Rear Leaf Springs

Has anyone installed Summit Racings own brand leaf springs. I need to replace mine, 69 Firebird, and noticed Summit's is over $100 less than Ames and others alike.  

I have used Summits products in the past and they have been fine.  But, for leaf springs I would go with Eaton Spring company out of Detroit.  I have a set of their 126lb leaf springs on my 76 and the car handles awsome.  They can custom make a spring to fit your liking too.  I bought mine from classic industries and saved a 100$ off of eatonn's prices.  I actually was looking into summits aluminum heads for my sbc.  I have not made a decision yet.  

Oh Yes listen to Greenbird76.
I used Eaton of Detroit in my 1968 Camaro I don't know how long ago,they went right in, I replaced everthing in the back shackles, I used the hard durometer spring rubbers inside the perches. Go that way.

I've seen guys go to a spring company near them and worked out the specs. and had No problems. Good Luck..  

Thanks Guys, I have also used Summit's products before and liked them, when I started looking at the prices on the leaf springs, then checked Summits they were quit cheaper. I would figure one of the big companies would be producing for them.  

Please check with Summit before you buy their springs to see where and/or who made them.  A lot of the quality and cost is in the steel the product is made from. The cheap stuff will let you down in time.

I trust Summit about as much as I do any other company selling stuff to us, probably more, but the old adage of you getting what you pay for is often true.  

+1 Milt.
Seen too many broken leaf springs. You may need to brush up on Chinese to speak with the actual manufacturer, too.

I have always had good experience with Summit but never bought any house brand parts from them.  

+1 Matt.

???????????

I am looking forward to your answer to the question above.  

I searched other forums chevy,ford and it seems a lot of people post this question. I emailed Summit today and the tech replied " I do not have that information at this time....blah, blah blah...I've  used there products with great satisfaction but cannot understand how they can sell leafs for 95.00 each.  

they also told me they can sell to the east cost cheaper because of packing and shipping cost are lower.  

It is unfortunate that they won't tell you - but I think mat is right the packing slip probably says made in China.

Matt - I wrote the question "do they have muscle cars in china?" in Chinese charters above but it didn't translate to the site.  

Milt- lol  

droptop- For the price, they may be good springs. Everything breaks eventually but if those springs fit OK and sit/ride decent, hey at least the metal is less fatigued on the new stuff even if it is of foreign manufacture. Summit deals fairly on returns and warranties as far as I know. Just as with any aftermarket product though, close visual inspection of the new part is strongly recommended, and a certain amount of occasional product failure can be expected.  

In perspective you can't buy much gas for $100 these days so if you decide to buy these your not out too much money and Matt is right about not depending on the old ones.  Or another way to look at it is that you could put the money towards some quality springs. It is your choice!

Personally, I want the best I can get under the car since the last thing I want is to have a spring break when I put the car into a four wheel drift and I'm pulling over 1 lateral G  (and yes I still make the car perform when its safe to do so).  

You got my curiosity going so this morning I went out to the Eaton Detroit Website and found your springs for about $184 each.  But I also found a lot of very good information - in fact too much to really post here. Perhaps the most important thing I found out was that the springs I have on my car may not be sized right. After swamping out the 301 for a 400.  There is not a huge weight difference but small changes are important when it comes to springs apparently. They have a Forum and I think that would be a great place to post the question about the difference between the Eaton and Summit springs. http://www.eatonsprings.com/forums/

I found some interesting answers to questions on this page and you might want to read it too.  http://www.eatonsprings.com/techquestions/mainpage.htm  

Mr.Milt is absolutely right.  When I was trying to choose springs for my car, I had to take in consideration the wieght difference between the stock version verse what I have in the car now.  I went with Eaton's reccomendation for the rear and in the front, I went with a spring rated for a 76 chevy 350 powered camaro.  Classic industries techs were very helpful and offered great adeas and guidance.  I am happy with the TRW springs I have in my car right now.  When I replace the sbc with my 400 Pontiac, then I will get the correct springs for that application.  I am always going to have an 4 speed automatic in my car because I love the lock up converter.  THe 700r4 conversion is easily reversable if I want to go to a 200r4 and many places make the BOP bolt pattern adapter plate to mount a 700r4 onto a Pontiac engine.  The I have 3 stock driveshafts, 2 stock sub frames, 3 cross members etc.  Parts cars are AWesome! And the fact that I can do whatever I want to this car is great.  I can build it the way I want it.  

Mr. Milt  I took your advice and posted on Eaton's forum, http://www.eatonsprings.com/forums/ If anyone wants to chime in, or see replies, sign up, lets see if we can drum up some info.....