Dang Lowered Car.....too low for daily driving??

Ive been driving lowerd cars for as long as ive been driving and you learn real fast what you can and cant do. This summer with the 50 i had to plan my routes before hand and watch the road very close. On the way out to the Ididit show this summer i was second in line in a caravan of 5 and i had the bags too low and hit a big pothole at the edge of a over pass and about killed roadstar with flying ashphalt. from my back bumper. I still have ashphalt stuck to the top of my rear gravel from it.

 

Just wondering, about how many miles are you guys putting on your real low cars in a years time? My 54's front cross member that is behind the bumper is about 4" off the ground. Sometimes I scrape the front bumper and sometimes I scrape the running boards, but I still have full suspension travel, and a nice smooth ride. My practical side tells me its "just right". I usually drive this thing 10,000 miles a year. Gene

 

in high school i drove a 78 merc grand marquis. First i had the trunk full of sidewalk blocks, then we cut the springs then finally went to air in the rear after my rear coils broke. By the time i hit grade 12 we had replaced the tranny pan twice, transmission crossmember once, 3 tail pipes, i full exhaust system, both rockerpanels were caved in and i had 1/4 plate welded to the frame infront of the rear tire which would hit the ground when i dumped the air, People could here us 3 blocks away when we would cruise main street cause the driveshaft rubbing on the floorboards and the frame litterly dragging on the ground would make a noise almost as bad as fingernails on a chalkboard. It was so cool though. i dumped it once doing about 50mph and the sparks were litterly flying 100 feet behind us.

 

who has the lowest static drop car?

my frame is 7/8 inch off the ground.

hell yeah sparks.

like said above...i know where EVERY bump and raise in the road is for miles around.

i have to jack it way up in the back to get the rear wheels off, and even then its almost impossible, good thing i have 175/70/14 tires.

oh this is my daily


no such thing as too low guys

 

I've got about 1 1/2" skidplate to ground, 2" frame to ground

 

If it doesn't scrape speedbumps, it's not low enough.



Here's my daily grooving some pavement...

 

Uggh I hate Houston.

 

it sucks i cant go over the speed bumps at school so i have to park in the furthest lot becuse it doesnt have any. i wouldnt have it any other way...

 

I know everyone (okay, not everyone) in here seems to like to slam their rides down so close to the pavement not even a skeered feild mouse would have a chance of avoiding a quick death on the highway... and I always liked the way they looked...

Until I bought my '60 Falcon recently, already lowered. There were 2 leaves per side gone from the back end, and it was stuffed with three inch blocks... what springs were left had already lost their arch, they had used some longer shocks with hardly and cush left in them at all, and it was so low the driveshaft "GRRTTT - GRRTTT" was rubbing a hole in the floorboard... not good in my book.

The front end had 3 coils cut out and werent even set back into the holders right, the shocks were still like new because they actually hadn't had to do any work since put in, they were almost completely compressed all the time. Steering was weird, castor/camber was off, alignment was off and every pebble in the road smacked the suspension so hard it jarred my teeth.

I couldn't even get the rear wheels off (stock 5.5 inchers!) between the hubs and the wheelwell without jacking the car up about three feet... now that would've been a thrill to discover trying to change a flat on the side of a dark Kansas road.

I think if a car is lowered right, or maybe on airbags so you can get it back up to a decent ride heighth for normal cruising would be fine, but this experience has turned me off lowering a car just for looks.

It's now back up to stock ride heighth, wider rims, no clunks, scrapes, sparks... less roadkill... goes straight down the road... you guys cut all the springs you want to, it ain't for me, not anymore

 

yup, it's a lot of work to PROPERLY lower a car that low. it's one thing to remove springs until it scrapes, it's another to build a low car. i'm almost done doing the same car as you mentioned the "right" way, i got many many hours into the suspension and related stuff on what should have been a slam dunk build! here's what it took so far, i jacked up the front, removed the springs, set the car down to see how low was possible, very low, once i took care of a few things, i had to remove the engine/tranny, built new mounts that raised it up so that NOTHING would be below subframe/rocker level, had to rebuild the entire driveshaft/tranny tunnel, which causes clearance problems with the heater plenum, so a little fab work there, plus new custom carpet will be needed. i had to rework the stock bench seat frame to clear the new tunnel too. as it worked out, i had to yank the engine again to switch to a smaller diameter flywheel/bellhousing to gain 3/4" clearance at the bottom after banging it on all kinds of stuff in austin this last spring. then the oil pan, the inline ford has a front sump pan, i ended up slicing and dicing the stock pan, eliminating the stock deep sump, and making a longer shallower sump with slightly less capacity. the oil pan is still the lowest point in the center of the car, so i still need to make a skid plate for it to be safe to drive at low altitudes, but aired up a couple of inches it never hits. anyway, on to the rear, mine being a wagon, has a little more rear overhang, so i had to remove the gas tank, build a new support structure for it so i could mount it a couple of inches higher to it don't drag. don't forget the new tranny crossmember, along with modified/moved parking brake assembly. that's just the hidden stuff underneath! on to the bodywork, in front i sliced and diced the wheel openings in the fenders so a proper sized tire/wheel package coult turn lock to lock an minimum height. in back, similar threatment, i radiused the stock wheel wells to be able to change a tire without major work. after all that, the suspension was simple! the result is a falcon that puts the rockers at 2" with nothing else below that, and can be driven at that height without putting anybody at risk.

