My SpeedTech Experience

[Sheck44]

So first off, I live in Toronto Canada, so shipping to here is unbelievably expensive, so I have larger items shipped to a buddy of mine's shop a couple of hours away in Buffalo. The importance of this comes later ...

So I am working on a 69' Camaro and wanted a rear suspension that would very well suited for the street, and possibly some autocross, the other important items was full and easy adjust-ability and didn't want to break the bank either so after MUCH research (and discussions over the phone) I decided to go with the SpeedTech Torque arm setup.

When I spoke to Spedtech initially they had mentioned that they had a special on DA Viking shocks that would be included, and at the time when I mentioned that I would be purchasing the setup from Jegs (free shipping etc.) they had mentioned at the time that all of their torque arm suspensions were now being shipped with the DA Viking shocks and I said great !! and proceeded to call and confirm with the Jegs ordering dept, and of course they said 'yup' included ...

So about a week later off I go to Buffalo, pick up my stuff and drive all the way home with a huge smile on my face, though I forgot to mention that when I got to the shop I immediately saw that the larger/HEAVY box had been beat to crap, but I paid no attention and taped it all back up, no problem ... right ... NOT

When I got home and unpacked, I immediately noticed both trailing arms had severe scrapes on the powder coating and on one, the bushing was severely damage. Next of course I open up one of the shocks and voila, single adjustable QA1's

So I started making calls, and this where I came to realize a couple of things. One, SpeedTech does not ship their torque arm rear suspension to Jegs with ANY shocks, Jegs adds these into the kit from their own supply to keep the cost down, and most importantly two ... that BOTH SpeedTech and Jegs have TOP NOTCH customer service. Since I purchased these items from Jegs, everything fell onto their shoulders, and at first I though oh great, big chain like Jegs won't care about little old me... well was I wrong.

Within one week, they had shipped to my door a new trailing arm from the Speedtech office, and upgraded me to the DA QA1's for pennies, and this is where I was sooo impressed, they paid all my shipping costs to send the items back, and they paid all the shipping costs and duty to ship the items right to my door here in Canada.

Now, onto the installation... Roger at Speedtech was awesome, I thought after bugging him with all the calls and questions he would finally tell me to bugger off, but he was amazing.

As a novice builder my ONLY complaint are the instructions, I wish they had much more detailed, step by step pictures of an actual install. There are a couple of pics but so much is left out and if your not a professional mechanic the terminology can get a little confusing. That said I got it done, and it took me about 2 days to complete, and here are some pics ...

Got the rear end 2 feet off the ground (using the lift in my garage to install)



Installed shocks and panhard bar



installed trailing arms



Got the torque arm positioned and ready



Lowered the car into position and bolted everything together



Absolutely top quality stuff



I was looking for a suspension with the adjustability to give me the perfect stance that I wanted, and I got it ... Could even go lower if you wanted, these are Rushforth 19's (thanks Jason !!)



So to the novice builders out there that are contemplating a rear suspension, do not be intimidated with this setup because it requires some welding. Take the rear end to a shop and have it done properly, and get a buddy to help weld in the X member, other than that this system is soooo easy to install, and the results are amazing

BIG thanks to SpeedTech and Jegs

Sincerely
Steve from Toronto

[WSSix]

Glad you had positive experiences with both companies. I'm tired of reading nothing but bad news so this was a welcome relief. Car looks great too. Now when can we get a driving impression report ?

[Sheck44]

Trey, ya I was very surprised, I thought for sure that I was going to have to brunt the costs for the issues. As for a test drive, well may be a bit difficult right at this moment ... car is going in for paint (blue) in a few weeks, and I'll get her back in the spring.

[v8s only]

I have the same setup for 3 years now speed tech is top notch in customer service.

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Man, sorry to hear it was all such a mess in the first place but glad to hear it all worked out. Thanks for the compliments. As one of the newer folks in the Speedtech family one of the reasons I packed up and moved 2500 miles to work here was how genuine everybody is. Speedtech's goal really is to see to it that you, the end customers, have a positive experience with both customer service and the products themselves. Looks like it's working that way for you. Glad Jegs came through and we could be there to back 'em up.

As far as the installation, glad it went well for ya. Just wait till you drive it, the best is yet to come. And remember, once you get it rolling if you need help with dialing anything in just give Roger or our tech dept. a call.

On the instructions, thanks for the feedback. We agree, they're a bit outdated and have been discussing for a few weeks the need to get them up to date. I've started going back and am updating each set of instructions with better (and more) photos and clarifying/ simplifying some text as well. As they get wrapped up they will start circulating with the parts.

That is a good lookin' build so far. What are plans for the drive train? Are you going with the same shade of blue that's underneath? 'Cruiser looks real good too.

[Sheck44]

Thanks Ben, everyone makes mistakes and again it was handled brilliantly by both parties.

As for the instructions and I can tell you that pictures are worth a 1000 words, and I hate to say it but Chassisworks has done a great job with their instructions (take note ... And oh ya, I cannot wait to try this car in the spring, it kills me to have to go into the next six months of winter waiting for spring to experience not just the suspension, but the new 496BBC that Chris Straub has assisted me in putting together, and Jason Rushforth is doing up some designs for stripes to lay on the new color choice ... French racing blue

Ya, thats my 66' TLC that I have completely restored, SLOWEST and most fun vehicle I've owned ...

[waynieZ]

Glad to see they both stepped up. I was going to ask about the Land Cruiser too, it looks nice.

[Sheck44]

Here you go guys, when I just finished her 2 years ago ...

[Blake Foster]

So what is your FAVORITE color????

[Sheck44]

Hmmmmmmmm, Blake let me think about that one ....