Well, I finally bit the bullet and purchased a set of those $80.00 gas shocks from ebay...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/260998602398...ht_1425wt_1166
Mine came with no box, just an extra set of bushings for different size bolts (12mm, 10mm), I asked him to trow in an extra set of 10mm ones so he did for free. They also come with the spanner wrench for adjusting the preload.
As far as build quality goes, they are not gonna win any awards but they still look pretty good, and seem to be sturdy enough to handle 150 size buggy. They are adjustable length wise, the eyelet on the bottom can screw out so you can add a little over a half inch to them.
I got them on the buggy and jumped on the front and they immediately bottomed out. So, I adjusted the preload, and added some air from my compressor (I'd say about 100psi for testing purpose) I have no meters other than whats on the compressor and a standard tire gauge and it tops out at 50psi. This helped to get them good enough to test ride. If I jump hard enough I can still get them to bottom out, I think I need at least 150-175psi to get them where they should be. Anyways, I hit the trail and I took it easy the first time around and the shocks felt really good, but the second time around I showed no mercy. I got them to bottom out a few times on some hard hits (like if I was on three wheels and only one of the front wheels was on the ground) I'm waiting to get the shocks filled before I start making and real judgments on them. So far they seem to be a good buy.
From the pics you can see how much preload I added to get them ride-able, I still can add about 1.5more inches of pre-load to them if I need to. Also the springs can be changed pretty easy if you have a heavier buggy. One other negative thing is these shocks don't have a ton of travel... I think I have about 2.5" my surplus center ones had more, but it's a trade off I'm willing to take.
oh, and my front end is looking kinda rough.. I have have to paint the a-arms after a few mods that I've done to them.