Many years ago, my former 144 had a K-Mac rear sway bar fitted to it. Even before I'd upgraded the front bar, it made an incredible improvement to the car's handling.
Today, I have a number of 140 projects on the boil which each require a K-Mac rear bar. I've looked at the iPD and Whiteline rear bars, and I am not particularly pleased with the way they mount. Drilling holes in the body shell, under the rear seats? Please.
By way of comparison, the K-Mac bar mounts and operates in a very similar way to the factory 240 rear sway bar. IMO it is far superior to the others available. Here is a pic which was taken by
@OldnDecrepit of the sway bars he'd just removed from his 164E for detailing.
The bar at the top of the picture is the K-Mac rear bar.
K-Mac has been in business in Sydney making sway bars and suspension items for about 50 years now. These days, they keep bar specs for many different vehicle on computer, and can then make them to order with a two-week turnaround. As you'd expect, sway bars for mid 20th century Volvos are not exactly a high volume sales item in Australia, so any bar you want for your 140 or 164 would have to be made to order.
This is where this group buy comes in.
Last time I checked quite a few months ago, RRP for a K-Mac 140/164 bar is in the region of the Whiteline bars. By doing a group buy - and therefore making it easier for K-Mac to do a larger than normal run of the one type of unusual bar at the same time - I am hoping to negotiate a better price. If all goes to plan, the objective is to have the bars delivered to buyers at the Oz Volvo Annual meet in October. Those persons wanting bars and not attending the event in Benalla will need to flag their order as requiring freight; of course, this will be an additional cost and you will need to organise it.
Group buy price
per rear bar is $285 each.
Group buy price
per front bar is $240 each.
How this Group Buy will work:
* 2017-08-24 = Group Buy opens; expressions of interest taken * 2017-09-07, 21:00 AEST = Expression of interest closes.
* 2017-09-08 = Quote obtained for group buy price and posted to group
* 2017-09-09 = Orders OPEN and payments taken
* 2017-09-17, 21:00 AEST = Orders CLOSED - cutoff time for payment
* 2017-09-18 = Group Buy order placed with vendor
* 2017-10-02 = Vendor completes group order
* 2017-10-03 = Pick up completed order from vendor; carry out freight instructions if applicable
* 2017-10-06/07 = Available for collection at Oz Volvo meeting in Benalla
* Week beginning 2017-10-08 = carry out any outstanding freight instructions if applicable.
Once we see how many EOIs we have (if any besides myself!) I'll announce payment methods in this post. Which may see a lot of editing!
EOI List
1. bgpzfm142 (3 bars)
2. ab1 (1 bar, also interested in front)
3. steve (1 bar, also interested in front)
4. 1971_144GL (2 bars)
5. dmm (1 bar)
Paid-up members List
1.
ab1 - 1x 164 front; 1 x rear = delivered
2.
dmm - 1 rear bar = delivered
3.
steve - 1 rear bar = delivery in process
4, 1971_144GL - 2x rear bars = delivery in process
5. bgpzfm142 - 3 rear bars
DISCLAIMERS: 1. This group buy isn't being run by 'Oz Volvo', it's being run by me. So if you have issues with something to do with it, please hassle me, not
@jamesinc.
2.
Once If your name is still on the list on the morning after EOIs close, that is a
de facto commitment to buy. So please, if you change your mind, let me know before
the deadline the call is made to the vendor. Your order or lack thereof may well affect the price of each bar for the whole group.
3. You understand that K-Mac makes the bars and does the warranties on them; Oz Volvo is just the message board, you are responsible for fitting the things and deciding how they should be used, and I'm just a middleman who's trying to string together a bulk order for a better deal.
