Nice those are pretty much the best ones, i have a new set of stagg shocks for mine next spring,there a street / race type entry leval,anyhing is better then the 21 year old ones in there ,i will paint my springs red reuse them but got new tower braces an upper an lower ball joints tie rods,,in the rear i did air shocks an need to do the worn out bump stops,then an ss sway bar with spacers ,body conectors,#1 is the sway bar an shocks ,then to re do my exhaust from the long tube headers on back with cherry bombs,then should have a very reliable car ,i am sure you are going to have a very reliable car will feel like a new car with all the goodies you are puting in that car got to love what you are doing to that car food man put up some pictures when you get it all waxed up,white used to be my favorite color ,i could see myself in a white one again too

 

Alright, I contacted BMR and Sam Strano today about this not-seating issue. Basically, Sam says it's fine, it's been done like this for awhile with no failures, and I would agree. BMR pointed me over here (link) to a thread with this exact thing going, just using stock springs, though stock springs have the same fitment as the BMR springs.

I forgot to order rear spring upper insulators, as well as front upper isolators (oops), so I'm hold with the suspension until they get here probably next week. I'm going to call around to see where I can take the car and transmission to get everything installed. I'm just worried about fitting the transmission cooler on, as there's very little (no) space in the engine bay to mount ANOTHER cooler anywhere.

Am I going to have to get an upright radiator and condenser bracket conversion installed, along with a new air intake, just to mount this new transmission cooler? I have no idea, just figuring things out as I go.

 

my trans cooler is in front of the ac condenser/radiator. i have a power steering cooler at the bottom of the radiator support,,, lol. so you got the shocks ready to go, are you using stock isolators, ive still got stock springs,,, lol.

 

I'll be using the same moog lower front spring isolators that are in that LS1tech forum link I posted just above, just shaving down the outer rim to fit the perch like he did.


Oh, also, my AC. Got the compressor and drier swapped out (with new seals) and evacuated and charged. Stuff is STUPID cold. I thought it was 'okay' before, that compressor was definitely dying feeling it now. It also doesn't sound like a skinned cat anymore.

I've replaced everything on the front of the engine now, excluding the water pump because it's still in good shape. Every idler, every tensioner, every accessory, even the harmonic balancer with a better one. Really looking around under the front end, I'm missing a few screws for the plastic underneath, I'll stop by ace tomorrow and grab the hardware I'm missing. For the front grill insert, how is that supposed to be secured behind the bumper? Mine just pops out, you can easily pull it out by hand once it flexes out. Looks like there's supposed to be a washer or screws or something in the middle.

 

You got the front shocks set up right (yes they ARE shocks, not struts). That extra hardware looks to be for the rear upper mount of the shock (between each side of the body). Except that cup thing with the taps at the very right of the picture. No clue what that is.

 

That thing with the taps gets 'tapped' (pun) onto the base of the shock up front where the bump stop would hit the body.


That's a laid out picture of how it'll go together up front.
-edit-

Of course, you'll have an insulator that sits in the 'strut mount', and an isolator that sits in the spring perch on the shock, but mine aren't here yet. All of the rubber parts on this car are order-online only, because all parts shops seem to have them listed as 'rare special order item'.

 

I got all the rubber stuff from my local parts store. Moog/Monroe make them. I don't remember having that cup thing in the bump stop...but it's been like two years or something. Haha

 

The cup just acts as another layer of metal for the bump stop to pound against if you're able to actually bottom the car out that bad, so it's another layer of protection for the shock's internal parts.
You just tap it on after you get the spring seat and isolator on. You can hammer it off later if the spring isolator gets rotten or something, but the shocks are usually dead by that time anyway.

I think I'm just going to have the guy out here put the transmission in and weld the subframe connectors on, trying to save money on man-hours for labor. Basically, pay for the things I don't have the means to do, and just get everything else myself.

 

ya its alot more work then say getting a stock set up that is compressed already to bolt right in saves on labor, useing my stock springs too ,thats why when installing them doing new tierods an ball joints on top helps so i been told start bye cutting out the upper tierods,there like 10.00 each i just got the whole upper lower 8 piece kit ,i have not done mine an will be getting the help of a friend slash mechanic for my fronts too, the rears should just fit right up ,

 

Might try doing the suspension tomorrow on my own.

Which end goes up into the car here?