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My ‘54 3100 (modified) was a victim of some very awful hack job work in Iowa before I rescued it. Today the last example of Iowa ugly was excised - I replaced the front coil springs. That job has been put off till now because it is a nasty undertaking.
Drive train is ‘70 Camaro. Apparently some good ol’boys heated the springs to lower the front end ; obviously their efforts were hindered by limited access , resulting in rather uneven results.

Or am I rushing to judgment?

That looks like a traditional rosebud lowering job to me.

Good riddance, I say.

Rosebud lowering job –- I am not familiar with that phrase.
Is that a reference to the localized grouping of red hot coil sections?

That is what everyone called it when I was in high school. Probably not a technical term and it is entirely possible that no one from anywhere other than nowhere Alaska has ever heard of it.

The name come from using a rosebud torch to heat up whatever part of the spring you can reach until the suspension sags to the height you want.

Cheap (especially if you sneak into the shop classroom and use the school's acetylene), easy, and fast. Ruins the ride, but "works". It was not terribly uncommon to have someone to get a spring too hot doing that and have it break and spit chunks out a week or two later.

A rosebud tip is one of several style interchangeable tips for oxy-acetylene torch handles.

Ruins the ride , you say᠁
I put some miles on after leaving the shop yesterday- significant ride improvement! Very positive feeling.

Unsurprisingly, the front end came up about 1 1/4” , resulting in a near level stance. I plan to swap rear leaf shackles to re-establish the former stance which was slightly down at the bow, up at the stern. Shouldn’t be too difficult as the current shackles are fairly new and free of corrosion.

Any input on that procedure , simple though it appears, would be appreciated.

Somebody did that lowering job to my '98 C3500. Left the front lowered unevenly and just wrecked a pair of 1" diameter coil springs. Ride was horrible with suspension banging away at the frame. Took me a while to find another OEM pair.

I would like to say , for the record, that my disparaging remarks about Iowa were intended to refer specifically and only to the guys who did such horrible things to my truck prior to my acquisition. They were the worst of the worst.

In a broader sense, I have relatives in MacGregor on the Mississippi; they are salt of the Earth type good people, and MacGregor is a beautiful rustic community.
Limestone cliffs overlooking the river, soaring eagles , God’s country.

Bubba-hackers can be found in every state in the Union. Mine happened to be in Iowa. The morphodite they created is now a sweet running solid driver.

See now you`ll have to explain "Bubba Hackers" to all the Bubbas out there.
I did not get anything disparaging about Iowa. Just the truck from...

᠁My truck originated on the planet Krypton.
This last survivor of the doomed planet was damaged upon crash landing on Earth. No one is to blame.

Bubba and Iowa were elements of my cover story.
It’s time for the truth.

My brother used heating of rear springs to lower his Mercury back in the late 50s, it didn't survive a trip over a rough railroad crossing.

When my son was about 6, he came up to me while I was working on some vehicle and asked me who bubba was and why I let him work on almost everything in my shop.

I had to explain that "bubba" was anyone who did poor quality work on it, which sometimes included me.

He was still pretty confused.

I should have left it at “good old boys”.
I suppose there’s can of worms to be had there too.

I have heard and used the term bubba for 35+ years and I have never heard of it being used that way.

Thats right.

I was considering making reference to the likely consumption of copious amounts of Busch Lite while those springs were being torched.
Glad I didn’t.