My roadster is stiff as hell.

Now I am about to tackle my front suspension, and have a few problems and questions. I'll go over each problem with photo to illustrate

PROBLEM 1: FRONT SHOCK ANGLE



Several people pointed out that my front shock may not be sitting at the proper angle. They are almost at a 45 degree angle! Seems they need to be a bit more upright. I do not want to change my top mounts so I am looking into shorter lower shock mounts, so to reduce the distance between top point and lower point.

Here is an exemple of what So Cal speed shop tech referred to as: 'shorties' I saw them on a car at a show - WHERE CAN I FIND THESE FOR SALE? So Cal does not carry them... I have called around and googled and so far nothing.



Notice how short the lower mount is here? It helps get the shock in a more 'upright" position - AND NO flipping my current mounts around will NOT work because then the shocks would be sitting in a 100% upright position - not right either.

To illustrate, here are the shock mounts I currently have:



PROBLEM 2: SHOCK LENGTH

I also believe the shocks I have are too long. To fit in they are almost collapsed all the way in and so there is nothing more to give when I hit a hole I go down in it, there is no travel left. I was told shocks need to sit at the halfway point of travel when resting. Looks to me I am right now sitting about 80% in I measured the length of my shocks when completely collapsed and it is about 10 inches. I see Pete & jake's makes some that are only 7 7/8 (maybe would work better for me?). Remember that decreasing the angle (problem 1) will also mean the shocks will need to be even shorter now.

PROBLEM 3: CLEARANCE

One of you did point out a while back, when I posted some photos, that I have a clearance problem. Yes I do, not very serious, but there is some rubbing / scrapping at the very surface of the rod caused by the crank wheel. This probably only happens when I hit some huge hole or at high speed. for all I know it might have happened before I got the car. Here is photo to illustrate:



I showed the problem to my hot rod specialist and he said that if it was his car he would leave it alone, the scrapping is too mild to worry about it. Yes, but it is my mission to WORRY about EVERYTHING , I am afterall, a woman LOL. Actually, i owuld not worry about it as is right now, except that I am now thinking, if I make my front suspension ride better, this probably means more travel? Would that then means also MORE SCRAPPING? (Or I am wrong about this?) How can I fix this problem? What are my options.

Oh boy are you sorry I found this forum yet? I sure keep you guys busy hehe

PS: I LOVE YOU GUYS - I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WOULD DO WITHOUT YOU