Shocks: looking for Blistein quality at KYB price.

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72bluNblu said:
If they're RCD Bilsteins I believe they are rebuildable. You might try contacting RCD and see what they say about it.
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They are RCD's, I'll have to reach out to them and see what the price is. Might be worth it and then sell them, since these QA1s are wonderful.
 
junkyardhero said:
.920's are NLA so the only hope for those is some dusty dead stock on somebody's shelf, used or hitting up firm feel and having a custom set made.
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I'm sure the 1.03 bars will do the job.
 
72bluNblu said:
The moment you put radial tires on the car, the factory bars should go in the trash. Even for cruisers. The only exception being dedicated drag cars.
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Not buying that one. I'm running .88 factory bars and the original 6 leaf Formula S rear springs with Bilstein shocks on the 66. I definitely don't need bigger bars. I have the original .89 on the 68 383 Barracuda, they work also. Neither sets of bars are going into the trash. One size does not fit all.
 
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66fs said:
Not buying that one. I'm running .88 factory bars and the original 6 leaf Formula S rear springs with Bilstein shocks on the 66. I definitely don't need bigger bars. I have the original .94 or .92 on the 68 383 Barracuda, they work also. Neither sets of bars are going into the trash. One size does not fit all.
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factory bar sizes are:

.83 /6
.85 2bbl V8
.87 4bbl V8 (or cars with AC)
.89 big block
 
here's the ID chart:

torsion bars.jpg
 
66fs said:
My 68 does not follow the rules. I have to check, it is in the basement. It was all original, except the torque convertor and maybe the heads, when I got it all those years ago.
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it could certainly have .92 bars or .94 bars, but they'd be aftermarket. MP offered .92's (that's what i run, actually) and i've seen custom .94 bars made by specialized suspension outfits (summers bros, firm feel, street concept).
 
I will report back with some results pertinent to this topic soon. I have a '73 Duster 340 in the air right now. Starting out on the fresh total restoration (3,800 miles) it had the KYB's, 1.03" bars, and stock pencil thin sway bar. I was initially just installing Doctor Diffs Cordoba brakes and switching to a 15/16" aluminum master cylinder.

I have a bunch of parts I had been collecting for a Valiant AutoX car that is on indefinate hold. So, I decided to put some of those parts on the Duster. I put a Helwig 1.125? sway bar on it and some Hotchkis/ Fox shocks.

How it drove before was fine for many many people but I like to keep the skinny pedal down when I turn the steering wheel. One thing that is an annoyance with my 225/60-15's was that my wheel moldings would get contacted in an aggressive corner. The factory sway bar is inadequate. It's for looks. Don't work! Another thing, the KYB's are really stiff on sudden impacts like pavement transitions or road buckles. I think with keeping the KYB's but upgrading the sway bar alone would yield a 'decent' cornering car but that initial stiffness I'm talking about still isn't pleasant.

BTW, If you're in the right place (FABO F/S section) at the right time you can find a deal. I got my NIB Hotchkis shocks from Al and Theresa (Rat Rod Al) on here. I forgot what I paid but it was competitive with Bilstien's, maybe less. Get resourceful.

Now, to poke fun, those aftermarket front suspension's aren't far off in price than a full on torsion bar suspension. Regardless of which flavor you like they will be about the same cost. If you are throwing the best most raciest parts at the TB system you have to get $500+ shocks, $500+ TB's, $1,*** Borgeson box, $300 sway bar, ..... I'm not trying to make a point that one is better than the other but just pointing out that if you want a top of the line OE suspension it will take an investment. You can't "cheap out" when doing either style of suspension if you want the best. I get it, some don't need that level. I'm just pointing out that ****'s expensive!
 
