Lowering a 58-64 GM X-Frame car. Do's&Don'ts??

Old thread bump. Wife has a 59 wagon. I'm trying to determine if I should get the Jamco 3" kit, or source my coil springs elsewhere? My buddy says use the stock length shocks... Are the 3" lowered shocks needed, and if so, anyone have a source of which ones I should use?

 

The only correct way to lower the front without messing up the steering geometry is with drop spindles. Short coils in the rear is OK. My 64 Biscayne has 2" drop spindles and short coils in the rear. Ride quality is fine.

Gary

 

On my 59 impala I've got 62ss front coils (2 inches lower than 59) an cpp drop spindals, Cut coils for rear , couldn't find the right coils. I've seen several x frame that have the center frame raised , and raised tunnel

 

Yeh we want to keep the drum brakes, so drop spindles are out.

 

I highly recommend disc brakes front and rear. These X frame cars did not want to stop too well when new. Four wheel discs sure do make a difference especially in a high performance vehicle.

Gary

 

Old thread but I figured I would post here before starting a new thread...

How low can you go in the rear of these cars before you need to shim the rear control arm or center support bearing? I was just reading in the shop manual about driveline angles and it got me wondering.

I've gone two coils lower in the front, but want to go maybe one more. I don't take this car anywhere very treacherous, so I want it to be low.

 

Here's mine. It's not done in a traditional way. After a period of time driving at a very low height the factory steady bearing capped out. Since then I swapped a 292 and t5 into it, and modified the rear shaft setup using a slip yoke from the s10. My homebuilt steady bearing support has since crapped out, so it's parked for now. I'm planning a different engine swap again or possibly sell the car. I doubt very much that any suspension geometry is right. But it did still drive really nice and no funky issues.

 

When I was still playing with X frame GMs we usually only drooped the snout. The rears didn't set that high anyway. Normally we clipped a coil unless we were lazy then we just heated the springs. A single coil on one back then ( late '60s) was good for about 2". Today unless the springs have been changed it will be less then that I am sure.

 

I've put over 30 miles on my 64 Canadian Pontiac ( Chevy X frame) , I used 3" drop springs from Eklers , it's been 10 yrs haven't had any problems, rides good, put a new carrier bearing in at the time. All 4 springs were less than $200 at the time, best deal I found price wise, I also used a generic eBay front disc powered master set up.


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I got 3" front lowering springs and cut 2 coils off the original rear coils and am happy with our 59 Kingswood. I redid all the suspension and got an alignment and am really happy with it. Rides really soft. The whole panhard / watts linkage talk I've been reading really interests me. I know when I put it up on jacks the rear end shifts all over the place. Having a watts linkage would be awesome, chevy really missed the boat with that one.