I want to lower the front of my 50 Ford coupe. Would I regret cutting cutting the coils? Just how bad will the ride get? Also does anyone know about how much drop 1 coil would be. Any better ideas. Thanks Tedster
Yes, you can, but there is some work to do on the bushings. My geezer friend knows how and I'll do a tech post here when we do it to my '52.
There are a lot of bolt on parts from Fatman and Jamco to lower your shoebox and still get a nice ride but they cost $$$$. To me it depends on how much money you can afford to spend.
After buying the Fatman dropped uprights I looked at them and compared them to the stockies. They look close enough that you could probably get away with flipping your stock uprights, replace the kingpins and put the spindles on upside down from stock and and then switch them from one side of the car to the other. I think your wheels may end up a little forward or back in the wheelwell but the change will be minimal like 1/2" or something like that. Also heat and bend your steering arms down to get the tie rods to be ccloser to factory alignment. Look at the Fatman stuff and you will be able to visualize it. I also cut a coil or maybe it was a half a coil out for good measure. I also put on the front lowering blocks but I would not do this again. They were a major PITA and I would rather just cut more coils because they are pretty floaty as is and cutting the coils will increase your springrate and take care of that. I then hacked the factory bumpstops down. It rides well but the tires rub on inner fender of driver's side and outer on both while turning sharp in a parking lot but I will cut some of the inner out cause I like it low and the outer isn't much of a problem.
In the fifties, a shoebox ford was a cheap used car, and very popular with teenagers. Lowering them improves their looks massively, especially if it's not too expensive. In the day, cutting coils was the standard method and the penalties (in ride) are tolerable. One coil will drop the car about 2" and the ride won't suffer much. 1 1/2 coils is much more noticeable but the ride starts to suffer. 2 coils is the practical limit; now you're down around 4+" and are on the bump stops. Listen to the advice about heat; don't torch the coils, cut them with a cutoff wheel or a hacksaw. In my opinion the secret to a tolerable ride with cut coils is: don't remove, or cut, the bump stops -- let the car ride on them full time and use the rubber as the suspension medium for the tiny bit of travel you have left. Dropped spindles are more sanitary, but expensive. Flipping the spindles gives a huge drop for free, but you have a lot of heating and bending to do to get close to correct geometry. Front lowering blocks are a hassle to install, and the result is pretty much like cut coils. Have fun!
it'd be nice to see your car...*hint hint* pictures are nice there is a VERY easy and non permanant way to drop your car. use shims between the lower control arms and the spring buckets this is a picture of a '54 lower, but yours is pretty much the same thing IIRC
Here's my ol piece. Fatman spindles, 3 inch blocks in the back, stock size tires. Also heated the passenger side coil just a little to even it out. It's about an even 3 inch drop all around. Not any problems with anything doing it like this. I do kind of wish it was lower. I like the look of Fordicators. You'd better do an intro if you haven't already. Pix are nice too!
Those are basically the front lowering blocks that I used. Not worth it at all. Just cut more out of the coils. Those are hard as #$@! to install. Popping the stock rivets out is no fun at all and takes a while. And then you have the added problem of your lower control arms hanging lower. Mine hit stuff that they wouldn't otherwise hit. Also you can see them hanging down and they look cheezy. I am taking mine out and cutting the springs more.
like i said, they can be permanant or not... its easy and most of all cheap. drilling the rivits out is not all that hard, and the arms only sit an inch lower than they normally would. its not the perfect drop for everyone for sure, but its fast and cheap. best of all you dont mess with much else and if you dont like it, you dont need to go looking for new coils
Thank ya FiddyFour! I appreciate that. I agree lower is better but when I did the work I really didn't know anything about the old box. It's on the list to cut 1 coil and try some 4" blocks but it drives and rides so good now I hate to mess it up. It's real livable right now.
I hear what you are saying they do work and you still retain the stock ride and they are reversable. Pretty ingenious for whoever thought of it, but I don't think you could pay me enough to install those damn things again. Cheap yes, non permanent yes, fast no, easy no. My rivets were really in there. I tried drilling which actually broke drill bits. I tried grinding the heads off and pushing them out with an air hammer. I tried various combinations of things and still felt it was PITA. Cutting coils is so much easier. My car is probably a little lower than yours and the extra inch on the lower control arm would make all the difference in the world. My lower shock studs are bent to hell because they got hung up driving off my driveway. One inch higher and I don't think that would have happened. No biggie but it will make taking them off interesting to say the least. If I ever find somebody that wants to trade straight up for stock riveted lowers in good shape I am there.
Unklechet, you should de-arch the rear springs like we were talking about and let me know how it works out.
Fordicator, I just haven't had the time to do much work on the car lately. I'll probably just drive it as is for the summer. Maybe this coming winter I'll knuckle down on doing some things.
on my old 50 I used fatman spindles & cut 1 coil. Had old 1-1/2 blocks in the rear. I should have cut another half a coil in front but someone needed this car before I had a chance. Billy
Here's mine. It's subframed and has lowering springs and blocks in the rear. It's very low, handles and rides great, but I wouldn't do it again this way.
go to bed fiddy four your spending too much time on the hamb haha its a stock back window for a 51 hardtop- I tanked mine with dearched springs and drop blocks/ with cut springs up front... Tuck
Tuck, did you do dropped spindles or just cut the springs? Does anyone have any picts of how to flip the spindles? someone mentioned heating and bending too, is this needed? Thanks.
hey im gonna do a tech on how to flip stock spindles VERY soon... I got the step by step from Rocky- Tuck
Cool insight, guys. I'm definitely down for seeing a tech post about flipping spindles. Sounds like it may be a bit of a pain in the ass, but I'd like to see how it's done. And Fordicator, I dig the car man. I dunno why, but that one just does it for me. The stance, the rolling stock- hell, even the patina looks cool.
Here's a shot of my Fitty,s-10 clip up fronts,lowering blocks out back. Mad man Frank Palmer did the work before I bought this off McPhail. Tires rub up front,I like it! McPhail sucks!
Did you do a search on "flipped spindles"?? I flipped mine , with 4 " blocks in the rear. Drives good, tastes great. sparky
I would love to see the tech on flipping the spindles!!! I cut 2 coils off the front of mine and did the shims on the lower control arm/spring bucket, and honestly I'm not as low as would like to be. The rivets were just as easy as cutting the springs. I blocked the hell out of the back and ride quality is the last thing on my mind, but I need a way to find a way to pull a few more inched out of the front w/out putting "bags" or a Ford II front end in it. Here's a pic of mine so far....