low buck lowering...

Thinking about lowering the 58 Ford sometime this summer and looking for low buck solutions but I don't want to completely destroy the ride. Bags are way out of my league and I'm having a hard time finding reasonably priced drop spindles.

Looking to go around the 3 to 4 inch range...

Leafs out back. Shackles, hangers and blocks. What are the major differences between them as far as ride and all?

Springs up front. Cutting increases spring rate, heating jacks up the spring, yes? I got a quote for $200 on custom 3 inch drop springs. I can deal with that being the bulk of the cash for the project if they're gonna work out.

With this kind of drop, will it still bind up the ball joints? If so what can be done to keep 'em nice?

 

spend the money to do it properly !!! find someone local that will de-arch springs for you, this woll be fine for the rear.... buy the custom lowering springs for the front, heated springs ride like*****, and cutting the springs are great for mini-trucks, but for heavy american steel, they will never hold up, especially if your looking for 3-4 inches !!!

 

Out back is easy. You should be able to flip the shackles, that'll gain you an inch or so. After that, lowering blocks and you're done for about 20 bucks. I wouldn't worry about the ride with cut coils, fullsize cars of that era tend to "float" anyway, a little more spring rate wouldn't be a bad thing. Besides, if you cut the coils to get the height you want, but are unhappy with the ride, then you have a spring length that you can have a pair made off of. That beats the hell outta shelling out the dough for a set of springs, then finding out the ride height is all screwed up....

 

If they are the original leaf springs, you might want to just get new ones that are already lowered.

I priced springs last week because they snapped on my 55 Fairlane. Posie's offers a 3" drop for around $250 for MY application, both sides.

ESPO in Pennsylvania was also reasonable, but they wanted extra to drop it.

Eaton's price was outrageous. They wanted $460 for the stock ones.

I went with a local company because they'll re-arch them for me if I don't like how it sits.

Here is a pic of, what I****ume are 50 year old springs...

 

Dont know much about your car.
But if you dont fiddle with the geometry of the suspension, you should not have any problem with binding (otherwise ford screwed up). If you cut you bumpstops in half.
Then it can be a good idea to remove the spring and put the suspension thru the motion. to check for binding/rubbing.

For the low buck solution i would cut the springs, start with 1,5 turn and****emble it and take it for a spinn, it will set after a mile or so,then take out half a turn at a time. If you dont check it out you can end up to low.

My 42 has two and a half inc suspension travel (compression) before it hits the bumpstop. And it works quite well, of course i hit the bumpstops sometimes, never on a paved road if i don do any stupid thing's.

In the back longer shackel's is the cheapest way to go.

But its not wrong to save up to Posie springs.

Do NEVER remove the bumpstops. There must be rubber between the steel parts......

 

I agree with the cut sping thing. I recently did this on my 57 chevy. I heard all the stories about how it will kill the ride etc. Took 2 coils out, dropped about 3-4" and the ride is GREAT! Handles better and doesn't float as much. I'm not saying take 2 coils out though. Start slow.