I need help in deciding weather to put air shocks in my 86 Iroc, i know if i do i will lose handling but the look would also be very hot...

------------------
1986 Iroc-z 305(TPI)

 

Actually, I think my car handles pretty darn good around curves with the air shocks in! I've driven in other friends 3rd gens, and mine has always felt the tightest. (I imagine if I had Koni's "red" shocks/struts all around, I'd have even better handling, but hey, I like the look.)

One problem to watch out for, though... the upper shock mount. It's just a hole in sheetmetal... it's not strong at all. Over time, the constant "pounding" of the air shock against the upper shock mount will fatigue the metal, and you'll bust thru the upper mount.

This happened to me on BOTH sides of the car. I went up there with 1/4" inch of plate steel, and bolted in "new" mounts. I fixed the passenger side that way back in '95, the driver's side in '96. I check 'em every so often, and they haven't budged. Also, I used to run 150psi in each shock. (I have the Gabriel hi-jackers, with the "custom" one-air-line-per-shock air kit.) At 150psi, I couldn't push the back of the car down at all. Now I only go to 90 PSI- that's where the car stops raising. With 90 psi in each shock, I can push the back of the car down; so the stress must not be as great.

Plus, the shocks let me run P275/60r15 tires. That means (for those of you about to accuse me of an outrageous gap between the tire and quarter panel) the difference between the tire tread and quarter panel lip is almost the same as if I had no air shocks and stock tires.

It's crossed my mind a few times to "raise" the spring perches on my rear axle. That way, I could ditch the air shocks- which would eliminate any more stress on the upper shock bolts. I could run normal shocks, and the springs would be raising the car. Too bad nobody makes a high-rise spring for our cars.

I first used those spring-locks... the cheap metal brackets (two per spring, one on each side) that go in between a spring coil, and stretch the spring. The problem was, if I hit a large bump, the spring would vibrate, and the brackets would slide towards each other. I was constantly yanking the tires off and separating the locks... I even lost one on the highway!


------------------
-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
---Think your car could be pic of the week? Visit http://www.f-body.net for details!

 

You know what those spring locks are really good for? If you only use them in the right rear it's a real cheap way to set up a car for better straight line acceleration. Like you said tough, bumps kill them.

 

Our 65 chevy farm truck has air shocks! They are so cool. They have little air valves in the back below the tail gate that you pump them up with. You can raise the back end almost 4" with those things!