Ok. now I am gonna try to save a buck now for the time being because theres too many other places to spend cash on my car but I want to drop the car down 2 or 3 inches. How much approximately will my 72 Olds go down per full coil cut? And... can the rears be dropped cheaply without those stupid spring compressers? The springs I believe are smaller diameter on top and bottom. I know it's really not the optimal way to lower it but it's in the budget and I don't like it looking like it's on stilts.

 

mine was done this way, not sure how many coils were taken out, sorry. I will say it sure makes for a pain when it goes on a hoist dont forget to line them up!

 

I have successfully cut front springs using both an abrasive cutoff wheel and a torch. When using the torch, I place the spring in a bucket of water, with the water level to just below the cut point, to avoid damaging the heat treat of the steel. One coil is about the most you want to cut. As noted, the rears cannot be cut due to the smaller diameter end coils.

 

you really aren't supposed to cut the rear coils (it sounds like that is what you are talking about)

The two smaller coils on the top and the bottom are what keep the spring located in its upper & lower perches.. If you cut those off- the spring could potentially pop out under a full suspension travel.

I had this happen a few years back on a el camino i had just bought. guy had cut the top pigtail off the rear coils- i went through an intersection where the road dips, rises & dips again at about 45 miles per hour, and when the car went up the spring moved and when it came back down without the spring in its spot- the weight of the car bent the shock in half like a pretzel stick.

They are like that for a reason- if they move, nothing else is holding up the back of your car.

Buy a new set of basic stock rear coils and it will drop it down. Looking at your avatar pic i can see how high it is... looks like it may have wagon springs or Cargo Coils in it or something to jack it up. These cars sat real low in the back from the factory and for many years people's first mod was to jack them up.

 

I lopped 2 coils off my delta front springs and still thought it was high, going to go for a 3rd this weekend.
Haven't worked out how to do the back yet but one suggestion we had was to cut off both pigtails and then heat and reform new pigtails from the remaining coil. Would probably need to submerge the rest of the spring in water though so not to damage the compression rate I guess?

 

If you are going to cut coils do it a bit at a time. You can always cut more you can't put it back on. I suggest a cutting wheel and do it a 1/4 to half coil at a time.

 

the rears could be heated until it sagged, old school trick