Before I got my '64 Valiant back, it has been in my dad's care for the last five years. This means it's been sitting and very occasionally driven for the last five years three hours south of Gainesville in Sarasota.
When I finally was able to retake possession of the Valiant, I asked him to please find a reputable mechanic down there to have it realigned and the suspension fixed before we drove it here. This was needed since the tired stocks and 4 leaf springs made the car float around corners and gave it a stance like this:
Of course, I would foot the bill. It's my car, after all. I just wanted someone who new what they were talking about.
My father being to the automotive world what Bill Gates is to North Atlantic whaling, he took it to the Tuffy shop down the street from him and talked to a guy who had maybe seen a classic Mopar once and thought he knew all there was to know about Valiant suspensions.
I got the car back with a ridiculously high bill (that my dad had already paid, so now I owed my dad $X00.00) looking like this:
He had welded his own shackles (since they never made shackles for these cars
) and the leaf springs were ridiculously bowed. My father was thrilled. I wanted to throw things. The car was way too high and now it took bumps like the car was fueled by tooth fillings.A short time later I noticed the front was a bit lower than it was before. It actually looked pretty cool, and everything appeared okay, so I left it alone.
Last night, I was returning from a visit to Charrlie_S's shop, when I pulled onto the paved road there were two loud booms like someone had slammed the trunk twice. We pulled over to check it out. The springs had collapsed on both sides. The good news is that everything appeared to still be okay and the ride had smoothed out a lot.
This is what the car looks like this morning:
I could be imagining the front torsion bars sagging a bit, but with the latest turn of events, everything on the suspension is looking suspicious. Could it be that I need new torsion bars? The rear is obviously going to need proper shackles and probably new leaf springs. Any advice on what I should get or where I should get them? I kind of liked having a slight rake to the car, and I would like to stiffen it up a bit without feeling like I'm getting kicked in the butt on every speedbump.
I'm going to do more searching in this section, but if any advice or threads that you've read spring to mind, I'd greatly appreciate you sharing with me.
Thanks in advance!