Collector's Auto Supply Rear Shocks?

Gerald Morris

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Happy News!

My rear leaf spring order from SpringsnThings is due Friday. Soooo, I need to consider which rear shock absorber to replace the coil-over Monroe Load levelers I installed to supplement the tired flat steel in my 55 yr old original leaf springs. Looking at the Rare Parts website revealed some big, beautiful U.S. made rear shocks with a SKU# 51273. Turns out they're claimed by a "Collector's Auto Supply" outfit.

Have any of you used rear shocks made by these folk? How do they ride? Are they worth the stiff tariff they put on them? They LOOK to be EXCELLENT shocks, but I like to know as much as possible about such hardware when it goes for $250 a pair. I seek y'alls' collective wisdom in this.
 
Happy News!

My rear leaf spring order from SpringsnThings is due Friday. Soooo, I need to consider which rear shock absorber to replace the coil-over Monroe Load levelers I installed to supplement the tired flat steel in my 55 yr old original leaf springs. Looking at the Rare Parts website revealed some big, beautiful U.S. made rear shocks with a SKU# 51273. Turns out they're claimed by a "Collector's Auto Supply" outfit.

Have any of you used rear shocks made by these folk? How do they ride? Are they worth the stiff tariff they put on them? They LOOK to be EXCELLENT shocks, but I like to know as much as possible about such hardware when it goes for $250 a pair. I seek y'alls' collective wisdom in this.
I've never bought from Collectors Auto Supply. I may be 100% wrong, but they seem to be just a list of parts from other vendors and not a place that stocks parts. In other words, you order from them, they order from someone else and it gets dropped shipped to you.

Now, Rock Auto works that way too, but they are dealing with warehouses and places where you aren't going to be able to buy from as a "guy on the street" consumer. Collector Auto Supply seems to pull stock from every other source, and I've heard stories of them not be able to deliver.

So, I would be very cautious.

The other thing... $250 for a pair of shocks? Nope... Too many other replacements out there. I understand your desire to stay US made, so some eBay searching might find some NORS pieces. Gotta be cheaper...
 
As usual Big John is correct. CAS has been around a long time. Their list is a compilation of what is available to them from hundreds of other NOS dealers. What they have available is available to you cheaper somewhere else, trick is you gotta find it.
I have bought from them before, 20 + years ago. I bought a Superlite grille for one of my 70 Polaras, $229. After I received my grille I located one from the Florida NOS dealer, $179.. I called to buy that one too, it sold two weeks prior. That was when I realized what was going on with CAS.

IT'S a legitimate company, but it's cheaper somewhere else.
 
Ouch Gerry! I totally get supporting Made in USA but I just put 4 KYBs on Betty White for $140. It smoothed her out big time, especially since the ones I removed were from the early 70's. I never had good luck with longevity of Monroe/Gabriel. The way I justified it is: except for that one time, the Japanese have always been cool with us.
 
Ouch Gerry! I totally get supporting Made in USA but I just put 4 KYBs on Betty White for $140. It smoothed her out big time, especially since the ones I removed were from the early 70's. I never had good luck with longevity of Monroe/Gabriel. The way I justified it is: except for that one time, the Japanese have always been cool with us.


Ouch! So much I could throw onto that anti American statement.

Buying Made in the USA is a proud thing, regardless of price. Unless there is no other option or I need it now, I do without until I can find it with an American Flag.

In this instance, I'd be surprised if you find Made in the USA unless they are NOS or NORS pieces.
 
Happy News!

My rear leaf spring order from SpringsnThings is due Friday. Soooo, I need to consider which rear shock absorber to replace the coil-over Monroe Load levelers I installed to supplement the tired flat steel in my 55 yr old original leaf springs. Looking at the Rare Parts website revealed some big, beautiful U.S. made rear shocks with a SKU# 51273. Turns out they're claimed by a "Collector's Auto Supply" outfit.

Have any of you used rear shocks made by these folk? How do they ride? Are they worth the stiff tariff they put on them? They LOOK to be EXCELLENT shocks, but I like to know as much as possible about such hardware when it goes for $250 a pair. I seek y'alls' collective wisdom in this.

Gerry:

I fergit. . . What is year/make/model of yer car?
 
Buying Made in the USA is a proud thing, regardless of price. Unless there is no other option or I need it now, I do without until I can find it with an American Flag.
No, I totally agree and please don't take what I'm saying as anti-American. I'm the guy who will research and pay 5x-10x more for an American made item and make sure the company is also American owned. It's definitely not about cost. I was super pissed when I found that 1 of 2 of my caliper seal kits from NAPA was from China. On the flipside, I don't take pride in replacing parts more frequently than I have to if a company's QC is sub-par. In the rare instances I do have to shop items from outside our borders, I prefer them to be made somewhere that doesn't despise us.
 
From what I see listed at Rock Auto, the replacements seem to be Monroe, KYB, Gabriel, and Sachs.

Sachs is a German company. KYB is Japanese. Gabriel and Monroe are USA based.

Where this stuff is made is anyone's guess. It would not surprise me to see KYB shocks made in the USA or the Monroes made in Mexico. I used to see electronic parts being built for Hyundai and Toyotas in the same factory as GM stuff was, just a half hour drive from me. It also wouldn't surprise me if it all came off the same assembly line somewhere, just painted different colors and stuffed into whatever boxes...
 
