Also, while I have your attention, do you know if a 26" tall tire will fit the front of my 64 Valiant? I am after running the same height front and rear. Thanks.
That I don't know Rob. I know some of the basic dimensions on the early A's but since I've never owned one I couldn't tell you for sure. You might try asking @vntned, he has some pretty sizeable tires on his early A.
Depends. For torsion bars under 1.06" I'd say the Bilstein RCD's. They're a great shock and as far as performance shocks go pretty affordable.
For bars larger than 1.06" I like the Hotchkis Fox shocks I have on my Duster. I ran Bilsteins on that car for awhile with the 1.12" bars and my 18" wheels. They worked well, don't get me wrong they're a great shock. But I got a chance to buy some lightly used Hotchkis Fox's so I bought them and replaced the Bilsteins. The Hotchkis Fox's are a noticeable improvement with the 1.12" bars. It's not night and day, they're just a little bit smoother with the large bars when you start pushing the car harder. Which makes sense, the additional valving allows them to adapt a little better. The more aggressive you get with the suspension set up the better the shocks have to be.
It's really about matching the shocks to the wheel rate. The Hotchkis Fox's should be great on the 1.03's too because of the way they're constructed with additional valving, but I don't think the difference between them and the Bilstein RCD's would be as noticeable with the slightly smaller bars. So it's a "bang for your buck" decision for me. With the 1.12's the difference is noticeable enough for me to say the extra money for the Hotchkis Fox's is well worth it.