I am looking to substantially lower my car to the same ride height as this car. Other than using airbags, has anyone successfully lowered their car this much? If so, how did you do it?
Thanks.
Imho , 67/68 cougars have 3 lines in the body that are not parallel……upper fender/door line, the lower body line that becomes the wheel arch and the rocker line. To get the clean wedge cougar look, one has to be level to fool your eye. I prefere the lower body/wheel well line to be level. Our 67 was close to the same height in the front but not as low in the rear. Dont think it would be fun with stock ford power steering hardware….first thing to the scene of the accident. We ran a cavilear rack on unisteer hardware, modified for a big block.
Additional issues is EVERYTHING must be above what i would call the frame rails. A good exhaust guy can get the duals up in the drive shaft tunnel and over the rear end.
Speed bumps on a diagional and slow. Have fun
Stance is killing the car culture. You start messing with this old geometry, and your basically re-engineering the whole suspension. Making it WORSE!!! Trust ALL of us. Your Making alot of problems you don’t HAVE to deal with. Think BRODOZERS in reverse. Off the soapbox I leap… Thanks for reading
1 Like
Agreed……..the stock ride height is a little weird by today’s standards though. We generally don’t care for cars that sit down in the rear. I have the springs re - arched to compensate, raising the rear around 2” when doing so.
Just like anything there is a right way and a wrong way lift or lower a vehicle. Brodozers is a good example of the wrong way to do it, brodozer/stance is all about the looks only while a proper setup is about performance with looks second. No reason you can not have both!
the picture in the first post is pretty low, not sure what they have going on there but to get the low of a ride height and keep things right you will most likely need to upgrade and replace most of the front suspension. This may take you away from the original design for something else entirely. There are tons of options out there for suspension kits from coil over kits to IFS kits from the Mustang II
A popular lowering technique is to use 1” lowering coils and the “Shelby drop” this consists of remounting the upper control arm lower to change the geometry slightly for better performance and also lowers the right height slightly. For the rear you can use a lowering block or preferred rearched or lowered springs. Keep in mind the cougar block is a little unique and not just any lowering block will work. This will not get you to the height of the photo but it’s an adorable way to get started and see what you like or don’t like.
Is this going to be a show car? When they get that low you need to have the right trailer to be able to load it. I would use a Sloan Kwik Load. The bed slides back getting the loading angle down to about 5 degrees. In my area that would not be at all driveable on the streets. Any kind of debris is going the be an issue and since we don’t have many storm sewers the crown on the road at cross streets is going to tend to try to high center you.
2 Likes
Wow, great feedback from you all!
Yes, I like the way my “feature” car sits, but will I like the way it drives and at what cost to get there?
Ford Falcon suspension may need a total revamp, which moves me into the restomod category or show car…not wanting to do that.
I had never considered taking into account the body lines in relation to stance…using the lower wheel arch line, that would put the rear a few inches higher than the front.
Lots to consider here.
More thoughts and/or photos are welcomed.
Thanks, guys!
The stance of my 1969 Cougar XR7 428CJ. Needs shocks , but rides pretty nice. Cal Treks are the only thing not stock.
Mine is very similar to the above photo and using all stock mounting points. Caltracs mono leaf out back, spc uppers with Shelby drop and 3 degrees caster built in and global west constant rate lower springs up front. My opinion is that your original post photo shows an extremely undesirable amount of camber and indicates a stock suspension that’s either had bags or hydraulics installed.
3 Likes
That snowy side shot is fire hot.
1 Like
Beat me to it!!! Beautiful love the blue
Gonna take a picture of mine in the snow!!!
I purchased Pro Touring suspension from Chris Alstons Chassi Works which lowered my 68.
Hi Jim,
Do you have a photo to share?
Sweet! Thanks for sharing.
Is the car finished? (Are they ever?) 
For those looking for stance improvement, is there any drawback to the use of 1” lowering coils and the “Shelby drop”?
