Hello all,
83 H/O. When I bought the car it has 3stage gas rear shocks, I put air shocks on it but the ride was rough as hell and stiff (this was prob 8 years ago) before I put it in storage I put gas shocks on it again..the back end sits about 1-2 inches too low for me.. Any suggestions for rear shocks? Back to air?
Thanks,
Adam PA

 

I recommend against air shocks for lifting the car. The shock mounting points on the frame are not designed to carry the weigh of the car. New springs are your best choice, (and very easy to install in the rear), but failing that, get AirLift bags that go inside the rear springs. This way the air bags are loading the frame at the same points as the springs, which is where the frame is designed to take that load.

 

Thanks Joe!
I've never replaced the springs in the rear. I havn't checked price point on the springs but it can hurt to replace them (car has 89.5k). I like that is sits a little lower and has an aggressive stance (factory height looks like a monster truck to me) but I don't want to sacrifice performance and safety. Thoughts?

 

Rear springs are easy. You unbolt the bottoms of the shocks, jack the car up, support it under the frame, and let the rear axle hang down. The springs pretty much fall out.

I do agree with you about stance, however. I prefer to cut the front coils to get a slight nose-down attitude. I've not done a G-body, but on the A-body cars I cut 1/2 to 1 full coil from the front springs. Of course, this is much more involved than the rears, since you need a spring compressor and need to disconnect the ball joints to get the springs out. At that point, the MIGHTASWELLS set in and you'll have the whole front end rebuilt in no time.