I plan on doing a front-end job soon, and I am wondering which parts I should use. I realize that the Spohn kit is all Moog, and NAPA's "lower" line is also Moog. NAPA also has an upper line, which all adds up to about the same price as the Spohn kit. I would like to have some kinda cash left over for firm shocks/struts if I decide to replace those too, and tires. Money is somewhat of an issue, however I can afford the higher end stuff if you all say it is extremely worth it. I would like to stay as far away from the red as possible.

My goals for this car are: Solid daily driver with superior handling and steering responce. I will beat on it occasionally, but most of the time it will just see "somewhat-aggressive" daily street use.

So my question is, should I go with NAPA's lower line, or its upper line? Or can I mix n' max parts, getting some more important ones from the upper line and using the lower line for the parts that dont matter as much? If so, which ones? I've done extensive searching and these are the questions I've come up with.

 

When I did mine, and mixed and match parts. I compared them all. I went with the higher end ball-joints, but the lower-line tie rods, I also went with the upper line idler-arm.

Ask the NAPA guy to pull all the parts out for you, and compare them, then pick what you want and can afford. When you compare the ball-joints side by side, you will see you want the NPC line for at least the ball-joints.

 

I manage a Napa Autocare center so, I use these parts every day for chassis repairs. I would not use the low line napa part (mrc?). I have had customers in the past request to use a cheaper parts, or only had lowline stuff in stock, and had problems with them almost every time. The low level stuff the problems we have seen have been lubrication issues like casting flaws not allowing grease into all areas off the tie rod end. One way or another teh lower quality stuff has a short life span.

Its worth the extra cash.

 

Yeah I work at NAPA now and all we pretty much sell is the top of the line. It's made by dana, and it has a lifetime warrenty. Don't even waste your time with the cheap stuff. It aint worth it in the long run.

 

I did the same thing - I mixed and matched. The thing to look for is where the components were manufactured. When I asked for the inner and outter tie rods, I noticed that some of the boxes for the low end stuff were labled with a "made in China" where as others where "made in USA" - and this was for the low end stuff!
-Andrew