The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Lowering ideas - cheap?

I am wanting to lower my '59 1/2 ton panel. Is there a good way to do that with out having to buy the expensive air bag system and IFS front end? Thanks....

If you are doing the work yourself, I suppose a camaro or nova front frame clip is the easiest for an upgrade. I'm not sure if they make a dropped spindle for a straight axle. GUYS?

fill it up with concrete.

you are laughing and pointing... well, it's been done before.

Take the wheels off?
Jerry

get out the torch and melt springs, not the best way but is cheap

Cheap, is reletive. What is cheap for you may be too much for the next guy.

Least expensive, remove some of the leafs in the springs. The next step up would be monos or duel leaf springs, or lowering springs, starting at about $400 an axle.

If you are a good fabricator, you could probably clip it for less, that is if you had a good "cheap" source for your clip. You would still have to do something to the rear to lower it. Fliping the rear axle will lower the rear about 5 to 6 inches. I don't remember the frame clearence on the 59, so that could be a problem.

With good engineering anything can be overcome.

Put real dinky *** tires on it, and run 'em under inflated.

lowering blocks for the rear,,removing some leaves or installing mono-leaf springs in the front. dont get much cheaper than that.

On the rear end, the leaf springs are on top of the axel housing. It looks like the axel could go on top and lose 5" or so. With a block, I could probably get another inch or so. That doesn't look like much of a problem.

On the front, it's somewhat the same kind of setup. The leaf springs are on top of the axel. They could go under the axel as in the back and lose about 4" or 5" with a block. They would have to go low enough to not interfere with the travel of the steering mechanism. There would have to be some adjusting in the steering linkage after it comes out of the box to accomodate the drop.

It would obviously take, different shocks and it would probably affect the drive shaft.

Has anybody tried this?

I tried the concrete idea and it froze before it set up. Not enough calcium chloride. That blew out my tires, so now I've got a good handle on the final height I want it to sit at. It's just not a roller anymore. I thought of the dinky tires, but I didn't want it to get confused with some of these little bumble bees buzzing around here with the gold wire wheels.

Any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks....

Flipping the axle shouldnt be a problem. It also shouldnt be enough to effect the driveline unless your going more then a few inches. Im not sure about the front though??? Your gonna have to watch out for clearence issues and maybe run smaller tires to fit. Measure lots. Shocks will probably need to be swapped with smaller depending on the differences. Also you could get air shocks and fill to your liking. Im not sure but you may run into problems on the front with the steering arm??? Again measure lots. Good luck and let us know what you decide. Also get the front end aligned after lowering itll save you a lot of money on tires!

Thanks everyone for your comments. It will give me a lot to contemplate this winter.

if you put the front axle on top of the springs,is there a flat,machined surface there for the springs to seat in? no. are you going to grind that area smooth? weld a flat piece there?
In my panel i put a 4" MOR-DROP front axle and ended up with a few probs.,,,had to turn the tie rod upside down,heat and bend some pieces,etc...
on my pick up i went with mono-leafs in the front and 4" lowering blocks in the rear. sits just right!! basically,,unless youre set up with a machine shop at your disposal,its not a weekend job.

Just take some spring leaves out all the way around.Bout as cheap as it gets.

In the 50's we just melted the springs. Did'nt do much for the ride but it looked good. At least we thought so.

I put a set of mono-leafs on the front of my '53 3100, it rode stiff and only dropped about 2". I took them to my local spring shop and they de-arched another 2" into them. The truck rides much better, looks better, and no other mods were necessary.

How much does reversing the spring eyes lower a vehicle?
What is the cost on that?

Thanks.

Take a look at this post over on the HAMB.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90824

If the eyes are reversed, there will be clearance problems with the spring mounts. Some trimming will need to be done to allow for the main leaf now being above the bolt center.

Thanks Lonnie,
Thats a real good tech tip.

Been there done that on my 552
Removed three leafs on each side .
was tooo much !..after settling ..broke a shock put short shocks on bottoms out bad .. put them all back in.. had to get new u bolts from chevy duty . due to the type it uses with springs over rear .
now i know not to try that any more !!!!!