car is a 94 convert 6 speed. its all original supsension and its pretty crappy. all bushing are rotted and cracked up, shocks are worn out, etc. so iv been planning a suspension re-do. heres my ideas so far. full poly bushings, front end rebuild (ball joints and tie rods), new shocks. car is sitting on 275 tires on all 4 corners and will be purchasing new tires in a few months after suspension is done. i want to lower the car but worry about a rough ride with the basic $40 kit. iv really been looking at coil-overs and seen 2 kits (i think drm and em) for around 1k. would the coil overs equal a rough ride, or better then stock with the lowering kit? if i went with coil-overs, would i need to add any other parts? where is a good place to get the front end rebuild and the poly bushings? i know zip-corvette has both, and i think mamotorworks does too. are these quality parts or are there better ones? my budget is about 2k (not counting the tires, alignment, labor). im thinking 1000 for coil overs, 200 for poly bushings, 300 for front end rebuild parts, 2-300 for shocks, anything else i need? thanks!!

 

I think coilovers are quite extreme and you'll want a better shock than the drm coilover without shock system. Figure 1700 for thier coilover. If you're not racing the car, just doing the longer bolts/front shim $40 deal with some Bilstein shocks, along with poly bushings etc. you're car will handle much better. C4's don't lower much more than 1" so coilovers would be overkill to get 1". Any more than that wouldn't look right.

There's no 'one place' that's better than another for these parts.

 

If you want the best, obviously it's coil-overs. On a street only car that's a lot of overkill and a lot of wasted $$. Checkout www.vbandp.com for a lot of good replacement/upgrade parts.

 

Hey littlesk8cracker,

I have actually just performed most of the work that you have planned (minus the coil overs) on my 93' LT1 coupe and the difference before and after is amazing. I'd say it's plenty for a street driven vehicle if that's your intent.

Here's what I did:

- Replaced all Bilstein shocks with the regular ones, not sport or HD
- Replaced all bushings (including sway bars) with energy suspension. I did not pull the R&P.
- Installed Corvette Recycling front control arms. New OEM ball joints are installed and ready to go upon arrival. Obviously swapped out the bushings before installing
- Replaced front outer tie rod ends with Moog.
- Lowered the car approximately 5/8" all around. I did not remove the front factory wedges. I just removed the pads on the end of the spring.
- Put new Sumotimo rubber on all four corners. Changed to 315's on the rear.
- VBandP "advanced street" alignment

I'm still using the factory FE1 springs but words cannot describe the difference before and after. As a matter of fact, a buddy and I recently had the chance to drive a bone stock 92 ZF6 with 27K miles and we both agreed that my car drove and handled 1000 times better.

If it were me, I'd do everything but the coil overs to see if you could save some cash. If you determine that need more, you can always go back in and add them later.

Mike

 

Unless you...

A.) are worried about adjusting for tenths of a second at a track

B.) love to say "look at me"

C.) have money to waste

...you don't need coil-overs.

 

My 92 suspension was in the same shape until I put in an Energy Suspensions master bushing kit, revalved Fx3 shocks and new hubs all around.

I did this a couple years ago, there is a sticky with another car suspension rebuild that has lots of pictures. If I was doing it all again on the 92 I'd use the same master kit, but I'd get the upper and lower A-arms from corvette recycling.

If you want to lower your car the $40 kit for a street car is perfect.
Coilovers - only if you track it and the class rules let you do it.

 

good point, maybe ill skip the coil-overs. its a street driven car. so how about this. zip-corvette has a front suspension rebuild kit that consists of inner and outer tie rod ends, and upper and lower ball joints for 340. i can get the full poly bushing set for $200. that doesent come with the sway bar bushing so figure another 30 for them. the lowering kit for 40. new set of bilstein shocks for around 300. this brings me up to around 900-1000. anything else you would recomend? maybe upgraded sway bars? for about a cross bar that goes behind the seats. or a camber bar for in the engine compartment? if you took the first things i listed for 1000, what would you do suspension wise with the extra 1000? just looking for a good set up, this year its suspension and brakes, next year it will be motor work. thanks guys, appreciate the help!

 

I'd go with the Energy Poly bushings, moog tie rod ends. When you do the tie rods, check the ball joints. Mine are still fine after 100k+ miles. Then get the beefed up VBandP sways (they come with poly bushings). Next I'd add the front camber-brace from R-D. It sucks when you have to work on the car, but once you drive with it on, it sucks with it off the car. For $40 might as well get the drop kit. Oh and new bilsteins are a must. I'm really happy with the VBandP sport bilsteins. You'll then want to check to see if there is any play in the wheel to see if the hubs are still in good shape. That's when the budget all goes to hell. Good luck.

 

Mid america motorworks has full rebuild kits, that would be a performance upgrade for you.
bilstiens, bushings,bigger sway bars, etc IIRC like $1500 for the complete upgrade, the whole thing comes as a complete kit with all parts.

 

About 5 years ago I did the full energy suspension polybushing kit on my (then low mileage 95) A few months back I replaced the stock dogbones that had ES polys with these....

and the car actually rides better while maintaining its one rails handling abilities...


Mike


I may get the urge to install my delrin pintop shock mounts soon.........

However, my coilovers will probably remain on the shelf...


In summary if I had to do it over again I would not install polybushings on the rear of my car....suspension was STIFF.....with the rod end rear handling remained at least as good as with polys but car rides much nicer especially on Lousiana concrete roads...

Mike

 

got a good idea of what ill do with it, but now its gonna have to wait. had the car out in the rain earlier and now its missing and what not. guessing i got an opti to replace. gonna give it a day to see if it dries out, but im not counting on it

 

Check for bad plug wires.....optis are ok in the rain...if you didn't go through a deep puddle its probably something simple.....

Mike

 

changed plugs and wires a few months back. its supposed to be nice tomorrow so im gonna let it sit all day and hope things dry out, and if not ill start checking things. really hoping its not the opti, but it was fine, then i drove it about 5 minutes through heavy rain then parked it. then when i came back outside 20 mins later and started it, it was missing and what not

 

 

That's a great site ; for once a place that caters to the C4 (lots of parts) and almost ignores the 5/6.

 

The entire suspension of my track car is by Vette Brakes and I couldn't be happier. I'd like to try coil-overs for some adjustability once I get the driver more consistent but in the meantime it is a very good all-around setup.

 

1) Check out www.corvetterecycling.com you can get a complete nos oem steering rack that will include your inner & outer tie rods (with ball joints already attached to the outer rods) for less than $250.

2) I drive my 95 .... daily year round to the tune of 15k a year and it rains here 6 months of the year. Driving in the rain is not going to effect your opti. Driving through 6" of standing water might ... but not rainwater on the road.

 

it was a sudden extreme storm, huge puddles everywhere. it went through 5-minutes of that, then it started missing. cant think of anything else it coulda been