How would they have lowered a car in 1954??

I know what you can do now and what the safe way is, but cloning a car built in 1954 means doing it exactly how they did it back in the day.

Barris built a 53 Plymouth in 1954. He lowered the front 3-1/2" and 6" in the rear. How would have done this?

Thanks in advance

 

Probably cut springs up front and blocks and less springs in the back....

 

Thats what I would say.
My Dad used to heat the coil springs to lower a car. I've done it a few times, hard to get much more than 3", they ride like crap and it's very hard to get both sides the same height. Everytime I've tried it I always get one side a half inch lower than the other.
The advantage to heating the coils is you can lower a car in 5 minutes haha

 

Cut coils, lowering blocks and if you had the bucks, reworked spindles.

 

Up front, dropped spindles and/or cut (not heated) springs. Probably just cut coils, as it is not a lot. Cut 1 1/2 coils and see how it sits. You might have to cut an additional 1/2 if it doesn't do it (If cutting old coils, remember that back then, it was a 3 1/2" drop from STOCK, and the car sat a lot higher when it was new!)
Rear....dearched springs, and then lowering blocks to "fine tune" the drop. 6 In. is too much for for just lowering blocks. Makes the car unstable.

 

Heat the coil springs and use lowering blocks at the rear and on early Fords reverse spring eyes and use longer shackles to get it down in da weeds.

 

My thoughts too

 

We used J-bolts (2 per side) to pull the coils down, that way you could "adjust" the height to make the car sit level (looking from the front). Where I'm from, we didn't lower the rear much...west coast rake (Dago) was all the rage, so small lowering blocks and larger rear tires just about evened things out.

dj

 

may have to tunnel drive shaft too

 

Here we go again ......... heat the coils then throw em away cause they are now f.cked good n proper. Plenty of threads about this. As the question was about how it was done in 54, the above quote is pretty true, but we have come a long way since then. IMO.
Rod

 

Let some air out of the tires..............................

 

x200

 

On the '53-'54 Chevy's they swapped the spindles side to side. I think I read this gives 2" drop.

 

cut and reset front coils, reset rear springs and flipped rear hangers.
My uncle did it on his 54 and i did this to my 57.
Rides pretty stiff but it sure hangs onto the corners, the tuner boys get pretty sore when they get overtaken and shut down by a sled out on those twisty mountain roads.

 

I dont think that its possible on the chevys and plus I think if iam not mistaken 49-54 is the same spindle........ I think the only cars that you could swap spindles was the fords.... iam not 100% sure but thats what i have read on the hamb and the hamb dont lie!!! hahaha

 

I have a friend who saved up and bought a 1951 Merc convertible, chopped and frenched it himself in about 1958-59 then decided to drive from Ontario canada to California to have Barris lower it for him "professionally". Nick says he gets there, Barris jacks the car up, cuts the loops out of the front springs and heats the eyelets on the back leaves till they droop and says, OK its done. Nick lost all of his respect for good old George right there and then, came back to Canada to become a very respected body and fabricating man since then. I am the guy looking up to his skills to this very day.

 

you can rework the spring pockit also that will lower it or add spacers to the lower a arm.

 

nahhh..but they make dropped uprights..the hole for the spindle is lower ( up higher) in the part

swapping just the spindle will give you nothing..its the uprights that need to be changed with ones that are designed for a drop..the spindle is than installed in the new upright

the 55 to 57 chevies acctually have spindles that can be bought desined with a drop in the location of the spindle its self, they are an integral part

On that Mopar..just clip the spring..dont heat it up and fuck it up..take your time and do it right ,by removing the spring and have eaton make you 2 new springs with a drop desined into the rate and length..if money is a problem..than take them out and cut them with a wafer wheel and your side grinder , measure twice cut once..make them even and go slow..dont take too much out either without testing the ride

 

Welder: Now that you've heard from all the keyboard experts, try listening to guys who actually OWN Plymouths and who have actually LOWERED them.

Plymouths had the same suspension for many years and were fairly easy to lower moderately. Huge drops required substantial modifications.

The front can be handled by cutting, not heating, the front coils to taste. As long as there's an inch or so of travel left between the control arm and the snubber the car car will ride acceptably...

...IF you also relocate the front shocks. There is info on this subject on a thread or two here on the HAMB. Needlouvers will chime in on this thread soon, I'm sure, and I think he's got the exact thread title.

