Best shock set up?

[KTwaffles02]

Looking to replace my stock suspension that rides like a hay wagon. Just looking for some feedback and suggestions on what the best replacement is for the money. Not decided on if I want to leave the stock springs or lower just the front or the whole car. Just looking for a smoother ride at this point. Has anyone installed the spring/shock package from DMC Europe or PJ Grady? Eibach seems pricey in comparison.

[vwdmc16]

Ive installed and driven stock, DmcH Eibach, and DmcEuAvo (plus a few other custom built ones ive gone through.

Imo dmch's set up is much better than stock but the Adjustable Avo shocks are much superior.

Stay away from Kybs, (Hervey's garbage)

[powerline84]

Check out drive stainless. Complete qa1 kit. A few of us have installed the kit and love it.

[Josh]

Lots of great info in this thread already.

Just to elaborate on Matt's kit (Drive Stainless), It is fully adjustable so you can set the height wherever you please (stock, lowered, raked, etc). The shocks themselves are adjustable as well, with 18 choices of valving.

Very nice Kit, replaces both the shocks and springs all around.

[KTwaffles02]

Great info! I didn't even know about the Q1A's.. We used to run those on our race cars back in the day, good stuff for sure. Im assuming the install is pretty easy since its a coil over setup? Have to cut anything off other than the front spring cup?

[eight8toy]

How does the QA1 coilovers compare to the setup offered by DPI? My LCAs look miserable so I was thinking of changing those out with a new suspension refresh as well.

[Josh]

edited - removed misinformation. See Henrik's post!

As far as I know Matt's setup and the DPI setup are very similar. Hopefully Matt can chime in here.

I do have DPIs LCAs and they are very nice quality. Still look brand new and straight as an arrow after 35,000km of all weather driving, they come with the high quality DMCEU ball joints. The DMC aluminum lower control arms are very nice looking pieces but I cant even begin to justify the cost. LCAs are expensive enough!

[Henrik]

Great info! I didn't even know about the Q1A's.. We used to run those on our race cars back in the day, good stuff for sure. Im assuming the install is pretty easy since its a coil over setup? Have to cut anything off other than the front spring cup?

Matt's DriveStainless/QA1 shocks and springs come with instructions. Yes, the lower front spring cup needs to be removed (spot-welded; easy to remove); an edge on the LCA also needs to be shaved a millimeter or two - that's all!

[Henrik]

...My LCAs look miserable so I was thinking of changing those out with a new suspension refresh as well.

I'm currently in the process of converting to the Drive Stainless/QA1 setup in the front, and found that my stock right front LCA apparently had taken a hit in the past and was crooked. I went around to a few collision firms asking if they were willing to put it in a press - they all declined (actually, at three of the four places the receptionist flat out said they won't do it - what's up with that???), so - screw it: I'm buying new LCAs from DMCEU. They are the same basic design as stock but with the following improvements:
a) thicker sheet metal and
b)"boxed in" on the bottom

The price is pretty good compared to other options. Ed is also giving me a discount for the "no spring cup" option, and since I already bought his PU bushings he is giving me another discount to remove the stock bushings from the LCAs. What a guy!

[Drive Stainless]

Thanks for the kind remarks. If anyone would like a copy of the coil-over installation instructions, simply send me a PM or e-mail to [email protected].

[Delorean Industries]

Major differences between the two offerings.

___We only use the Qa1 bodies themselves. We use a high end shock shop here to custom configure the valving. Basically without doing this half of the adjustment settings are useless due to the weight bias on our cars
___ Our set up comes with lower stainless control arms and all required hardware
___ We set our front shocks up as "true" coil overs. We machine and anodize custom upper adapters to allow the configuration to clear the factory shock tower bends. This deletes the spring riding on the shock tower directly and the rubber pad. The other option while allocating for ride height adjustment still works off of the upper spring perch from the factory.
___ Set also comes with custom stainless spacers for the lower shock mounting points to our stainless control arms

___ We offer five different spring rate configurations depending on your application. We have spent a good amount of time on engineering the options based on un-sprung weight at each wheel and a variety of different engines installed in the rear. All of this makes a difference.

Rate packages include:
___ factory configuration lowered
___ Twin turbo prv
___ LS swap (additional info required from owner)
___ VR6 swap (additional info required from owner)
___ ECO-boost swap (in house only)

[Drive Stainless]

More differences:

(Drive Stainless vs. DPI)


8" front spring vs. 7" front spring (due to using the custom upper adapter). Longer springs mean a lower spring rate which means the baseline setting (0 clicks) will be softer.
Rear shocks have S/S upper eyelet mount vs. stud mount. QA1's technical support recommended use of the eyelet-style mount in lieu of the stud-type mount wherever possible. My experimentation reveals that the DeLorean's rear suspension geometry will permanently deform QA1's stud mount bushings in short order. Additionally, the location of the S/S eyelet mount moves the rear shock into the center of its travel range.

I provide steel, stainless, or aluminum spacers for the front lower control arm, depending on which LCAs are being used. I have DPI's S/S LCAs (sans spring cups) myself and I really like them.

[Delorean Industries]

Our factory height configuration has 8 inch springs up front. You can't achieve a factory ride height with a 7 inch spring.

