Ford/Merc lowering plates from Nightprowlers, who's used em??

I just got the back end of my 53 Merc buttoned up today and boy is it slammed, 3" blocks go a long way. Now it's time to do the front end and one of the options is this plate kit that nightprowlers sells. The way Gary explained it this way :

" In your front end, your coil rests on a plate. That plate is riveted to the bottom of the a-frame. You take out the rivets, insert two lowering blocks ( one in front and one in rear of a-frame.. You put the plate back on with six grade 8 bolts on each side and you are done with one side. You have lowered the resting place of the coil, so you have lowered the car. The cool thing about this kit is you do not heat the coil or cut the coil, so you don't destroy the ride. I have put this kit in two of my own cars. It is not too hard to do. "

does anyone have any experience with this type of kit? I've looking into spindles, uprights, coil springs, etc. and it was going to come to almost a G in parts alone, that's treading on a basic air ride kit at that price. please post up comments, input, whatever.

thanks in advance.

Joe

 

I put that kit in my '53 Customline way back when and it worked out like it says. I do believe that I couldn't use my sway bar afterwards, but it didn't seem to change the ride or handling much so I didn't care. I do recall that even after drilling the factory "hot" rivets out, I still had to do a bit of air-hammering to seperate the bottom A-arm assemblies, they weren't gonna budge. At any rate it brought the front end down a couple more inches(I had already cut about 1 1/2 coils out). Good ride, no bump-stop mashing, looked smooth... totally functional.

newstranger

 

I agree. I have used this kit and it works very well. I used it on 49-51 fords. The sway bar CAN be used, you have to weld a strip of metal on the "end" bushing mount. Nothing too serious. You will see what I mean. The worst part is getting the rivets out and drilling the holes to the correct size of the bolts. It is well worth the time and money invested! Rides excellent.

 

Also on 49-50 Fords/Mercs I believe you can lower the front 2 inches by removing the spindles,flipping them upside down,and reinstalling them on opposite sides of the car.The spindles are more of an upright than an actual "spindle".
Others on here may know for sure,though I seem to recall reading about this years ago.
​

 

Crash 51 is absolutely right, now I remember that you could reinstall the sway bar with a little welding(again, this was close to 10 years ago ). I just couldn't wait to drive the '53 around after I dropped her off the jack and realized I didn't miss the sway bar one bit. I guess I was saving my MIG wire for the headlights and tailights ... thanks for joggin' my memory, I need it from time to time!

newstranger

 

I used front-end lowering blocks on my '54 Merc (back then) and they worked fine. But I cut coils on my '57 Olds and my '60 Pontiac (1 1/2 turns each) and could see no advantage to the block technique.

If I had your Merc, I'd just cut a coil and a half. Leave the bump stops stock.

 

Works well on my 49 Merc........OLDBEET

 

Thanks for all the input guys. i think phase one will be cut a coil off and see where that gets me. If it doesn't get it down low enough I'll try these plates out. I just don't want to throw the front end geometry too far out of whack.


Another question.........

In order to get my rear tires on last night I had to let all the air out. Is this something normal? and even with the air out it took some real strugglin' to get them into the wheel well. once they were in there was plenty of up and down and clearance to the inner fender though. just wondering if this is a common practice.


thanks

 

Yep. ha ha ha!

 

I have this pic saved that I snagged somewhere, same thing...

 

I recall a Tech thread on here a while back on making your own lowering plates,....seemed pretty easy, do a search.

 

I don't think that cut coils and blocks are likely to work well together, as they both reduce the amount of suspension travel and with both you are virtually certain to be all the way down on the bump stops, all the time -- kinda like cutting three coils would be. I recommend you choose one or the other, but not both.

If you drop it by 2" using either method, alignment should not be a problem. Maybe you should consider dropped spindles -- although they're pricey, dropping it still further with coils OR blocks should still be possible.

Flipping the stock spindles does work (and is nearly free), but involves heating/bending them to get close to the correct alignment, and it's still a little fishy on the steering geometry. Do a search regarding discussions of this technique here on the HAMB; it's been brought up more than once.

Getting the rear tires on/off with 3" blocks IS likely to be challenging.

 

lots of great info. something to sleep/drink on. I guess I've gotta make a choice on which direction to go. thanks again.

 

Couldn't you "z" the arms also?

 

like this?

 

I just put a similar setup on my 50, but you can make the block for the plates for way cheaper. I think they or someone sells them for like 65-70 bucks?

Also I put the bars in and cut 2 coils out, it dropped it on the bump stops., there is pretty much no room for play. How it drives, I dunno yet, so I might be going back to regular uncut springs.

It seems to have an ok amount of travel, but the springs are only in the pockets when the load is on the front end, I think as soon as I hit a big enough bump, then it might make some noise.....

I also dropped the back 4 in, and I need to figure something out, because the back now sits a bit higher and I need to get it even

Trying to get a picture up here, but the attachment button seems to be not
working

Wow ok here

 

Any photos you can post of your 53 Merc to see how slammed it is?

 

preface to the pics-the car is being wet sanded hence the mess one the door, i've also got the stainless peice on the way so it won't look so booty. The center of the rear wheel well is 15" off the ground and the rear bumper is 7" off the ground ( see the Yuengling bottle for reference )


here are a couple teaser pics:

 

Glassguy recomended that I use the blocks and cut 1 coil and it worked great on my 56 ford.No bottoming,rides good and the sway bar bolted up.As far as the rear goes,with 3" blocks I need to pull the core to fully empty the air then stuff the tire up into the well and pull the brake drum to get the tire off.And thats with the skinniest wheel.

 

these blocks you are referring to, are they the same as the plates i originally was talking about or something different?


thanks

 

This may help understanding the difference between 'plate' and 'blocks.

 

yeah i htink that the system works pretty nicely.

tok

 

Ahhhhhh, so basically I could take some 1" square stock and place it between the A and the plate and get some drop that way. I've got a real nice steel yard not too far from here. Then I would order the plates from Nighprowlers, right?

 

Free tech --- http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=105909

 

IS that a bottle of Rolling RocK?

 

YEP...cheeeep! Just use grade 8 bolts when you reinstall the plates.

 

Yep that's what I am talking about....for 50 bones cheaper too...and it's WAY WAY easier to do it with the lower control arms out, unless you like drilling with no room to move your arms, getting metal in your eyes, laying in big shards of metal, etc...you get the point. They aren't too hard to get out.

 

don't forget that the size of tubing used will determine the drop. i used to have a sheet that some old guys had spent a coupla days playing and found what different sizes came out to be. it went some thing like 1 in spacer gave you something like 1 5/8 in of drop. 1 1/4 gave you somewhere around 2 in of drop. and 1 1/2 gave you somewhere around 2 1/2 drop or something close to that. i was told that if your using 3" out back then 1 1/4 spacers up front and 1 coil cut will sit the front perfect. i haven't done shit to my '55 plymouth in years but have decided to do something with it if for nothing else to sell it so it should get dropped in the front in the next week or so since the rear was dropped 3 years ago hahaha. but yeah the whole thing should cost you about $10 and an afternoon...ken....

 

more awesome info, thanks lucky!

 

I just read an article about a 49 merc w/ a bagged rear andchevy s-10 coils w/ 1 1/2 coils cut off.. if your front end is similar that would be a good way, possibly better spring rate, and springs from a junk yard would be cheeeeep. good luck. let me know what you come up with. I have a 54 customline I'm gettin ready to lower and I'm tossin' around a few different options.