Lowering 101

[Steve Chryssos]

Wow. That Scott doesn't mess around. I hit submit on a really sweet (and constructive) reply and find out the sucker's locked. Luckily I was able to hit the back button and copy paste my words of wisdom.

Good. I'm glad he locked it. Okay. Let's start over, shall we--and play nice:

Here's the deal:
It's virtualy impossible to talk about lowered front springs without also discussing rear springs. It's a matter of ride height.

If Jake is frustrated, that must mean that he has installed lowered springs, dropped the thing off the jackstands, looked back, and said WTF? Same as me. Show me a nicely lowered car and I'll show you a garage with a pile of extra springs laying on the side. Springs are wierd. And it really sux to spend money on springs only to find that you did not achieve the desired ride height. Then your buddies tell you "Don't worry, they'll settle. B.S.!!

Coil springs are easy. Bust out the whiz wheel or chop saw and a bucket of water. But leaf springs? You gotta find someone to de-arch em, put em in, check, remove, de-arch, lowering block. It blows. So DSE came out with a lowered leaf spring especially for cars with 25" tall tires. Nice.

Here's your avatar pic:


I'll tell you what. The car in that picture has DSE 3" springs plus maybe a lowering block (which you won't want or need) and some 2" drop coils with a half a coil removed.
Like I said, springs are wierd. And so am I.

[68protouring454]

once again, kickass post, nice work
jake

[XcYZ]

Yep, I locked that thread. Perhaps it was a little premature, but hey, I'm new at this. lol We all know where negativity leads, and it spreads like the plague. I know to an extent, it's inevitable.

[sinned]

I read the last 2 pages of the thread in question to see what the fuss was about, I'm curious as to why the negativity toward dropped spindles. Properly built they are the single biggest improvement that could be made to the front of a 1st gen camaro.

[XcYZ]

Dennis, it was the comments that Jake and Eric made toward each other that got that thread closed. I was making a statement that I do not care for people making personal attacks towards each other.

[MaxHarvard]

Steve,

While the picture i posted may look lowered it was photochopped by me just to give me an idea of what it may look like. I'm not sure what i'll do with the back when i put the new lowering blocks Scott gave me in, they may look nice or they may look like crap... i wont know until i put them in.

Sorry jake, steve, scott and whoever else was collateral damage there, it just felt as if no one paid attention to what i had asked after about the 3rd or 4th post. The reason that i wont do anything from DSE is the price, i work part time to pay my bills and am a full time graduate student, and on top of that i'm trying to help pay for a wedding coming up here in a bit. Scott has always been nice to me and helped out quite a bit, and for the most part so has everyone here that i've talked to *Cough jim, jody scott cough* i was just confused as to why i asked a specific question i get something completely different. Which is not what i am used to on this site.

~Eric

[68protouring454]

who makes a well built drop spindle for a first gen??? i know the sed's are gonna be nice, but they are also gonna be 500-700 bucks, which is to much for the average street car guy, let us know
jake

[Steve Chryssos]

Originally Posted by MaxHarvard

I wont know until I put them in.
~Eric

Xactly! That's exactly the point. You're there. No more from me on the subject. Now let's talk about you getting married......

[MarkM66]

Great post Steve! That's exactly right.

I went though the same thing when I used Hotckis front coils on my '68. Dropped the car, and thought, wtf? It sat about 2" too high. So I had to cut them.

Lesson learned: Just buy coils with the proper rate, and cut trial and error method.

I was really please with how the Hotchkis rear leafs made the car sit though. I would of liked maybe another 1/2"-1" lower, but with the truck loaded, it would've rubbed.

ps, I've ruined a few sets of coils in the past too, .

[sinned]

I figured that Scott.

I like the hidden adjuster idea more than the cut check.