flex a Form fiberglass springs

Alex is the best when it comes to support. Very knowledgeable and helpful.

what did you guys pay for a set?

Interested too: subscribing...

IIRC, I payed $425 shipped to my door a few years ago, but I think it is still close to that. This included the front and rear eye bushings (poly) and sleeves).

IMO, it's a good value for the benefits, benefits including:

• much better handling from reduced unsprung weight, less side flex, quicker reaction
• reduced overall weight (16lbs for the set instead of 60-80lbs+ for the stock set)
• identical rate for each side (one wide spring is cut in half to make the two stock width springs, so the two sides are really "clones")
• little to no sagging (ever). I shouldn't have to buy a new set every few years to replace the dreaded sag.
• it will never rust

Someone has asked about weight distribution issues with the lighter weight in the rear. I haven't noticed any tendency to oversteer, but do plan a battery relocation just to remove a little of the forward bias. The better reaction certainly compensates for any weight loss, and it's unsprung weight to boot.

I wish it did use stock front and rear eye sizes so that I could change out the poly bushings more easily to DelALums if I wanted to (I think the supplied size is generic, perhaps the same as a Toyota or Jeep?), but I have no complaints about the ride with the supplied poly bushings. I also undercoated them as I drive on roads that sometimes have rocks, etc, and I didn't want to chance a rock chip. You can see the undercoating and the cast iron colored paint in some of my pictures above.

I tried doing a google search for them and when I go to http://www.flex-a-form.com/ I get an Not Found 404 error. Are they still in business?

As far as I know they are still in business. With change in ownership, the Flex-a-form webpage may have temporarily lapsed. Try the FAF phone# (864)261-7006 or contact Alex at MoneyMakerRacing since he keeps in regular contact with them and has some stock on hand. Let us know if you get through.
Daniel

I was able to pull up their website today, I decided to email Alex as well cuz I want some of those on my 67 vert.

Good to know. By the way, the website order form will ask a bunch of questions for info not usually needed from us in that our springs aren't "custom" per se. They already know the dimensions (for unaltered Mustangs) and will steer you into one of several spring rates (180#, 200# and 225# being the most common I've seen). You just need the desired drop, the intended use of the car and the desired spring rate (if you think you know). For me, I had a mostly street driven car that was dropped 1" and may be autocrossed or road raced. That got me the 200lb-in road race spring. I did drop some (maybe 1/2" compared to stock), but still reversed the eyes and rebonded the them. It took some careful work to reverse the eyes and would have been easier if I had ordered them with the reverse eyes in the first place. Total drop now is about 1" to 1 1/2" compared to stock. BTW, 200# in a fiberglass seems to have similar characteristics to maybe a 165# or 180# 4 or 5-leaf steel spring. Hope that helps.
Daniel

I looked into a set 2 years ago and the rep at FAF talked me out of set.

He warned me that stick cars making decent hp WILL have wheel hop. FAF springs need to be used with cal tracks to eliminate the wheel hop. At $400 for the springs and $300 for the cals plus shipping, I decided not to buy a set.

I was also told if I did any autoxing that I would need a device to keep the rearend centered. He told me that the spring will begin to fray at the spring mount if I didn't.

This IS second hand info....so take it for what it's worth.

I do know a couple of guys on here, have had wheelhop issues with the FAFs.

I think you bring up valid points, but many of them are also true of steel springs. Caltracks are used on steel springs to control wheelhop, not just on FAF ones. The fraying ends may be a possibility (though steel springs won't have this particular issue), but I've not noticed any. Some lateral movement is also likely (like on steel springs) since today's tires allow much more grip than these cars were ever designed for (at least on the track), but there are ways like panhard bars and/or spherical bushings to deal with this issue. Here is a Camaro example, but Carl Cassanova used teflon lined spherical bearings instead of the poly FAF ones to reduce roll bind and torsional loads. He seems to have had some success with them. Scroll down to the bottom for his writeup. Again we are talking about more expense, but this expense would be similar in a comparable steel suspension (like the GW cat5) or you would have to go to a more complex system like a multi-link or fully caged one.


It may depend on the car setup and how much "decent hp" is but I've not had any wheelhop issues, even when doing burnouts, or fraying of the spring even when cornering hard. I do periodic checks, though. For my intended use (spirited street, maybe a little track), these springs have worked well, but I could also have gone with the cheaper Mustangs Plus spring package and only sacrificed a bit of ride quality, eventual sag and weight. The FAF springs are not without cons, though, and won't be right for everyone. You are smart to do research before commiting that much coin! :SNSign:

Daniel

I do get wheel hop @ 250-300rwhp, but I still think the gains everywhere else are well worth that one trade off.

Keep in mind I had to pay another few hundred to get them to the other side of the planet, and I am still very happy. They cost me all up about 3-4 times what a set of steel springs are worth here.

It really is hard to overstate just how much better these are than steel springs.

I will be looking at their fiber slapper bar equivalents and maybe caltrac style of traction control in the future.