The turbo configuration uses eyelet in rear due to heavier loads. (remember you asked if ours would fit your needs) :)


There is also a machined boss that locates it in the rear shock hole. One set up for stock frames and a completely different design for turbo cars.

[powerline84]

If you order from Drive Stainless you will receive your order complete and quickly, with great customer service and feedback.

[eight8toy]

Great info in this thread. With both set ups is it possible to achieve the lowered ride height as opposed to the stock suspension height?

I do like the complete package offered by DPI since my stuff is all covered in surface rust and should be swapped out.

[Drive Stainless]

Great info in this thread. With both set ups is it possible to achieve the lowered ride height as opposed to the stock suspension height?

I do like the complete package offered by DPI since my stuff is all covered in surface rust and should be swapped out.

With my kit, you can establish stock or lowered ride height with the same (8") springs.

[Nicholas R]

Rear shocks have S/S upper eyelet mount vs. stud mount. QA1's technical support recommended use of the eyelet-style mount in lieu of the stud-type mount wherever possible. My experimentation reveals that the DeLorean's rear suspension geometry will permanently deform QA1's stud mount bushings in short order. Additionally, the location of the S/S eyelet mount moves the rear shock into the center of its travel range.

I actually was wondering about this since both yours and DPI's photos of the kits show stud mounts on both front and back. I dont like the idea of using a stud mounted full coilover in the rear knowing that our trailing arms cause the suspension to travel both in an arc about the control arms, but also an arc about the TAB. Using an eyelet style mount with a spherical bearing makes a lot more sense given the compound curves of the suspension travel, especially since that's now the load path for the full (rear) weight of the car. How do you convert to this though since all we have is a shock tower with a hole? Is there still a stud mounted bracket that bolts in for the rod end to interface with?

[Drive Stainless]

I actually was wondering about this since both yours and DPI's photos of the kits show stud mounts on both front and back. I dont like the idea of using a stud mounted full coilover in the rear knowing that our trailing arms cause the suspension to travel both in an arc about the control arms, but also an arc about the TAB. Using an eyelet style mount with a spherical bearing makes a lot more sense given the compound curves of the suspension travel, especially since that's now the load path for the full (rear) weight of the car. How do you convert to this though since all we have is a shock tower with a hole? Is there still a stud mounted bracket that bolts in for the rod end to interface with?
I debated the orientation of the upper eyelet mount, and have tried it both parallel and perpendicular to the rear control arm mounts. it seems to work either way without any noticeable binding.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170406/4bba73e701784cbab07576b46bc715fe.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170406/cb008867cad6b0a59313da8f639b0773.jpg

[Nicholas R]

I debated the orientation of the upper eyelet mount, and have tried it both parallel and perpendicular to the rear control arm mounts. it seems to work either way without any noticeable binding.
**photos removed**

I'd probably go with the orientation shown in your photo. The rotation from the control arms is probably more than the TAB. Though with some trigonometry we could probably calculate the optimal angle for the clevis to be at, haha.

[steve]

I went with the Drive Stainless QA1's. Good kit does the job excellently and would not go back. You can budget easily for this set up.

Matt will even walk you through the install.

Steve

[Delorean Industries]

Updates on DeLorean Industries kit pricing for our coil over kits. We dug deep with our shock supplier to bring kit costs down by purchasing 50 sets.

First kit is our base version with installation components etc for coil over shocks and springs. This does require the removal of the factory spring cup on the lower control arms. Shock and spring only kit now priced at $1185.00
This also comes with an option to purchase our complete front end recall update kit for only $65.00 as an add on option.

http://www.deloreanindustries.com/spec-coil-over-system/


For not very much more here is the end all be all offering. Includes everything in the above kit and our stainless lower control arms loaded. Also includes full front end recall kit, bushings, other stainless components etc. Essentially it knocks the price of our components down a pretty decent amount making all other offerings in this category obsolete. Complete system with arms now priced at $1995.00

51367

http://www.deloreanindustries.com/spec-suspension-coil-over-package/

[Drive Stainless]

The Drive Stainless coil-over kit will now be offered at $1149.99, which represents a discount of 6% from its previously competitive price.

Unlike the competition, it includes the spanner "adjustment" wrenches, upper rear stainless eyelet mounts & hardware, polyurethane bushings, and detailed instructions.

Did I mention free shipping? Free shipping then.

[Delorean Industries]

Ours include the wrenches :)

[eight8toy]

Updates on DeLorean Industries kit pricing for our coil over kits. We dug deep with our shock supplier to bring kit costs down by purchasing 50 sets.

Complete system with arms now priced at $1995.00

51367

http://www.deloreanindustries.com/spec-suspension-coil-over-package/

I've been looking at this kit for a while, do you ship this one out? I keep getting confused when I look at the site and it mentions something like "complete package only available for in house install." Thanks!

[Delorean Industries]

Ours include the wrenches :)

[Delorean Industries]

Yes we do ship this kit out. The text listed on the product description page has been updated. Along with the picture to reflect the spanner wrenches that are provided with the kit for adjusted. Not pictured are the updated upper mounting points in stainless provided as well. I will fix the product picture shortly.

[Rich_NYS]

This thread is shocking!

[Rich_NYS]

"My coilover is bigger than your coilover".....lol

[Mark D]

This thread is shocking!

*Drum rimshot* badum-ttsss