1952 Chevy sedan that needs some help....

[markanthony]

Good Afternoon,
it's been a while since I had the time to roll onto here, but here's my situation that I would like some help/feedback with....

As you may or may not remember I have a chopped '52 4door Chevy sedan and while I have driven it for 4 years running 4 out of the 7 rear leafs to lower the back-end (with 3" blocks) I nailed a great pot-hole in Orange and snapped two of the four leafs on the drivers side.

My question is this... I, now that I have to get it back on the road need to figure out what I want to do with the rear suspension. I really just need to handle how the stock tranny is hung in the back and I want it as low as I can go without spending a lot of cash, but on the flipside of that, I also want to be safe because my wife and the two little ones will be in there with me. My thought was this, getting a set of stock springs for the '52, taking them down to a spring shop I know of and having them reverse eye and cold de-arch them. I know by doing this that I will need to put a C in the rear frame, tunnel the drive-line and all that jazz..Now what I don't know is how far up/down they can take the springs, or what my best bet is in doing this.

I guess what I'm looking for is:
A good set of springs to start with
A good "c" notch/section that I can either weld-in or bolt-in, then cut out the frame section and proceed
And your thoughts as to what to do....

To help, I'm running a built 235, stock 3speed, stock driveline...why stick with the stock? Becuase it had 10 years worth of running and was super clean and to spec when I tore it down 4 years ago...

Please respond here, email or PM me with any thoughts and/or ideas....I do have a little cash to work with, maybe some things to trade..depending on what comes of this..

Thanks for the help,
Mark-Anthony Rice

[markanthony]

Back to the front...any ideas?

[Kilroy]

I'm not too sure about the springs but my guess is that they'd be between 2-4" lower after the drop so I'm not sure you'd have to do too much to the tunnel and the rest of that stuff. I would think you could run the new springs without the blocks at first just to see where you are and then add blocks from there. You might just need to notch the frame an inch or so unless you really want to slam it in the back but if you drive it, why go nuts?

I had posies springs and 2" blocks on my shoebox and drove it everywhere. I did nothing else to it and it was as low as most cars I saw. The U-Joint would hit the tunnel if there were a couple of cheeze-burgers in the back but it hardly ever bottomed.

Just my 2centavos... Maybe someone will post more help?

Oh yeah, and if you do want to put it on the ground, why not just bag it and make your own brackets to save money?

Either way if you need any help, I'll do what I can!

Phil

[markanthony]

Phil,

thanks.. My thought is to put the rear bumper 3-5 inches off the ground by doing the said reverse eye and de-arch; c'ing the frame so I get some kind of decent ride, raising the drive shaft tunnel....and welding motorhome casters to the rear frame for those driveways and those inevitable flats

You are absolutely right, I could bag it, I just really don't like it.. I've helped build and drive a couple of cars with them and just never really liked installing or driving them unless there was a four link in there. Maybe that's just because we would take out all except two springs, throw some thick wall square tubing on top of the spring, C the frame and call it a day.... I mean it got the job done, I just never liked the axle wrap that happens when you run blocks with springs removed.

Good to hear from you,
MA