Thread: Everybody that is currently building a car...

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lt1s10, In the range of a 2" drop I don't see any disagreement except the discussion is about comparing apples to oranges. More to my experience, a reversed eye main leaf on a transverse spring and removing one or two of the upper short leaves will still only get 1 1/2" to 2" drop anyway, so a 2" drop with a coil spring looks fine to me and easy to do the way you describe it. In my chat with riverhorse59 he mentioned a more severe drop of maybe 5" on a '50 Ford front end and he experienced a very hard ride using the heating method. From what I can figure out his more extreme drop probably resulted in coil-on-coil contact spring bind and he remembers that as something he does not recommend, so in extreme drops of say 5" I would expect cutting the coils would be better but for the 2" drop you mention I see no problem using the heating method. As I say a 2" drop on a transverse spring would be impressive so a 5" drop is extreme in my book unless your name is Barris. I am not sure what the disagreement is between you and riverhorse59, but it seems to me you are both right but talking about different things and I am going back to my buggy spring!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Originally posted by riverhorse59
Pro, Mikes position doesnt suprize me one bit. Yours does.

I only did It once to the ol' Ford Galaxie back in the 70's. But it worked fine for me too. I drove the car for years after I lowered it and liked the ride. Like Mike said it was a little stiffer, but it looked kewl. I only heated the bottom coil and I suspect the damaging affects of the heat only traveled maybe an 1" or so from the spot I heated. The majority of the spring never got hot at all, so there was no damaging effects to all but that small area of the spring. If I had heated the whole spring I can see where that would be a big no no.

And it was just an ol' Galaxie ''daily driver'' anyway...... Wouldn't have been a big loss if it hadn't worked out.

O.K. ......... O.K. ................. It was my wife's car before we were married ............... so I sorta' inherited it. HEHEHE I put a kewl custom paint job on it. Mural on the truck lid. "Acetylene smoked design" panels between the double chrome trim down the sides. I have pics. someplace but can't seem to find 'em right now.

Originally posted by Don Shillady
lt1s10, In the range of a 2" drop I don't see any disagreement except the discussion is about comparing apples to oranges. More to my experience, a reversed eye main leaf on a transverse spring and removing one or two of the upper short leaves will still only get 1 1/2" to 2" drop anyway, so a 2" drop with a coil spring looks fine to me and easy to do the way you describe it. In my chat with riverhorse59 he mentioned a more severe drop of maybe 5" on a '50 Ford front end and he experienced a very hard ride using the heating method. From what I can figure out his more extreme drop probably resulted in coil-on-coil contact spring bind and he remembers that as something he does not recommend, so in extreme drops of say 5" I would expect cutting the coils would be better but for the 2" drop you mention I see no problem using the heating method. As I say a 2" drop on a transverse spring would be impressive so a 5" drop is extreme in my book unless your name is Barris. I am not sure what the disagreement is between you and riverhorse59, but it seems to me you are both right but talking about different things and I am going back to my buggy spring!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

thanks don and pro 70, i dont know what riverhours is talking about, about 2 " is all i ever drop anything with heat on a factory spring, but i think if the spring was tail enough you could lower it 5" and still use it if you wanted to. it would depend on how long the spring was. why would you heat a spring untill all of the coils touched? dont make no sense to me. if you heat the spring where you wont it to go down to and with 2000 lbs. of weight on it ,it dont take but a little heat to make it collapse. what are we talking about riverhorse?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by lt1s10
what are we talking about riverhorse?

Have You noticed I have stayed away from this all night? I was hoping that Tech or one of you computer experts would know exactly where to go to resolve this little debate. so I would not have to struggle to find the info that some of you can proberly find in 10 minutes.

As I told You guys this afternoon that I had spoken to the technical department of HOTCHKIS Performance and what they said about not heating springs. I could or any of you can look in Jegs, Summit, Super Chevy,Hot Rod and others and come up with the names of 10 to 20 performance spring companys. Im willing to bet non of them suggest that you heat any spring anywhere.

I never said any of You or Mike could not heat your springs to lower your car. I do say thats not the proper way to do it.

I normally call Mike every night. He always takes this stuff seriously so most nights Im trying to calm him down because someone has dissagreed with him. He gets so worked up Im afraid he's going to have a heart attack.

I dont know why he wants to keep pushing me tonight, So Mike, Use Your oxygen, Take a pill, And Relax!

It wont do any good to call any of these performance companys because , He doesn't want to hear it from me, no engineers or scientist and he doesn't want to hear it from them either.

Heck! If he got a call from Heaven saying Mike You're wrong. He 'd say, I've been doing it this way for 40 years. Dont tell Me Im wrong , I'm never wrong.

