First published in the March 2002 issue of Street Machine

One of the key elements in turning your car into a bona-fide street machine is to rectify its 4WD-like factory ride height. Only wallies hit the streets cruising in cars travelling at the stock ride height. We’re not sure what Holden were thinking when they were making the springs for the SS utes, but its ride height is more embarrassing than any self-respecting street machiner could possibly bear.

And this was exactly the case with Seddo’s SS shop truck. With Summernats 15 fast approaching, we needed a quick fix to get the black SS a whole lot closer to terra firma. Sure we could have popped a set of off-the-shelf short springs under all four corners, but we wanted to go low, really, really low. After considering our options for about a nanosecond, we jumped on the blower to Kevin McIntyre from K-Mac Suspension.

Step-by-step:

1. After discussing our requirements with K-Mac it was decided to just lower the car at this stage. We will return at a later date and add their camber caster kit along with a set of up-rated adjustable sway bars and shocks. So stay tuned!

2. You want it how low? Yep, lower than a snake’s belly, thanks! Luckily K-Mac has complete in-house manufacturing capability, allowing them to custom-make exactly what we need.

3. To remove the front springs you need to remove the front struts. After unclipping the ABS loom and the flexible brake hose from their retaining tang (welded to the strut), undo the two large bolts at its base.

4. On the driver’s side you’ll need to drop the brake caliper out of the way to remove the lower strut bolts. Have plenty of leverage on hand when undoing these bolts as Holden puts a generous dollop of thread-locking compound on them to stop them from ever vibrating loose.

5. Pop the bonnet and whip off the dust cover that sits on top of the strut tower. By undoing this big nut at the top, the strut will now simply drop out.

6. Use a spring compressor to squeeze the coil to take the pressure off the top and bottom plates. Remove the large nut securing the top plate, and then slowly undo the spring compressor to release the spring.

7. A compressed car spring contains a lot of stored energy, enough to break bones if allowed to fly out. That’s why a spring compressor is absolutely necessary when changing the front coils. K-Mac use a large professional unit, however, a couple of cheapies like these from your local auto parts store will do the trick.

8. At the rear a spring compressor is unnecessary, as unbolting the sway bar and shock absorber allows the suspension to drop to the point where the rear springs are held in buy the skin of their teeth and can be simply pried out.

9. To determine the profile (number of turns and overall length) of the new springs, K-Mac first measures the spring-rate of the originals and feeds the answer into the brains of the coil-winding machine, along with desired ride height and spring stiffness. The machine then determines the specs for the new springs. Clever, huh.

10. Here are all the components that make up the front strut ready for reassembly. It’s very important that everything goes back together the same way it came apart (except for the different spring, of course). Other-wise the strut will be damaged and won’t work properly.

11. To regain a bit of travel in the front suspension, the factory bump-stops were trimmed down by 15mm. This was achieved by running them through a band saw, however, a sharp knife could achieve the same result.

12. By lowering the bum four inches, the rear springs are no longer captive with the suspension at full droop. This is not a good situation, as the springs could potentially fall out. The answer is shorter shocks that will fix the problem by not allowing the suspension to droop as much.

CONCLUSION

Now, isn’t that better! Dropping the ride height is not all about looks, there’re handling improvements to have through lowering the car’s centre of gravity, albeit offset by reduced suspension travel. But you’ve got to admit it looks a whole lot better than the gangly stocker!