Simple TECH: Getting my inch back...

You may have seen my post yesterday about finally wearing a hole in my skid plate on my '55 Plymouth. Ground clearance wasnt much of an issue until recenty when I put new front tires on. Not paying attantion to tire sizes until after i had the wide whites ground, my new tires are 1" shorter than my old ones were(hey, they were $10, so I'm not complaining). now, an inch isn't much, but the thing is, I only had 1 3/4" of ground clearance with my old tires. This left me with 3/4" ground to skid plate clearance. Even the slighest crown in the road resulted in a rub on the plate. I didnt mind for awhile, but the hole in the skid plate prompted me to do something about it.

My suspension is, for the time being, bottomed out. It's sitting on the bump stops. Problem is, the bump stops are 50 year old bonded rubber, and it's not very bonded or very rubbery anymore. I decided that for $15 at Auto Zone, I'd give the Energy Suspension polyurethane universal bump stops a try. It was a super easy install on my Ply, basically unbolt the old one, bolt in the new one. Not even any drilling required.

Pic 1: Here's the old bump stop. It's smooshed flat and is no longer stopping any bumps.
Pic 2: Here's the new one next to the old one. That old one was really really beat.
Pic 3: Heres the new one installed, it was realy really simple.
Pic 4: Here's the new one with weight on it. It smooshed down to just under 2/3 it's unweighted height.

Here's the best part, not only is the ride a bit softer, I gained an entire 1 1/4" of ground clearance. May not sound like much, but it makes a world of difference

 

that cant ride very nice... bet it looks cool though
do you have a pic of the whole car?

 

So why do you even have a spring? Thats really not Helpfull for your suspension. Im not sure of the safety of this but that looks really bad dude. Im not dogging you but there has to be a better way.

 

The spring helps with compression dampening when the a-arm comes back up. If it werent there, it would slam hard. It actually handles and rides remarkably well. No rougher that some stiff springed "performnce" cars I've ridden in. It's also a temporary solution. I'm going to design my own complete front suspension when I do my supercharged Hemi swap.

See the link for a pic of the whole car from the recent Mopar thread

 

That car its ***s and beer man.

 

You're not worried about cracking parts? SOMETHING has to give when there is no suspension. It's about more than smoothing out the ride for the occupants. If a car is riding on fairly solid bump stops, something is going to give when it keeps getting hammered over bumps, dips and pot holes. Most likely, a control arm or spindle.
-Brad

 

I understand your concern Brad, I look over everything very well when I change my oil. I check to make sure things are still straight and true, and I look for cracks. So far, after 3 years of driving like this, the only thing that's bent at all is the plate directly above the bump stop, where the stop directly contacts it.The only part of the car that has really suffered is the body work because there is a ton of bondo and fibergl*** in the thing from last time it was "restored" a decade ago. The harsh ride is causeing the bondo to crack in places.