absorber but I don’t know what is the best choice for me. I don’t want a race car but comfortable and a good handling. I heard that bilstein seems to be too hard and the car could « jump » a little bit. koni classic seems to be a good solution.
What could you advise to me ? Where can I buy them at the best price ?
Thank you.

 

Get the Bilstein HD, not the Sport. Not as firm.
https://www.topflightautomotive.com/...AaAvU8EALw_wcB

 

I went with the adjustable Koni Classics.
The car rides and handles great.
The only drawback is you have to take them off to adjust the rebound rate.

Craig

 

Here is the hd bilstein in action pot holes and all. they are not stiff and this is with gymkhana spring..
be aware though they are made in mx now..i would look at others made in USA if i did it again..

 

What about QA1 shock absorbers? They are adjustable. There's two small ***** at the base. Each has 6 settings. One **** allows you to vary the damping of the compression stroke and likewise, the other **** for the rebound stroke. The composite transverse spring on my 68 gives it a case of bouncy butt with the current Bilstein shock absorbers. Been thinking about getting the QA1's for the rear and stiffening up the shock on the rebound stroke. They are a little pricey. Anyone with QA1 experience?

 

You will have to trim the lower control arm for the adjuster with qa1 shock.

 

I have QA1 coil-overs up front, no trimming but I did need to run a slightly larger bit through the holes. Adjustable ride height is nice.

 

QA1 shocks are great. If I were you I would get rid of that composite rear spring and go back to a stock 9 leaf. I have been down your road before and you will appreciate it.

 

Why would you ditch the composite? I thought that was an upgrade.

 

Just installed qa1 single adjustable shocks along with Van Steel 360 lb composite spring. Previous owner had an incorrect nine leaf spring installed. The car sat an inch too high with 8-in bolts and was still incredibly soft. So I had to replace it anyway, and for a similar price the composite is 30 something pounds lighter. The new spring is definitely stiffer, but I have to say not much different driving down the road then my wife's Mazda cx-5. No clearance issues with adjuster *****. Sorry for the lousy photo.

 

I went with KYB. Last shock absorber I will ever need given I don't drive it as much. At the time I had the front suspension rebuilt years ago, I went with a cheaper set of Gabriel. The KYBs just ride better in my opinion. At the time, they were not too expensive. Now, not so cheap price.

 

Thanks for your answers. Actually, I hesitate between koni classics and Bilstein B6. Rock auto sells the B6 but I don’t know if they are sport or HD.

 

Also looking at those. I believe the B6 are the HD and the B8 are the sport. If you go to the Bilstein website it has a short description of both.

 

All it ever did for me was give me a very bounce ride to the point when driving hard it felt like you could lose control.
Also for the coil overs you have to reinforce the shock mount or they will crack. You are putting about 750 lbs. on the shock mounts when replacing the springs and they were not designed for that and you are now carrying everything on the coil overs. Remember you are replacing the spring with the shock and asking the coil overs to do the job of both the spring and shock. You better be really good a tuning the suspension to get it right. You are tuning not just the shocks but the spring rates you have replaced. Many people buy into these “catalog engineered” parts that are seldom “right” for their car. GM had a team of engineers that designed these cars back in the day that knew what they were doing. The best thing you can do to a midyear is to get better rubber under them with good shocks and a sport alignment. Back in the day we flared the fenders for bigger tires but with the improvements in tire technology today that is not necessary. When the C4s came out and every body raved about how much better they handled it was all about the superior tires. The basic suspension was still the same as midyears only some lighter components AND a composite rear spring BUT it was ENGINEERED for that car. Buy the aftermarket “fits all” composite spring means your going to have to fool around with spring to get it right, a lot of trial and error and knowing what your doing and frankly most guys don’t.
Over the last 50 plus years I have learned the hard way, spent a lot of money that was wasted. How many of you guys remember when polyurethane bushings were all the rag? Then we had squeaky cars that later had a bunch of dried out disintegrated bushing falling on of our suspension. Yeah, I was one of the suckers. These days it is getting hard to find GOOD rubber. Make sure you use Moog parts for that.

 

I put a Mono Spring on my car almost 30 years ago. Best modification I have ever done to the car, OK maybe the spreader bar Is a better bang for the buck.
Yes, True if you run the wrong shock it will be bouncy. But set up correctly. Huge improvement over stock.
And Yes I run energy suspension poly bushings in a number of places on my car. And yes my front sway bar end link bushings just started to crack.
So I replaced them just the other day. But hang on. they lasted 20 years! I put rubber bushings in the rear on my spring ends. Lasted less than 5 years.
Guess what, Nolethane Bushings in there now!
Everyone has a opinion.

 

Uh, have you seen the engineering decisions GM made during those days? These are not the pinnacle of good engineering. Besides that, suspension and particularly shock technology has come lightyears ahead since then.

Anyway, surprised to see no one mention Ridetech's single adjustable shocks. They are made by Fox, come with a substantial warranty, and are widely regarded as excellent. They're adjustable on car, unlike the Konis and are a monotube, unlike the Koni.

 

I must agree. They were designed over 60 years ago with compromised to suit the widest variety of drivers. Now we can customize them to sui t he individual owner's taste/driving habits. I don't really care about ride comfort or handling, looks are the big factor for me. I went with the coil-overs so I can (fairly) easily adjust ride height to fill the wheelwells with whatever size wheel/tire I have on the car at a given time; I have about a half dozen different sets of wheels that will have different size tires.

 

If you still have the stock spring(s) on your 68, just do the KYBs if you’re just driving it on the street. I get mine through Rock Auto.

 

What you are saying is correct for a true coil-over. But the semi coil-overs with the beehive style springs keep the spring force in the original frame pocket.
To be fair though, I don't think there are as many choices for springs with that beehive setup, compared to a true coil-over.

 

That's what I have up front, semi-coilover.