1981 SC suspension

I am planning on replacing the shocks on my 1981 911SC. I am not a racer, but I do attend a track day on occasion. I am looking for something that will provide a firm, but not real aggressive ride. The car has been lowered. Also, is this a do it yourself job for the average shade tree mechanic? Suggestions welcome
Thanks, Ralph

I just installed a set of Koni adjustable gas shocks into my 78 SC. The car rides a little harsher, but not bad. Here's how it went...

The front was a little messy. On my car (boge struts), to be able to get at the strut for dissasembly I had to loosen the retaining locknut on top of the strut tower to allow the strut shaft to be pulled down and out of the tower bushing. Since it's a locknut you have to prevent the strut shaft from spinning while youre loosening it. On my car the big washer on top of the rubber bushing is keyed to the strut shaft so all I did was hold the washer with a pipe wrench which in turn prevented the shaft from spinning. Some struts have an allen key hole on top of the shaft to hold it. Next I jacked up the car good and high, reached into the wheel well and grabbed the upper part of the strut and pulled downward until the shaft was clear of the bushing in the tower, and moved the strut and wheel to one side. (Make sure you don't overstretch the brake line when doing this as you may have to move the assembly over lot to do the following stuff). Next I slid the upper shroud tube, and the underlying rubber bumper up and off of the strut shaft. This exposed the top of the strut which in turned exposes the threaded collar on top which holds all of the guts in. I used the same pipe wrench to get it off. Next I grabbed the shaft and pulled upward until the guts came out. This was a little tough because a large O-Ring is down in the bore which also has to be forced out. The messy part was all of the oil in the stut had to be drained (I used a turkey baster to suck it all out of the lower part of the strut. Then I put the new Koni insert into the lower portion of the strut and reinstalled the threaded collar over it (minus the O-Ring and upper seal). This holds in the insert and on mine was a pretty tight fit around it (the yellow paint was scraped off the Koni when screwing it down over it). Next I replaced the rubber bumper and shroud then reinstalled the removed components to the strut tower.

To do the back I had to remove the heater blower (one bolt), to get at the rear drivers side tower. On these the shaft had an allen key hole on the end of it to prevent them from spinning while loosening the locknuts. Then I took off the bolt that retains the bottom of the shock, and pulled the shock out from under the car, and installed the new ones.

One other thing. My car is a euro car so it rides a little lower than US cars. Because of this some of the US cars have an additional spacer installed on the shocks, and struts to put them into their working range. Good luck.

Thanks Leon, I'll give it a try!
Ralph