Hi I'm just toying with the idea of lowering my 1949 plymouth. Nothing extreme. How much can you do with just different tires? Then what would you do to the front and back? I saw blocks one time to lower the back, but what would you do to the front? I heard one guy say to cut some of the coil spring off. But how much does what amount of lowering? Plus if you cut some of the front spring off would you still be able to do a good front alignment?
I would suggest to you to join the p15-d24 website. There have been a number of people on that site that have lowered their Plymouths. Not trying to discourage you on this site, as it is a great site, but so is the p15-d24 site and it gets MUCH MORE TRAFFIC than this one.
Good luck and please keep us posted,
Bob
its not a bit hard to type that online in the search engine and get all kinds of answers immediately on upright, spring cuts, spring pocket drops, wheel tire combo's..the formulas are there for tire size..plug in what you think you want and do the compare instatntly...working the formulas, reading the pros and cons of each method will give you a lot better idea of the ins and outs..beside..that is the fun part...working your way through it...
In the "Old Days" we just took a torch to the front springs and added lowering blocks to the rear. Generally speaking, people are a little more safety conscience now so we try to be more safety minded.
There are several company's that make rear springs that will lower a car and provide good ride. I like the ones made by Posie, their Super Glide springs with reverse eye's are great.... I have a set on the rear of my '39 conv.
There are several ways to lower the front end. The more common method is to cut one loop off of the springs, Dropped spindles are also available from after market vendors.
Messing around with tire/wheel size has a lot of disadvantages.... The gear ratio of the older Plyms tends to be very low, changing to smaller tires/wheels will reduce the ratio and thereby cause your engine to run at high RPM's
Whatever you do to lower the car will effect the front end alignment, so you will have to have that corrected after you finish lowering the car....Bill
Footnote!
Why does the p15-d24 site reputedly get more traffic than the Plymbul. Simple..... because some purists think this forum should be limited to dialog strictly pertaining to stock, as made questions/comments, in lieu of simply being helpful and trying to answer a persons question.
I will make book that the majority of the contributors to this forum are owners of highly modified vehicles..... 8)
Quote from: Wm Steed on February 18, 2010, 12:17:08 PM...snip.. Footnote!
Why does the p15-d24 site reputedly get more traffic than the Plymbul. Simple..... because some purists think this forum should be limited to dialog strictly pertaining to stock, as made questions/comments, in lieu of simply being helpful and trying to answer a persons question.
I will make book that the majority of the contributors to this forum are owners of highly modified vehicles..... 8)
It could also be that this forum is a bit slower to respond. I generally hit the load button on my link to it then go off and do other things for a few minutes. Not conducive for posting. (It has been better recently so I think the moderator has improved things, but it is still a bit slower than other forums.)
now i,m not a purist , i modify my cars when i cant access original parts , or for safety reasons , but have those that are questioning the aims of the Plymouth owners club (i,m not a member of the club , just a forum user )taken notice of the first thing that comes up when you log on this site , for those that havent , i,ll repeat it THE OFFICIAL POLICY OF THE PLYMOUTH OWNERS CLUB INC IS TO PROMOTE THE THE CORRECT AND AUTHENTIC RESTORATION OF THE PLYMOUTH BRAND , AND TO DISCOURAGE ANY ACTIVITYS , IDEAS PHILOSIPHIES CONTRARY TO THOSE AIMS . further on you are suposed to click on , i understand , or i dont understand , it couldnt be clearer than that .