Just wanted to post up a mini-review as promised to one of our vendors - The Suspension Source - who hooked me up with a set of Belltech Street Performance shocks for my '68. Awesome service and great prices. Highly recommended vendor for members looking for shocks and other suspension parts.
First off, I had no hesitation going with Belltech to replace my worn KYB GR2's since I've run them on all of my previous trucks - the most recent being a '08 GMC Sierra Crew cab lowered 4/6 and a '99 Chevy Silverado dropped 5/7 before that - and I've had nothing but great results. I've tried KYB, Edelbrock, DJM in the past and none felt as tight and compliant as the BT's. I've also used the Nitro Drop 2 shocks from BT as well but I found that the new Street Performance shocks are a notch above even those.
The shocks came with the proper dual eyelets for our application for both front and back. The BT shocks also comes with new nuts, washers and shock mount relocator pin. My truck already had the relocators so I didn't need to use them.
Installation is a simple swap for the front. I ran into a small problem on the rear with the pressed in lower eyelet on the BT shock being a hair too small for the relocator pin. A simple 5/8 drill to enlarge the eyelet hole allowed it to slip right on and bolt up right.
Once the truck was back on the ground, a quick test drive immediately showed improvement over the KYB GR2's. The ride is firm but smooth. No harshness or stiff jarring ride. Just a nice sporty, solid ride. It absorbed all of the low speed bumps and road surface textures nicely. I can't speak for its high speed feel and capabilities yet as I was only able to do a quick test drive around the neighborhood and haven't been able to take her out on the highway at higher speeds.
So far, though, there is definitely a much improved feel in low speed damping. I will report back once I'm able to get it up to speed and take a couple of off-ramps and hit higher speed bumps such as freeway joints etc.
Overall, I am very pleased with the BT shocks and their performance. Thanks again to The Suspension Source for the hook up on these.
