Im familiar with cutting springs and removing leafs. Anybody know how Watson Kustoms lowered the cars they worked on? I know not all the car were lowered and every vehicle varys. But I've seen pics of their cars in the weeds, and was curious how they did it in the 60's, if axles bottomed out on frames, rode rough... School me.
How about turning the leafs upside down i remember doing that once or lowering schackles/clamps, Smaller Half size heavy duty springs,or small schock absorbers.
Not to forget channeling the whole body to the frame lower before you do any of that stuff so you don't go too low unless you like scraping and have scratch plates.
There were different methods of altering the suspension to achieve any drop. if you went too far you had to C or Z the frame at the back to keep the axle from hitting and modify the floor for clearance. At the front you could cut the coil springs or merely heat them. You could take the spindle supports out and turn them upside down. Put spacers in the lower control arms to lower the spring mounting surface. There was a shackle like device you could put between the control arm and lower mounting point. For ball joint cars there were ball joint spacers. At the back, reversed eye springs could be used (not often) or lowering blocks. A real low car might get 2 sets. Or, the big job, channel the whole body over the frame.
Some of the old guys on here might remember rears lowered by jacking up the rearend and and using chains to hold the rear close to the frame for "temporary" tail draggin'.
Wow!! I laughed when I read that. Sounds old school to me. I know about most the the ways to lower cars, like the front, cut coils, stepped control arms, dropped spindles, and rear, drop blocks, leaf removal, notching the frame, and floor and driveshaft tunnel work, etc. I was wondering what the techniques were back when the custom era came alive! If notching frames was a big thing or seldom done. If cutting coils was pretty much the only way to lower the front (back then). How often channeling was done. I like obtaining the knowledge on the history and figured this would be the place to hear about it.
You could cut a coil off the front springs and install 2" lowering blocks in the rear. This gave a 2" drop and did not cause too many problems. If you went farther than that you had to C the frame, modify the floor (at the back) and do more serious mods to the front suspension. Then you were restricted as to what kind of streets or roads you could drive on, how steep a driveway you could enter, even how you pulled into a gas station. Not many guys were dedicated enough to spend the money on such radical mods or to put up with the inconvenience. Too bad you don't have a grease pit and a few fifties cars. If you got underneath and examined them you would see they only had 2 or 3" between the axle rubbers and frame in stock form, and that is with no passengers or baggage. The chassis cleared the ground by 6 or 7" at the lowest point, usually the front crossmember. With 3 or 4 passengers you would reduce that by an inch or 2. Lower the car another 2" and it doesn't take much of a bump or pothole to have you dragging the ground.
I'd like to get my car about an inch lower front and back. I have 2" drop springs up front (not cut) and 2 inch blocks in rear. I already bottom out in the rear that's why I was wondering how it was done back then. If just lowered without cutting frame and floor and just dealt with the bottoming and banging. And if that was the price of looking cool... Haha
From the accounts I've heard, cars were lowered by cutting, heating or completely removing coil springs, stepping a arms, dearching leaf springs, removing leafs, flipping shackles, lowering blocks, frame notching, loads of dry concrete or bricks in the trunk and hydraulic suspension conversion. My dads cars were all pretty darn low and when I asked him he said "we just dragged em and banged em and scraped em."
That is about it. Back in the day they lowered the car 2" and found the same problems you did. Some went even farther with the lowering and had even worse problems, and had to do more mods to get around them. In your case it might help to cut the rubber bump stops in half. This gives a little more suspension travel without bumping and banging. Remember you have eliminated about half your suspension travel.
winfield told me they re arched the leafs. lay the spring over something with a gap between and hammer the arch out! it works !!!
I have a friend who is just on the verge of finishing a tribute to his first custom in the late fifties . A chopped 50 Merc convertible. He had done all the work himself with exception to lowering,he and a friend decided to take a summer trip from Western Ontario to California to have Barris Kustoms to the Final honours,he said they rolled the car in the sho and immediately heated the front coils and made a set of crude blocks for the back and sent him on his way. Said he was never so disappointed in his life after wanting so long to have it done right by a "pro"... Nick has since become a very accomplished body and fab guy, as a matter of fact gets invited to Gene Winfield's show each year as a guest metal fab god.
On my 53 Chevy I stepped the A frames and de arched and blocked the rear. Add 4 inches off the bottom of Mercury skirts taking the step up out of the stock ones. Then cut the bumper brackets and lowered them about a inch and a half. The bottom of the rockers where just at the bottom of the rim height.
Exactly! ... the quality of the ride was NEVER ever a consideration. Torched coils and lowering blocks on leafs, along with several 100 lb. sacks of concrete in the trunk (if needed) got you where you wanted to be. The roads around Watson's neighborhood here in Southern California were flat, pothole free, and very smooth throughout the '60's. Receiving tickets for being "too low" were commonplace, and almost a badge of honor. I remember guys getting ticketed three times (by three different cops) in one day, for being too low ...
My brother had a '58 Impala painted candy red by Watson,pinstriped by VonDutch when I was a kid. Someone who worked for Watson lowered it for him,heating the springs. The rear sat right on the frame...no travel! He got pulled over all the time.
Too cool. Now being low doesn't seem to phase the cops, but it's another story if you're blowing sparks out the bottom. A buddy of mine with a full bag setup was dragging his rear bumper one time and a cop actually pulled up next to him, got on his radio and said "sir, you're gonna have to stop dragging." No ticket not even pulled over. I do have my bump stops trimmed. I actually wanted to swap the 2inch blocks for 3inch. I didn't want to buy concrete so I substituted for my two floor jacks. As for the front the lower arms are pretty parallel right now and I heard it wasn't a good idea to have the ball joint above the inner control arm bushings. This true?
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