69 Buggy - Do I need coilovers?

[Frizbal]

Hey all, educating myself on rear suspension components as it's time to replace some shocks that have worn out bushings. It's a 1969 pan with stock IRS. I took the shocks off below and they seem to be some really old school coilovers, which is kind of cool. The bushings are toast, so need to replace. I've read on here some like coilovers, and some don't. What I first want to make sure of... the buggy doesn't NEED coilovers such as this, right? It's IRS, but it does still have torsion bars, correct? So if I replace with standard shocks, I should still expect plenty of spring.

[YDBD]

No a buggy usually does not need coil overs. These are usually used as quick fix to sagging rear or to get the rear raised up to the stops on the spring plate. Real coil over shocks are several hundred dollars each.

If you pull those off your buggy should sit a bit lower, if it squats more than you want, the correct way to fix it is to re-index the torsion bars and spring plates. Then put on shocks, stock is probably good enough for a buggy.

I run normal shocks on my current buggy, it's run on the street. '56 pan with swing axle and I don't know if we ever redid the torsion bars in the 54 years.

The '64 baja with IRS I had I ran KYB shocks for a positive push to get the baja a little higher, was not a smooth ride.

'73 Thing had air shocks, just to keep the tires from rubbing.
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'56 pan Dune Buggy since '69
don't live in the past...but when I did:
'67 bug
'64 baja
'60 dune buggy
'73 Personenkraftwagen Type 182 "Thing"

[Frizbal]

Great bingo, I appreciate it. Can you re-index on an IRS? Every post and video I can find is for a swing axle, so not sure how to do that. I’ll definitely want to get it back to the current ride height. I’ve heard gas shocks will also lift an inch. Stiff, but couldn’t be worse than the coilovers currently on it.

[NJ John]

I don’t know much about off roaring or if your going to be doing any. But, I wouldn’t do gas shocks on a glass buggy. Rear maybe and not super strong ones.
Re-indexing is similar to the swing axle process. The spring plate has to be unbolted from the control arm. And the arm pulled out of the way with a strap or something to support it.
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1973 standard, yellow, lowered, 3” narrowed front, 1600 blo-thru turbo w/single dell 15.4@86, so far
11.41 et buggy. Long gone
Let’s go O’s! Let’s go O’s!
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[Dale M.]

[Frizbal]

Ah ok, if same as swing axle then I understand it. I definitely knew not to place gas up front, but have read mixed thoughts on rear. I figured with me already having coilovers on rear, I’d experience similar stiffness. Heck, these may even be gas.

If there were replacement bushings I’d probably just keep these since I know the feel and stance, albeit pretty rough!