Ride Height '63 Tempest?
 

Hi everyone,

I managed to get an hour or two to crawl under the car tonight to start visualizing, planning, and measuring for the rear suspension build on my '63 Tempest. To get good measurements, I'm trying to first figure out what my ride height is going to be.

I'd be interested in seeing some side-view pictures from you '63 guys (show off your rides!) along with the measurement from ground to the frame rails and your tire height. If you know what the factory ride height (to the frame rail) is, I'd be interested in hearing that too.

Just as additional background, I bought the car with a Heidt's universal front suspension installed and no rear suspension. I pulled out the coils up front so that I could just set the body on blocks to simulate ride height. With the lower front control arms level to the ground, my frame rail height is right about 9''. This seems like a lot of ground clearance, but in the side-view, it looks like the car is sitting a little low to me... the 25'' tires on there up front are pretty close to the fender lip.

Thanks in advance!

my front tires are 26 tall and rears are 28, lowest point of frame rail by front bumper is 9 1/2 inches and by the rear bumper the frame is 17, i have 150 lb springs in back and load my car with 3 kids and 2 adults regularly and speed bumps aren't an issue, my only issue is my electric cutouts are a little low.[IMG]http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/6...lemans2012.jpg[/IMG][IMG]http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/3678/63lemans20121.jpg[/IMG]

I need to get some measurements. Mine's not quite stock.....

Edit: Just realized this pic was when loading the trailer. Will get some with it on level ground.

Thanks for the posts thus far, guys. Any others, I'd love to see/hear what you're doing.

ahnuld - I think the 28'' tires look great in the back. I was hoping to fit something around that tall back there as well. What is your width measurement? 275s?

m/t's 12 inch, but my wheel wells are moved in up to the frame.

Here is mine. 15x10 rims w/10.5x28x15 Mickeys. Mike

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With 26" tires I am at 8.5 at the center and bottom of frame rail. Wouldn't want any lower. I've lost close to 1.5" since new springs 8 yrs. ago.