Matt Lane

Thanks Bill.

Sorry to be a doofus, but when you refer to both roll-pins visible, can you point them out to me on the photo?



And any recommendations on where to source a complete new Bilstein front strut - I am curious at the $ delta vs. going with inserts.

Best,

Matt

Bill Verburg

Matt Lane

Thank you Bill for clarifying for me. I appreciate it.

Cheers

Matt

Amber Gramps

Bilstein struts are available through Elephant and Steve and Rebel and Pelican and such. They run around $1,400 each!!!...and at that price you are barking up the wrong tree. I'm just a cheap SOB so maybe I should shut up. I just don't see the point of spending an extra $2,300 for struts on a street car. Buy the Bilstein inserts for your Boge

Bill Verburg

Here's what i don't understand
you buy a great car
spend thousands on trying to optimize it
then cheap out on the most basic stuff

Amber Gramps

Nope. Didn't happen that way at all.

I bought a one owner car that never went back to the dealership a single time for service.

Then I spent the next several years bringing the car up to acceptable stock operating condition.

Then I started down the path to make it MY CAR. RS interior, Ducktail, and a lot of DELETE, DELETE, DELETE, DELETE, DELETE, DELETE, DELETE, etc.

Then rusnak sends me over to see a supplier he knows and my world changes dramatically. Now, instead of paying Pelican for the privilege of buying from them, I go see rusnak's guy. If I so much as look at a fastener or clamp or bracket, it gets new zinc. Imagine having access to a warehouse filled with all the discards from Vasek Polak.... ******* sized crates filled with Bistein struts, more ******** filled with trailing arms, 50 decklids, 50 fenders, 50 hubs, 20 engines, racks and racks and racks of all things longhood and G body Porsche.

Keep in mind that in the last two years I've had a 16 year old daughter away at school, single handedly paid CASH for my mother-in-law's funeral, had a son on a mission, paid CASH for my other daughter's wedding and reception, had two other daughters in dance and gymnastics, spent the last 9 months off work trying to get my heart and blood under control, and gotten another new pacemaker. Sorry, but the Porsche has taken a back seat.

If you've seen a photo or read a post where I did something completely egregious then please tell me. I'm a big boy and I can handle it. But, just because I didn't do it exactly the way you would do it (with someone else's money) does not mean I did it wrong. Inexpensive does not always equal cheap. I took so much crap for not having my 930 calipers rebuilt by a pro....guess what, I wanted to do it myself. If I have any questions, Peter Zimmermann picks up the phone every single time I call. Is he cheap? Does he not know what he's doing?

Understand that the car is my toy. It is not my investment. It is not my ego. It is my toy and as such it is subject to what I want to do with it.

Again, where did I cheap out?

race911

I must have missed something, and will further hoard the 3-4 pairs I have around. At least one with raised spindles.

Mondrian

Do bear in mind that many switch their 20 something year old Boge dampers with Bilstein and naturally sing the song, having ridden in a friends 3.4 I with fresh Boge I opted for them and that's here in UK where we don't have straight roads! If I was going to track the car or DE then I might have given Bilsteins a second look. As for the upside down design, yes it makes the suspension more responsive but suspect that would come to life at maximal speeds ie track ... If you set your car up for track then you will loose some on the road. I guess all I am saying is that Boges are not the slush puppy everyone says - porsche were still fitting them to the end of era 89 model!

race911

Remember how strong the dollar was in those days? The factory was trying to save every dime they could at the end of the torsion bar car run. Imagine my surprise in fishing out KS P/C sets from those last of the 3.2s.

Mondrian

My car is a original German 89 so exchange rates made no difference - it came with Boge, friends car is a UK supplied 88, also came with Boge. Prior to making my decision on dampers I discussed at length with 2 of the top 911 suspension specialists here in UK and both recommend Boge for road use, one of them even went so far to say that Bilstein is a bit of an overkill for just road use. Sure some folk prefer a stiffer setup but I think fresh Boges will not disappoint roadies unless you are really going to push the envelope!

Matt Lane

Hello everyone - thank you for the various points of view, didn't want to cause a right kerfuffle!

I think the difference in price will be prohibitive for me. To be honest, I am loving driving this car, but am also realistic about what it is - a very good street driver that may yet need some work on the engine. Will probably take some $$$ in other areas to get it up to spec, so for now will settle with the suspension being renewed.

I will inpsect my torsion bears for rust, scoring, pitting - if they look OK, I may leave them at 19/25... a new set of 21/27 is well over $1,000 to get here in Canada, so again, it will be about picking battles.

Thanks again everyone

Cheers

Matt

Amber Gramps

Matt, a little trick that Steve Weiner told me about years ago was to swap sides with your spring plates. By any measure, this is a brilliant idea. Guys on a budget can move the left spring plate to the right side torsion tube and vise versa.

Over time the rubber tends to deform causing the Tbar to sag. The rubber migrates from being evenly formed all around the spring plate to being more on the bottom. The weight of the car is resting on the rubber, constantly pushing on it. Basically it looks like an egg after a while. Swapping sides puts the fat side of the egg back on top and better aligns the Tbar. Could postpone the inevitable and dreaded rebuild by many years.

Matt Lane

Well here we are, a year later, and I finally bit the bullet. I spoke to Chuck at Elephant about options for the torsion bars - mine checked out as not scored or rusty, so for the intended street ride, I left them as is for now.

Elephant was responsive and helpful, the whole kit arrived with no drama. Had installed with about 25.5 front and 25 rear height to the fenders and aligned with minimal camber for street.

I am ecstatic with the results.

I knew I was riding on a worn, 30 year old suspension (120K miles). But the results exceed expectations. Well damped, comfortable, tight and quiet. A perfect match with the Conti DW tires.

Did I mention I am HAPPY???



Gratuitious shot of Purple Haze with Big Bird lurking the background. This is before the install and ride height work, but still a neat artistic shot from a local photographer.

I would heartily recommend this maintenance - it's not even an upgrade, just puts things back close to where they were when these cars were new.

2017 will see a similar refresh on the 993. It's now retired from track, but need to keep projects from getting out of control. 1 (or 2) at a time!

Cheers

Matt