But most of us who own mavericks don’t have that kinda of time, maybe even skill and never less the money to upgrade to something like that.
So personally I think the easiest and most effective way to lower a maverick with someone on a budget would be to cut springs. Now I know already someone saying, you’ll lose spring rate when you cut springs or you should never cut your springs. Or whats the difference between cutting them why don't you just heating them or clamp them.
Well in my opinion by heating a spring all you do is weaken then construction and the integrity of the spring and you will practically get worse handling then you would have if you left the springs alone. By spring clamping them (though an effective and easy way to lower a car) all this does is make your ride harder, lose alignment all the time, not to mention the car doesn’t get lowered no more then ¼ to ½ of an inch. All of the above methods will not only make you lose your spring rate, but most of all make your car ride like crap!
So back to cutting springs. You probably saying all Mavericks are not alike. Your right! Some have cars with air conditioning, some are 6cyl and other may have wide tires etc. Anyhow this is my experience with my own car, which is a V8 and a 250 I6.. I know many have asked how much do I cut? What springs to buy? Will my tires rub?
Ok… This is what is did. I finally decided to re-lower my car with a new set of springs and start from scratch taking pictures and long the most important things down. Just so you know this is not a tech install story where I will show you each step and what tools to use. I figure, if you’re reading this your probably already mechanically inclined. If your still reading this and you not mechanically inclined I wouldn’t try to do this yourself.
The key part of this is to answer the most common question of what parts do I use how much to cut?
Here is my list of parts.
1. One Pair of “PRE-SETTELED” 1inch lowering spring rated at 650 lbs that was for a 67-73 Mustang.
2. One Pair of ¼ inch Polyurethane Coil Spring Insulators for a 67-73 Mustang Spring.
3. One Pair of Coil Spring Mounting Seats with Polyurethane Bushings.
Again you MUST use all of the following parts listed above. If you use any stock replacement part or your original parts it will change the high of your car! Again if you are using this method I would suggest to use all the above parts. If your not don’t follow this method.
You can obtain any of these parts from any mustang aftermarket parts house. My suggestion is to shop around some mail order houses have complete kits for the above parts and could save you about $100 bucks if you buy it as a kit.
I cut exactly 1 and ½ coil off of these aftermarket coils. Below are pictures of how much I cut.
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