Koni Shock rebuild or replacement

I had the four Koni shocks rebuilt on my 71 after the car sat in storage for 15 years. Koni charged me $100 each to rebuild the shocks. As I recall, it took about 4 weeks to go through the shipping,rebuild and return. They need to be sent to Kentucky. The shocks cam back like new repainted etc. Bare in mind that these shocks are late 1970s technology. These shocks have a part inside that will fail and cause the shock not to work at all so that it becomes like a solid bar! The rebuild that Koni did eliminates this failure mode. Dennis at PPC told that you can improve the ride of the car by upgrading to the gas pressurized shocks but I didn't want to spend the $1000 to $1200 for shocks plus another $1000 for springs etc. It seems like it never ends.

Upgrading shocks inevitably falls into the "race-car" arena, and for race shocks, figure $350-500 apiece. Some are 3x this cost. This holds for cars, motorcycles and competition trucks. I paid over $500 for a single gas-adjustable shock for my motorcycle and was glad they had one in stock! Remember, this is a VERY limited market, the parts are expensive & most are hand-assembled (at $75+ an hour!) In operation, the damping oil is squirted at very high velocities thru carefully sized orifices. The high velocity oil acts like a cutting torch, abrading the damping holes ever larger and bingo-you've got another worn-out shock. Seals also have a tough life, as do the 3/8"-1/2" dia. shock rods, which often bend! Bottom line- if you want to play in this game, you pays the tab....or run less-exotic old-style Konis (as I do!) Pat Mical in Massachusets convert old Konis to coil-over operation, rebuilds & retunes the damping etc- but he ain't cheap either.... Sorry.

I'm in the middle of replacing all a-arm bushings and shocks. I just paid $950.00 for a brand new set of Koni adjustables with springs front and rear. These are custom built at Koni for Pantera East.