Electra 225 Shocks

[kilkm]

Today I tried to order some replacment front shocks for my 62 Electra. The book the guy had at the NAPA store went back to 62 but only listed shocks for the Invicta. I thought they must be the same, does anybody know for sure?

[NTX5467]

In my 1974 vintage Glenn Mitchell Crash Parts manual, it lists GM Part Number 3192961 as fitting full size Buicks 1961-1964, front. No mention of model as such, or "std" or "hd", just "Buick" and not other smaller Buicks (which are listed separately).

What you might do is go into the "Specs" section of their catalog and decipher all of the lengths and mountings of that particular "Invicta" shock and see if they match what you have on your car. And you might also see if the part number interchange works for the GM part number.

Another "check" would be to go into some of the manufacturer's websites online catalogs and see what they offer. Plus some place like www.rockauto.com (which has lots of listings for older vehicles), which might list several brands. Hopefully, you can make some sense out of the information and see how it matches with the NAPA part. Used to be that some NAPA shocks were Gabriels and others were repackaged Monroes.

By observation, finding shocks for older vehicles can be a crapshoot. When the vehicles were newer, you could get "value", "OEM", and "HD" shocks (plus listings of piston diameter sizes too!). Now, it's all different and "control" and "ride" are mentioned rather than the other terms. So, you basically take what you can get and go from there. Not quite the choices we used to have.

Seems like Gabriel has some "Vintage" listings in their print catalog. Probably a little stouter than the stock shocks (in valving), but not really the HD type (which was personified with the Monroe Super 500s back then).

Enjoy!

NTX5467