Anyone done it? They're pig-tailed at the top, so I'm looking for ideas or suggestions for spring retainers or something of the sort. I've heard of people torching the end and bending a new tail? Any pictures would be greatly appreciated.
not a good idea... give Springs and Things a buzz, they should be able to help you with a shorter spring that will work correctly... and they're pretty decent price wise.
I know there is going to be a lot of guys that disagree, but I heated my coils with a torch while in the car to lower my 62 Electra. Dropped it 3". I've been running it like that for three years and 13k miles,including drag racing it (does 2.00 second 60 foot times). I have done a few coil spring cars like this over the years. Just let them air cool so they don't become brittle. All you're doing is annealing the spring tension out of them.
On my 59 buick which is basically the same., I removed the rear coil and went to the local junk yard and got a pair that was 6" shorter. They usually have the coils removed and on a rack. They cost $25.00 was the good part. That way it still has the factory pigtail. TP
I just heated the front springs on my '52 caddy the other day. Rides fine! What you want to do is heat it up starting at the spring perch and work your way around letting the coil slide down onto the next coil, go slow and let off the torch as soon as you get it near the desired hiegth. On mine, I calapsed about 1 bottom coil to get it to drop 2 1/2", yours will vary. It does "stiffen" the ride a little, but I like it... les body roll.
On my '62 Invicta I cut the lower pigtail and made some 6" steel cups/clamps to mount the cut end to the lower control arm. Been fine for 4+ yrs now.
Prolly 2.5-3"... just what I was looking for. One bit of advice - cut only 1/4-1/8 of a coil at a time... I actually had to tweak mine a bit to level the car... one coil has about a 1/4 more cut than the other. Cut a bit, install springs, look, remove springs, repeat. Good luck.
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