ghaskett Posted March 3, 2017 Share Posted March 3, 2017 Has anyone used Fatman lowered uprights on their 50's era Buick. I have a 56 Special with JAMCO front lowered coils, but am leaning to the Fatman idea. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
60FlatTop Posted March 3, 2017 Share Posted March 3, 2017 Had to Google that one- dropped spindles to an old guy. Should be fine. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buick5563 Posted March 4, 2017 Share Posted March 4, 2017 Fwiw, I cut out one coil in front and ordered 2" lowered springs in the back on my 55 wagon. If you already have lowered springs, I bet your tire hits the fender during hard turns if you keep the lowered springs, as well as the dropped spindles. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
60FlatTop Posted March 4, 2017 Share Posted March 4, 2017 (edited) I just got back from breakfast with a friend who has a JAMCO kit in his '53 Chevy. He says the extra drop will be too much and the tires will rub as well as potential problems with the bump stops. Edit: He also said that a lower profile tire would not help because of the width. It would rub in a different area and ride hard. All of us at the table knew they were dropped spindles. Did Fatman sell out to a financial group with no idea of what car parts are called? Mr. Trashket did that years ago and had to buy the company back. Uprights, what do you call the thingie that goes between the two thingies that hold the spring in. Sorry, but if the corporation wants new vocabulary words they can't be lame ones. Bernie Edited March 4, 2017 by 60FlatTop (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old-tank Posted March 4, 2017 Share Posted March 4, 2017 33 minutes ago, 60FlatTop said: I just got back from breakfast with a friend who has a JAMCO kit in his '53 Chevy. He says the extra drop will be too much and the tires will rub as well as potential problems with the bump stops. Edit: He also said that a lower profile tire would not help because of the width. It would rub in a different area and ride hard. All of us at the table knew they were dropped spindles. Did Fatman sell out to a financial group with no idea of what car parts are called? Mr. Trashket did that years ago and had to buy the company back. Uprights, what do you call the thingie that goes between the two thingies that hold the spring in. Sorry, but if the corporation wants new vocabulary words they can't be lame ones. Bernie They just change the nomenclature so that people think they are smarter, more sophisticated, or have a unique part: therefore charge more! For years doctors told me I had sciatic nerve pain, then a specialist called it ischiatic nerve pain...paid more for a bigger word. Don't get me started on isis, isil or daesh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
60FlatTop Posted March 4, 2017 Share Posted March 4, 2017 When I first saw the mention of uprights I thought it was some kind of bracket to convert to McPherson struts or coil overs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1953mack Posted March 4, 2017 Share Posted March 4, 2017 18 hours ago, 60FlatTop said: Had to Google that one- dropped spindles to an old guy. Should be fine. Not quite so. To a Buick guy, there is a difference between a lowered steering knuckle support (upright?) and a lowered steering knuckle (spindle?). Fatman makes a lowered steering knuckle support for the 1950's era Buicks. Al Malachowski BCA #8965 "500 Miles West of Flint" 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NTX5467 Posted March 4, 2017 Share Posted March 4, 2017 When a coil spring is "cut" to lower ride height, it shortens the base spring AND makes it stiffer. The "lowering springs" probably are designed for a specific "ride rate" at their shorter length. IF the spring does not increase in stiffness/ride rate with the lower ride height, MORE propensity for needing durable bump stops, by observation. A "rich guy" went to a name-brand auction and bought a '55 Dodge Sierra 2-dr station wagon. It had been very modified and had air bags on the front. It looked really nice with the Cragars and all. But when the bags were deflated, the "anti-theft" item kicked in . . . when straight, the front wheels barely cleared the inner fender edge! NO turning the wheel for corners! So for the different front k-frame on the vehicle (as noted in the auction company write-up), we located a pair of lower control arms for that suspension and got two new springs for the k-frame application from NAPA. THEN it worked "as designed". Lowered vehicles are also more limited to what road surfaces AND driveway approaches they can traverse. Same for exhaust systems that "hang low"! Personally, I like vehicles that look nice, BUT I also don't want to be limited (within reason)) by the way a contractor might have done something with concrete or asphalt. IF you're willing to put up with "that scraping noise" (front, middle, or rear!) just to have "the look" . . . your decision. A more-urban area is not the same as more rural areas, by observation. I've seen too many import brand vehicles, which have been lowered, "bounce" along a smooth freeway at slower-than-normal speeds. One night, on the way to my shadetree shop, one of them was in front of me. When they approached a reasonably smooth railroad crossing, they STOPPED (!!) on a 45mph speed limit street so they could creep across the railroad tracks!!! I hit the brakes and the '69 GMC pickup truck did similar (I saw G-M-C in the rear view mirror VERY plainly!). Those young guys were inches from a serious accident and didn't know it! Plus the rest of us in that group behind them! That was how they normally did things just to drive down a busy street and everybody else had to compensate for it!! The price of "looking cool" could have been very high that night! Personally, I've become a fan of "OEM-spec" wheel travel in suspensions . . . as designed from the factory. It lets the suspension do its thing and keep the vehicle more under control. There are some specialized places where a lowered ride height can work better, but "looking cool" is not one of them. Being able to use all of the steering gearbox is important too, rather than hearing "rubbing noises" at full turn. Raising a stock vehicle "up in the air" has its own set of dynamics and issues, other than just getting into it. NTX5467 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghaskett Posted March 5, 2017 Author Share Posted March 5, 2017 Well, my '56 had 3" Jamco lowering coils front and rear and there is plenty of ground clearance. But by putting in Fatman uprights and going from the 3 inch coils to 1 inch coils in front.. I will be lowered about the same, but will have 2 more inches within the suspension and therefore not pounding the rubber stops flat. The problem with JAMCO is JAMCO. I ordered coils and