What's working for you? Using qa1 coilovers with Beebani brackets

[2wheel-lee]

Though it's been several years, I had a Chevy extra cab frame and all the suspension powdercoated for $400. Hopefully the price hasn't gone up too much since then. I plan to eventually do that to my 620. 

 

I'd spray paint it for now...I'm sure glad I did, as I ended up having to do a few modifications to suit my needs. One, was that with my drop spindles and target ride height, I had to redrill the lower ball joint mounts so I could get 1-1/2 degrees of negative camber without the upper control arm ball joint mount hitting the coils (I had to grind that out all the way to the ball joint). Before doing that, I previously had to open up the holes for the bottom ball joint to allow access to the grease fitting (the hole missed). So basically don't spend much effort powdercoating until you know it all works for your application.  

 

Also, you may notice, is that he made a big hole in the top of the lower control arm where the bump stop would hit. His idea was that the QA1 shocks have bump stops built in. They don't. You can take the shocks apart and add them, but that's a bad idea, I think. Doing that puts a lot more stress on the shock mounts. 

 

I had my 5 year old boy weld in some 1/4" sections of box tube. 

 

[2wheel-lee]

Just an FYI about hardware. Though you can use the stock lower pivot, if you decide to replace it with a bolt, it's 18 mm. My lower control arm hole was a bit large, but not quite large enough to fully fit a 3/4" bolt through (the threads would barely go, but not the shoulder). And then, as  you know, the rear spherical bearing and mount use a a 3/4" bolt.  

 

EDIT...I just saw that your rear bearing is a different setup. Mine didn't have the wide range spacers/reducers as yours do. It looks like yours may use 5/8" or 1/2" bolts. Also, ,the holes where the grease fittings are accessed are much larger. 

[G-Duax]

 His idea was that the QA1 shocks have bump stops built in. They don't.

 

Hm, the ones I bought for my rear did.

[2wheel-lee]

Have a picture of them?

[G-Duax]

Only installed...

Upper right corner of the picture, you can barely see the black bump stop behind the spring at the top.

They are about 1" long.

They came with the shocks.

 

[2wheel-lee]

Maybe yours has them because your shocks are a lot longer than mine.

I went back and looked at my correspondence with QA1, and I was inquiring about internal bump stops, and they said none of their's have them. 

[BEEBANI]

Yeah Lee, I've bought them with the bumpstops included.  I don't remember which ones off hand. 

 

The reason I go with the bearing style ends is because they are 1" wide bushings whereas the poly style are 1-1/4" wide.  The ear width on my brackets really works best with 1".

[distributorguy]

QA1 is local to me.  So is Viking, which was started by the pissed off engineers that used to work for QA1.  If you read through the American car forums, you'll find a growing disdain for QA1.  While they offer a product, apparently there is ample room for improvement.  So much so, that you can drive from their manufacturing facility 2 miles and find better shocks at Viking.  You may want to look them up as an alternative.  

http://vi-king.com/

 

After talking to guys from both places, I won't deal with QA1.  Lots of attitude, very little knowledge or advice.  Viking is quite the opposite.  When I go coil-over on our race truck, they have my business.  

I have zero affiliation with either company.  I just happen to live 20 minutes away from them both.  

[BEEBANI]

thanks, I'll check them out!

[HOGIE]

Me too. I unfortunately haven't gotten to installing my new parts, have to wait for funds to come in.