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Hi I am currently doing a frame off restoration on my 1974 and I'm trying to decide on a composite rear spring as I plan out the rear suspension. The car will end up having around 400hp and no a/c (originally an a/c car but one of the previous owners removed everything). As of now I have #460's up front with KYB Gas-A-Justs and was originally going to keep the 9 leaf but due to its condition would like to go with a composite. I spoke with vansteel this morning and they recommended looking into a shortened rear spring to allow room for wider tires in the future. I wanted to find out what guys think who are running either the #330 or #360 .5" or 1" shortened springs? Do those with .5" shorter wish they would of gone with the 1"? Thank you in advance! Here is the car so far!
I'm using a 1" per side shortened VB&P 330lb rear spring, Van Steel double offset trailing arms and 10" C4 link bolts. This gives me about 3/8" clearance between the end if the spring and tire. I'm using 5.25" backspace on the rear wheels. Hope this helps.
I would hold off on the spring until You have the Body back on and the Wheel and Tire fitted. What works for one car does not for another. The larger the Rim Diameter the less likely you will need to shorten the Spring as it will start to fit up inside the Rim.
Thanks for all the input, I am going with stock trailing arms and ended up going with the original 15x8 rallys after all. I went ahead yesterday morning and talked with the guys at VBP. I decided on their #360 spring and then going with 15x8 rallys (4" backspace) with 275/60/15s on the rear and 255/60/15s up front. With the stock offset in the back they said I shouldn't have any clearance issues except maybe relocating the emergency brake cable bracket and a modified swaybar.
Shortened Composite Rear Spring Input Needed
