What a great difference in ride quality. You Ford & Merc guys gotta do this. I had 1" aluminum blocks between the A-frame & spring pad for 11 years to get the frontend lowered. When I took out the old springs & put them on the bench next to the Moog Areostar springs which were 4" shorter I thought I was in trouble. I measured before & after installing them & leaving out the 1" blocks the car is a half inch lower & rides like a cruiser should = low & comfortable. Took my 65 year old butt about 3 hours to complete.
RDAH, could you post a pic of stock springs and their height. I am working on a database of springs. thanks
I installed Aerostar springs in the front end of my 59 Fairlane as well. Havent gotten to drive it yet, but they sure gave the car a nice stance.
Nice to hear they work in the 52 and up fords as well as the 49-51's If you check out my albums the front end of my 38 ford truck has 50 front end and their are some compsrison photos.
hoop98, the original springs are 15 & 1/8" tall with 10 coils. As soon as my daughter comes around I'll get you some pictures. ekilpsis, No before pictures because I lowered it 11 years ago. The fender lip is now 25" from the ground.
That is one fine 54 Merc sir! Can you post some more pics of it? What drive train are you running? Maybe this is the inspiration to get my Dad off his butt and get one of his Merc's on the road...maybe even in paint!.lol
Got the same ones in my '52 Ford. They don't seem like they'll work but they do and do they ever. We may have met before, did you have this car at the Ratbastards winter car show a couple years ago? I think I remember it.
Anyone got the specs for springs in a 52' Lincoln Capri? I would like to see if I can replace the cut springs I am running currently with a set of the Astro springs.
Squablow, yes I was there. Mercruiser, drivetrain is a 91 HO Mustang 302 with a 8020 Wieand intake, 600 Edelbrock, Aod trans with 3.89 gears in the rear. 24 mpg if I run premium, 22 on regular. Headed down to Union Grove this weekend. Great Lakes Dragway.
I drove down to a rather damp Vintage Torque Fest a couple weeks ago. Had more of my type of cars on a rainy day then some car shows around here that have 300 cars on a sunny day. The drive is what turns my crank.
I don't have the specs but looking at the parts illustration they should be similar. In the chart below I have adjusted the load and wheel travel ratio to be approximately that of a 54 Merc. The compare height shows how much drop you could each from each spring. Two things about the CC850. 1. They are variable rate, at a point in compression they get stiffer (the close spaced coils bind leaving a shorter stiffer working spring. 2. The wheel rate of this spring in the typical SLA suspension is a lot higher. Most people seem to not be bothered by this change, it's about the difference in a standard suspension and the firmest factory handling option, say a new Boss 302. Just an FYI If you guys could measure your takeout springs we could have a better idea of the real change. I need the coil diameter if you have a dial caliper, the inside or outside dia, number of coils and free height. I know it's a lot of trouble but I promise to add each one to a chart for future use. Here is a list of springs starting with the shortest installed height down to something close to a stock spring. The Compare Number multiplies the installed height times the spring/wheel travel ratio, so it shows the difference in ride height. This assumes a front end weight of 1800 pounds ( not counting unsprung weight). In this case the CC 850 is about a 4.2 drop in ride height the 80998 would be 2.3.
When I first got my '49 I cut the springs to make for a 4" drop. Drove around most of last year that way. Installed the new Aerostar springs (MOOG) this spring (totaling a 3" drop from stock, actually prefer the "motorboat rake" my car has now) and man-oh-man does it ever ride nice. Don't regret it a bit.
The Jalopy Journal
