Another Shock Thread

29Cabriolet

29Cabriolet

Senior Member
There's quite a bit of older FordBarn posts on shocks and with my next project being replacements, I thought I'd poll the group for some updated info and answers I did not find in the existing threads. It seems there are at least 3 options. At the top of the list of course are Stipes, at a whopping $250ea; the tubular "modern" shocks; and also I read somewhere about shocks from a British car (Triumph(?) fit perfectly on an A with no modifications.

I am trying to keep the car looking as original as I can, at least to the untrained eye. But it's a driver; never to be a show car. Price and function then is a higher priority than original parts for this car.

So what is the preferred choice regarding primarily price and function? And which vendor would be the best source?
 
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And the new snyders shocks.........

If you have cores get them rebuilt .....

Or I would go with the stipes or snyders
 

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Larry,
Two known guys are robert paul and john holland.. Both come highly recommended so when I needed my shocks rebuilt I called on both. I went with john holland as his turn around was a little quicker and the price was cheaper at that time. Price was not the deciding factor as I wanted a quality job and both gentleman will give you this... If they find one of your shocks are not rebuild able they can supply a rebuildable core to use for an addtl charge. This is a copy of the sticky page of websites...
 

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Mitch//pa said:
Larry,
Two known guys are robert paul and john holland.. Both come highly recommended so when I needed my shocks rebuilt I called on both. I went with john holland as his turn around was a little quicker and the price was cheaper at that time. Price was not the deciding factor as I wanted a quality job and both gentleman will give you this... If they find one of your shocks are not rebuild able they can supply a rebuildable core to use for an addtl charge. This is a copy of the sticky page of websites...
Click to expand...
Thank you so much, Mitch..

Larry
 
Well,
Seeing as i've just gone thru all of this shock business, i though i would post what i found and decided upon. I was against the modern shock because it doesn't look right and its too much of a change from original. So that leaves three options.
1. Brattons (yes they are making shocks now)
2. Snyders
3. Stipe

Stipe makes a beautiful product. He also charges more than anyone else. I didn't like that they were not available for a period of time. That made me worry about problems in the future with support if something happened to mine.

Snyders i believe started carrying their own shocks this year or end of last year. They seem pretty nice but they are not American made and they don't have the engraving on them.

Brattons. Last but not least. They just started carrying them earlier this year. They look almost identical to Stipe shocks but less expensive. Still a fully adjustable shock with the 60/40 resistance. I choose these because Brattons is such a relaible company to do business with and they just look amazing. They don't come painted though. They look so nice, you almost don't want to paint them.
 

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craig1989 said:
Well,
Seeing as i've just gone thru all of this shock business, i though i would post what i found and decided upon. I was against the modern shock because it doesn't look right and its too much of a change from original. So that leaves three options.
1. Brattons (yes they are making shocks now)
2. Snyders
3. Stipe

Stipe makes a beautiful product. He also charges more than anyone else. I didn't like that they were not available for a period of time. That made me worry about problems in the future with support if something happened to mine.

Snyders i believe started carrying their own shocks this year or end of last year. They seem pretty nice but they are not American made and they don't have the engraving on them.

Brattons. Last but not least. They just started carrying them earlier this year. They look almost identical to Stipe shocks but less expensive. Still a fully adjustable shock with the 60/40 resistance. I choose these because Brattons is such a relaible company to do business with and they just look amazing. They don't come painted though. They look so nice, you almost don't want to paint them.
Click to expand...
How much for a set of 4?

Larry
 
They are $240 ea. You can get them in hex or square adjuster. I think they can even get them with the early 28 style pointer adjuster.
 
With only about $10 dollars difference I would choose Stipes over Brattons. The workmanship is proven and guaranteed. Wayne
 
I've used John Holland at the suggestion of one of our parts suppliers. Very reasonable and all is well. It took three months tho.'
You see I sent them out late last fall. John was so nice but it was a case of finding his shop, that was buried in snow! A brutal winter. It didn't matter the car was put away.
 
A little clarification to craig1989's post.

I have exclusively purchased all my repop parts from Brattons, since living about 5 miles from his first two locations and about 20 from where they are now. His parts and customer service have always been top notch.

Brattons, offering shocks for sale, aren't manufactured in house by Brattons, they are manufactured FOR Brattons. Brattons has no machine shop on site. Which has nothing to say about the longevity of repair parts availability. Not that they wouldn't make right in a warranty issue, but there is no implied long term source, that's out of their control.

Stipe also is top notch, I have purchased specialty items from them and their work is hard to beat. As far as I know ALL stipe products are made in house, in their shop, greatly increasing repair parts availability even after run stock is depleted. It may not be cost effective to make small runs of any given repair part, but as long as he is in business, chances are better that repair parts would be available.

I will add, Brattons shocks may very well be made by Stipe, I'll ask next time I'm there....
JMHO, FWIW.....
 
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I bought 2 rebuilt shocks for the front of my roadster at Hershey a few years ago and they have the 60/40 action. I don't recall the vendors name but they were $100 each. For the rear I used Snyders tube kit (half of a complete kit), the front half I used on my doodlebug as they were too stiff on the roadster. This combination gave a great ride and you didn't see the rears unless you got under and looked. The new owner of my roadster remarks at how well it rides.
 
Here is the low down about how Bratton's shocks came about. After years of dealing with the poorly made M&S shocks we had collected quite a pile of leaking shocks at the shop. A local machine shop near Mount Airy MD was found that has the skills, equipment, and time to try to re-build them. SO the leaking shocks were taken to him and we talked extensively about what needed to be done and the issues we were having with the leaking shocks.

