Well I finally got around to installing my dropped uprights on my car along with a scarbird front disc conversion. I cut one coil off each front spring..(starting to think i shouldn't have done that). Set it on the ground and im hovering close to the bumpstops and its doesnt take much to push down and hit them. One side is lower than the other and it is easier to make that one hit the bump stop. The shocks seemed really weak when i had the car apart and im hoping that rebuilding or replacing them will fix the problem. Or should i add a traditional style shock to the front of the car? The car also has 7.50-16 tires on it that im about to pull off and replace with the correct 6.50-16, the 7.50 hit the fender now that i lowered the front hopefully the 6.50's wont. The 50+ year old tire on the lower side might also be the problem...
Different shocks won't impact the ride height unless they're too long and bottom out. Shocks won't support weight-the springs do that.
You might want to consider installing some new springs. Those poor things have been holding that heavy straight-8 up for over 70 years and they must be tired by now! Trust me, and car that bottoms out continuously is no fun. And you definitely want firm shocks to control movement.
I believe that car has a sort of a lever action shock on it Dale Usually you send them off with a bucket full of money and have them rebuilt. Transslam, you might try swapping the springs from side to side. or get an "air conditioner spacer" for the low side. You might even swap the springs side to side and see what happens. First though make sure that the tire pressure is exactly the same in both front tires and both rear tires. One tire being off either low or high will throw things off when you are trying to check critical measurements with the car sitting on the shop floor. Also and odd size tire on the back will throw the front measurements off.
thinking about ordering a pair of Jamco 1" drop coils and with the uprights would put me at about 3 1/2" drop on the front.
Change out the springs. The uprights did not not change the distance to the bump stop cutting the sagged out springs did. You either have to rebuild the knee action shocks or weld some external brackets and add new style shocks. Dave Hitch FBBF
Sounds like 1 spring is weaker than the other replace them both, then cut to fit. Shocks wont hold anything up. If you want it that low cut the bumpstop in half, or replace it with a smaller on from a C notch kit. it will give you more travel and ride alot better. MrC.
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