Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The Qld Mk.7 front end prompted this note from Chris.

Hi John, the picture of the Qld Mk 7 front end prompts me to tell you that I have recently started looking at coil-overs for our Holden front ends. In looking at the QA1 site they provide upgrades for a number of American cars using their shock absorbers and springs. What appealed to me about their approach is that they use an adjustable shock absorber with a single spring seat at the bottom which is also adjustable though the use of threads as per normal. The clever part about it is that they then use a spring with a large diameter at the top that fits the cross member and a suitable diameter for the shock absorber at the bottom. This means that you effectively have a coil over shock absorber without the need for any modification to the front end, which is very appealing. Springs and shockers can be bought individually or as a kit from QA1. I then contacted Kings Springs in Qld ( company with a world wide reputation) and their response is that they can make tapered springs; the issue that they saw is “the test will be fitting together all the coil over material in the car as the outside diameter of the seat and lock ring won't fit through the hole in the lower control arm. A Bilstein monotube shock is 50mm in diameter and is a tight fit into the lower control arm, so you would have to piece it together.” I guess that any adjustable shock absorber could be used, just don’t use the top spring seat. I am obviously not in a position to put this into action as without a nose etc I can’t determine spring weights – but if people are thinking about coil overs it may be a really good option as there is no cutting and shutting or making of new wishbones required and so they could be fitted without taking the car off the road and would mean that ride heights could be adjusted. Cheers Chris G

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