what shocks do you guys suggest to use in your car?
Pedders
koni
monroe
gabriel

what have you guys found to be the best for street/ maybe some rally.

i'm going to put stanza struts in so i'm getting new springs in the front, has anyone used king springs? are they any good?

As far as shocks are concerned my understanding is that of that group the Koni's are the best. they'd want to be since they're bloody expensive!
Best of all they are adjustable although for Mcpherson inserts it requires the removal of the entire damn strut!

I was told Gabriel are cheap US shocks, mabey one of the american blokes can comment further.
I know they do make adjustable shocks too with an appropriately higher price tag. Weather or not they make em for stanza struts i don't know.

Lastly I read a very angry mans web site once who claimed he was an ex-Pedders franchisee. Wish i new the web address so you could have a read.
Anyway amongst the vitriolic abuse of Pedders owners and employees he stated that Pedders gear was cheap stuff made in the same factory Monroe shocks came from.

If you belive what he was saying you'd never buy Pedders gear again. Just buy the Monroe stuff.
Bit cheaper apparently.

One last thing, Apparently Koni shocks were not available for the datsun coupe (may be different for other models). I had to get mine custom modified by the people i bought them off - Proven Products in Sydney.
I must warn you that i had a bad time with Proven Products. The modified shocks they first supplied me with were completely the wrong size so i took them back with one of the tiny OE shocks i had left to act as a model for the size, extension and retraction. They returned them to me but they still didn't fit despite the OE shock to work off??!

They never got third chance because..... well... i lost them. $400 pair of custom shocks and somehow i lost them. Still not sure to this day where they went.

I've got Pedders on the back now and i don't like them (purchased before reading the angry mans website). The Koni's are on the front and the front end is great.
My dislike of the behaviour of the rear end could have more to do with the whole set up rather than the shocks.
See what others say.

(Proven Products poor performance in my case may have been a one off. Never spoken to anyone else who had them perform an unusual job like mine. So certainly don't take my shot at them as how it is. Find out for yourself)

Thats my two bits worth.

Cheers for the info, the gabriels are damn cheap $91 for the pair and the pedders are $154 so i think i'll give some other folk a call and see what it will cost for say Koni's or something else. at the moment the Stanza struts aren't in the car so it isn't so hard to put in new inserts

It's true that Pedders gear is made at the same factory as Monroe. And the Pedders Rally car uses Proflex shocks - so don't believe their "competition proven" advertising.

For a street car or dual purpose, the Monroe inserts are OK. I get about 18 months from them in competition in my coupe.

I had Pedders gas on the rear until just recently when the more powerful engine and stickier race tyres went on and I developed a huge axle tramp problem. Until then the Monroe fronts and Pedders rear were proving to be quite acceptable on the track. But I just bought some single adjustable Konis for the rear and the difference is night and day. Will be getting some Konis built for the front very shortly too. But if your budget does stretch to these shocks look at the Bilstiens too. These have the advantage of being rebuidable, which will offset the higher initial cost in the long run, and can be custom valved to suit the car and intended use too.

If its just going to be a road car, the Monroe inserts will be OK but Monroe don't list a rear shock for 1200s any more. Pedders might still do the rears if you're lucky.

As for the springs, Gemini coils are excellent on the road with their variable rate. Great ride and handling. They need to be cut from the linear rate end, and if you are sensible about ride height they should still remain captive.

Does anyone know what KYB shocks are like?
Are they another good option?
I just checked out thier website but my pop-up indicated i had another 3.5 hours wait to download the catalogue!!
i canceled that one pretty quick!

you should also consider Bilstein's. My mate just swapped to bilsteins in the back of his car, he had Koni's before, and he reckon sthey are great. He did have them valved correctly for the springs though....whichj is always the best way to go.

KYB are japanese, and typically better than aust made stuff, but not as good as Koni or Bilstein. I think cheaper shocks dont save u any money bec they wear out quicker, KOnis meant to be good for 300'000 km
best shocks like Koni or Bilstein or coilovers are adjustable and rebuildable if ever necesary, also variable rates of bump and rebound. when you have a soft bumb stroke and quick hard rebound you get good handling with good comfort. it all depends on the money you want to spend and if you want comfort or performance or what balance.
i found Monroe Sensatrac really good, as an OE replacement bec they are progressive rate. soak up small bumps nicely and really limit roll, but dont cost much more than the standard gas shock.

how much are koni's and bilsteins? at the moment i have been qouted about $580 for front and rear shocks and new lowered front springs and lowering blocks for the back, didn't get a price on rebushing the leafs though.

Im running Bilsteins in the front and KYBs in the back (the KYBs were actually out of a suzuki vitara?!) and its sweet. Before that I was running pedders sports in the front and they nearly killed me (on the track) would be ok for the street, maby. Bilies are in a class of their own and are the way to go if you want proformance handling but otherwize go for something affordable.

I kinda like the Koni's. They are a little bit dear to buy, but cheap to keep.

I fitted a full set to a new [5 days old] EA Falcon wagon [my work car] in early December 1989. I drove it about 180,000k in about 2-1/2 years, a lot of it over dirt roads. This car was replaced by a Falcon van & i swaped the rear shocks into it. The van was then driven another 160,000k & there was about 1/4 of a turn of adjustment left in the shocks. These were government cars & were not treated with the same level of respect that i would give to a car that i was paying for. [i gave them a hard life]

For those that don't know, the adjustment in Koni's can be used to adjust the damping rate for the driving style that you will be doing, & also to compensate for wear. Thats how i was able to maintain acceptable shock performance over such a high mileage

Plan "A" was to pull the shocks when performance finally fell below expectations & have them overhauled by the Koni agents. This would have cost less than a replacement set of "ordinary" shocks.
With care, i believe that i could have stretched the life of those shocks out to about 300,000k [about 185,000 miles]

What happened? My job became redundant before i wore them out & the vehicle was returned for disposal. I now do something else within the company.

I have a set of Konis for my 1000 coupe, but the KYB shocks in the back of my 1000 sedan have given superlative service for about 170,000k & were working well when the car was "decomissioned"