Technical Coil overs with leaf springs???

Has anyone put adjustable coil over shocks on a vechicle with leaf springs ???
Long story short. 47 stylemaster ford 9" has original leaf springs. Very soft. I got it with air shocks mounted through the trunk. Yes it riped the body. I don't have the $$$ or the room to do a 4link because it sits so low. 3" from top of diff to body. My thoughts. Add a cross bar weld top mount to it. Weld adjustable lower mounts to the axle. N adjust as needed. I'm thinking it will stiffen it up and raise it up .but lb spring??? I'm only looking for an inch. It sits level now. Also I don't plan on keeping the car for more than a yr or 2. Any helpful input is apreacheated.

 

Add another leaf or two to the leaf spring.

 

This ^^^^ would certainly be cheaper than buying coilovers
AND it also controls "spring wrap" [from brake torque] a lot better

 

What they said. ^^^^

Dave

 

Redo the spring pads on the axle tubes. Looks like you could get maybe an inch and a half just there.....

 

What about replacing the original leaf springs? No doubt it will not be as soft.

 

look for Auto craft 3 way adjustable rear leaf springs - adjust height & spring strength - just bolt on rear section of leaf spring. also, Superior coil springs that install over tube shocks. just bolt on. controll height & ride. With both need to raise car up with jack and adjust to what you are looking for. low buck changes

 

Find a shop that does truck spring work and have your spring re arched, and talk with them. maybe add 1 leaf.

 

Another low buck option is longer rear shackle plates, that will raise it up.

 

You can also look up Monroe Load-Adjusting shock absorbers. They're a shock with a non-adjustable coilover that increase the load capacity of your vehicle. Might help with your springs being too soft but it won't lift the car much. I have a pair on the rear of my avatar and they work well.

 

The Posies springs I have in my 41 coupe work just fine. Not cheap but done in a few hours. No guesswork. Won't give you any lift but will give a nice ride. To get any lift I'm x2 on looking at the spring plates / saddles, they look huge as they are.

Don't like the idea of shocks mounting to the body, unless it's a unibody!

Can't find pics of my setup right now.

Chris

 

Tri 5 Chevs mounted the shocks to the body and the plate would crack. We used to weld a piece of angle to the frame to mount the shocks. You could do the same but lower the bottom mount also.

 

I'd bet that any new springs he got to replace his old saggy springs would raise the car.

 

Could well be. I've not managed to find my pics yet but to the best of my recollection they're pretty flat and don't look too dissimilar to those shown by the op, so maybe not much lift, if any? The Posies springs aren't simply stock replacements, they're lowered, but in my case the originals were totally shot and laid over center, so the swap gave a lift!!

Chris

 

Those overly large leaf spring perches with the sketchy looking welds look like the root of your problem to me. You would probably gain about 2 inches by removing them and adding stock style perches.

Also if your shocks tore through the upper mounts you need bump stops

 

Or if the shocks are bottoming out and not the rest of the suspension, just the correct length shocks.

 

Clamp the leaves of the springs together.

Gary

 

Yeah those perches are weird. The air shocks could probably be made to work. Make a crossmember for the shock tops and do what's necessary to the bottom mounts to make them work without topping or bottoming out...done, and low bucks.