Anyone ever use coil spring spacers?

[chief poncho]

I'm looking for an easy fix to adjust the ride height on the front of my car.  I have new "lowering" springs installed and its sitting a bit lower than I like, especially relative to the back end.  I'd like about an inch higher or more ride height.  I could try some different springs, but that's a bit of a job to swap them, plus the cost.  Anyone ever try using coil spring spacers for a lift?  Global west sells them in .25" increments.  So I could go anywhere from 1" to 2" higher.  They would reduce overall suspension travel, but shouldn't impact handling.  They sell them in aluminum, poly and rubber.  I'd probably go with aluminum.  Given that they are used for racing applications to adjust weight balance on a car, they should work fine for what I want.  $50 vs a few hundred, plus I can probably get them in without pulling the suspension apart.  Anyone use them before?  And if so, what was your experience with them?

Here is Global West PN 1703. 

[FormTA]

No I haven't but stock some cars used spacer on the driver's side to compensate for driver weight. I would be afraid the aluminum would squeak though.

[twov8sandat4]

I tried the factory GM reproduction spacer on my 74's driver side.  It is 0.5" rubber unit.  From what I read online 0.5" spacer = 1" lift.  However; in my case 0.5" spacer = 0" lift as it did not do anything.  I was trying a bandaid for other issues (body is not perfectly level) but it did not work.  YMMV.

[JJ 109]

Yes.

Put another stock isolator between it if you are worried about squeaking.

Rubber won’t work for lift, it just compresses.

[closf71]

I'm about to use coil spring spacers on my firebird. I installed PTFB complete front end kit, and for me the car sits too low. I'll be using 2 .25 inch spacers on each side.  I believe they should be place on top of the coil spring.

[TA301]

Any pictures of the car's current ride height you find undesirable?

[tinpusher]

I went through this entire process a few months back… her are my results:

Detroit speed lowered front coils …too low. Bought two rubber spacers off the shelf at O’Reilly’s , in the truck section and cut them down to one inch. Installed them on the top of the spring and my ride height was almost perfect. Drove it and didn’t like the “bounce” as it went down the road.

More research and time and $$, I decided on replacing the entire front uppers, lowers, springs and shocks with a Ridetech set up.
I used their strong arm upper and lowers, a Dual rate spring and tunable shocks( FOX). What is nice about this set up, they provide you with .25 in steel spacers to “tune” the ride height without going to coil overs.

Pics of the ride height are with the dual rate ridetech  small block springs .

[tinpusher]

A pic of the Detroit speed springs with a rubber spacer, held in place by some big zip ties.. made installation way easier.

If installing a spacer, just remember that the amount of labor is almost exactly the same as spring replacements.

[N PRGRES]

Not sure why you didn't just get the 1LE springs.  I don't understand getting lowering springs only to raise the car back up

[tinpusher]

Some like it low… trying to get what I want too some time. Having a product that is adjustable was very attractive to me. My blue 74 (pictured) has a 73 front Endura bumper and metal support … very heavy and that same spring on a 74-81 would probably sit higher., so having adjustability gave me what I wanted.
If you are talking about the 1LE spring from PTFB, I have a set of those on my 79 and it sits too low for me.
Ride height is also dependent on tire profiles 40 / 50 series. The blue has 40 series and the black has 50 series. I might swap out wheels to see the difference on the 79 before I wrench on it.

[Wallington]

Not so much to raise it back up again, but to use a mushy rubber block to do it rather than a fixed surface, might get the look but won't be getting the ride.

[N PRGRES]

Some like it low… trying to get what I want too some time. Having a product that is adjustable was very attractive to me. My blue 74 (pictured) has a 73 front Endura bumper and metal support … very heavy and that same spring on a 74-81 would probably sit higher., so having adjustability gave me what I wanted.
If you are talking about the 1LE spring from PTFB, I have a set of those on my 79 and it sits too low for me.
Ride height is also dependent on tire profiles 40 / 50 series. The blue has 40 series and the black has 50 series. I might swap out wheels to see the difference on the 79 before I wrench on it.

if I had my choice and more cash I think air ride would be a good option. Then I can adjust it for different situations.

[nUcLeArEnVoY]

Some like it low… trying to get what I want too some time. Having a product that is adjustable was very attractive to me. My blue 74 (pictured) has a 73 front Endura bumper and metal support … very heavy and that same spring on a 74-81 would probably sit higher., so having adjustability gave me what I wanted.
If you are talking about the 1LE spring from PTFB, I have a set of those on my 79 and it sits too low for me.
Ride height is also dependent on tire profiles 40 / 50 series. The blue has 40 series and the black has 50 series. I might swap out wheels to see the difference on the 79 before I wrench on it.

Off topic, but is this your T/A in the photos? I'm noticing the TATA oversized hood bird - this is what I eventually want to do to my black car. Do you have more photos?

[tinpusher]

Apologies for the hijacking….
Yup , my 79 with a Big Bird. I still need to get the winglets for the fenders.

[nUcLeArEnVoY]

Apologies for the hijacking….
Yup , my 79 with a Big Bird. I still need to get the winglets for the fenders.

Yeah, every so often I'll see someone put a TATA bird on a non-silver car and it's definitely a sweet look, especially for black cars. I'd imagine you'd have to trim the  tips of the winglets to make them looks seamless and terminate the continuity of the red pinstripe that normally runs around the greenhouse and t-tops on a TATA car, but that should be easy enough.

Seeing it here just re-affirms my desire to do this all the more.

[scarebird]

If installing a spacer, just remember that the amount of labor is almost exactly the same as spring replacements.

These are cheesy but they do work and easy to install - put them in 180° from each other per side.

If you don't like them you are only out 20 bucks and an hour.

[FormTA]

I remember trying those on a Nissan 300ZX. It sagged so bad in the rear..... but it spit them out in a day or so.....