When I replaced the leaf springs, I ordered them with a 1" lift. I was afraid the car might end up with the reverse rake look if I ordered them at stock height. Unfortunately, I overshot and the rear of the car ended up being about 1" too high for my liking. Because of the rubber isolators and pinion wedge Mustang lowering blocks won’t fit a Cougar, and there’s nothing in the aftermarket currently . I was inspired by DieselD’s homemade lowering blocks. I don’t have the welding skills for that, but I do have access to a 3D printer. So I took some measurements, mocked up a model in SketchUp and made a test print. The cylinder on the top needed to be a bit wider but otherwise the fit was dead on:
I decided to make the block slightly less than 1" thick (I think I settled on 7/8") just to build some very slight forward rake in. After confirming fitment using the 3D print, I used an online machine shop (3dhubs.com in this case) to CNC the shape out of aluminum. I tried a few different machine shops and they were by far the most reasonably priced (I even had them powder-coated since it was only a small extra charge). They took a few weeks to complete and ship, but they fit really well:
The blocks fit perfectly on the axle and don’t move around at all. I did need longer U-bolts, Dorman part#35605 was the perfect size:
