Our local high school has asked to use copycatvert to haul the homecoming king/queen around for their homecoming parade. I’ve only got stock (non-convertible) springs in the back and the car already sits kinda low. Other than air shocks, are there any quick and dirty suspension tricks I can do to accommodate the extra weight of several high schoolers sitting on the deck?
You’ll lose nearly 100 pounds off the tail if you have the gas tank nearly empty and remove the spare tire. The kids would weigh the same if they were sitting in the back seat. Relax and enjoy it - memories in the making!!!
You could test it with family members first.
I came up with a solution. In my junk pile I found a pair of 3" diameter, 15" long springs, maybe from a motorcycle strut? I welded up some large washers to serve as a base for the bottom, slipped some split fuel hose over the coil at the top to serve as an insulator and slid a spring over each rear shock so that the spring is sandwiched between the mounting tab at the bottom and the bottom of the car. This doesn’t change the ride height at all but it does give me an extra 100-150 lbs capacity at the rear. Surprisingly, they don’t even rattle, but I’ll take them off anyway after the parade. I’m not too worried about punching out the upper shock mounts because the full 3" diameter of the springs sits flush against the sheet metal, spreading the force out over a large area.
Success. Didn’t bottom out at all.
Great job (as always) Jody! You are alright - for a lawyer…
I once did product development for Jeep on the Wrangler SoundBar that mounted to the upper roll bar. The engineering specs included “must support the weight of two 100 lb cheer leaders”. I guess your Cougar now exceeds the spec…
Looking good Jody. Well done.
Steven
Now that’s a slice of All-American Pie! 
Ingenious solution.