TECH--- how to lower the front of a shoebox with little or no money!

I know the title sounds like a late night info-mercial trying to sell you a book about buying real estate with little or no money down but this really is some simple low cost tech that can anybody can do.First start by disassembling the front susppension and removing the lower control arm.





Next drill out the rivets that hold the lower spring plate to the control arm and remove the plate.






Next drill and cut some square tubing to act as a spacer between the spring plate and control arm.We used 1" tubing and grade 8 bolts to reassmemble it.






Using 1" tubing got a little over an inch drop and with 1 round removed from the coils netted a total of 3 1/2 " drop. Total cost was less than $10.00 bucks and a days worth of work!

 

Way to go!! I wish I had done that,instead of flipping the spindles, my steering arms, arne't lined up right. Thanks for the Tech.. Sparky

 

But were you wearing a "Floyd Cotterpin" shirt when you did this?!

Good tech, and I may try this on my Chevy. Thanks.

Tucker

 

man that car looks familiar. has a good stance to if i may say so

 

Now that I know how to lower one all I need is a shoe box . Nice tech.

 

WELL HELL!

I got a 700 in jamco parts giggling at me from the corner of the shop. I really
did NEED the real leafs. The rest of that pile is all WANTS. The good news is
my pop will be happy to see this for his 49. Seriously, your post is super nicely done and I am sure your fellow gearheads (me included) appreciate a great low buck tip.
Rodman

 

WHat is the thickness of that 1 inch tubing?

tok

 

...that's a cool trick; that's a nice lookin hot rod "shoe" you got there. I like the paint!

 

I forgot to mention that this tech works on any other car that has removable spring plates.

 

It's not super thick but it doesn't have to be.More force is on the bolts than on the tubing.Basically the tubing is just a spacer.The old hotrodder that told me about this said they use to use washers to space it but I thought tubing would be more stable.

 

A 1 inch block will give you a 3 inch drop.Not to sound like a dick but I did mine with the arms still on the car.Then later I add a 3 inch dropped spring no speed bump was safe. The job you did looks good . Nice cheap tech. So what are your over all plans for your car.

 

The front end was being re built at the time so it was easier to do it with the a frame off .The car belongs to Fatflatty.

 

I did this with my 49 and worked great. Easy and straight forward to do. I got my 1" tubing from home depot or lowes, can't remember which. Good job!
I ended cutting about 1 1/2 coils and got this drop...

 

BTT

does this screw with the camber?

 

i just did this like 2 days ago... 1" block 2.5 turns cut out and front cross member is about 1.5" from the ground... the blocks have to come out now

 

nice tech, im saving this in my archives

 

Hey man thanks for taking the pics and breaking off some knowledge!

 

I also flipped my spindles but when I did it, I heated and bent the steering arms down at the same time. Don't forget to bend the ends back up, parallel with the ground...worked for me.

 

i do realize this is old thread but great info and the tubing wall thickness looks to be .120 in the picture.

 

I wondered when I saw this years ago whether those holes in the tubing should be sleeved so the tubing doesn't crush when torqued?

Good cheap lowering advice though.

 

Thanks for bumping this thread!
Good tech.
Wonder if this would work on my 55 special-

 

I need to do this to my brother's '54 Chevy......

 

Does anyone know how much drop would be accomplished by doing this and using Aerostar coils? I'm planning to start mine and don't want to waste money on new coils if its too much drop, not that there is ever too much drop!!!! Thanks

 

Just don't overtorque the bolts. The bolts are under tension when the suspension is loaded, there is no extra compression on the tubing. It is just a spacer. Make sure to use lockwashers and Loctite may not be a bad idea either.

 

I did this about 10 years ago with a set of "boogie blocks" that I bought from Night Prowler's. It works great at lowering your car on the cheap. Your ride quality might be affected though. Some more feedback from people that have done this and put some time and miles on their car's since would be very helpful.

My ride quality sucked!

 

in 1960 my friend and i both cut about 1 1/2 or 2 coils out of the spring this lowered it quite a bit, would realy bounce on bumby roads, no other problems.

 

I'm really curious to see what everybody else's opinion is on this method. I am thinking about doing it again on my 51 because it does get it lowered on the CHEAP. Am I the only one that had ride issues by doing this?

 

I have a set of Aerostar springs ready to go in, so I guess I could do this as well and test it both ways just the springs and with the extra 1" out. Both tests would be done with new shocks. If i remember to try it at the time I will and I'll report back.

 

Why would ride quality change? Unless you cut the crap outta the springs..... Otherwise the springs aren't gonna change.

 

Cut the coil 1 1/4 max. You will run out of suspention travel unless you don't car about that. 3/4 in spacer and you should be good to go.