69 Camaro front coil over choices, HELP!

[kward]

Building a 69 Camaro and need help on shock options. Going with double adjustables and have no idea which spring rate, length, shock stroke, you get the picture. I am running a ride tech 4 link in the rear and the generic tubular a arms and 18" rims up front. Any help on a starting point would be GREATLY appreciated.

[Z06vette]

If youre running ridetech out back, best choice would be to run them up front as well. As for length, I can comment on that in regard to the budget control arms. I'd talk to ridetech.
Scott

[ADiCarlo]

Are your tubular A arms built for a coil over set up or are you running a chicane set up like speedtech sells?

If not I think you'll have to go with a spring and coil combo. I would call ride tech and see what works best with there rear. You want to try and have a system that is built to work together.

[marolf101x]

Yep, what they said. . .call Ridetech.
Oh wait, here we are!

shock length and stroke depends on control arms and upper mount. Our control arms use the OE upper mounting point and drop the lower mount at the control arm to provide adequate room to fit a true coil over.
Speedtech has gone the opposite direction, which accomplishes the same thing. . .they keep the OE lower mount location and weld in the Chicane upper mount, moving the upper mount up, thereby providing adequate room to fit a true coil over.

How to pick shock stroke:
Place the vehicle at the desired ride height and measure between the existing shock mounts. Give us a call and tell us that dimension. We'll see what we can fit in there. Typically we have something that'll work.

Shocks:
However you do this you need to keep the same company shocks front and rear (and for some companies you have to stay in the same family as not all families are valved to work with each other. Fortunately our shocks, regardless of family, are all valved to work as a cohesive unit.)

Shock adjustment:
It is my VERY strong feeling after living shock development for many years that there is zero need for compression adjustment on a street car. Any increase in compression force from the shock results in additional spring rate and increased impact harshness. This simply means when you hit a bump it transfers more force into your butt and makes the ride quality rough.

In it's most basic sense:
It's the springs job to hold the car up and soak up the bump while the wheel goes over it.
It's the shocks job to slow down the spring (and therefor wheel) when the spring starts to push the wheel back to the ground.

Spring Rate:
To get it dead nuts on use our spring rate calculator:
http://www.ridetech.com/tech/spring-rate-calculator/
Or, if you don't have access to scales give us a call and we can make a suggestion based on what you have in the car. Typically 600-750# front springs on a coil over.