The VBP 420lb rear composite monospring came in today and was installed today :) . The installation took less than an hour as I have had the leaf spring out numerous times before. The stock 9 leaf spring is actually a lot harder to remove and install than the VBP 420lb monospring. The reason being that the 9 leaf spring has a lot more of an arch to it.

I weighed the stock GM 9 leaf spring and it weighed in at 38lbs. The VBP 420lb spring weighed in at a modest 7lbs! That was an easy 31lbs shaved off of my car.

The weather is really rainy today, so I haven't been able to drive the car. The next nice day I plan on taking it back out and putting shoe polish on the snubbers and making a few hard launches. I want to see if the snubbers still contact the trailing arms...if not, I'm good to go drag racing.

My car now weighs about 3200lbs without me in it. If everything is good whenever I test the car out, I'm going to make a trip to the track this Thursday or Saturday shooting for 11s. I'll keep you guys updated.

P.S. The girlfriend is at classes until 9:00, that's pretty much the only reason it got installed. Otherwise I'd have been with her and the spring would have layed up in the garage until I found time :) .


[Modified by bence13_33, 6:19 PM 6/3/2003]

 

Let us know how It works out. I'm looking at changing my 7 leaf to fiberglass.
I weighted my spring one time I only came up with 28lbs.
My spring Is aftermarket.

 

Glenn:
I weighed the 9 leaf spring and composite spring on an everyday house scale...so I am not sure as to how accurate this method is. My spring definitely feels like it weighs 38lbs. The spring is the original one to my car from 1976.

 

Did you notice any increase in rear end height? After I put in my new spring, I noticed about an inch and a half of increased height. :nonod:

I think, hope, that the longer bolts will lower it back to normal.. :hurray:

 

I honestly couldn't really tell. I have 28" slicks on the back that make the rear sit up a good bit higher so it's hard to say.

 

:cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cool:

 

Exactly.. the nice thing on the rear suspension is that it's easily adjustable...

 

:cool: Let us know how it does. I need a new spring bad; the rear sags so much I'm afraid the rear wheels will rub the fender wells :lol:

 

Don't be so sure, several members including myself went with the fiberglass spring and it too raised our ride high. The rear bolts only dropped the rear about 1/2 inch. :rolleyes:

Hope it works out for you though. :thumbs:

 

Shane, Do they make a 420# spring that will fit with off set trailing arms. I am thinking of upgrading from my 360 #. My car squates too hard.

Good luck on the 11's

 

Okay, dumb question. But I have to know.

When adjusting the ride height, is it the bolts at the wheels that you adjust, or the bolts in the center that mount the spring?

Thanks!

 

The bolt near the wheels, the lower the bolt the lower the ride height.

 

John I didn't know that it made a difference to the spring length if you had offset trailing arms or not? I need a shorter spring because of my wheel spacing and am considering breaking down, spend the money and have a custom one made shorter then stock.

 

:iagree: This happened to me. I guess I'm gonna have to get used to the Pro Street look and buy a 6-71 blower for it <sigh>.

:jester :lol: :lol: :lol:

Brett :thumbs:

 

Dude, you're priorities are alllll messed up. You need to go ahead and get married so you can get the vette back to the top of the priority list. :lolg: :lolg:

Brett :thumbs:


[Modified by Brettmc, 11:50 AM 6/4/2003]

 

Brett, Did you put on the 10" bolts?..

 

Norval

Suprised you didn't 're-engineer' one to suite your needs. :)


[Modified by Fevre, 1:56 PM 6/4/2003]

 

Put on some 8-inchers. Had to crank up the nut bout an inch cause of potential tire contact. Think 10-inchers would have been way too long. PO prolly put wrong spring on it.

BENCE- any difference in tire/fender clearance?

Brett :thumbs:

 

John:
I'm not sure whether it will work with offset trailing arms or not. Is the 360lb spring that you are currently running a custom spring? I'm just running stock trailing arms so the spring fit with ease. I know what you mean about squating hard. I was only running a stock 9 leaf rear spring and when launching with the slicks the car would bounce like crazy from my suspension going solid (snubbers smacking the trailing arms). Not to mention my halfshafts were going way over center.

Thanks for the vote of confidence with the 11s :cheers: ! As it turns out I won't be able to go Thursday my girlfriend is having some sort of party at her parent's house so her family said I'm expected to be there. I may give it a go on Saturday. The only problem with Saturday is that it's bracket racing, so I'll likely get two trial runs and then eliminations start...plus it's $30 :( . The last time I went bracket racing I got 5 passes in and made it to round 3 before "breaking out" and running the 12.1 on a 12.3 dial in.

Brett:
I'm really not sure if the gap in my rear wheel wells changed or not. I think it may have raised it about 1/2" or so. It's tough to really judge though with the 28" slicks because they fill up the wheel well very nicely.

 

Please post if any wheel hop/traction problems at the track. ;)