Would be alright if I cut part of a coil out of my springs to lower the car a bit? Lowering springs are actually just shorter(less tall) but stiffer springs than stock correct? The springs are pretty much new in the front and the back and the car sits higher than I would like.

How much would you suggest/guess/know I take out to lower the car about an 1inch on the front and 1.5 inches out back?
The front has V8 springs and the rear has the factory V6 springs. Both sets are fairly new and are not sagging.

Thanks & Rock Out

 

Yes its o.k but you had better have a GOOD set of roadrace shocks that have very high rebound dampen to control the faster recoil fequency of the cut springs-- otherwise you will go dong, dong, dong, down the road. If components are married properly, then there is nothing wrong with trimming springs.

 

I heard you aren't supposed to use torches to cut the springs, the heat changes the spring rates.

 

A guy I knew said to cut them with a hacksaw under water to keep the spring cool... seems excessive to me, but hey, whatever. One thing to consider; it's a pain getting those front springs out and back in. What if you cut 'em and decide later that you want to put lowering springs on? Then you've gotta do all the work over again.

 

yeah use a cutting wheel. i cut my front springs and everything has been fine for about a year now.

 

A torch is fine, if you know how to use a torch. A few seconds of cutting and you will put a minimum amout of heat in the spring, not effecting it at all. IMO, this myth comes from the old school(incorrect) way of lowering using a torch. Heat the spring(still in the car) and have a buddy push down on the fender--keep doing it until the spring is the correct height.
Drop springs aren't always shorter or stiffer, however most of them are. Cutting very much of a spring off, usually ends up yielding a lowered car with a really stiff spring rate. How much to cut for a 1/1.5 drop will be a guess. For around a hundred bucks you can get a set of drop springs on e-bay.

 

get the dropzone springs from ebay, $120 shipped and they work great, if you have the loot too get kyb struts $50 bucks a piece at the chain auto stores. I did this and it lowered it but its not that much stiffer than stock, it just makes it easier to go fast on bumpy roads

 

I cut a little over 1/2 coil off the front and 3/4 coil off the rear and it gave me a full 1" drop front and just a little over 1" in the rear. With ORIGINAL 180,000 mile front struts and cheapie rear shocks the car rides fine. Cutting springs is safe even with a torch. In fact, Thirdgen suspension expert Herb Adams actually recommends it!

Removing the springs in the front is easier than the rear. Support the A-arm and just remove two bolts...

 

Marc, thanks a lot man. That is exactly what I wanted to hear.

Im going to do what you did now.

 

I dunno about that... I can drop my rear springs out in a couple minutes.

 

You know what IS hard...to put springs in with no motor in the car. I had so many sand bags, SBC heads, cranks, intakes, all kinds of crap jsut to get enough weight piled on the fender to get them back in.

 

ROFLMBO yes! I've been there, installing springs w/o the engine is the biggest PITA I can think of. I piled a bunch of weight in the engine bay and had a fat neighbor get in and still had problems. Never again w/o a spring compressor. Doing it with the engine is a piece of cake. You can cut those springs with a hi-speed cut off wheel, takes only a couple of minutes and doesn't build much heat. (some times known as "the death wheel" once the guard is removed).

 

LOL..death wheel

 

but there is a few downfalls to doing it

it makes the spring rate really high

if you do heat up the spring enough you can change the spring rate even further.

you can make the car a handling pig.
more then likly whats going to happen is your car is going to have massive amounts of oversteer.

chances are the spring rates left/right aren't going to be all that great and off by a bit
that would make handling even more of a tricky subject.

your shocks are going to hate you. and the right can be stiffer then crazy.
no offence to any hispanics here. but those ride typicaly called beaner mobiles. you know the old not so great looking caddy/buick/olds or some other larger car that has been lowered.
know the bounce/jar and all that
some of the times that is caused by cutting the springs or some other form of lowering it without using the right set of springs



sure it might work

but you would just be better off getting a matching set of springs front and rear

 

Yeah everybody here told me the same thing when I asked about doing it. Everybody was wrong. There were no ill effects on my car - even on ORIGINAL front struts.

Stiffer rate? Not much. Nowhere near as harsh as my coworkers 85 IROC with Eibachs in it...

And the bouncing thing your seeing on older cars, that's 100% due to worn shocks, and NOT the springs.

As long as you don't heat the springs in the car and sag the springs you're OK.

 

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