We carry lots of parts for different year models of Corvettes, but all of them need a bushing or two along the way. Depending on how and where you drive your Vette is typically the determining factor for choosing your flavor of bushings. We’ll cover how we use them in our assemblies and when we recommend them for you when rebuilding your parts.

Rubber, polyurethane, and Delrin are all materials used for making control arm bushings, which are components of a vehicle’s suspension system. The key differences between them are their durability, stiffness, and resistance to wear and tear.

Rubber bushings are the most common type of bushing used in vehicle suspensions. They are inexpensive and provide a comfortable ride because of their ability to absorb shocks and vibrations. However, they tend to wear out relatively quickly and may deteriorate over time, especially if exposed to high temperatures or chemicals. We only have these available for 63-82 Corvettes.

Polyurethane bushings are an alternative to rubber bushings. They are stiffer and more durable than rubber, which improves handling and reduces flex in the suspension. Polyurethane bushings also last longer than rubber and are more resistant to wear and tear. However, they can be more expensive than rubber and may produce more slightly more road noise and vibration in the vehicle. We have these available for 63-96 Corvettes.

Delrin bushings are a type of thermoplastic bushing that is highly durable and resistant to wear and tear. They are much stiffer than rubber or polyurethane bushings, which improves handling and reduces flex in the suspension. Delrin bushings are also less susceptible to changes in temperature and are less likely to squeak or produce noise. However, they can be more expensive than both rubber and polyurethane bushings. These are available on our 63-82 front coilover kits and 1984-2019 Corvettes.

For composite springs, they are an easy way to update your stock style chassis with a better riding AND handling Corvette. The composite achieves this by being able to flex equally in both compression and rebound. A steel spring is always fighting against itself when rebounding back up and therefore has rebound built in. With that, most factory replacement shocks have compression and little to no rebound valving in the shock to maintain as good a ride quality as possible. Factory steel leaf springs ran from 180lbs to 330 lbs with higher rates available for track usage.

A 330 lb composite spring will hold up the rear of the Corvette much better under cornering and hard acceleration than the 9 leaf 180lb steel spring, yet ride much better. A 360 composite spring is the advanced street, drag setup, high horsepower and light track spring rate. This rate will ride better than a 7 leaf 330lb steel spring, plus give you much better performance. When looking at a 300lb composite spring, this will be for smooth riding and a mild increase in handling. Shortened composite springs are only for wheel and tire clearances. No matter how you use your Corvette, when not wanting to change your trailing arms, a composite spring is a quick and easy way to upgrade the rear suspension.

For rear coilovers, these are a great option when wanting or needing to replace your rear trailing arms. Coilovers allow for wider wheel and tire options when not using a rear sway bar or using a Van Steel offset rear sway bar. With rear coilovers you don’t have to worry about spring clearances at all. Our small block spring rates are ideal for the street and are tuned for excellent ride quality. For high horsepower Vette, spirited driving, track or drag race usage, the big block spring rates are a must. The 600 lb rear springs reduce squat under hard acceleration or cornering keeping the car planted and moving forward quickly. With proper tuning, they are still quite enjoyable on the street although they are a firm ride quality.

Both systems allow for approximately 1-1.5″ drop in the rear. The coilover kit applies a better spring rate right at the wheel. A coilover kit is much easier to change spring rate if you change how you drive your car. We’ve had many a customer order a small block spring rate and find themselves auto crossing or going to the track. Then the big block spring rates are a much better setup. A quick and easy spring swap and you’ve upgraded your suspension again. For a composite spring, you’d have to replace your entire spring or at least upgrade the shocks.

So it all comes down to how far do you want to go with your rear suspension and how much do you want to spend. A coilover kit provides a modern approach to spring rates, ride quality and upgraded trailing arms. A composite spring is a quicker, easier and cheaper way to make your corvette ride or handle better when matched with proper shocks.

Single Adjustable: These shocks are great for 1963-1982 Corvettes driven on the street only. You adjust compression and rebound at the same time making setup and initial adjustment easy. They are not meant for any kind of track duty. For 84-92 Corvettes, you can get by with single adjustable, but you do not get the best out of the ride or handling. We do not offer singles for 97 or newer Corvettes.

Double Adjustable: These shocks adjust compression and rebound independently allowing you to fine tune your suspension for ride or handling. For autocross or track, doubles are a must! These are the preferred shocks for 84-96 Corvettes and required for all 97 and newer Corvettes using adjustable shocks. 

So we now know what they are and kind of what they do, but how do you know how to set them up? For single adjustable shocks, you generally want more clicks up front and less in the rear. This compensates for the weight of the motor, plus allows for more weight transfer in the rear allowing for a bettering riding and handling car. If you find the car oversteers, do one of either; first add 1-2 clicks to the front, if that doesn’t help, then reduce rear clicks. If you find the car understeers, reduce the front by 1-2 clicks, or add 1-2 in the rear. Only make one adjustment at a time before test driving the car again. 

