42 Ford sedan lowering help

Okay, I have a few questions, and so I thought I would post them here for some help. This is my first fat fendered Ford. From where it sits right now (all factory complete rebuilt driveline and suspension) I now want it to come down 3 inches. So I have been on the HAMB for hours reviewing old tech articles. My first thought was to just go buy the Posies super slide springs and their shackles. Until their tech guy told me that because of spring sag I would only see 1 to 1.5 inch drop. He told me that I would need to buy their "indadirt" kit for the front....and then covnvert the rear to an open rearend with parallel springs. 4000 dollars later all for 3 inches. Needless to say, I'm kinda frustrated. There has to be a different way than just throwing money at it. I am going to try the reverse arch spring trick, both front and rear, which will inturn reverse the eyes and give it a 1-1.5 inch start. I want to modify (flatten) the front crossmember, which I cant seem to find any tech articles on that, and remove a few leafs out of the rear.

Is all of this enough to get 3 inches? Anyone have any other ideas or better ideas?

Thanks in advance, Jason

 

the reverse eye springs will help, and longer shackles combined will get you down cheaply, but I'm not sure exactly without spending $

 

As far as the rear goes, reversing the spring and dearching it a bit combined with removing a COUPLE of leaves can go a long way to getting you down in the back, and improving ride qualities. If the car has a panhard rod (and I believe '42 was the first year), then slightly longer shackles can help a bit too. Beyond those measures, you get into the need to C-notch and maybe flatten out the crossmember and that gets a bit harder to do. Try simple first and go from there.
For the front, invest in a dropped axle first and drop the arms to match. Then do the same for the front spring as well. I really recomend you take a bit of time on the springs and detail them when you have them apart (clean, grind any rough spots and use some teflon between the leaves and paint). I'm not a huge fan of flattened front crossmembers because the front wish bone get awfully chummy with the lower edges of the frame awfully quick. That should get you down quite a bit, just be sure to do your best to keep the shackles on a 45 degree angle and that panhard bars are attached and functional at both ends.