:TU: :TU: :TU: I LIKE it !! Its Very similar to mine Thers the Raked look, which I think we both have, and the "Jacked in the Back" look....which I think everyone agree's is a bit silly - I dont think yours looks "Jacked" at all When I BigBlocked my car and needed new springs, I started with the front - I located a set of stock 70 S1 front springs that had very little mileage and were shelved for years and installed them. Then I went to the local spring shop for the rear.....told them I wanted a some rake to it. they were great and worked with me - we tried 4 different sets of springs in the rear - I measured each time from the rocker right behind the front wheel to the ground and the rocker just infront of the rear wheel to the ground looking for ~ 1 inch higher in the rear.....we finally found a set that gave me The Look I like to see about half the tire in the rear Here's a pic of BigRed next to MaroonGoon (stock 30+ year old suspension) you can get the idea of how much a difference there is You may find, once you do the fronts, that you loose the look in the rears and might have to change it aliitle again.....springs are about the cheapest thing you can do though o No: Very Glad for you that you've finally got your ride out of hibernation :TU: :beer :TU:
Ours are pretty close Alan, I would say I'm showing about an inch more of the tire than you. I'm hoping for a bit of settling over the next year or so. I think your measurement of an inch difference at the rocker level is about what I would like, I've got 2 full inches difference now. 13" just in front of the rear wheel. Now I need to find a speed display to find out just how much more my speedo is off with 15's... I agree with your view of raked vs jacked. I think I'm borderline now.
What a difference going from 14's to 15's eh? It definately changes the way a car looks. Nice looking car!:TU:
Yes, they do make a big difference in appearance. I also went from 235's to 245's. I love the wider tire.
I think for our 68/69'd the biggest difference from 14's to 15's makes is in the front wheel well - fills it up quite a bit more The rears on our car dont show the difference as much as the 70-72's with our rear wheel well coming down and across as opposed to just a rounded look BTW, I've had 275's on stock wheels fit but just barely under the rear end .....the ofset has to be the 4 3/4" ones though
I like that look and since the springs will settle and sag a little sometime in the future, I'd keep them.
The 245's are a fairly tight fit in the rear, my wheels are 4 1/4 backspacing. My tailpipes seem to run closer to the rear tires than they should. Looks like someone had pretty wide tires on at one time, there's rub marks on the pipes... I wouldn't mind fatter rear tires, but it will also be nice to be able to rotate with the front.
Well, I've decided I'm sacrificing too much ride quality with the rear so high, and the much larger diameter rod is giving much too stiff of a ride on our lumpy, bumpy Fargo roads. Planning on putting the old springs back on for now, and see how the ride height looks, now that I've got 15" rims/tires on the car. I would really like a compromise between stock, and what these cargo coils are giving me though...
alright dave! i think with the taller tires you will like the look of a more "stock" stance anyway.:TU:
Yeah, I did say early on that the rear was a little higher than my preference. I still like the look better than totally stock height, but too much ride quality was lost. It would be nice to experiment more, but I'm not spending on new springs at this point. I suspect the old ones will be fine. I was pretty surprised at how much worse the ride was with these springs, since I do have new kyb's all around. Maybe I'll swap again this weekend, since I'm driving it out to Mpls/St.Paul in a few weeks.
ya know, i have a couple of cousins....... but seriously, before you go abandoning your new springs, is there a big discrepency in size from these to your old springs? i dont know the cost of doing so is, but you could just take your old springs down and have them "adjusted" at a a suspension shop. a good torch man should know the proper way to heat up your springs to get the right tension and extra lift you really want [or you could do the reverse to the new springs, same process]. another problem could be that your front springs are too soft and you are just not riding on a well balanced suspension. that and your new shocks and bars are probably making the car 'feel' wrong. i guess what i am getting at is that , like any other system, when you start making changes to your ride, you end up redoing the whole thing eventually. next will be urathane [sp?] bushings, frame gusseting, body to frame spacers, hydraulics..... ou:
yes, the "new" springs were significantly taller and larger diameter wire than the old ones. I wrote the specs down somewhere... I think they are about 2.5" taller, and very noticeably larger diameter wire, so are much stiffer. I kind of figured they would give me more height than I would really like, but they were almost free so I gave them a try. I thought about waiting until after I had the 15's installed, but the opportunity to swap was there so I did it. I'm not giving up on the new springs, just gonna see how the old ones stand up in combination with the other changes I made. I'll probably need new front springs, but with a 455 coming eventually, I'm waiting on that expense until that happens. Not sure I want to put 455 springs in with a 350 still in the car.
David, looks great, and I think it will settle some, but don't get to ambitious changing it until it does. Think of it this way, you don't have the bend over quite as far to clean and dry the bumper this way!:moonu: :beer :bglasses: :laugh: :laugh:
Roberta, I just don't think the springs will settle enough to make a lot of difference. The ride quality is really bad on our rotten roads. On a smooth stretch of interstate, it's fine, but otherwise stinks. The 3+ inches it is higher, has also taken away that much travel in the new kybs, which can't be good either. Tentative plan is to swap the old ones in this weekend, it's not a big job. If I'm driving it 4hrs to Mpls in a couple weeks, and maybe to Salem, it ain't going as-is.
Looks very good Dave. I too have just put in all new springs, heavy front and rear sway bars , new shocks, boxed the rear arms and new control arm bushings at both ends. I kept the 14x6 stock rims, but new tires. Still don't have mine going yet though, maybe soon. Have to finish putting the motor back together, then put on the new top, then put the interior back in:eek2: Still much work to be done. I hope mine turns out near as good as yours, although that will take a few years. Mine needs a paint job too, but not until maybe this winter. Lots of luck with your "new" ride.:Brow: Dan:3gears:
You could put the stock springs back and then take out the spacers from the front to lower it. Instant rake with the rear ride height you want.
Yeah, I've been wanting to remove the spacers, just have to find the time. Will do so if I can get to the rear spring swap Saturday.
Chris Hey Chris do you know if those are 16's or 17 inch wheels in the photo you posted of the 68 GS?? Great looking car! :bglasses:
