F-Body Europe

It was a rude wake-up call after 7 glorious days in Lanzarote in baking heat but a few dry days led to the conclusion that the suspension wouldn't fit itself. The first hurdle was the passenger side shock nut which had reduced to a crusty rustball and had to be cut off (sounds easy on the page...). I managed to strip the strut down to basics and paint most of the rusty surfaces and the A-arm while I was there. The instructions for the Bilstein sport suspension kit are dire and might as well not have been there. Finally got it assembled but the mounting was 180 degrees out. Damn. Stripped and twisted, I got it mounted before I noticed a washer that sits just under the reused shock cover on the old shock and something similar in the instructions. It was no good, I had to take it off and strip it down just for this washer. One lesson I learnt was never clamp too many coils on a progressive rate spring as the spring clamps jam in the coils and you have to whack them round to a wider gap which does nothing for the paint finish. The driver's side was more of a breeze and the same rough art of repainting was undertaken on that side too and the mistakes learnt on the pasenger side were learnt. New sway bar and end links went on OK too. So I thought the rear end would be a breeze but it wasn't. Sure, I forgot to release the end-links and was wondering why the rear axle wouldn't drop and sure, it took me a while to find the top shock mounts but getting the new sway bar and end-links on was a pain in the ass and one of those pathetic mounting brackets snapped. Thank goodness the exhaust clamp was the same size. Tried it today and it handles much much better but the suspension was groaning at the back. Jacked it up again and tightened the end-links up much tighter so hopefully that will have cured it. Just got the control arms and Panhard rod to do now. I seem to recall I thought they would be easy on my last Z28. All this took me a solid 24 hours work with the painting and cleaning and the mistakes but at least I can claim to have done it myself. Looks awesome slammed too.

Here's a laugh and my thanks to Jagsy for sending me pics of his completed installation. As I was idly looking at the said photos, I spotted that I'd mounted the rear sway bar end links above the side brackets instead of below. Probably because the originals were seized solid and had to be progressively snapped whereupon they exploded in all directions. No wonder the suspension was groaning. Bit of a relief as I'd never have known. When I went to remedy it, I had to laugh even more at my own ineptitude as I discovered the bar was upside down too. Moral: Remember the way things come off the car so you can put them back the same way, no matter how obvious it may appear. I laughed till I stopped.

Some people rude digital pictures. I take pcitures of suspension. Man that is sad!!!!

Glad I could help.