? for those tho have cut coils...

I have't installed mine yet. I cut one full coil off (wanted to be conservative). I'd like to know how many coils you guys cut and how much it lowered your Maverick/Comet...

 

I cut 1 1/2 off of 6 cylinder springs......may have lowered too much IF it was a street car......not sure if it hurt performance yet???? Will find out in a month or so.

But I LIKE the look...........A LOT!

 

Forgot with the new board you could post more than 1 pic with a post.....here is a shot from underneath...for clearance.

 

I cut half a coil (talk about conservative!) off springs from a V8 Mav with big bumpers and A/C. Put them in my small bumpered car with trunk-mounted battery and aluminum intake. When finished the car sat as if there was no engine in it. I ended up putting 6 cyl. springs in it. So for my application half a coil did nothing. Maybe 2 or 2.5 coils would have worked.

Sam

 

Hi Sam,
You never mentionned it; how does your car sits with those 6 cyl. springs? Thanks. John B. (pm you later)

 

TL, is this a street car or a street/strip car or just a strip car? There are other way to lower the front of your car without cutting the springs but it is more suited for a car that wants to launch it's best at the track!

 

Nice lowering springs can be bought new for a very reasonable price. Unless you're running 6 cylinder springs for weight transfer at the strip, not sure why anybody would do this.

 

When you are driving at speed and hit any sort of bump, pay attention to the steering. If it feels "twitchy", then you will probably need to install a bump steer eliminator kit from any Mustang shop. The reason is the the control arms are designed to be within a certain arc of motion to perform properly. Your arms are already level or slightly up, which is at the extreme of the designed specs to start with. That means that when the arms move upwards further, the tires will develope a toe out situation which makes for a very scary ride. The bump steer kit will restore the steering geometry with a car that has been drastically lowered.

 

Coil cutting

I cut my coils on my 1972 maverick grabber w/ 302. i put a compressor on them and took a torch to it in the shock towers. i cut 1 full coil off and that lowered it approx. 2 1/2 inches when it was all said and done. at first it only set about 1 inch lower but after 2 days of setting with the weight of the engine and car it went on down. but these were brand new springs from PST. when i installed them the car sit horribly too high. and since i put the money into new springs and no one around here would cut them for a decent price i did it myself. i just sprayed them down with water after i was done!!!! everyone said dont do it because it'll hurt the tension on the spring and make it go flat...... no it didnt ...it worked just fine, i am happy with the stance now, and she's stiff as a board. also the performance of them works great but i also installed a PST polygraphite front end kit to so it's stiff all the way around. ok bye.

 

I've lowered my car and have never had a problem with bump steer....even with the tires 1-2 feet off the ground, no bumpsteer when it lands....I'd say that a GOOD alignment shop would be able to get out most bumpsteer.....although, if your bushings/ball joints are shot you may not be able to get the bumpsteer out unless you replace all that stuff....


Uncontrolled heating of the spring is not a good way to lower the car, however there is a way to use controlled heat to lower a car.....

If it were a street car or a autocross car I would suggest a good set of custom springs from eibach or one of the other reputable companies. If it's a drag car and you need to lower the front, take a set of 6cyl springs and compress them to complete coil bind (before you do all this you need to take some baseline measurements on the ride height of the car and the height of the spring). Place the compressed spring in the oven (caution:might make wife very angry ) at about 350-400 deg., leave it in there for about 5 - 10 minutes, remove the spring and check the height or install back in the car and check ride height again.......if that doesn't get it low enough repeat the process......

The above process was taken from Dave Morgan's book "Doorslammers:The Chassis Book" and it works!!

 

John: My car sits fine with the 6 cyl springs. It's a tad lower than stock but not down in the weeds either. I have no problems with handling, and I've been happy with the result for several years now. I'll take a measurement later on if you're interested in some hard numbers.

Looking forward to your PM.

Sam

 

I cut one full coil off my original V8 springs to get it back down close to the original height after removing a bunch of weight in the front. I ditched the power steering for manual, added aluminum intake, hood pins, moved battery to trunk, headers, and removed underhood support grid. I guess this was in excess of 100 lbs off the front? Here is the after picture but the distance between the tire and fender is very similar to when I first started on the car. I haven't noticed any significant difference in the steering of feel.

Also, I used a thin zizz wheel on my angle grinder to cut them off. Just about as fast as a torch, but doesnt affect any heat treating .

Cleaver

 

I've had a V8 w/6 cyl. springs for over 30 years now, no problems.


I've lowered springs with a torch only because at the time I didn't have a cut-off wheel. Sat the spring in a bucket of water with just the top coil I was cutting sticking out. Seemed to work, but I wouldn't do it that way again unless absolutely necessary.

 

Thanks to all for the replies.

Here's the deal on mine: It's pretty much a street car which may see an occasional trip to the drag strip. Definitely not a race car. More like a musclecar.
My car is a V-8 with A/C. THe springs I cut a coil from are V-8 springs. The only weight reduction up front is an aluminum intake manifold, the rest is pretty much stock. Originally, I had no intention of lowering the front, but the new 4-leaf rear springs did NOT raise the rear of the car like everyone said they would. They appear to sit right at stock height. Well I like a slight rake so I decided to cut this extra set of front springs I have and then swap them in. I also am hoping it will improve handling a little, since cutting coils increases the effective spring rate. So I am just wondering what to expect. I don't need the front to drop much, but a little would be nice. Really don't want to spend the $$$ for Eibachs or something like that...

 

If you want the rake look....try air shocks.




sorry...just had to do it.