Hey does anyone make 4" lowering blocks for the rear of 49 Chevy coupe? I thought i had seen some but now i can only find 3". The older i get the more retarted i get. lol
Get the 3" and make up a sub-plate for them out of 1" stock. Of course the two blocks have to be pinned together and match drilled. Something that anyone with a machine shop can do in a few hours. Bob
Speedway has 3" blocks and 1" blocks...... I had 4" blocks in my Edsel and, while it looked cool, it was a bitch to drive. It would high center on its own shadow. Of course, it was 16 feet longer than your car.....
4" is close to pushing it a bit...chances are you will bottom out, maybe your roads are smoother than up here. make sure you have good bump stops, not no ratty worn out crusty fuckers.
most off the shelf blocks are 2" wide and are not going to fit your ride. these old chevies take a 1,3/4" wide block and square U bolt. most square LONG U bolts will only accommodate a 3" block, I had a muffler shop make me some custom length U bolts years back . you can buy 1",2" and 3" blocks in the correct width, but more then 3" and you risk axle wrap under hard acceleration. if you have a torque tube rear axle you can get away with stacking two 2" blocks to get a 4" drop because the torque tube keeps your axle from warping under acceleration. your best set up will be to get your leaf springs de-arched, see where it sits then add 1" or 2" blocks to get it to sit right. BTW, with a 4" drop you might bottom out your axle on to your frame then you'll need a notch.
the only thing i have to add is that if you ever get a flat and you got 4 inch blocks your u bolts will be on the floor grinding the asphalt!
Agreed..watch that scrub line.. flat tires at 60 MPH riding on suspension members is not advised..gets really harry.. fast
I had 4" on my old 49. made them myself. I don't have a way to draw a picture, but i made the bottom plate so the bolts and tail ends of the u-bolts were higher than the spring. the lowest part of the whole deal was the pin that holds the spring together. an added bonus was that my u-bolts were shorter. so my scrub line was above the 15" rim. of course not too many people do this, since apparently for many being low is more important than safety. I bottomed out and crunched my brake line ( previous owners work) so be sure your lines are not where they can get crunched. I also tweeked my 2 1'4" exhaust bottoming out. it was a rare occurance.
I've got some I took off my '49 coupe that I'd sell ya cheap. I made 'em myself out of heavy box section steel with the ends closed in. I think they're 4 1/4 inches tall (not at home to check right now). I have longer square U bolts I had made at an engineering shop too. They are a little below the scrubb line though and they put the axle real close to the chassis rails, like 1/2 inch away. They were on there for four years and I only took 'em off as I changed to trailing arms and bags with a notch. Anyway PM me if you're interested.
I have 3" in my 51 and I cut 1 coil in the front, the torque tube hits the floor on bigger bumps... I have also heard that with the torque tube you don't want to go more than 2" in the rear because of the U joints getting too much load.. 3" looks great on my car.
An alternative idea: What is the orientation of the shackles? If they're up, like many cars, I'd go with longer shackles, and a degreed shim to make up for the pinion angle. (or you can cut-n-turn the spring perches). Having longer shackles will also encourage a little smoother ride, giving the spring more opportunity to move. I'm not at all a fan of blocks, whether it's on a low rider, or a 4x4 pickup. Bad things happen when you put that kind of leverage on a leaf spring (they turn into "W" springs)
I've got 3" blocks on mine. Then I reversed the eyes on the springs. Brought it down about another inch. A little bouncy, but looks good! There's a tech on here on how to reverse the eyes by bending them cold. No need for heating.
Belltech used to have a skinny 4" block. I'm running 3" belltech blocks and yanked a few leaves of my 50 Pontiac. It has a 239 flathead in it and doesn't make enough power to twist the springs and blocks real hard under acceleration so no real worry for me. I did have to grind the center pin in the top of the block slightly to get it to fit, as they were designed to fit in an s10 or something along those lines. I think belltech even had an angled 4" block to keep the pinion from dumping too far too. They are narrow blocks and come with a decent u-bolt kit as long as you're not running too much power and stress them. Hope this might help.
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