For double adjustable shocks the rule of thumb is more compression up front and more rebound in the rear. Too much front rebound will make the car ride rough and bounce through the corners, too much compression in the rear will cause the car to oversteer or have reduced traction on launch. Loosely, you can look at compression as handling, and rebound as ride quality, although they certainly intertwine with each other. For fine tuning, you’ll adjust front compression for under or oversteer. Reduce compression for understeer and add compression for oversteer. If you have having wheel hop or reduced rear traction, reduce rear compression. While under hard braking the rear of the car feels loose, add rear rebound to keep the rear from hiking up too quickly. Front rebound adjustments will only be for better weight transfer to the rear of the car under hard acceleration or if the car is riding too rough. The rear rebound can also me lessened when the car ride quality is too severe. 

Basic shock settings by generation, single adjustable:

63-82: Front: 7 Clicks / Rear: 5 Clicks
84-96: Front: 7 Clicks / Rear: 5 Clicks
97+: N/A

Basic shock settings by generation, double adjustable:

63-82:
Street: Front: C8/R5 / Rear: C5/R8
Track: Front: C10/R5 / Rear: C4/R8
Drag: Front: C12/R3 / Rear: C3/R10

84-96: 
Street: Front: C7/R4 / Rear: C3/R6
Track: Front: C10/R5 / Rear: C4/R11

97-13 Base:
Street: Front: C7/R4 / Rear: C3/R6
Track: Front: C10/R5 / Rear: C4/R11

97-13 ZO6/GS/ZR1
Street: Front: C9/R4 / Rear: C4/R7
Track: Front: C12/R5 / Rear: C5/R11

Van Steel exclusively uses QA1 shocks for their reliability, rebuildability, quality, and they look good too. 

Our most popular product, the offset trailing arm. Fit larger wheels and tires on the back of your car without cutting the fenders. 

• Off-set trailing arms: 

For the rest of the list, it’s most of the new products we build. Our QA-1 coilover kits are some of our top sellers.

• Front Coilover Kits: 
• Rear Coilover Kits: 
• HD Rear Coilover Kits:
• 30 Spline Race Differential:
• Rear Composite Spring, 330 lb, Shortened 1″: 
• Car Set of Sport QA-1 Shocks: 
• Differential Crossmember Delrin Bushing Kit: 
• New Front Hub w/Bearings: 
• Wilwood D8 Caliper Kits:
• Wilwood, 13″ Slotted Front Brake Kit 
• Front Van Steel Sway Bar, 1 1/8″:  

We offer much more as well. 

• Trailing Arm Rebuild Service: 
• T-arm Bolt & Shim Kit: 
• Control Arm Rebuild Service: 
• Front and Rear Rebuild Super Kits: 

We have nearly every bolt, nut, and part for your chassis. So give us a call if you can’t find the parts you are looking for. 

Experience, for over 40 years Art and his team continue to listen to their customers, look for ways to improve, ask why things failed and find solutions to the failures. With each of these Experiences, Van Steel has gained valuable Knowledge needed to provide the highest quality of customer technical support in the industry. 

Passion is the fuel that drives the Van Steel team for perfection in their builds and inspires the adaptation of the new technology to the older generations. For 40+ years Van Steel’s technical partners continue to grow.  The engineering and technical expertise comes from some of the best in the industry, as we are proud of these resources, since we all share a similar automotive Passion. 

Thank you from all of us at Van Steel.

We strive our best to make our parts as good as, or in many cases, better than factory. We listen to our customers along with sponsor drivers to use our parts so we can make sure they a built as best as possible. We have tight tolerances in our build assemblies to ensure our parts will as long or longer than factory original pieces. Van Steel also sources the best vendors for the materials and parts we use to build and assemble our inventory. These vendors include but not limited to, SKF, Hyperco, QA1, JRi, Timken, Hawk, Wilwood, Hard Bar, Borgeson, CSSB, AC Delco, Carolina Sway Bar, and Gun Drilling. 

Other key components:

– New 63-82 front hubs

– New 63-82 rear trailing arm bearing supports

– Bearing specs with tolerances down to the thousandth degree

– 63-82 rear spindle and front hub run outs to Van Steel spec for maximum braking efficiency 

– Anti-seize on key components (coilover kits for example)

– Suspension upgrades 100% reversible to stock configuration if needed

– Customer service support for street/track/drag setups

We are here to help your corvette ride, drive, and handle to the best of its ability along with looking and driving like YOU want it to. Our staff puts in the work each day to provide the best service and parts available to the Corvette community.