externally adjustable shock absorbers

[Piledriver]

Hmmm... The GAZ dealers in the US carry the coil overs, Locosters it seems, probably the least expensive possibly non-Chinese true threaded body coil overs i have ever seen.

did you get your quote from one of the US distributors or from UK?

Konis are technically rebuildable, but it generally costs same or less to buy a new pair.
($200 ea last I checked, straight rebuild)

Bilstein only charges IIRC $75 to rebuild as new, assuming no damage.
(This would be for their race shocks, some of which are also adjustable and can be tweaked internally for a nominal fee or even free)

[shepherd]

Piledriver, the price I got was from a distributor in the UK. There are two in the USA and neither have responded to inquiry. I will add info when they arrive, and get installed. Searching through some Porsche forums, it seems that they are somewhat popular because of the price and ability to adjust without dismounting from the car.

[PhillipM]

They're nothing fancy but decent for what they cost, they are fully UK made, not chinese outsourced and then built over here, one of my mates is the main distributor over here, I used to run them on my daily driver for years.

They're rebuildable, and it's not a hard job if you just want to change oil and seals as the internal tube is self-bleeding.

[shepherd]

Ordered, from one of the few US dealers, for $250 shipped. They are made to order, I am told to expect them in 3-4 weeks. When you factor in the shipping cost, they are comparable to Koni reds cost wise. We will see what the quality is like. Speaking to the dealer, he says there have been no returns because of failure since he switched to the GAZ brand in 2006. His business primarily deals with custom coil overs for kit cars or one off builds, he seemed very knowledgeable, and wanted me to confirm the cars weight, front and rear to make sure the shock was built correctly.

[PhillipM]

They're similar internally to the Koni's tbh, just slightly updated.

[petew]

Just won an NOS pair of spax adjustables for my beetle on local ebay. Under $200 shipped for them. I thought that was good. The plan is to put them on the back of my oval. A LOT cheaper than konis or anything else similar. Will be interesting to see what they're like.

[TedzBug]

Any updates on these?

[shepherd]

The tracking numbers show they just made it into the states, I hope to have them soon. I'm driving on old KYB Gas adjust and can't stand them.

[TedzBug]

I just went for the Koni Red Special adjustables..... We'll see how they are...

[shepherd]

I mounted them today, the initial short drive was promising. I hope to get some time driving the car this eek and will try to follow up. Tried to resize some pics, but STF keeps sending me an error stating the files are too big. Will try again later.

[Piledriver]

Pics must be 800x600 or less (either aspect) and <125kb, jpeg. png or BMP are legal, but BMP are not lossy, so bigger filesize vs quality.(good for schematics/print, bad for large photos)

The GIMP is my image scaling/cropping/editing weapon of choice, it runs on Windows too, and is Free.

[shepherd]

Here are some pics. The blue upper stone shield is stiff urethane. Also some pics of the never used old stock 26mm sway away torsion bars I picked up. I'm going to play around with these shocks and the stock bars for a while before I decide if the larger bars are needed. New engine/ trans/ tires/ shocks; its enough of a change trying that figuring out where to start tweaking things is difficult. Not sure I need to throw another variable into the mix just yet.

[vwo60]

I find it funny that people have an opinion on the Spax shocks without ever using them, they have a very good reputation and have been used in all manner of road and competition cars, every bit as good if not better than the Bilstien and koni shock, as for myself I have run all these shocks and find both of the bilstien and koni shocks average with three of my Bilstiens leaking after about 12 months.

[shepherd]

I will add after some driving, that I can now get a feel for how the rear of the car is sprung, by having the shocks on a softer setting. The stock short bars are softer than I thought. With them set on 8, the ride is really comfortable, not as jarring as the KYB gas adjust at all, though I get a bit more roll on corners than before. I'm going to drive it to Flanders show on Sunday and will experiment along the way (lots of nice curvy country roads on the way there) but I'm thinking the 26mm bars might be in the future

[Piledriver]

Cool.

Few things are as hard as KYB gas-a-justs after a few K miles.
I have 400 lb/in springs on mine front and rear (+ std springs, push/pull from std ride height) and it STILL rides softer than stock with KYBs.