does anyone know what Larry used to drop his G****vine so close to the ground? I'm ***uming cut coils and blocks in the rear but that thing looks LOW...thanks everyone bob
Not sure but i'd say some combination of reversed eye rear spring, rear springs re-set lower, blocks, spring hangers moved inside and up in the frame, smaller diameter wheels, front dropped spindles probably custom made, cut coils, spacing out the lower spring mount on the lower a arm., removed bumb stops.
Right from Larrys mouth! C notched in the rear with blocks and leafs removed, front was cut coils and stepped control arms, I have it on video him talking about it, I will watch it tonight again to make sure I am right! John
thanks john and Paul I appreciate the input. That car is quite a bit of motivation while working on my '53 pontiac (different make/model/year I know) and I had planned on going with bags but that ride height is spot on with what I want...I wonder how rough the ride is in that thing
I think the only reason it'd be a rough ride is cos there'd be about an inch of travel before it bottomed out on the bump stops! HAHA Being that low I think you'd want it to be a super stiff ride, cos if you had an inch of travel the sills (and probably the crossmembers underneath) would be slammin into the road all the time. I used to run my dad's 55 ford convertible like that tho. Cut coils and spaced lower a arms made the front ride on the bump stops. the only front "suspension" was the give in the cross plies! The rear had reversed spring eyes, re set springs and 4 inch blocks, i think it had about 1 inch of travel. Used to run lakes pipes under the sills and they sat about 1 inch from the ground! Just had to be REAL carefull about where you drove it and make sure you knew the terrain. I see-sawed it a couple of times when i had a car full of friends - it would be "ok, everyone out, and lift the back bumper and push forward bit" - then back in, and away we'd go
ah, come on, where's your sense of adventure! How low do you really want your car to be driven at? Don't forget a car at normal ride height has a good couple inches of travel, so if you lower it to within a couple inches of the ground, and still want the same ride quality, you're going to be hittin the ground often. To realistically run a couple of inches off the ground all the time, and be a nice ride, you are going to want a stiffer suspension so you dont bottom out all the time (some times it is un avoidable) Just cutting coils and removing leafs will reduce the springiness of the springs, so they won't function the same as normal, hence not springing the car back, and casusing a stiffer jerkier ride. If you get reset coils and leafs, it will be lower, the springs will be a bit stiffer than stock, but still have good springiness (i know it's probably not a word but you get what i mean!), but not as jerky and hard as severely cut springs. But, in the end, like they say, no pain no gain!.... sometimes a stiff ride and s****ing/hittin the ground is a small price to pay for lookin cool all the time. Just get good springs in your seat, and some nice tall 15" crossplies and you'll be fine Can always run lakes pipes down the side too....they visually lower the car an inch and a half or whatever diameter the pipe is while allowing softer suspension, plus once they start gettin all s****ed up at the bottom from speed bymps etc, they become like battle scars, people will see and go "wow he drives it that low all the time!" HAHA
Far as the front i remember somewhere hearing Larry say that some guy came in to the bellflower drive in that took his coils springs out to be the low of the low and larry had to show him up and stepped the lower a arms on g**** vine
Remember that was 1957 no or almost no freeway travel, I think Bellflower Blvd speed limit was 25 MPH. And I could hurt my finger typing about the tickets. Roger
I wonder about just bags in the rear and dropping the front like he did, maybe that would give a better ride and same appearance
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