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Donny, 'hard riding' shocks may simply be competition-type units or heavy-duty springs that are adjusted too stiff for your liking. Is there a name stamped or a decal on yours? What color are the shock bodies?

Koni and Bilstein are two popular makers, and the early 'black' Ariston shocks on some '71 Panteras were also adjustable for compression damping. It may be that you don't need the expense and complication of changing to new shocks if yours are adjustable.

From your photo, I can't tell what kind of shocks you have, but stock springs weren't chromed.   

No on the nut placement- yours are fine as is. Its easier to install the bolts with nuts on the inside but you can't torque the nuts effectively in that position. Positioned like you have them, you can use a socket wrench and get them good & tight. Even slight looseness in only one nut can cause weird vibrations during hard acceleration.

And when you take the halfshafts off, the bolts will stay in position so that's 16 more pieces that are harder to misplace. Nice clean engine bay.

I still need to do mine but I'd expect that Scott should be able to give you a pretty close approximation to the ride height setting out of the box.

The Panteras are not going to vary much as far as corner weights and tire ride heights go. The strut and spring weights are known already.

To me, the only decision ride height wise is whether or not to use the US height or the Euro heights?

Our roads here generally are better but here we have to deal with more obstructions like manhole covers projecting too much and non-pitched entrances to places like parking garages and gas stations, not to mention the pot holes that are now appearing all over from the winters freeze/thaw cycles.

Back in the '70s, the U.S DOT had mandatory headlight height and bumper height requirements- especially in California. So Ford/DeTomaso used ride height spacers to comply. Now 50 years on, they have other things to occupy their time.

The Pantera Owners Manual has ride height specs listed and where you measure them from. For better high speed aerodynamics, I use a 2 degree nose-down attitude instead of the original perfectly horizontal spec. Works even with a Revson front spoiler.

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