Rear Leaf Springs?

Like a number of guys, I grew up with hot rods having a raised back end, even to the point of oddity. While I am not to the point I need it raised up a foot or so, I do wish my ride to gro from level and perhaps even have a rake with the rear higher than the front. My leaf springs have JCW "helpers" on it now and it is just level. Once I pull them off, I am sure it will sink some in the rear...:-/ I know I need to either replace my leafs or have them re-arched. Given, the price of new would be about the same as the labor to remove, re-arch, and reinstall, I plan to simply replace them. I would think that new would be better than 40 yr old springs that were rebent and tend to not hold their "curvature" as long?

Has anybody else replaced leaf springs and noticed an "rise" in the rear or have vintage leafs rearched? While I have them off, will likely replace rear shocks at the same time (currenly have air shocks installed, and know the evil they bring). I would apprecate recommendations as to a good replacement shock that will allow a bit of a rake over the front...

Thanks for any comments...

JB

Can't really help you but thought you might like the stance of my girlfriends 74 Nova

hahaha... Yeah, that is up there a bit. Still a pretty cool ride...

I am not thinking like crazy high...that was how things were in the 80's and It was nuts...I just like it higher in the back than the front... I have also considered just staggering rim sizes with 14's in the front and 15's on the rear. Not sure what I will do and am in no rush as it will be next spring before it will get new wheels/rubber. That is if I don't find a money tree to harvest...

I kinda like something like this:

I replaced my sagging springs as well, using stock height springs, but I did the old school thing with longer (and adjustable) spring shackles, as well as staggered tire sizes to achieve the rake I wanted. You can also replace your front coils springs with shorter springs, which I did later as well. I have the the dark gray metallic fastback you can see on the home page cycle of pics.

Mike, do you have a pic of your rear window louvers? Are they vintage or aftermarket?

JB,

With my ever-changing focus in the hobby over the years, I have gone through different types of rear springs to include adding an additional leaf in the back. This coupled with the use of 90/10 drag shocks on the front gave me that slight rake that use to be real popular for 1/4 mile work. Yes, it made pulling the front end easier but as I got older it stop "doing it for me" when I wanted to take the car out for a nice cruise.

If you really want that rakish "look", it probably would be best to simply lower the front by using the 620LB front springs. This should lower the front end about 1" from stock. "Mustang Plus" has some nice relatively inexpensive packages that should work for you.

As I inferred, your quest is interesting as most folks are trying to lower their vehicles as it provides significant improvements in the handling and ride of our classics.

Good Luck and I hope this helps.

BT

Mach,

They are aftermarket louvres I picked up about four years ago, they are very similar to a set I bought twenty years ago. Here's a couple of pics. Just ignore the dust and dirt, it's been sitting and I haven't cleaned it off lately. They were made by Hammond, there aren't very many choices any more for these, especially if you want the aluminum ones.

Putting new springs in will almost always raise the car slightly, as the existing springs usually start getting tired after a few years.

Bruce Wilcox's '71 Mach 1 in Mustang Monthly a few months ago had 5-spring packs and Alston Varishocks. I'm a little bummed they didn't mention the packs he used though. CJ Pony has some 5-spring packs, but don't mention if they give any boost or not.

Somewhere down the road, I'll probably wind up with a '4-link & coils' rear end, but to get mine on the road and the look I want, I'm planning on going a similar route as Bruce did, unless someone comes up with some better advice here, that is.

http://www.mustangmonthly.com/featuredvehicles/mump_1005_1971_ford_mustang_mach_1/index.html

Hope that helps.

Nice louvers, BTW!!