I have been thinking about winter projects that I would like to do on my newly aquired 82 CE and one of he things on the list is to look at the suspension. It is my first Corvette and so I have nothing to compare it with but it seems to me that the suspension is very hard - to the point that I can feel even the tar fill that they use in the cracks in the road. I am guessing that nothing has been done to the suspension from new. Is it likely that the shocks should have been replaced by now?
Are there modern replacements that will give a smoother ride?
I am not looking to modify the car for performance/speed for racing or drag strips , it is just an occasional driver for fun so I don't want to spend silly money on something I don't need , just make it a bit more comfortable. (hope that makes sense?)
I am a newbee to Corvettes and relatively inexperienced working on cars , so idiot proof advice would be appreciated , also if you have done the job yourself , what brand did you use and how pleased are you with the result? - thanks

Here's the best there is for quality, engineering, and for what you get, price...
http://www.vbandp.com/

Do you have the gymkhana version? you can tell by the rear spring (metal leafs is gymkhana, fiberglass spring is not). remember these cars weren't designed to ride like a Cadillac, you going to feel allot of the road and bumps, you can lower your tire pressure to smooth it out some, I regularly ran with 25 pounds and had no problems, for drag, or autoX you will want to fill them up though...

As far as upgrading, there's some really nice kits at vb&p, I would suggest one of the "street/slalom setups, it's going to be a little stiff, but it will perform like a killer, the "grand touring" setups are going to be a little more tame, but will still be an improvement over stock...
Of course you can always just R&R all the stock suspension, it will ride decent and perform like GM designed it to do....

Now after typing all of this, I will also suggest calling the guys at vb&p and talk to them, they are really friendly and willing to help you figure out just how far you want to build your CE.

The last thing I did to mine was to R&R everything underneath mine, it rode pretty nice, and was a pretty good improvement over the 25 year old stuff... I did do allot of dreaming of how I would redo mine, I was going to go with the "street/slalom" kit... but trading up to a C5 won out...

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Arizona Corvette Enthusiasts
Gone, but not forgotten

Thanks very much for the reply - I am pretty sure it has the fiberglass , will check tommorrow and confirm. I accept that it is not supposed to ride like a cadilac , my problem really is that I have never been in another vette and so have nothing to compare mine with - for all I know it is already performing as it should. It just seems to me that at 25 yrs old there must have been some improvements and as you have said even to replace like for like should give some improvement. I am still in the looking at what is available and trying to get a few opinions stage - not planning on starting until after xmas - so plenty of time to look around.
I will get a catalogue from VB&P and will definately give tham a call or email them to get their advice.
Thanks again

Checked this morning - It is the fiberglass transverse spring as I thought.
On the basis that I don't think that anything has been done with the suspension from new , what would you suggest that I need to renew? , in what order/priority to see the most benefit? I am thinking , if possble of breaking the job up into sections in order to spread the work load as well as the cost but obviously don't want to go removing things I have just replaced in order to fit something else (hope that makes sense)
Look forward to hearing your views