I just replaced the fronts on mine tonight with the Bilsteins I ordered. The Edlebrock IAS Performers I had for about 30K were done. I could work them pretty easily back and forth by hand. Unbelieveable, as they were $90 a shock.

It's funny as now the front end looks a little higher than it did and almost even with the rear. Almost like I added a leveling kit.
Rears tomorrow.

 

I was thinking about Bilsteins, just a bit much for my 13 year old beast, almost as much as a new set of mid range tires would be.
My old Gabriels, on the truck at least 8 years, still had some life in them.

 

Should have got another set of Gabriels again!
I love my Bilisteins. They are the best.

 

Didn't know they were Gabriels until I already bought the Monroes and had the 1st shock out.
I just mentioned that to see if that would help anyone determine if they were OEM.
Seems likely that either the $90 Bilsteins or the $40 Monroes would outlive the truck.
I pay top $$ for top of the line hardware at times, didn't make any sense in this case, and could have got even cheaper shocks.

I'm trying to get my 68 Firebird on the road, between that and 5 kids nickeling and diming me to death, every $$ counts.

 

I dont remember exactly who made the factory shock. I do know that mine had the Chrysler star logo, and the words "MADE IN BRAZIL" stamped on them.

 

I think Tonico did. Or was that for Toyotas?

 

i changed mine like a month ago and they were factory shocks with about 124000 miles on them. i sprayed knocker loose on all the bolts and let em sit for maybe 5 minutes before i started taking them off and they let loose like they had just been installed. i ended up getting the sensa tracks, hopefully they're good shocks.