Nite Mike ! Take a pill Dont be ugly, S M I L E

[QUOTE]Originally posted by riverhorse59

Originally posted by lt1s10
what are we talking about riverhorse?

Have You noticed I have stayed away from this all night? I was hoping that Tech or one of you computer experts would know exactly where to go to resolve this little debate. so I would not have to struggle to find the info that some of you can proberly find in 10 minutes.

As I told You guys this afternoon that I had spoken to the technical department of HOTCHKIS Performance and what they said about not heating springs. I could or any of you can look in Jegs, Summit, Super Chevy,Hot Rod and others and come up with the names of 10 to 20 performance spring companys. Im willing to bet non of them suggest that you heat any spring anywhere.

I never said any of You or Mike could not heat your springs to lower your car. I do say thats not the proper way to do it.

I normally call Mike every night. He always takes this stuff seriously so most nights Im trying to calm him down because someone has dissagreed with him. He gets so worked up Im afraid he's going to have a heart attack.

I dont know why he wants to keep pushing me tonight, So Mike, Use Your oxygen, Take a pill, And Relax!

It wont do any good to call any of these performance companys because , He doesn't want to hear it from me, no engineers or scientist and he doesn't want to hear it from them either.

Heck! If he got a call from Heaven saying Mike You're wrong. He 'd say, I've been doing it this way for 40 years. Dont tell Me Im wrong , I'm never wrong.

Nite Mike ! Take a pill Dont be ugly, S M I L E

i dont know where this is comng from, i didnt start this. ive heated and cut springs all my life depending what i needed and im sure not gonna stop now. i dont care who says so . denny gave you a spring co. that said you could heat the springs if you wonted to. you dont under stand how we we're doing it or you would under stand its not hurting anything. like i say ive done 23-30 of them in the last 40 yrs (and thats the only way i know to let you know ive do that many)so im gonna stop now? ive all ways been told not to heat springs, but 1/2 of everything i do some body says you cant do it. if we did every thing that GM and new parts places told us we wont suppose to do then the inderpendent shops would be out of bus. ill waite untill in the morning for you to say you sorry, you might need to call tonight before i have another heart attack.

just got off the ph. with riverhorse and he ask me to admit to the world that the right and proper way to lower a car was to buy droped spindles and shorter springs, or pull the old springs out of the car and cut them and the only reason i heated my springs was because i was to lazy to take the time to do it right. so there now you know. he didnt tell me i couldnt tell you what im gonna do next time though. what do you think? now i can sleep tonight.

Originally posted by techinspector1
With the exception of information that is given out on this forum, NOTHING IS FOR FREE.

And the corollary is it's worth exactly what's paid!

You could also weld a pipe to the front end and fill it with lead shot. OR swap the front wheels for 13's. OR .............................. o.k. ......................... I'll shut-up know. HEHEHE

Originally posted by DennyW
I've got 8" of room. I heated and dropped it to 6". Now, I'm welding in some 1 1/2" steel bars that limit my downward move to 5".
Wow Bob, I had to look that word up, hahaha. Corollary: Deduction from a proposition already proved true. 2. consequence, Result. Hummm.

So, I guess that means it can go either way.

i took it to means we should be paying somebody to take our free advice.

Originally posted by lt1s10
i took it to means we should be paying somebody to take our free advice.

50 bux ................. that's as high as I'll go ................... and no a shilling less.

O.K. ...........O.K......................... $52.67. That's the best I can do............

Originally posted by pro70z28
O.K. ...........O.K......................... $52.67. That's the best I can do............

ill take it

Check iz' in the mail .............. Don't cash it right away tho.

hehe haven't been on in a good long while...

but just caught this thread...
welp.... i'm still workin' on the corvette (1972 corvette coupe) and i've just bought my new tires, and i got the new wheels on it...
here's a couple of pics...



now i've since lowered the back about 4"
and i'm preparing to lower the front...
then i'll be pulling the engine, and trans... and getting the car into primer...

then re-build the engine and trade the TH400 trans for a 700-R4 O/D trans...

then hopfully get it done for summer 2006... it's gettin there all i need now is time...


i'll post new pics as soon as i can get'em

ok.......ok..........$55.00!!!! I can't really put a number on the help I have gotten from all of you. I am a little freaked out by the intensity this discussion has gotten too. I simply wanted to lower our shop truck!! I swear I will never mention it again!! HeHeHe!!

I agree with you tech, there is always a catch with parts manufacturers, and to their benifit. I personal love the wrecking yards and the shade tree habits that I have developed over the years, besides anyone can build a car out of a catalog, it takes ingenuity to build one out of a pile of rusted parts!!

Thanks guys and I hope that I haven't made anyone mad.

Nice car Truck, looking good!