i have a 61 buick special with front and rear coils i was wondering what you guys think is the best way to lower my car cheaply and practically
not nessesarily, as long as your shocks are good and you dont hack off too many coils (meaning in exess of 2) its usually not an issue
awesome i love this forum i get answers in like 3.2 seconds....sooo rad....thank you for being helpful....
You could go old skool gansta and put cement/sand bags in the back truink and chain down the front coils. Thank Modern Marvels for that one
or you can get rewound springs for a couple hundred...order them for the amount of drop you want. And for all you crybaby's to have something to bitch about....get a oxy acetylene torch and heat the rears since they probably have pigtails that make it hard to reattach once cut...then cut the fronts.....or hell,even heat them. Can't get more traditional than that. Just don't heat the shocks too much or...booom! And yes I have put many thousands of miles on a truck with torched springs and it rode fine and never gave me problems.
I have spoke to several people, including my uncle(whose '63 Chevy P/U rode fine for years)who torched 'em. The trick is to only heat part of the spring, a coil or two, and the rest of the spring will more or less work as before. More or less. No guarantees!
When my dad did the ones on my truck he heated from the bottom so they layed down smoothly on top of each other...the trick was getting an equal drop all around! Oh yea....the title of the thread was good lowering techniques......oh well...it was good when I was broke and 17!!
Good point, but inside it says,"cheaply and practically," Try it, and if it doesn't work, he was gonna need new lower springs anyway, right?
Hell it was good when I was 17 and probably when someone older than me was 17 also. You can also cut the rears and heat and bend a new pig tail in it if that's the way you wanna go.
Don't torch springs, Your safety and that of others is at risk. I know I was 16 and ruined a car that way [ there was a lot more than just torched springs to it and all survived the crash] but it is better to cut them with a cut off wheel. Just because we did dumb things when we were 16 doesn't make it "traditional".
I agree w/ cutting them if your gonna do it... otherwise get lowered springs, or bags. heat is too tough to get level and you pretty much have one shot at it. IF you decide to heat though, the thought I had before about getting it level would be to put blocks under the car and just heat it till it hit the block so the cars weight wouldn't keep pushing it down. never bothered to try it, but in theory it should work...
Here's how I lowered my 1960 Cadi, it has 47 year old springs and I added Two 80lb bags of sand, and when the ice chest is in the trunk it's a real taildragger !
Cut springs only cost labor and maybe a cut-off wheel. The rears you can fab a new bracket to hold the coil in place, since you will be cutting the pigtail off. Not the greatest solution, but it will work. Front is easy, just cut the coil as needed. I do not think you ccan swap the rear coils onto front, they will be way too soft of spring rate, if they even fit?
Seems like auto parts stores use to sell clamps that would pull two or more coils in the middle portion of the springs together. Anyway, I have heated and I have cut. Cutting coils has given me a better ride, but neither gave me any trouble whether you heat or cut, make sure you are working on the end with lower spring rate.
I had the same delema and pussed out when it came to the torch. I called EATON spring and they were great to work with on my 56. Got a simple 2" drop all the way around and if you want it dropped further or stretch it back out they will do it for free....you just have to pull them and pay for the shipping. Cut'em or torch'em....then if you do not like it....hit the parts stores. Send pics of before and after!
on my 60 pontiac i cut my front springs with the torch & heated the rears...the car is low but rides like shit... i have trim pieces coming loose from all the bumps i hit... so now i need bags or some air shocks.. just be careful when you cut....i guess thats the price you pay to look kool!!! good luck
I cut the coils on my 62 F85, used S-10 shocks on the front but I can't remember what I used on the back. Mine rides great. Just don't cut off too much at first, sneek up on it a little at a time. Try about half a coil at a time and keep testing till you like it. You'll probably be rebuilding your front suspension anyways, might as well pull out them springs to cut them. Doc
what is the theory behind cutting the front coils? Cut from the bottom? What would one full coil or a coil and a half equal in inches of drop? I just need to drop the front of my 51 pontiac
On a Chevy of the same year approximately 3" with 1 1/2 coils cut from what I read in a little Hot Rod mag from the fifties. I would start with 1 coil and sneak up on it for desired look as already mentioned. I'll have to see if I can find the mag I got the info from.
Here is an article from an old mag on how to lower a car with coil springs. Picture trail keeps resizing my pictures so its hard to read the print.
Pretty good old article. One thing you need to do to get a good ride is either trim or relocate the bumpstops so you have plenty of suspension travel. On my late model driver, I cut off the huge bumpstops, and put in new, low-profile bumpstops. I think I got them from Energy Suspension, and they are urethane. Makes the difference between a shitty ride, or just as good as stock. BTW, I did it right with spindles/shorter coils up front, and flipped the axle on top of the leafs out back, but I've done poor-boy, too, the bumpstops(i.e. suspension travel)is the key to a good ride.
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