Lowering a 52 Coronet

I forgot when I made my 4" blocks (1/4" wall 2x4 box tube) that I also swapped the u-bolt plates to tri-5 chevy plates! (sorry 'bout that!)

I used an allen bolt on one side for the pin, and started with a 1/2" drill hole on the other side, but it was so long ago I don't remember if the hole had to be bigger or not.

FWIW I don't recommend the 4" blocks-- your scrub line is below your rim, and if you have a flat-- well....not good.

no one will recommend this-- but when I cut my coils I used a torch (eeeek!!!!!) and a prybar and cut them in the car ! I've never felt the ride was compromised due to the torch. I'm not saying it was the right way, and I don't think anyone here will condone it, but it works.

if I ever get the car back on the road (if I don't sell it) I already have 2.5" dropped uprights for it, and I'll start over with uncut springs. On the rear, I always wanted to get new, lower leafs, and then blocks to finish it off.

 

To the OP, what did you end up doing? My wife and I just bought a 52 Dodge coronet 4dr and we want to lower it too.

 

you can never be too low! gotta love ash trays in the rear side of the front seat! SOO-KOOL!

 

I actually ended up selling the car at a very big profit before doing any modifications. But, if I were you, I'd definitely do lowering blocks (I was gonna do 4 inchers) and just pop the front coils out and cut a coil out, check height, cut coil out, check height ect. One thing I'll mention, make sure to use 1 3/4 inch wide blocks, most universal $20 blocks are 2 inchers for mini trucks and such. I found a website where the guy actually makes and sells 1 and 3/4 inch blocks and he sells them for (last I checked) $65 for 3? inch drop blocks and $75 for 4 inch blocks. I didn't check but the link to his site may or may not be in this thread. Hope that helps

I'm considering trying to buy another 40s or 50s car and making a led sled (2 inches off the ground, custom wheel fender covers that go to the bottom of the wheel well, pinstriping, the whole dead) but for now I've only got my 1969 Cutlass and my 1976 Datsun 280z. Nuthin old enough yet

 

Cool, thanks for the info. I definitely want to lower the back 3 inches with blocks. Are the front coils a pain to remove on these old cars? Pardon my noob-ness, I'm moving from the off-road 4x4 world into the 2wd car world. I'm not too familiar with car front suspensions

 

Not a problem. Yeah it's really simple, you have an upper control arm and a lower control arm. The lower has a pocket for the bottom of the spring and the upper pocket is actually welded to the frame. The upper control arm doesn't come in contact with the spring but goes around it and the frame pocket and mounts to the top of the frame above the upper pocket. You need to disconnect your tie rod from the spindle and unbolt atleast the bottom cotrol arm. This will remove the pressure off the spring (very quickly) and the cońrol arm will drop down and you can get the spring out. I reccomend using a jack under the lower control arm so you can let it out easy and not turn the spring into a skull seeking missile. Cut the right amount of coils out and pop it back in. Spring will be shorter and easier to get in. Depending on how much you cut you may want to run a retaining chain to hold the spring in if you go over a big bump and the front suspension bouces up. That's not a problem unless your coils are super short. Also, making the springs 3 inches shorter does not mean the car will sit 3 inches lower since the suspension will compress the spring which is why you cut one coil at a time until you like the height. Easy and free but time consuming. Have fun!

 

Also unbolt the shock but that is a given

 

Alright, cool thanks. So then you need to get shorter shocks right?

 

I have a 50 dodge fordor. I sure wouldn't want it any lower. Barely get the rear tires off now.

 

That really depends, some shocks have a lot of travel and if at stock height their almost maxed you can get away with just compressing em and putting em on. I'd actually reccomend getting air shocks, I don't know if you'd have to adapt a set of what have you but I have Gabriel Hijackers on my '69 Cutlass and they work well, gets the drag slicks in without rubbing. They would give you the option to raise the car if you wanted to. They use 1/8th inch line with a shrader valve but I'm sure if you got the right connectors you could go to 1/4 inch line and run a tank and compresser if you were so inclined, however at that point I'd just buy a set of bags and put em in place of the springs, run a uni-leaf in the rear and a set of load-levelers to raise and lower the rear. Theres a lot of options if you don't mind doing a little customization