shocks that were suppose to be specifically for lowered cars, blah,blah,blah!! Well, the coils fit, but the shocks were merely something they grabbed off the shelf. They had the wrong pin size, wrong bolt pattern etc. It also took about a month to get the refund. Ironically, I had read on a forum elsewhere where people had similar complaints. You'd think I would have heeded those complaints, but Oh NO!! The Fatman set up is uprights only. You have to use your stock spindle. They are not dropped spindles like you'd expect and get with advertised " Dropped Spindles." Fatman..to their credit..do not advertise them as dropped spindles. If I put in the Fatman along with one inch lowered coils, that will drop her 3-3 1/2 inchs. Fatman says the upright will drop her 2 1/2" and , of course we'll tinker with new front coils to get a nice stance between 3-4 inches in front and the current 3 at the rear. Back to the JAMCO coils. The front are okay, stiff with no lean. But the rear 3" lowered coils are another story. They did lower the car, but the rearend ride, while not jarring was not stiff enough to keep people in the back seat from bouncing off the roof. Hit a rolling bump and the rear really took an upward hop. I cured the rearend problem by putting in a complete Jaguar XJS independent rear suspension with posi. The difference was night and day. Lastly, I used 6 x 15 rims with 215 x 15 x 75's in front. No rub. For the rear we put 8 x 15 and wider tires, but same diameter as 225x15x75's 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NTX5467 Posted March 5, 2017 Share Posted March 5, 2017 THANKS for that additional information! Car looks good. NTX5467 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buick man Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 … ah yes we agree that lowering a car and as testimony from various back seat passengers can attest to ... get's a little old and tiresome after awhile … as many who have followed the cool mantra and equipped or transformed their street cars into faux track cars can attest to this fact as well which is driving a race ready wanna be track car around town is a thrill a minute for about the first 60 minutes, but all that jarring, squeaking and grinding gets tiresome vary quickly … So now here we see a photo of guy named Fred with his caddy. It looks bagged, but it is not. The secret here is in Fred using a Craftsman's lawn tractor rear end for that serious lean slider look. Fred had initially just simply cut his springs to affect that lower cool look and not to be out cooled even shortened the "hang n dangle" of his furry white dice which if you have a keen eye are barely visible behind the rear view mirror… Fred realized that if you reduce the number of coils on a given diameter spring by just simply cutting off coils, the dynamic recoil action will be drastically reduced thereby stiffening the spring and reducing it's over rebound travel capabilities. Alas, poor cool seeking Fred found that one has to increase the diameter as well when shorting a spring in order to maintain and affect the same or near similar dynamics of the taller and smaller diameter spring … Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NTX5467 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 Once when we were discussing "cut coils", my machine shop operative noted that some guys who did that back in the '60s, had to be careful that the car didn't bounce too muc when going over railroad tracks. LEST . . . . the rear coils come out of their pockets when the car bounced upward. Many had to stop and go back to retrieve their springs "in traffic". Last time they cut THAT much off of the end! OR there was the other "time honored" practice of just heating the coils with a torch until the suspension dropped to where the car was at the desired "attitude" and "altitude". It appears there was an art to this to not get too much drop when the section of the coil got hot and weakened. Not quite as exact as cutting coils, but "no disassembly required". NTX5467 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghaskett Posted March 7, 2017 Author Share Posted March 7, 2017 So, back to my original question, more or less. Has anyone used the Fatman modified uprights, with your own spindles to get a 2" lowering job in front? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buick5563 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 Apparently not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
60FlatTop Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 19 hours ago, buick man said: not to be out cooled even shortened the "hang n dangle" of his furry white dice which if you have a keen eye are barely visible behind the rear view mirror I think they fell off when Fred went over the railroad tracks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 41Super Posted March 14, 2017 Share Posted March 14, 2017 Back in '95 I put Fatman lowered uprights (2") on my 55 Special. The first set I had one broke while coming up to a stop light...not fun. However, Fatman took care of everything and made it right. I got brand new redesigned uprights from them and they have been on my 55 for the last 20+ years with no problems. Still have the car with about 20k on the uprights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckrussell53 Posted April 5, 2017 Share Posted April 5, 2017 (edited) I put Fatman drop spindles in my 53 Special in 2000 when I bought the car. I kept the stock springs up front and put a set of Moog cargo-coil rear springs. Fatman suggested I use rear springs from 1968-1972 Ford LTD to get the right ride height.. I had to fabricate clamps to hold the springs but it was a simple task. Using the drop spindles verses chopping the coils keeps the correct spring trim. I am using the stock knee-action shocks and have had no unusual ride problems. It still rides like it was stock. We have put 50,000 miles on since the modifications including three cross country trips from Seattle. Edited April 5, 2017 by ckrussell53 (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1953mack Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 15 hours ago, ckrussell53 said: ...I put Fatman drop spindles in my 53 Special in 2000 when I bought the car... Do you have any pictures of your dropped spindles that you could post? Thanks. Al Malachowski BCA #8965 "500 Miles West of Flint" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckrussell53 Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 On 4/6/2017 at 2:19 AM, 1953mack said: Do you have any pictures of your dropped spindles that you could post? Thanks. Al Malachowski BCA #8965 "500 Miles West of Flint" I will try and dig them up. I have lots of pictures but pre digital. Chuck Russell BCA 38002 Sumner, WA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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