Shock/coil info needed

[miller]

For those of you that are doin the double a-arm conversion what shocks did you use? Im trying to find vendors and prices and im havin trouble finding shock info and prices around the web. So any shock reccomendations would be nice.

[volkdent]

Just picked up a pair of QA1 Proma Stars 11-1/8". I'll order the coils after everything gets done so I can get an accurate weight.

http://www.naake.com

Jason

[GS guy]

Another shock source you might look into:
http://www.aldaneagle.com/

Then there's always the grandaddy of quality shocks:
http://www.koni-na.com/home.html

[volkdent]

These are my grandaddies:

http://www.ohlins.com/

http://www.penskeshocks.com/

As a price comparison though, the QA1s I got were around $150 each, the same size for Ohlins is around $750 EACH!

Jason

[GS guy]

Heh, I knew about Ohlins and Penske from my motorcycling days. Top Dogs for sure! (and top $$$ too!!). I bet "the same size in Penske's" would be $1500 each!

Another possibility could be Fox:
http://www.foxracingshox.com/website/homepage.asp
Somewhat taylored to the off-road crowd, but lots of sizes to choose from and moderately priced.

Take it for WIW Volkdent, but on the Mustang boards I follow they weren't too favorable on the QA1 shocks. Quality control and leaking issues after not too many miles. Hope that's not an issue on yours - maybe they've gotten their act together since, with better QC.....

They seem to have bought out Carrera, but don't seem to actually market the Carrera brand anymore. Too bad, can't find much on Carrera these days, and they were a popular brand for a more custom shock fitment with good performance/quality and value. Koni's are nice, but on the pricey side. I like the Alden literature (and info from a few references I've read about them), seem to be more taylored towards custom fitment and valving, and reasonably priced too.
Jeff

[Tim]

AVO shocks, ranging from GBP60 to GBP200 each (approx US$110 to US$360)

http://www.avouk.com/pm/12

[volkdent]

I bought my QA1 Proma Stars from Naake Motorsports. They seemed to think that QA1 was the way to go for the $. I don't have any experience with any of them, so I'll have to wait and see. Hopefully no problems. The QA1s are completely rebuildable, so at least I'm not throwing $ away regardless. My fabricator for the suspension likes Alden, but it is really set up for the Hot Rod crowd as far as I can tell.

Ohlins is at the very top of the heap from what I've read. For the same shocks Penske is about $600.

Jason

[GS guy]

I like the looks of those AVO shocks Tim. Moderately priced, and a big plus is they offer the small body coil-over that could be used on a Ball-Joint beam (like the Red-9 kit).

Got any references or experiences with these?
Jeff

[volkdent]

My only caution with AVO would be repair. If somethings up, your probably looking at 3 weeks IF they have good customer service. I'm looking at 2-3 days returned with QA1s.

The Coopers used AVO in their setup:

http://www.centralvwaudi.com/Beetproj.htm

But they are in England. AVO just doesn't have much of a presence in North America sadly.

Jason

[volkdent]

Here's what I went with:

http://www.geocities.com/volkdent/QA1.html

Jason

[GS guy]

Good points about the QA-1 shocks Jason, and AVOs. I'll definitely follow your progress and be interested in your comments on how they perform.

Jeff