New to this forum, and here i fire away. I just recently bought a 4-door -56 customline (I think it is) with a 390+c6 thats been lowerd and made in to some kind of custom i guess. Now I'm looking in to turning it in to more of a gasser look. Straight axle would be nice, but the law around here wouldn't let that pass I guess, so the next best thing would have to be taller coils and a ball joint spacer I guess. Would anyone happen to know a stock spring that would help raise the front say 2-3" over stock? I know about the aerostar swap for lowering, but thats the opposit of what i want to do. Thannks in advance. (If my english suck, sue me, I'm swedish )
Try using a new set of station wagon springs then using a couple of the twist in spacers. Wagon springs are usually a little more stout....
Agree about the station wagon springs. There are thick rubber spacers available that fit under the springs and raise the car between 1 and 2 inches. They are made for air conditioned cars, to compensate for the weight of the air conditioner parts.
One trick you can do on the '55-56 Fords is move the ball joints. Stock, they fit 'into' the control arms but if you fabricate some spacers to replace the ball joints and use longer bolts, you can move them to the top of the control arm (for lowering) or bottom (for raising). This will help with alignment, as the suspension won't be as close to maximum extension.
Nice tips here. One thing, I can't seem to find springs for the car at all right now, since I'm not familiar with where to buy parts for these cars online. Haven't hade any luck here in Sweden and about the only place I've ever orderd parts from in the past is summit racing, and they don't seem to carry patrs for this old iron. Any ideas would be nice. Thanks in advance.
try maybe 1975-80 Ford Granada front springs, V8 car with A/C. They used a stiffer spring with larger diameter coils. Lowering, I've used standard Granada springs in the front with a couple rounds cut out on 1953-62 Fords. To my understanding they are a little stiffer than the stock 56' springs, length about the same.
My suggestion would be to hang around here a little longer before you start beating on your car. I don't know how they do it in Sweden, but around here a jacked-up-in-the-front street-trimmed 4-door would be considered pretty "hick" by most people. Do what you want, of course, just couldn't help commenting how such a car might be viewed by others...
Haha, I'm getting viewed and judged by others what ever i do around here, thats the main reason I'm in this game. Everybody (I meen everybody) lowers there cars around here to the extinct thaat it's gettiing redicolus, so I'm mostley trying to stand out from the crowd here. The "street trim" I don't fulley understand, but my plan was to do some work to the car while I'm at it, wider wheels in the rear, ditch the inner fenders and raise the front some and go for that look. As long as It's only metal and screws, it can bee put back in.
OK. Did that back in the 60's. Used spring spacers. Screwed them in. Rode for a while. Took them out. Rear, added new spring pads to put the axle under the springs. Also popped the shackles downwards.
I used a pair of late 80's/early 90's Ford F150 coils in my Plymouth to raise the front end up to where I wanted it, they were about 4" longer than the stock springs so they had to be cut down to fit. You can trim them to tailor you desired ride height.
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