Thread revival;

Today I removed the KYB shocks on the front of my Dart and installed a pair of Hotchkis adjustable shocks.

Right of the bat I adjusted them to level '15' (2.5 turns out) and took the car for a drive. Great improvement.
Car feels more in contact with the road and handles a lot better.
Speedbumps were handled much better without the front of the car rising up as much as with the KYB's when encountering the bumps.
During regular cornering the car stayed more level.

Tried level '20' for a short while, which made the roughness of the roads a bit more obvious in the car. Would feel good on faster highway or roadcourse driving.
Dropped back to '18', '17' and then back to '15' for the time being.
Maybe if I get used to them I might go up again on shock stiffness.


On the rear of the car I've Bilstein shocks installed, in favor of Monroe Sensatracs before, but I've also got a pair of adjustable QA1 shocks to try out.



As a recap, this is my current setup;

'73 Dart
318 / A518OD / 8-3/4"
17" alum. wheels - 205/40 front tires & 215/45 rear.
Borgeson powersteering box.
Subframe connectors.
1" JustSuspension torsion bars.
7 leafs per side.
Front Hellwig swaybar.
Front Hotchkis adj. shocks on the front.
Rear Bilstein shocks.

Glad you like them! Now just get the rears so you can balance the car out and you'll be all set!

Another thread revival;

Today I replaced the rear Bilstein RCD shocks on my Dart with a pair of Adjustable QA1 shocks.
The QA1's have 18 settings but on setting '5', where I installed them at for the time being, they already feel a good deal firmer than the Bilstein shocks.
I've only done one trip back from the garage till now so have only limited roadtime yet, and I also need to trim or install smaller diameter bushing washers as the stock ones contact the shocks.

Did you consider the double-adjustable shocks?

No, well... to be honest, only after I got the Hotchkis adjustable shocks on the front, I started keeping an eye out for a better rear shock than the Monroe Sensatrac's I had at the time.
I happened to stumble on the pair of Bilstein's for a great deal, and fairly soon after these I spotted these single adj. QA1's for sale locally for a good price.

The QA1's have more compression friction than the Bilsteins which limit the downward motion of the car's rear end.
I've also noticed the car/rear end stays flatter in the corners, which was still a bit of an issue with the heavy propane tanks I've got in the trunk.