<VV> RE: Shocks / interchange / LM

[Sethracer at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/13/2006 5:03:07 AM Pacific Standard Time,  
corvair at fnader.com writes:

The  story as I understand it is that Koni made a run of its actual 
Corvair  shocks for late model either by mistake or as a test. Anyway, 
they ALL  ended up in the hands of a single non-Corvair vendor who was 
trying to  figure out what to do with them. Word got out and he sold a 
few sets  directly...then Clarks bought them all from him and began 
reselling. I had  placed an order directly with the original vendor just 
as Clarks bought  them all, so they canceled my order and sent me to 
Clarks (where I paid  rather dearly for my lack of haste.... don't get me 
wrong, they are still  a great buy, but they were dirt cheap from the 
initial  vendor)



No - According to my "sources" Koni made them for a person/small  business 
who regularly commissions small unit runs (That means hundreds not  thousands) 
of various applications of Konis. They were sold and delivered to  him. He did, 
indeed have them for sale for a while, and also did (I have heard)  sell the 
remainder to Clarks. I would suppose that the individual, Koni, and Cal  Clark 
will all make money on the deal. And we get the benefit of  availability of 
additional good shocks for the late model. 
 
Now - Good news for the early model. According to the same source at Koni,  
the Corvette shock (I believe it was the 63) is a good fit for the early  
Corvair - front and rear. Of course, as noted, you should make sure the extended  
length, as installed, doesn't allow any increase in droop over the  stock 
shock. Larry Claypool has noted the need to add some shims, at least on  some 
models of shocks, to effectively move the lower mount downwards, at least  on the 
rear. My source did NOT just examine fit, but looked through the  
force/displacement curves in the Koni archives and confirmed that the Vette  shock was a 
virtual duplicate of the original early Corvair Koni. I have run  Bilstein 
Shocks on some cars (not on Corvairs) and I still prefer the Koni  to all others. 
Your mileage may vary! - Seth