It's a crap shoot as to where your shocks are going to come from. Mexico seems to be the biggest source these days, but some, mostly Monroe's, are still coming from the USA. A bought a set of Sachs last year and they were from Mexico.

Lots of people here seem to like the silver KYB's, but I can tell you that they aren't always a good bet. I installed a set of them on a customer's Ford Expedition and they were obviously undersized for the job. The tube diameter and shaft size were significantly smaller than the originals. They were weak right off the bat and totally shot within 6 months. They were worse than the 330K mile OEM shocks that came off the truck. I would have had to replace the KYB's for free, but he sold the truck at that point.

I don't care for the high pressure white KYB's either. I had them on my '72 Fury wagon. The front's are tiny and the rears are huge. Going over humps, such as a railroad crossing, the front of the car would porpoise up and down, while the back was rock solid. I found it quite annoying and won't ever buy those again, especially considering what a ***** they are to install in the front.

Jeff
 
I have a set of the silver KYBs and they are stamped "Made in Nippon" right on the shock. They work great. Yes they are a biotch to install on the front, but a lot of that is the front end design too.
The way I see it:
Japan = cool.
Chyna = not cool.
 
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In fact I did. Plus all the rest of the rear suspension parts.
 
As usual Big John is correct. CAS has been around a long time. Their list is a compilation of what is available to them from hundreds of other NOS dealers. What they have available is available to you cheaper somewhere else, trick is you gotta find it.
I have bought from them before, 20 + years ago. I bought a Superlite grille for one of my 70 Polaras, $229. After I received my grille I located one from the Florida NOS dealer, $179.. I called to buy that one too, it sold two weeks prior. That was when I realized what was going on with CAS.

IT'S a legitimate company, but it's cheaper somewhere else.

Thanx for confirming my doubts regarding this parasitic flipper company! The question remains unanswered though: WHO MAKES THOSE SHOCK ABSORBERS? I CONCUR FULLY with folks here regarding the price of these being in the Absurdosphere, but would like to know where the sweat and blood gets squeezed and baked into shock absorbers. I almost certainly am going to buy a pair of KYB Gas-A-Just monotube shocks to use with the new springs, regardless of the answer but like to know this sort of lore in case a truly compelling rationale for putting big shocks on arises.
 
I have a set of the silver KYBs and they are stamped "Made in Nippon" right on the shock. They work great. Yes they are a biotch to install on the front, but a lot of that is the front end design too.
The way I see it:
Japan = cool.
Chyna = not cool.

I TOTALLY AGREE! I didn't find the KYBs any more difficult to install up front than the Monroe OESpectrum ones I'd tried before them. I use bailing wire to restrain the shock at maximum compression in the tube until I get it bolted in. Then, and never before then, do I cut the bailing wire.

Dai Nippon (Great Japan) differs as much from China as they do from Great Britain. Boku no Nihongo wa, sukoshi heta desu, kedo, renshuu shinakute, ojozuu ni zen-zen arimasen nehhhh!

I like Japan, but fear Chyna. The former is a virtuous Altaic civilization, like the Koreans, Mongols, Huns, and to lesser degrees Turks, Tibetans and Thais. The Han (Chinese) contrast VERY markedly from Altaic norms, despite long association forced often by merciless warfare for limited natural resources.

Without getting into the dirt of the past couple millennia, I advise folk to buy from Japan, or even Korea if they want quality steel, machinery or electronics, but China if one suffers from overheated wallets verging on spontaneous combustion.
 
Thanx for confirming my doubts regarding this parasitic flipper company! The question remains unanswered though: WHO MAKES THOSE SHOCK ABSORBERS? I CONCUR FULLY with folks here regarding the price of these being in the Absurdosphere, but would like to know where the sweat and blood gets squeezed and baked into shock absorbers. I almost certainly am going to buy a pair of KYB Gas-A-Just monotube shocks to use with the new springs, regardless of the answer but like to know this sort of lore in case a truly compelling rationale for putting big shocks on arises.
Time to tell a story about manufacturing....

I used to have a customer where I go into work a couple times a year. Nice place, clean and cool, my two biggest comforts when working in factories.

They made laundry soap in the large factory in the front, but my customer was actually in the rear of the building, where the soap was packaged into plastic bottles made on site.

It was an American company that made the soap, but a German owned company owned the bottling plant.

There were two or three bottling lines... Colored plastic pellets were melted and then the plastic was blow molded with the labels as part of the molding process (fascinating stuff). It went down the line and the pipes from the soap plant in the front filled the new bottles. From there, it went off to be boxed. All on the same line.

Most laundry detergents that I could think of were made there... and some I didn't know. All on the same line... Just switch out the colors, labels and boxes. I couldn't tell you if the pipes delivered the same soap or not... Probably did, or maybe just a color switch... LOL. Only they knew and I knew better than to ask. A least a dozen different laundry soap came off those two or three lines.

The parent company had cameras all over the place too. Everything was monitored on the other side of the world, but I digress.

Point is... You never know where anything is made and who makes it. I wouldn't be surprised if Monroe made shocks for Sachs... Or KYB... Or the other way around. Much of this car stuff difference amounts to paint and boxes, just like the laundry detergent is just the bottle and label. You never know who owns the company that makes the product for the American company either...
 
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