i'm doing pretty much the same thing on a 51 chevy, that one invloves building a whole new k-member for the frame, plus all the other mentioned hackery.

i could brag on how i used to drive all kinds of cars with no ground clearance, but that shit just ain't fun after a while.

 

My shit doesn't go over speedbumps, my car seesaws....hahaha!

 

I had an 89 blazer with a 5/6 beltech drop wasnt low enough so i cut a coil and shaved the bump stops the frame sat about an inch without me or a passeneger the rear was also droped more by running another set of u bolts to the frame "Hardtail" fuck yah that thing bucked and kicked. it turned my liver and apendix into jello when i drove it. my roomate puked in it after eating from getting motion sickness fun times till the local methheads decided to steel it

 

That's the difference between 50's and 60's sheet metal. I yanked a parking block clean out of it's mounts last time I pulled in too close!!

 

I second that !!!!

 

ahhh I have a story for this thread .. But mine is about a LOW VW (it was the 80's fellas!!!) so i was rollin in my 56 oval rag bouncin like a lawnmower down this street then a rabbit pops up and bang bang ... look in the rear view.. nuttin rollin out so i drive to work and i notice a smell and smoke.. i was thinkin i know thats not oil.. jack it up and i see a burrin lil bunny on my heaterbox!!! burin away... Sick!! I payed a bum 2 bucks to get it out!!!

 

Before I equipped my '63 Ranchero with an air bag system, I too cut the front coils and added lowering blocks to the rear which brought the truck to within inches from the pavement. Although the truck had the stance I was after, the ride quality would rattle your back teeth, parts would frequently break after hitting an unexpected dip in the road and steering often proved close to nonexistent due to the altered geometry and stressed suspension components.

Although not the most cost effective solution, the air bag system provided the ground scraping stance for parking or cruising at low speeds and when necessary, a higher stance for navigating speed bumps, potholes and steep driveways common to SoCal. Best of all, I actually drove the truck more often as I could rely on it getting me safely to my destination.

As noted in an earlier post, "I could brag on how I used to drive all kinds of cars with no ground clearance, but that shit just ain't fun after a while."

The poster, Ray, hit the proverbial nail on the head.

 

I know Im a Newbie... but here is my sled. Its NON adjustable and its my Daily ride.... Rougher than a corn cob too. There's no such thing as too low!

 

In the sixties I had a custom 54 Merc. that was LOOOW , I took it camping at Cape Hatteras in N.C., while there I took the car on a Ferry Boat . When we made the return trip on the boat the tide was out and the crew had to put long pry bars under the rear bumper to get me off, they were not to happy as my car was blocking the ramp.
If you want Low be prepared to pay.

 

If it overly compromises function its a hassle ,and maybe dangerous. My 51 F-1 is low in front and it hits once in a while on unseen dips in the road. The bumper, a 78 Nova, is mounted as a skid plate. It hits before anything suspenion or frame related can. I like low but not the extreem low that has become so popular lately. Mangled and broken parts are not traditional. A car sitting with the frame on the ground doesn't look cool, it looks broken. I don't want to be high centered because I happen to drive over a stray coin!
Ok, flame away, I'm wearing my asbestos long johns. I may be in the minority on this one but no amount of abuse is gonna change my mind on this subject.

 

That picture will never get old to me. The best is to hear you tell people, "no, that's ride heighth!" While we are on this scraping and sparking subject anyone know how to cut titanium? Youngbuck's got a piece we've been trying to figure out how to cut. That daily driver with all the sparks reminded me of his hopes with his Harley. Anything to get the girls I guess......

 

Well hell, doesnt that make it more fun to suprise people that it even runs??