Oh yea, I remember those days! I got out of HS in 74, but before that I was in Power Mechanics Shop. There were about 10 of us that had any idea how cars worked, so we were the "go to" guys if you wanted a cool car. Beside that, I was working at one of the best auto repair shops in town, the big 3 bay Mobil gas station. The lift rear deal was a copy of the things that was being done at the drag strips around the country at the time. Nearly every Pro Stock had the rear jacked up to clear the tires. Every one just knew you had to have wide tires to get any traction. I knew my little 318 could spin the wide tires better then it could the narrow tires, but I sure wasn't telling anyone. They all thought my 318 was something special because I could pretty much spin tires at will. The traction bars looked cool lifting the rear when you jumped on it. The wide tires, long shackles, air shocks and traction bars were part of the image. Add a few window stickers and life was good. I got married just out of HS (still married to the same girl) and then I had some money to work with (2 incomes, little expenses) and Mopar had just come out with their speed books. Life was good. It was easier around out town to just a little faster and looking to be a lot faster, then it was to actually be real fast. There wasn't much need to be actually fast in our town, most couldn't beat you if you had a bad day and they had a good one. Heavy hitters were seldom around. It was all a big game in which I was having a blast. Gene
I have waited FOREVER for a thread to post this in. I had this Chevelle that the rear got broke on, so I modified it a bit. -Nick
Thanks for the great memories guys!! I remember those dayz oh so well. The music, the clothes, the cars and a few gals I knew back then.. It was all good!!...... Class of '79
Dudes! My Chevelle had it all right down to the prismatic "Chevy" sticker in the rear 1/4 window.Check out that spray painted rear diff cover! I was the coolest.....
I just cut a coil out of the front springs or let the torsion bars down a bit. In auto shop we did fab a set of tubuler shackels for a guys Plymouth. He wanted to lift the rear three inches so we built a set of five inchers that wouldn't evetually fold over. A year later he took it off the deep end, it was sky high and crazy as hell.
Best one I ever saw was a dude brought a 55 chevy into the gas station I worked at. Had me put the car on the lift and take two bottle jacks,over the rear end and the frame, and jack the rear end away from the frame to lift the car about 7 inches. He then request that I weld the leaf springs together. Now the springs are arched like hell and solid as a rock. Point is dudes would do anything it took to get the car JACKED-UP !!! >>>>.
I liked the raised ass look. I never could get my head around tail draggers. In high school (1968) I was asked by a couple of the "not-so-bright" group in autoshop if the 3/8" x 2" x 16" COPPER bars a guy had "aquired" would work as long shackles with some holes drilled in them. They thought COPPER colored shackles would look COOL. I told them no...the copper would bend. They thought I was lying because they could not bend them by hand so they proceded to make them in the autoshop anyway. The put them on the car (a '63 Chevy bel air). They raised the car up about 5" in the rear. Five of them piled into the car to take it out for a ride. They didn't get it out of the school parking lot. At the first speed bump the shackles spread and the car crashed down onto the tires. Funnier than shit. I got beat up later because for two weeks couldn't look at any one of them without laughing cause it was sooooooooooooooo frikin funny. But it DID look good for about 15 minutes.
Look at all the fake gassers out there lololol 10 years from now guys will be saying what a bunch of junk .
Who could forget those Levi's bell bottom pants??? I couldn't ride my 10-speed bike without getting those pants cought between the chain and sprocket!
(x2) ..been there done it for just about everything mentioned here and no regrets..those were the times and we were having a blast. 70's muscle cars still look "right" to me with that look. ...another thing I remember is guys wiring their reverse lights to a toggle switch. If they wanted to "run" they would flick them on to instigate a race. Maybe it was a local thing...or maybe I just dreamed it. .
I remember those days, had Hijackers on my 68 RS, L60s on Rockets version of Cragar SS on the back and Westerns version of same on the front. It wasnt all that high but the local PD stopped me practically everytime I rolled thru the square in Greencastle PA...I felt like attaching a tape measure there to speed up the process of "ok youre legal you can go"......a hurst 4 gear and sun super tachII, craig powerplay indash 8track, sparkomatic equalizer(remember the one with the clear green screen and a white wire that moved in which ever direction you shifter the level) and craig power play speakers ontop of the rear deck that replaced worn out jensens that had church organ covers(remember them!)...yellow lakewood slapper bars, M/T valve covers, with cal custom wingnuts(that the ends would vibrate off of) a holley DP and an edelbrock intake and exhaust that exited in front of the rear tires.....ahhh its 1981 all over again!
Jaked-Up, Jacked Off, Low All Tha' Way Round, Raised front (weight transfer !), All THE ABOVE...........Beem There DONE THAT ! 10 inch Shackles...........Car Runs downhill ALL Time !! , Gets BETTER Fuel Mileage. Wanna' Know More ?? Jest Call ME ! Smoked-Up, In tha' Great Smokey Mts. of 10-E-C
still like the look on some cars. of course some do take it to extremes.it takes me back to a time that i really wish i could go back to and stay!
Why the hate? Compared to todays trends what with old cars sitting on 30 inch shitty rims and the"pro touring" look I like the stinkbug stance!
Mid to later half of the 60s was tough for a guy to be cool, and stay cool. One trend was the ass raised up, then the trend went to front jacked up, and finally both ends raised in the very late 60s. You had to stay busy to keep up tri-5 chevys with the shock mounts cracked through the trunk floor from air shocks, springs sagging from long shackles. The worst I saw was chunks of 2x4 wood jambed into the apex of the lower control arms of a mint 55 belair hardtop cruising McDonalds lot. It bounced like a ping pong ball. But it looked tuff ...he,he and someone mentioned back up lights...some guys ran them on all the time at night. good greif.
I did put them on my 69 mustang to level it up, not jack it up. In high school 1979. also used the "clamp on the shock coil springs". Result, hard ride. COOL!! lol... All i could do with no bucks.
This car looked super-bitchin' & won top coupe & go-whoa at the '77 aussie nats with parallel leaf springs. They weren't all a joke.
I still like the look, slight rake to the back-end, although not quite so radical as when in high school. And done correctly. Hi-jackers still do a pretty good job:
As a kid in the 70's and being around a place called Pleasent Grove in s. Dallas I remember a lot of cars w/ lifted rear ends. I thought they were the coolest back then. Anyone remember the Hot Wheels cars that you could raise and lower the rear ends????
My "goat" was more like this.. No stickers..and a 421 cheater,, Street ..Cheater..???? ain't no such thing !! I want that Black/Black with thin red stripe GTO..dam... I remember some jacked up rear cars that the oil light would be on.. Oil all in front away from PUMP..! Anyone remember running 90/10 shocks up front..ON THE STREET..
The Jalopy Journal
