Anyone an expert on cutting coils? Do guys still cut them? How do you achieve about 2" of drop? I want to lower my 50 Fleetline and looking for suggestions....
It's been my experience that cutting coils is risky. The more you cut, the stiffer the springs get. And if you use a torch, you are taking a chance of weakening the springs. It's best to cut them with a cut-off wheel. You get the best drop with drop spindles.
I would chase some spindles down before cutting. Just cutting changes the geometry of the front end. It's been done plenty of times, just not the best.
pull them out, cut a half a coil, try em again, keep cutting til you get the ride height you want, woud go over 2 coils, cut with a chop saw or cutoff wheel.....someone mentioned it would change the geometry......not sure how that could change the geometry, if anything it brings things closer to where they should have been in the first place in terms of camber change curve and bumpsteer......have it aligned afer you get i done.....will be fine.....yes, it does make the springs stiffer, but generally thats a good thing, cause they are to soft to begin with and are now sagging......so...go for it....
X2 on above! It will change alignment specs, but not geometry. I have done this with several vehicles over the years, and as long as you don't get greedy, it works fine. another thing to think about is shock travel. Generally, you will need a shorter shock in most applications.
I've got to laugh every time I read about not using a torch to cut springs. If you can't cut the end off a coil and leave it a little bit rounded on the bottom, without weakening a spring, then you shouldn't even own a torch
markyac, you link is no good, gives a 404 Forbidden error. It's complaining about trying to access the root directory. Is your stuff in a folder under the root (/)? Maybe needs a www?
Shorter shock, or make shock stops out of chain, which is kind of "ghetto" but it stops the shock from over extending and spitting out a spring
I can't believe it is me saying this but The search is your friend, been covered tons of times But have at it, I am not the police
Thanks for that info. My website guy is hard to pin down. Thought there was a few pics there for now. I'm going to remove the link for the time being...Sorry
I bought new Moog coils for my 54' and will cut them to achieve the 4" drop I want. I wanted to do the Fatman Fabrication lowering kit package, but I don't have the coin. From what I hear, they still achieve a great ride and not bad at all as long as you have matching shock absorbers it's pretty damn nice ride. I found mine on Jegs. These springs fit 86' - 95' Ford, but they fit the stock 54' originals, all together I paid $50. You would have to do some research on what new ones would fit yours, but well worth the savings.
The amount of drop depends on the spring. Here is an easy thing that I do, I set the weight of the car on the spring and crawl under it and measure center to center on the coil. if you have to lift the car to do that you will need to lift both ends. That measurement will ball park you on the amount of drop you are going to get per coil cut. That is not an exact science but it is close enough for most guys. my experience is that a coil to a coil and a half will usually get you to between an inch and a half to two inches on most older American cars.
1 1/2 is max. I just don't care the way they sit in the pockets after. Not sure if aerostar work on a chev but they are cheap and drop 2 1/2
On my convertible, I cut a coil off. I did it a 1/4 coil at a time. I used a metal cutoff disc to do it, never use a torch for this job
I had to cut a half a coil off my TCI MII kit to get the rack end links parrallel to the spindles.. 2" is about the max drop with springs before you star running into suspension travel issues... Or banging on the bump stops...
That would be a very "grey area" of the law. Even spring makers have to cut the coils to the desired length. The OP needs to know the motion ratio before he starts hacking away eg: Falcons / Mustangs = 2:1 So a 2" drop requires 1" cut out of the coil. A thin cut off wheel in the grinder is the best method because the spring doesn't get hot. The spring actually gets stiffer because the amount of "Active" coil spring wire is less
I think people generally mean heating the springs with the torch and letting the weight of the car compress the heated springs. Not using one to cut coils.
You can cut springs with a torch and it will be fine. Get it cherry red, hit the O2 handle and blow through it. Heat will tend to rise anyway and steel is a poor conductor of heat.
I cut my front coils by one and a half coils and installed dropped spindles but it made the ride very stiff. Maybe I should have removed only a single coil. I did achieve about a 3" drop.
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