[54 Chevy]

My 54' Chevy was lowered in the front by its previous abuser by heating up the springs and letting it drop. Well then it was too low so they threw in a few of those twist in spring spacers to get it where it is now. The car drives pretty good but the front end feels pretty loose at high speeds. Though this could just be due to worn out steering parts. These parts and springs will be replaced of coarse. Could lowering a car like this cause a slew of steering problems? Can you do this with lighter rated springs? What springs should I use with a Camaro sub and a 327ci motor?

I think the thing is so low now that I can't run standard 15x6 with 4" backspace wheels without them hitting the fenders. So again, the cars previous abuser, cut the wheel openings to clear the tires. Don't worry I have two fenders just waiting to go back on. When I jack the car up a few inches it looks like the wheels I have would have cleared the orignal wheel openings. Currently the body mount by the drivers door is 7" from the ground near the bolt and 5" near the frame. The car looks great low but I think I need to bring it back up so I can run the tires I want and not hit the original fender openings.

Thanks,
Jim

[johnnymopar]

Jim,

Well doesn't that suck? Some idiots should not be allowed to touch anything!

Because the car was subframed you will have no idea how the stock camaro frontend looked when installed with stock shocks. But i think that is what i would do first. I would take out the coils that are in there now and put in what was stock for the camaro. I would see how the car sits like that and then decide if and how you want to lower the car. Then you can lower the car properly if you have to.

As far as suspension damage, i don't think lowering the car would affect the parts that much, but then again you have no idea how the previous owner drove either. They could have been a real wingnut. If you're going to go to all the trouble of changing fenders and coils, etc. you may as well do the tie-rods and ball joints while you're at it. Then you'll have a nice tight frontend.

JB

[57Chevyman]

If you go to your local parts store you can have them look up the spring for your sub frame in The spring manufacturers book, it should list the springs dimensions and its free and compressed height. You can compare this too what you actualy have and determine what changes you want to make. Imch Spring produces a wide variety of springs in shorter height for lowering. Contact them via e-mail for proper sizing info.

Good Luck

[Centerline]

You have more than just one problem here.

First thing to do is have the front clip checked by an experienced welder to see if it was installed properly and the welds are safe. If the previous owner hacked away at this thing the way you say he did he could easily have butchered the clip installation as well. Always think safety first.

Once you have established the safety of the clip installation simply rebuild the existing components. I would install a set of used springs first so you'll have a better idea how it will sit once the springs have settled. If it sits OK then pick up a new set of springs and use them. They'll sit a little high to begin with but within a couple months they'll settle out about where the used ones were. Springs aren't expensive and there's no reason not to use new ones.

If the front end still sits too high for your taste with everything rebuilt and new springs, you have a couple options. You can go the cheap route and cut a half round (at a time) out of the springs to lower the front end and get the height you want (understanding that the ride will get progressively stiffer the more you cut the springs) or you can purchase a set of dropped spindles. More expensive but the best way to go.

The reason your tires come so close to the fenders is that the Camaro clip is too wide for your car. Not too much you can do about that now. Probably a Nova clip would have been a better choice. Anyway here's what you can do.

First you need to know the stock front-end track of the car originally. Most likely on your car somewhere around 56” but look it up to be sure. Measure your current track width (center of tire to center of tire). If it is wider than the stock measurement (and it probably is) then you need to increase the back spacing of the rims to move the tires inward and decrease the track. As an example, if the stock front end track is 60” and your current track is 65” and your rims have a back spacing of 3” you need to increase the back spacing of each rim to 5 1/2” to get the proper track so you’re tires won’t rub and it will look right. (65-60 = 5”, divided by 2 = 2 1/2” increase on each side. Add that to your current back spacing of 3” = 5 ½” total back spacing required for each rim.) You may not have to go with quite so much back spacing to eliminate the tire-rubbing problem but you get the idea. This is the easiest way I know of to solve this problem.

Good luck.

[ March 05, 2002: Message edited by: Centerline ]</p>