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What they liked the best: The brakes. What folks complain about the most on this site: The brakes. I've said it before, I'll say it again: The biggest problem with Gen 1 brakes is not the brakes per se, it's the brake booster.

What I used for bushings is simple rubber vibration isolator pad material (the pad was approx 12" square), up here we have a *Princess Auto* hardware/automotive supply store, Harbor Freight *might* have something similar, using my table saw I cut the bushings to the same basic shape as the original molded bushing glued to the leaf & removed the material in the inner section to make the *pocket*. One has to do them in two pieces (upper & lower). One can *fine tune* the installed height of the new spring by adjusting the upper bushings thickness, but both bushings have to be no thicker than necessary to allow the spring to go into place & tighten up the lower mounting retainer to let it bottom against the stop. Seeing as the blank leaves are 3" wide (that's wider than the glas leaf in the centre section at the mounting points) I used my 5" angle grinder with a flap wheel to notch small recesses into the edges of the steel where the pads will go to allow the mounting bolts to slide up either side of the leaves up into the subframe member. All of this wasn't difficult, it just took time & patience. If you've never removed the rear leaf without the special spring compressor there is a way to get it out without to much fuss.

This is the formula I used to get the basics for for I wanted....in hindsight it is a bit too stiff, on the highway the springrate is great, car does NOT float, corners reallly well, but where potholes are concerned its a bit harsh. My thinking now that it's been 2 years since I installed it the springrate could be dropped to perhaps 280lbs per inch. The shop owner who fabbed this up did it from the original *high arc* leaf. He used regular *shallow* arc leaves (blank leaves are all arced to a basic curve) to start with, cut them to the length as per the formula, then put each one thru the *hammer* to together match what the ride height the car is at when the glas leaf was in place with the cars weight on it. Of course I had him reduce the arc as the car sits approx 1.7" lower. That means you have to get under the car to measure the curve of the glas leaf when it is under the vehicle weight. Do so from the ends of the leaf to the centre section. I just used a long straight edge, laid it up under the spring ends & took a measurement in the centre. Since I was doing all the *bull work* I had to install, test the ride height, uninstall, go back a couple of times to have him *fine tune* the arc to get all where I wanted it. One has to fab up their own rubber bushings for this.......not hard to do, just takes time cutting them to fit. *Note* to do this the exhaust has to be out of the way.

"Automatic shoulder belts"