Cost of suspension upgrades?

[RPMClassic]

Any feedback from you guys on budget needed for bushings,torsion bars etc. Shop has said about 25 hrs labor + 1800 in parts. Seems high to me.....

Turbo t rod kit
ball joints
a arm bushings
21 hollow T bars fronts
26 hollow rears rears
adj spring plates
all new rear bushings

corner balance and alignment not included in above price.

[david c.]

Jim,

That estimate sounds very high to me.

Your list is exactly what I'm doing to my car with the addition of Bilsein Sports front and rear and 22mm sway bars front and rear.

Oh, I went with solid (instead of hollow) 21mm front and 26mm rear torsion bars. Fronts are new aftermarket bars, rears are factory bars out of a very low mileage 930.

I'm doing the work myself. I'd say I am now at over 50 hours of my own time in labor (hahaha), but I have NO experience with this stuff. And, I'm not done yet! The hard stuff, like setting the rear ride height, is ahead of me!

But, a local shop quoted me 12-15 hours to do the work plus their regular four wheel alignment charge and corner balancing on top of that. And you are doing less work than I was asking them to do. (I called when I got frustrated just to give myself an idea of how much money I was saving-it worked.)

My parts total thus far is about $2100. If you aren't doing the shocks/struts or sway bars, figure you'll save at least $450 on the Bilsteins and at least $500 on the sway bars over what I've paid out so far. On the other hand, if you are going with hollow bars, they are significantly more expensive than my choices.

BTW, the Sway-a-Way spring plates come with new bushings. All you'd have to buy are the ones at the front of the banana arms.

If you're trying to do this economically, I'd suggest at least doing the work on the front yourself. Then you can leave the more complex rear done and the alignment/corner balancing by the pros.

The front is easy work. It can be done in a weekend, no problem (assuming you can get your old ball joints out-which was a pain for me). The bushing replacment on the front is easy. The torsion bars should slide in and out. Not very complex stuff once you've really looked at it.

As to the front, Chuck Moreland did a great tech article on this. I'd print it out if I were you. It was helpful to me.

Lastly, check out the current thread I started regarding ball joint boot replacement. If yours are torn but the joints are okay, it may be helpful. I'm trying to find a source for replacing just the boots.

This could save we 911/912 owners from uneccesarily replacing the ball joints when the boots are torn. This might save you $80-100.

Good luck to you!

David

[chrisp]

You've got about $1000 in parts roughly. Visit pelican and see. Any respectable shop should let you bring the parts to him. $1800 for that list is expensive (he could buy them from Pelican and make a 45% margin selling them to you!!). You could include sway bars and rear monoballs for the $1800 you were quoted (if you buy the parts yourself).

25 hrs labor for a very experienced mechanic sounds a little high. I did mine myself and it was the first time I had done it. I probably put 35-40 hours into it but I cleaned everything very, very thouroughly. I also did bearings. If I had to do it all over again with no bearing replacement then I would guess around 20-25 hours. It's all very cut and dry. The tough part is the alignment not because it's "hard" but because you need an expensive piece of equipment.

maybe $1250 for parts and 20 hrs for labor is better.

[RPMClassic]

Thanks for the replys. Yes I read every word of chuck's previous thread on bushings - and am very impressed! Sadly, without access to a lathe as mentioned the job gets frustrating at best! I felt it important to have the job done correctly - even if it does cost more.
In looking over the list - it seems the hollow torsion bars are throwing the estimate off. At near 750 for the front and rear - it adds up. The adj spring plates were over 300 as well. Everything else on the list is pretty vanilla and hopefully will go quickly. Not mentioned in my earlier email is the repainting/refinishing of the A arms and trailing arms.

Chuck....how are your trick oil lines working out? I'll email you offline, as I am in the process of having a dual 911R oil cooler set up installed from scratch.

Cheers -

Jim

[cary]

Seems high to me ..........25 hours is how long it would take me. With out ever doing it before. Is this a Porsche specialty shop ?
Thats 3 days .............

DATA :

I already have new Bilsteins front and rear. Plus a strut tower brace.

I'm having installed : Smart Racing sway bars front and rear. Sander Engineering torsion bars 22/28mm. Turbo Tie rods. Plus all bushings refreshed.

Then the car will be corner balanced.

Work is to be done by Rennsportsystems in Portland. After discussions with Steve. I'm budgeting $2500.

My 02c. Hope this helps.

[Joe911]

Jim ? My 1969S has similar modifications only went to 22/27 on the t-bars. Handles like a go-kart. I also installed everything, having never done it before. Took a week working evenings but it was not real difficult. On the suspension bushings that do not fit because of irregularities in the brackets ? I made my own lathe by purchasing a hole saw at Home Depot just small enough to fit inside the new plastic bushings ? added several rounds of duct tape to make a tight fit. Then I placed the hole saw in my $120 bench drill press ? spun the bushing and used sand paper to custom fit each one. Took about 10 minutes per bushing. One could even use a drill in a vise.

Best of luck