go-fish said:
Now, to poke fun, those aftermarket front suspension's aren't far off in price than a full on torsion bar suspension. Regardless of which flavor you like they will be about the same cost. If you are throwing the best most raciest parts at the TB system you have to get $500+ shocks, $500+ TB's, $1,*** Borgeson box, $300 sway bar
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truth. after doing all the recent stock style steering and suspension upgrades to our dart i can honestly say I'm not doing it again. i will be buying a RMS front system next time. just hated working around all the stuff involved in a stock suspension. I'm sure its gonna drive nice and hopefully perform like i want, but damn man the RMS kit that was on my old dart was so much nicer to work on and around. and like ya said, price wise they are much closer then many would think.
 
junkyardhero said:
really?

do you have a link or a pic of some kind of literature, because that's the first i've ever heard of that. i've parted a grip of 73~76 cars and never seen anything bigger than the standard V8 bars.
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I'll post a pick from my FSM....oh, and according to it, in '76, slant6's got .85" bars, too (confirmed with my calipers)
 
This is all great information.

Preliminary report on Bilstein RCD shocks on my bone-stock, low-mileage '64 Dart sedan with A/S radials:

Exactly what I expected.

Smoother ride with better control. Before, it felt like you were driving 10-20mph faster than you actually were, now it feels like you're going your actual speed.

With no sway bars, it's a bit wallowy in the turns, but that's what you'd expect.
I've added / upgraded front and rear sway bars, both factory and aftermarket, on a number of '60s cars over many years, as well as newer cars, like BMWs, and I know what that will add in handling and take away in smoothness, so I will decide what to do once I've driven more.

I feel the small bumps in the road more than before, but everything else is smoother.

Overall, I'm happy with them, and now I can make improvements as I see fit, but have a basically controllable, pleasant-to-drive car.
If I'd, say, gotten sway bars first, or increased torsion bar size first, I'd still have a car with 60 year old factory shocks that rode like crap.

This may be an unsophisticated thing to say, but for suspension upgrades for stock older cars, in terms of both effort involved and money spent, I fell that bolting on a set of Bilsteins is the best overall upgrade you can make.
Sure, you can increase spring rates, add sway bars, reconfigure geometry, and add re-engineered aftermarket components, but all of those require time to properly select compatible components, more time to install them, even more time to set them up and adjust them, and more money than it might initially appear, just looking at the prices of individual parts, and all of them will require a decent set of shocks to work right anyway.

Also, P-S-T gave me the FABO 10% discount no-problem (charged full price on card, then refunded 10%), and the shocks arrived at my house, shipped for free, like 2 days later, minutes after I received the tracking number in my e-mail, so, as in the past, I'm quite happy with them.

Thanks for everyone's input on this, and thanks to the OP for starting this thread.

- Eric
 
Eric, after the discount what was the final price from PST... Im almost ready to purchase...rich
 
michiganpat said:
I'll post a pick from my FSM....oh, and according to it, in '76, slant6's got .85" bars, too (confirmed with my calipers)
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They quit equipping new cars with bias ply in 75. I figure they rode on new radials and smaller bars for the 75 MY. They probably realized that they needed a bigger bar for radials and came out with the .85 in ‘76.

Is this plausible, @junkyardhero ? I’m hypothesizing the increase in bar sizes correlating to radial use.
 
migsBIG said:
So I’m starting to order parts to rebuild and improve the suspension on my 1973 Duster build. I had a set of the early days of the Blistein shocks redone by Hotchkis on my Cuda and Charger and loved them. Made the KYB’s on there prior feel like worn air shocks in comparison. 10 years later,I want that same quality, but not the $600+ price. Is there any shocks similar to the Blistein quality but at a cheaper price? Love you know what you guys have used.
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I just sold my 73 Dart Swinger and about 10 years ago I put Bilstein RTS shocks from James at PST. Best money I ever spent…car doesn’t float and feels planted at speed. Very happy with them and I would suggest biting the bullet and getting them…my 2 cents
 
318MoparGuy said:
I just sold my 73 Dart Swinger and about 10 years ago I put Bilstein RTS shocks from James at PST. Best money I ever spent…car doesn’t float and feels planted at speed. Very happy with them and I would suggest biting the bullet and getting them…my 2 cents
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Yes correction via 72bluNblu the Bilsteins are RCD not RTS as I initially stated.
 
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