C1 shocks revisited

[Dave Suesz]

It took me a while to find someone who even knew how to look up the old parts- turned out to be a local Chevy dealer! I wanted the Delco gas-filled shock. I have used KYB gas on other cars, but I wanted to use Delco for sentimental reasons.

The front is 88946129, and the rear is 88946142. I never followed up on the thread as it took me a year to get around to installing them. The "Allstate" shocks installed in the 60's were stiff as a plank. The new Delcos are very smooth, car feels completely different. I wish I'd done it 20 years ago when I got the car from my Dad. One thing- there were 2 different rear shocks- I think the "142" is 53-58, and another was 59-62. The exact year of the change I'm not sure. All the 53-62 rear shocks look the same, I'm sure these would work great on a 59-62 if the others are not available. These are probably a LOT smoother ride than the original shocks.

[Joe L.]

Re: C1 shocks revisited

Dave-----

You wouldn't have been able to do it 20 years ago; these particular shocks were not available from Delco then. As a matter of fact, these are a fairly recent Delco part number. I'd say that they were not released very long before you purchased them a year ago. The external configuration of these shocks is similar, but not exactly the same as the originals. Also, I'm not sure that these shocks are manufactured by Delco Chassis (now a division of DELPHI). I think that these may be an item "outsourced" to another shock manufacturer like Monroe (Federal-Mogul) or Gabriel (Arvin-Meritor).

[Dave Suesz]

Yeah, no doubt outsourced...

but at least they came in Delco boxes and have Delco tags. The originals were of course straight hydralics with a spiral tube. Even Sears premiums, which were available 20 years ago, would have been an improvement over what I had. The stiff suckers I had probably contributed to the demise of the kingpins I need to replace. Of course the a-arm pivots are in perfect shape, since they haven't had to move much. I keep hearing about somebody supposedly is reproing spiral shocks for Camaros or something. You'd think with every other shack in the far east making generic auto parts somebody would have come up with C1 spirals by now.

[Joe L.]

Re: Yeah, no doubt outsourced...

Dave-----

These days, the term "outsourcing" does not mean what it used to. In the "old days", the parts were either produced internally by GM or were "outsourced" to another manufacturer. Actually, many Corvette parts were "outsourced" pieces from the "get go"; GM divisions were never really "into" manufacturing low volume pieces for Corvette-only applications.

These days, "outsourced", technically means just about everything on a GM car except the engine, transmission, and body panels. What used to be GM parts manufacturing divisions are now part of DELPHI. So, technically, even shocks, for example, that are produced right at the Delco Chassis' Dayton, OH factories, the exact same place that the original Corvette shocks were produced, are now "outsourced". But, I still tend to think of DELPHI products as being GM-----in fact, GM owns most of DELPHI, anyway.

So, usually, when I speak of "outsourced" items, I mean things that are not produced by GM or DELPHI. In the case of these shocks, I think that they are produced outside of DELPHI. But, I could be wrong. DELPHI may have revamped the tooling that Delco Chassis has pretty much used for decades to make shocks and, consequently, that may be the reason for the change in configuration. However, the last time that I looked at some of these "new-generation" shocks I seem to remember that the "Delco Dayton, OH" embossment was missing from the lower portion of the shock tube. If that's the case, that could be a "clue".

Also, some of the early Chevrolet passenger car(like 55-57, I think) spiral shocks are being reproduced and, as far as I know, are available now. I expect that the Corvette shocks will not be too far behind. How well these shocks will perform is another matter. I expect that the main priority of the reproducers will be external configuration rather than performance.