lowering a car

[darkon]

in my dads reluctance to fish out our angle grinder for my springs he came up with an interesting idea. what about clamping the coils together using hose clamps? any thoughts? tie the bottom coil to the one above it using 5 or 6 hose clamps. would these hold alrite? more or less dodgey then spring cutting? also another enquirey I've heard that some people with uncaptive springs have drilled holes in the springs seats and used zip ties to hold thing springs in so that even when they become uncaptive they're still held tightly so if anyone could shed some light on that too that'd be great thanx lol

[v-tec]

how do you mean, are you saying compress the spring and then keep it compressed with hose clamps?

as for zip ties I've used them to keep the cut down spring attached to the spring hat with success. but I think it wouldnt be a good idea to do with with the bottom plate as it will just keep breaking them... wouldnt hurt trying it tho.

[86xxx]

don't DO IT!!! CUT SPRINGS ARE TOO BUSH PIG STYLE!!! I'm speaking from personal experience, cut the springs in my celica (when I first had my licence and was stupid?!?) and they stayed in for about 2 weeks!! Best way to do it, I found, other than proper spring compressors (about $30 from supershit anyway!) was to remove the wheel which you are working on, sit the car on a jack stand or block of wood, what ever hill billy contraption you come up with, then jack the suspension up so it compresses until the car starts to shift off the stand and then used HEAVY GAUGE welding wire around as many of the coils as you can and as many 'laps' if you like as you can, making sure to tighten them up HEAPS!!!!! then let the jack down slowly and check that they are holding. Cut the now uncaptive spring and jack suspension back up , put on some thick arse gloves and about 3 pairs of safety glasses and bravely cut the wire holding the springs down!! Once the spring releases and you're still alive, thank god because he's surely watching over you!!!

[Chrisso]

Alternatively, buy lowered springs. You can get them new, Kings, for about $200. Or if you're in melbourne, you can have the lowered springs I just took out of my sprinter and replaced with new Kings standard height.

I wouldn't cut the springs.

Chris.

[darkon]

thankyou vtec for actually reading the post and yeah thats exactly what I'm saying lol what you reckon worth a shot or is it gunna send me off into a pole somewhere?

[ke70dave]

I've got cut down falcon springs in the rear of my car (With short stroke shocks to keep them almost captive, about 10mm shorter and they would be captive). and in my car (ke70) there was a hole in the middle of the bottom spring seat on the diff (lil round disc thing the spring sits on). a while ago I used fencing wire to hold the spring to the spring seat, just wound the wire around the coils/spring seat and feeding it through the hole. about 2 months later 3 out of the 4 wires have snapped. so I replaced them with relatively thick wire ties yesterday. hopefully they wont snap as they should have s slight amount of flex in the plastic and I didn't do them up completely tight.

I would not cut springs though, mainly cause when you cut them, the cut end isn't flat, and therefore doesnt sit properly. if you can afford it get proper springs, those ones the AJPS guy sells seem pretty good.

[mitch13]

If your in Sydney and want a full set of king springs I can get them for about $300-$350 brand new.
don't cut your springs you will regret it. it's dangerous, illegal and no matter what you do to keep the spring in the seat if something lets go your stuffed.
If you are going to go dodgey another option is heating. Get an oxy and heat up the spring then sit on the corner of the car that you are heating and cool the spring. It will stay lower and at least then you have the original faces of the spring in the seats.