About 10 days later the machinist comes into the shop with a couple of the old M&S shocks taken apart. He looked me in the face and said I cannot believe you are selling these. I told him at the time that was all that was on the market and we really had no choice.

He spent about 40 min going over all of the things that were not done correctly with the old M&S shocks. The 2 main issues were
1) that tolerances were not held in the machining process which left the rotor or wing shaft very lose in the housing so the fluid could bypass the wings and go the path of least resistance.

2) When he took the shocks apart the units were full of metal shavings and burrs on the machine surfaces which just chewed up the internal seals on the shocks.

So at that time he told me that all of the returned cores we had were junk and there was nothing he was able to do to save them. He than asked me why we have never had him quote on this part. I told him we did not think he would be interested or even able to do it economically. He took that as a personal challenge. 2 hours later I had a quote on my desk with a price and a quantity that was very fair.

After a couple of weeks of going back and forth with the machinist, gathering original shocks, and original prints (when we could get them). We took all of these shocks apart and looked at what Ford did vs what M&S did that worked and didn't work so well. One of the things that we decided to do was to start each piece with solid billet steel, so we can better control the tolerances. Each piece of the shock is machined that way (except the needle valves the have the different heads welded onto the shaft). We also designed these shock to be sealed so they will not leak. We also made sure that original & current reproduction arms (I add the word current because I have seen some older reproduction arms that are really crap and won't fit the original units either) and bolts could be used on these new shocks.

The first run was for only 1 set so that Walt and I could test them and make sure they would work. Most of the old M&S shocks failed with in the first 100 miles or less. We tested that first set for over 1,000 miles over all kinds of roads. We drove nice paved roads, one lane bumpy roads, and even took a road that crossed a creek bed. These shocks held up wonderfully, and preformed better than we had expected.

So at that point we put the order in for the first run of shocks. The first run lasted about 2 months before we had to re-order. We are now on our third run of shocks. We also started offering the shocks with both the square style needle valve as well as the hex needle valve. We recently made the pointer style needle valve( because several customers asked for it) that we sell separately, but i don't know if we will put them in a shock as from what my research shows all of the 28 shocks that used the needle valve style that we sell has the FORD script on them and i don't have a license to use the Script.

The final thing is we are offering a 1 year warranty on the shocks that we sell. I know a set of 4 shocks is a lot of money and with the past history of shocks we felt this was just an added benefit for our customer. At this time the shocks are selling for $240 per wheel.

The other thing I see a lot of people asking is if we are just re-selling the Stipe shock. As you can see by the information above no we are not. We have taken a lot of time to try to provide a quality part that will perform well for years to come. In my opinion there is nothing wrong with any of the other current reproduction shocks on the market. It is all dependent on your price point and what the goals are for your car. I hope this has helped address any questions about Bratton's new shock's. If anybody needs any more information please feel free to reach out to me at Bratton's and I'll do my best to help answer any questions you may have.

Jeff
 
That's awesome Jeff! Good to know there is competion in the high quality shocks market! You guys always do a bang up job in supplying the best, keep up the great work and thanks for the time to provide commentary to your tireless efforts!!!!
 
As a newbie with a car without any shocks, I am very happy with the stipe shocks I installed... I will say, any original style shock in the front makes the most sense to me (functioning standpoint). So either rebuilt originals or new are better than no shocks. I cannot comment on of tube type shocks.
 
jak said:
Here is the low down about how Bratton's shocks came about.

After a couple of weeks of going back and forth with the machinist, gathering original shocks, and original prints (when we could get them). We took all of these shocks apart and looked at what Ford did vs what M&S did that worked and didn't work so well.

If anybody needs any more information please feel free to reach out to me at Bratton's and I'll do my best to help answer any questions you may have.

Jeff
Click to expand...

Because I think others may have the same questions and to save you some time on the phone:

Are yours a redesign of the original shock insides or a reproduction of the original shock insides?

Do the throws have the same variable resistance as the originals or are they 50-50, I would just like to hear it from "the horses mouth".

Please don't read into this any more then the simple questions that they are. The questions are not meant to demean the product in any way no matter what the answer.
 
Jeff,

Will you have a booth at Hershry?

If anybody needs any more information please feel free to reach out to me at Bratton's and I'll do my best to help answer any questions you may have.

Jeff[/QUOTE]
 
Mike V. Florida said:
Because I think others may have the same questions and to save you some time on the phone:

Are yours a redesign of the original shock insides or a reproduction of the original shock insides?

Do the throws have the same variable resistance as the originals or are they 50-50, I would just like to hear it from "the horses mouth".

Please don't read into this any more then the simple questions that they are. The questions are not meant to demean the product in any way no matter what the answer.
Click to expand...


These shocks have a 60/40 action like the originals, and by turning the needle valve you can adjust the resistance of the shocks.

They are sealed internally so it is not an exact reproduction of the inside of the shock. And we have added additional seals to help keep the fluid where it belongs.
 
blgitn said:
Jeff,

Will you have a booth at Hershry?

If anybody needs any more information please feel free to reach out to me at Bratton's and I'll do my best to help answer any questions you may have.

Jeff
Click to expand...
[/QUOTE]

Sir no we will not be set up at Hershey this year. Sorry
 
jak said:
These shocks have a 60/40 action like the originals, and by turning the needle valve you can adjust the resistance of the shocks.

They are sealed internally so it is not an exact reproduction of the inside of the shock. And we have added additional seals to help keep the fluid where it belongs.
Click to expand...

Thank you!
 
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