I want to lower it quite a bit. I am not going to buy drop spindles or anything else if I can help it - going low budget here. I conducted a search, and found that I can cut the front springs, but not the rear. I am shooting for 2 - 3 inches lower than stock. Questions: 1. Will this affect my shock absorbers? I am thinking I may need different shocks, but don't want to buy different ones if my existing will suffice. 2. Are there other factory springs that are shorter than my existing stock springs which will fit in my rear spring perches that I can buy cheap at a junkyard and swap out to lower my rear? If not, I am just going to use old school JC Whitney style clamps to compress and lower the rear springs. Also, what other components might this lowering affect? Any advice or ideas will be greatly appreciated, I have replaced shocks before, but have never removed or dealt with coil springs. Thanx!
Your asking a tough question to lower the wagon correctly you need to do it with expensive parts (air ride tech) or correct drop spindles. I have heard you can use later model spindles from a big car that drops the car some. In the rear maybe go to a spring shop and see what they can make for you. If you do this your ride qualkity goes away So unless someone knows a secret your better off just going with bigger tire/wheel combo
John, I am going more for show than go on this one. It's the wagon I bought for $300 and was going to part out. The kid I bought it from ripped out the headliner and seats and she was pretty beat up and left for dead. It's not a low mile car or anything unique, so I'm kind of just going rat-rod style on this one. I'm going to paint it Matte black, bucket seats, and lower it just for cruising short trips a couple times a month. I was just going to flip it, but got waaaay to carried away in my engine compartment detail and brake restoration, and did lot's of body work so far. Just about every panel was dented, and the kid even pried the door open with a crowbar (see pics, before and during my repair, almost done with it, will post a pic of final door repair when finished). Most people would have just replaced the door, but I am cheap skate so I am fixing all the body work myself and not spending any money on panels. I should probably end up with less than a quart of bondo on the whole car by the time I'm done. I pull any part that I need to fix and hammer and dolly until dent is almost gone. I think I'll keep it for awhile. I'm not in love with it, and would eventually like to sell it to help pay for my 71 convertible restoration, which I will spend my money on and do correctly, so I don't want to put too much money into this wagon. Time and tools is what I have, more than money, so I am doing clean up and appearance tricks to freshen her up........
low buck? Old school was to heat the springs with a torch and let them sag to where you want them - doesn't do much for the spring but it is cheap! - Bill
Hi Bill. I think I'm gonna keep the torch away from the springs for now! Other than that, I think the JC Whitney spring clamps are about as cheap as I can get. I still would like to know of any other springs that are shorter and I can buy at a junk yard to replace my stock rears with........
Kurt, if you had wanted to do body work on a sportwagon you could have worked on mine. jeese. I plan on doing either lowing springs or going nuts and doing an air ride on my wagon. Tim
I had wagon springs in the rear of my GS for a while. It sat with the tires fully exposed in the wheel well. With the stock springs back in, it sits with several inches of the tire in the wheel well. So, I'd try some stock non-wagon springs since you don't care about spring rates and such, just asthetics.
Kurt, I'm as much of an "Old Schooler" as you, but painting that car Matte Black without a headliner or insulation??? ou: Do you know how hot it will be in Tucson in July? => :af: If you have to paint it Black, do so on the bottom and Silver Lace on the roof. If not, you'll hate yourself in the morning. (If you lived in Wisconsin it might be different.):Smarty: Allright, I'll quit sounding like a "Dad".
take that thing out to S.I.R next friday (the 10th) im pretty sure imma be out there with my yellow/ black vinyl top 72 skylark "350" and tim (old pueblo) might be bringin his 70 skylark (metallic copper/ orange w/ black gsx stripes) out also. we will see what happens. or maybe ill take the grand national again and try to diagnose whats its problem is. from the pics it looks like you might live on the east side anyway. buickbert
Torching springs = bad. If you're going to cut coils, start with no more than 1/2 turn on a coil at a time. Use a 4 or 5" cut-off wheel on an angle grinder or a chop-saw. You can then reinstall the coil, reconnect everything and check the ride height. You may have to do this more than once. The biggest thing you'er going to run into is that your alignment is going to go way out of whack. Your upper A-Arms are probably going to need offset pivot shafts (Moog makes these but I don't know the part number) or longer bolts and a lot of shims. I lowered my car 2 inches cutting coils, and ended up using the Moog offset shafts and only have two shims behind each bolt after the alignment. As for rear springs, try going with something like a mid-80s wagon (malibu, lemans, etc) and use them. I used 79 LeMans rear springs on my Skylark and it lowered the rear about 1-1/2 or 2 inches and they were progressive-rate springs. As for shocks, I simply bolted the old shocks back in. I'd stay away from the torch though. The heat totally changes the metal's properties.
