Cut coils and Daily Driven

[Magntik]

One more time please.
I am replacing my 15's with 18" wheels and while I am still waiting for the rears to be shipped I bolted on the fronts after mounting the tires to check them out.
now the overall diameter is close, but the shorter sidewall makes the gap to the fender look HUGE!!!17724

So, I want to cut some off of my Hotchkis 2" drop coils. I have had them in a while so I think it's done settling.

I drive this thing almost everyday from shortly after the snow melts untill the first snow fall.

I have seen alot of your cars at the ride height I want but....

1. How much do you drive them with them being so low? And any rub issues?

2. Exactly where do I start and how much do I cut off?
I read numerous threads and some say a half a coil, and then say it didn't line up in the spring pocket, others say full coil at a time.

I'm confused, help me before I ruin a good set of springs.


I currently have factory control arms and stock multi-leafs with a half inch lowering block in back.
I am waiting for the rears to arrive before I decide on 2" or 3" DSE drop leafs.

Input is appreciated!!!

[vintageracer]

A half coil cut will drop the car another 1 inch at the very least! If you are going to cut the Hotchkis springs start at 1/4 coil cut at most. You can always cut again but cannot add to the spring. In my opinion a 1 coil cut will make the Hotchkis spring unusable as the car will be WAY to low. A good friend of mine experienced this problem when he used his previous experience in cutting stock springs. His first cut was 1 coil on a Hotchkis spring. BIG MISTAKE! He had to buy another set of front springs since a 1 coil cut was way to low. He only had 1 inch of suspension travel before he hit the bump stops.

The Hotchkis springs and other manufacturers drop springs are designed different with larger wire size, different spring rates, different loaded spring ride height and an overall shorter in height spring. These "lowering" springs are designed to compress to a "loaded" ride height at "x" amount of weight on the spring. Cutting the spring increases the spring rate, ie makes the spring stiffer, however it does not change (or ever so slightly) the the loaded ride height of the spring.

Make smaller cuts and work up to your desired ride height!