Heavy duty gas-filled shocks will dampen the front end sufficiently for the car to ride and corner well while looking great at the same time.

If you need more drop, Fatman Fabrications has dropped uprights and steering arms. Though modern, these would have been used back in the day had they been available.

In the rear, use blocks, do not modify the springs except to have them professionally de-arched if 3" blocks won't get you low enough.

Plymouths use very narrow springs which are designed to resist deflection while giving a nice, comfortable ride. Removing leafs will affect the spring rate which affects both the ride and the ability to resist deflection. Heating the springs is not an option, even if Barris did do it that way.

The secret of building a really good custom is to do each operation correctly, resisting the temptation to use half-fast techniques. Doing it right will take longer and cost more, but will pay huge dividends in the long run.

 

I really can't believe that in 2010 with alot of self proclaimed "kings of kustoms" we are discussing the art in heating the coils.
Have we not learned anything since the 50's?
Cut the coils....not that hard. I mean, if you have a torch welder, chances are you will have a angel grinder too..And the intellect to use it.
Blocks in the back are simple and good.
It should all be done all the way around in a few hours at the most, instead of turning it into a monthly project where most of the time is being spent drinking Coors light and bullshitting about how "rad" and "bitchin" the ride is....!!!!

 

I don't know how that particular car was lowered, but the Hirohata Merc has the frame notched (badly) to allow travel, and I don't remember seeing any pictures of big lowering blocks so they must have dearched the springs and/or mounted the springs higher on the frame.
The LaJolla Chevy had the entire rear suspension portion of the frame cut out and welded back in several inches higher.

George might have gone after cars with a torch for a quicky job, but on the good cars they put some thought into it and relocated things to get the ride height they wanted. The craftsmanship was not great but the idea behind it was sound.
You do NOT see any springs hanging under the rear of cars in the old magazines so obviously they did not just slap 5- or 6-inch lowering blocks on them!

 

1954 -- First thing we did was load the trunk with full sand bags till we got the look!

 

The low bucker would heat the front springs , jumping on the front to achieve the height desired (became brittle and would break eventually). Another way was spring compressors (hit a bump and they popped off). Cut the coils was more involved . Alignment was bad doing these methods.. Rear was usually lowering blocks or take a leaf or two out. If you are going to lower your car do it right for safety and better ride.

 

I've heard of fellas throwing five sacks of feed or cement in the trunk too.

 

Sounds crazy know, In the mid sixtys in So Cal, Costa Mesa my cousin had a sweet 1954 Ford pickup.
A good friend of his drove a cement mixer and came by one day and unloaded 3 to 4 inches of concrete in the bed. They just poured it until they got the look they wanted. Talk about minimal work, low buck. There is no way that would happen now. but hey, things were different then.

 

I just lowered a 1953 dodge coronet a few weeks ago.. dont know if its the same or not.. but i cut 2 coils out of the front, it was easy on that car..diddnt even have to unbolt the shocks.
on the rear, i fliped the main leaf and repacked them leaving out the second longest
leaf... it droped it around 4 inches in the front and 5 or 6 in the rear.. the ass
end is a little stiff but the front is nice. i have a feeling if i put the other leaf back in it might help...
I'll go take a pic of the ride height and post it.

 

Or reversed the uprights.

Valley Custom used to Z frames even on boat fender cars in the rear and stuff the chassis up into the trunk, and use dropped spindles in the front.
Leaf springs got dearched, and heaven forbid coils got heated. Even in the better shops according to what I have read.

Channeling was also an option. Pretty much everything that we do now was done then.

 

I heard from my Dad and his old hot rod buddy that taking your vehicle into one of the local CNR or CPR ( Canadian National / Pacific Railways ) shops at night , if you knew someone there they would weld train track rail onto your frame......could be an old wives tale....but I know we had about a 2 ft long piece that we used to shape metal and it was hea-vy !

 

Ok well first let me say I'm not heating coils or springs. When I posted the question I should have said "how did they lower a car in 1954 properly?"

So if I got dearched leafs and used 2" blocks then I'd have my 6" in the back.
And then if I cut around 1-1/2" out of the springs ill get my 3-1/2" drop in the front??

I think it's great the amount if info on the HAMB

 

Well, i gotta admit that when i was 20 years old and lazy, i put about 25 car batteries in the trunk..That did the trick. If a few cats got in the car, we just dumped out a few batteries...Simple