Technical Does your hot rod or custom ever bottom out?

My coupe has rubber bump stops in the rear and a PO welded plates across the rear crossmember for them to hit. I trimmed the bump stops by more than half and dropped it down so the tires fit the fender radius nicely. That didn’t leave much travel but remarkably it doesn’t bottom out very often. Any lower and I’ll have to seriously rework the bump stops.

 

There’s an abrupt dip in CR-J a few miles from the house that causes the rear axle to “slightly” bottom out if I’m going over 50. It’s the only place it has happened so I blame the dip, not the truck…

 

Bump stops help.

 

The only thing that bottoms out on mine is progress. Kick some ass, get pulled. Move along to finalize a task, need something, gotta stop, sometimes can't get it or then pulled off again. One day I'm gonna get a major case of the "fuckits" and do nothing but til it's done. Hey I can dream, can't I?

 

Hello,

As stock shocks and springs begin to wear out, the car or in this case a 40 Ford Flathead powered sedan delivery, began to lower itself over time. When the 348 motor was put in, the front shocks were rebuilt to adjust to the heavy 348 Chevy motor. Then those shocks stayed with the sedan delivery when the Flathead was installed and then sold to me. The rear springs and shocks stayed the same. They felt worn and in need of replacement.

I was so happy with the purchase, that we did not notice how low the whole sedan delivery began to feel lower than when I bought it. It was a good thing that there were only two seats. In the beginning, my friends loved jumping in the back and roll around as I drove to the cruising spots and all over So Cal. It was fun with more people. Of course, there were only two seats, so if a girl(s) was with us, she got to sit in the front. Then rotated around with the other girls as we moved from place to place.

But, with all of those healthy teenagers of all sizes and shapes, the whole sedan delivery took on the look of a lowered custom. We never noticed it when it was parked in the back row of the drive-in restaurant parking lot. (Or at the beach, and even at the drive-ins.) But we did notice the scraping sound when we had to go over the dips and bumps in the drive-in parking places. It was one of those things that we all looked around and said, “OOPS.”

Jnaki

The Flathead sedan delivery took us all over So Cal coastlines for our surf adventures. But, usually it was two people and sometimes a 3rd in the back. But, due to the long boards and space inside, two was usually the case, or the third person had to borrow a surfboard when we got to the surf spots.

In these times, the idea of having fun without spending available money was paramount. Gas money was paid by how many I could cram in the sedan delivery on the way to school. It filled up the gas tank and bought my gallons of reclaimed oil, for smooth delivery to the front of our high school. I had plenty of sports practices after school all year, so, only those that were on the teams got a ride home. “Different strokes for different folks…”

I believe that the look of the sedan delivery being so low at times was overlooked by the police due to the vehicle looking like a sedan delivery used by many businesses for delivering something… in this case, teenagers…

Note:

When we bought our 327 powered 1940 Ford sedan delivery 10 years later, my wife and I enjoyed every minute of cruising around in a lowered rake stance. But, those stock shocks did get replaced before we started doing our coastal cruises and daily driving. The worn shocks were part of the drivability problem that took us months to repair and replace the parts.

One of the problems in this version of the sedan delivery being lower, was that there was much extra weight in a full upholstered interior, including the roof headliner and the side walls of the cave in the back. Even the rear door had insulation and door upholstery installed. Did I say it was warm and quiet, in the back area?

Being stock height does not always keep your hot rod from getting lower when extra people or added accessories become the style and functions. Watch your weight and distance to the ground. Nothing should be lower than the bottom part of the rims. Even with low profile tires that cause more chances to get lower to the ground. YRMV

 

I used to have a '40 sedan delivery. It's probably still in California somewhere.

 

My coupe rarely but this thing a lot.

 

My roadster does once in awhile, But not bad. 56 Chevy never. The 56 F100 does not have any chrome left on the bottom of the front bumper.

 

No, but the bottom of my grille is a high manhole magnet…

 

Yes, sort of. The bottom of the front bumper on the '33 isn't curved anymore. Nearly ripped it off pulling out of Gasket Goons on Sat.

 

My car is fine.

Parts of the world need to be lowered.

 

Been lucky with the grille so far but my head is on a swivel.

I have high sided a few times and felt like an idiot

 

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Maybe it's been said , before you change anything try increasing Bump valving on shocks.

 

I thought they were supposed to bottom out!? My '40 Tudor has front snubbers off a 4x4 blazer if I remember right. A little longer than the stock ones and softens the blow.

Dave

 

Only when I drive it but " It's SuposeTo", all great cars scrape and bang when driven.

 

Only when I got a big girl in back.

 

Lowered Morris Minors are notorious for running out of suspension travel. I was bottoming out all the time when I used mine as a daily. All the guides warn against cutting down the bump stops, but that means using the bump stops as springs, all the time. That's why I've been trying to engineer a set of drop-spindle swivel pins for it.

I've got a highly OT set of Eibach springs on my DD. They allow me to take the little dipping slipway in Cape Town, which leads off to the Mill Street bridge where the end of the M3 meets the top of Roeland Street, at 60mph without riding on the bump stops for the entire length:

 

You are only supposed to have big girls in the back.