# Ride Height, correct springs



## lawman (Jul 30, 2008)

First, I apologize for the question, I know its been discussed at length here, but Ive been inactive for years and a search didnt quite answer my question.

I'm redoing my entire suspension, going with 15 inch wheels and I need to begin ordering parts. I'm looking for the stance on my 66 to be level, maybe a bit higher than stock, no rake.

Any suggestions on springs? Adjustable shocks? I'd like to avoid air bags.

I've been told a/c springs in the front, chevy big block in the rear.

Im trying to keep it simple.

Any advice?


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## tonyskala (Feb 7, 2015)

Viking Adjustable coil overs and smooth boddies adjustable ride for the rear. They are like 1000 bucks for all 4 and are awesome. You can fiddle with the height on the front to get it just right with the spanner wrench and then tune the ride with a simple screwdriver. Each shock has valves so you can adjust them

These are the ones I bought for mine. But not with the lower springs. I could not find the listing for the regular ones. And the price went up on them. I think I paid 858 for mine

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Viking-PST...el:GTO&hash=item2ee480e8dd:g:wSgAAOSwu4BVw2hh

I had the same type and brand on my 68 camaro. That was the reason I stuck with these. 

I drive like a jerk, fast and supper aggressive. I cant stand a car that doesnt respond. These were awesome for my aggressive driving and then on longer road trips I could make the ride smoother by turning the knobs on each of the shocks with a simple screwdriver.

I know they are expensive and you could piece something together alot cheaper. But I wanted a complete kit with ability to tune and adjust. These fit the bill perfectly.


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## cij911 (Oct 25, 2017)

QA1 are nice coilovers too ....

Tony did you keep your factory control arms or go aftermarket ?


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## tonyskala (Feb 7, 2015)

On the camero they were just some off market tubular ones. On the GTO I have QA1 upper and lowers.


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## cij911 (Oct 25, 2017)

tonyskala said:


> On the camero they were just some off market tubular ones. On the GTO I have QA1 upper and lowers.


Tony - How did the "off market" compare and fit on the camaro ? I am looking at upper and lower control arms (front and rear) and the name brand (UMI, QA1, GW, etc.) are more than 2x the price. I'd rather put that money towards the coilovers. Thoughts ?


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## tonyskala (Feb 7, 2015)

cij911 said:


> Tony - How did the "off market" compare and fit on the camaro ? I am looking at upper and lower control arms (front and rear) and the name brand (UMI, QA1, GW, etc.) are more than 2x the price. I'd rather put that money towards the coilovers. Thoughts ?



So the ones I got were not garbage. They were still like 300 dollars. They were jig welded and had polyurethane bushings. The were leaps and bounds better than the stock ones. I dont remember having much difficulty installing them. I figured the difference between those and the hotchkiss ones I was looking at looked from the appearance was null. I actually think these might have been copies of QA1. But they were like 300 dollars cheaper. Same diameter of the tubes. They were powder coated and looked good. I know they were Chinese, so I dont know the quality of the metal they were using or the quality of the welding. But that car was not really a show car. I actually drove it quite a bit. And like I said I drive like a jerk and it handled every bit as good as my sisters 3 series BMW

I did the same thing you are thinking about for my second GTO build. But for it I bought all QA1 stuff. I was going to buy Hotchkiss but for the rear sway bar you have to have the specific trailing arms. So I bought all QA1 all the way around upper and lower control arms, front and rear sway bars and just boxed an extra set of trailing arms I had. Then I did that Viking coli over system for the front and the adjustable smooth bodied for the rear. I might try to lay off the rear smooth bodies shocks and get a coil over system for the rears as well. At the time viking did not offer it but now they do.


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