Well, new leaf springs did absolutely no good. The rear end of my '67 Coupe still sits too low. I have 15" tires & rims - I think there should be a little clearance between the tire and wheel opening.

Aussie66Fastback gave me a suggestion:

This weekend, I'm going to put the car in the street in front of my house. Then I'll put 2 floor jacks under the car and lift it a little (from the frame just ahead of the leaf spring). I'll lift it until I like the stance, then measure how much lift I need. I'll shoot pics to take to the spring shop.

I've been told raising the rear will lower the front a little. I'm expecting this to NOT be the case when I jack it up (at least not as much as if it were the springs doing the lifting). But still, I should get a pretty good idea of how much I need to re-arc the leaf springs.

I know the front looks like it needs to be lowered. But I'm more concerned about getting the rear up where I think it should be. Later I'll address the front. I bought the car like this - perhaps the previous owner but big block springs on the front (he did something because you can tell that stuff isn't original). The car has KYB shocks on it, but I have no idea how old the are. I do know there's no bouncie-bounce when pushing down on the corners of the car, so I feel the shocks are still working fine.

Here's how the car looks now:

 

I can't see the picture. But I notice you are in Houston, there is a spring shop downtown that can take care of any spring issues for you. It's called Suhm and it's on Mckinney. It used to be another name. I used them for some Blazer springs and was pleased. Their phone is 713-224-9293.

 

What leaf springs did you put in the car? (4 leaf? 4.5 leaf? 5leaf? regular eye, mid eye, reverse eye?)
Did you install new shocks with them?

 

Lower the front end......

 

I bought the springs from John's Mustangs. He only sells one type of leaf spring. I've seen threads where people mention different leaf & eye configurations, but John's Mustangs only sells one thing. It's supposed to be a repro of what came on the car from the factory. The item description on my invoice reads:

HEAVY DUTY LEAF SPRINGS - REPRO
65-73 Heavy Duty, 165 lb/in, Repro

As I stated above, the shockswere on the car when I bought it. I have not replaced them. I think they're still working fine, but who knows.

Since you've mentioned shocks..... I've had one person tell me shocks will alter ride height and another tell me they won't. Anybody want to chime in on this one?


I'm fully aware air shocks will adjust ride height, but I DO NOT want to put air shocks or shackle kit on my car to correct the ride height.

 

Don't use air shocks.

One thing to remember...mustangs came from the factory with the rear lower than the front. If you installed replacement front springs of a higher rate it can make the front sit a little higher than stock, and then install stock stock rear leafs it can 'exaserbate' the look. Personally, I would return the springs and then source them from somewhere else. 4.5 leaf regular eye should be fine for what you want. I would also put a new set of standard shocks in for good measure, but that is just me.

 

Gas pressure shocks will increase the ride height slightly. How much depends on the shocks' piston diameter, gas pressure, shock motion ratio, and the stiffness of your springs and their motion ratio. Almost useless trivia: gas pressure shocks also add a lb/in or two to the ride rate.


Norm

 

Worth separate mention is that raising the rear while holding the front at the same ride height will cause a loss of caster from your front alignment specs. One inch up at the rear axle corresponds to just over half a degree, and the OE specs aren't much more than that to begin with.


Norm

 

Thanks for the tip. I was planning on using Heitman Springs on McCarty in East Houston. I've had a couple people recommend them to me.

 

Have another look at the picture (I'll take another picture tonight or tomorrow, maybe you just can't see what's going on). The rear wheel opening is lower than the rear tire. I want the opening higher than the tire. Lowering the front isn't going to make that happen.

I realize the front is higher than it should be, but I highly doubt lowering the front will cause the rear to come upas far as it needs to.

I'm old-school. I like having correct-sized rims with raised white letter tires, not 18" rimsand tires with suchlow profile that you can barely see the rubber. I have no interest in "slamming" the car.