balthazar

The axle's height will never change (barring flats, different height tires, or a floor jack). 'Blocks' fit between the spring pack & the axle tube. If the spring pack goes under the axle tube, adding blocks between will push the spring pack lower, in turn lowering the body. But if the spring pack is above the axle tube, adding blocks between will raise the spring... and the body. In order for blocks to alter the height, they must go between the spring pack & the axle tube - placed outside of the axle tube/spring pack 'sandwich'- they do nothing to alter body height. Unfortunately, with the spring pack on top of the axle, the only remedy is to change the spring shackles (or get new springs) if you want to go lower. Check http://www.sportruck.com/howto/suspension.htm for some general pics/items. 1" or 2" lowering shackles: $10-$60.

No particular order: '66 Toro '64 Jetstar 1 '68 H/O '69 H/O '62 Starfire '58 Holiday J-2 Even moreso I like the '53 Starfire '54 Cutlass '55 Delta '56 Golden Rocket Anyone know where the later 3 are today ????

Well, here's hoping that a return to a more accurate engine designation system returns! >>"the "392" would ONLY be referred to as a "392" and NOT a "6.4" "<< 392 has a lot of historical clout to it- it's really cool that we've had numerous nods to past greatness in recent years- esp 'returns' of classic engine displacements. Rest assured- 2V heads will not prevent a performance motor from exceeding a paltry 500 hp.

>>"The [Corvair's} tremendous oversteer because of the setup wasnt necessarily bad just not what the general public was familiar with at the time. I guess under those terms it could be considered unsafe."<< Along with all other rear-engined cars of the period, namely Porsche, right? Porsche = unsafe at any speed. Good. My buddy has had numerous 2nd gen 'Vairs, and I've ridden in them on hellacious back-road rips (modded, 4-carb, 4-spd)- never a problem. See, it's not the car at fault, just the inexperienced driver. Just like audi claimed it was solely the driver that was responsible for the 'sudden acceleration' debacle that nearly cost the brand the U.S. market permanently. Except that -oops!- it's GM we're talking about in this case, correct me if I'm wrong: at the time the richest, most prolific industrial company of the middle of the century. Nice target- set phasers on kill.....

Take another look at the pic, 76: that's not going to do anything but lower the plate. The distance between the axle and the body (more specifically: the spring hangers) will remain the same. The axle's position cannot change; the tires are on the ground- you have to move the spring's height either where it contacts the axle or where it anchors to the body (hangers).

This is just my opinion and worth what you paid for it, but I would support federal legislation to ban powder blue on any vehicle of any vintage. The. Absolute. Worst. ....tied with bright yellow. Sixty8- consider B-59's Lido Lavender, I've seen it in person and it's awesome. So is Canyon Copper. Buicks.net has a copy of my color chip chart, but you can go to autocolorlibrary.com and look up anything. For the record- I do not care for black on B-59s. My Invicta was Artic White also- didn't really bother me on this car. Leading new color choice is pearl metallic silver. Congrats, bud, let's see some goddamn pics already- I know you've got 'em.

Gotcha beat: 5 days straight, 14 hrs sleep at the end (I had to kind of force myself to go to sleep). No hallucinations, fine afterwards. End of semester @ college.I do not have sleeping problems, I can literally go to sleep at random points in the day, but I function very well. At night I lay down when I'm tired, sleep like a rock, wake up fine. Average sleep is about 5 hrs... I get up at 6:30AM on weekdays. Right now I'm working 7 days a week, sometimes until midnight. I have been referring to myself as "the robot"....

Most people don't own the place they live in. This would make the majority of people "losers". Not much one can do with sheer mental will to change this quickly. As far as age of daily driver- I was never prouder than when I was driving a 28-yr old car daily. Now that my daily is 2 yrs old, I am somewhat embarassed. Radio idiots dictate & define nothing if you're smart. Hear about the ones that pushed the water poisoning death? Case closed.

Ummm, what?

What happened was an unfortunate accident with relatively minor injuries. Good to know people you care for will be fine. >>"On a side note, I'm not trying to be an ass here, but are those three that posted the only ones that actually care enough to post kind words or anything at all? "<< Don't be an ass....

Yeah- you're left with different shackles (if available) or new, lower-arch springs as options (assuming sand bags is out). I put new springs in my F-150 when one side broke; bring it over.

Don't see why an XLR refresh/redesign would have anything to do with the timing of a Corvette refresh...

'enzl'= >>"I'm not sure how old you are, but I'll assume you're not old enough..."<< If only. -Lead (in gasoline) is a not a highly toxic poison (they fought for years against Unleaded Gasoline) No imports used leaded gas? And recall yourself what happened: low-lead & no-lead (hand-in-hand with the insurance industry) killed the musclecar era dead. As for 'fighting", see Catalytic Converters below... -Seatbelts won't save lives (they were concerned about the appearance of a safety device) How far back are we going to go here? Only time I know for a fact that a manufacturer was concerned about the 'inference' of seatbelts was the board of directors for Tucker ('48), tho Tucker himself wanted them (they were not offered). Ford launched a safety-centered advertising campaign ('56) to which the consumer reacted... hardly at all. It was not repeated for '57. GM began equipping cars with factory anchored mounts for seat belts in '62 (definately, but may started in '61MY), which is 4 years before they were federally mandated ('66), but both dealers and the aftermarket offered belts years and years earlier for whomever wanted them. -Airbags So where were the other major manufacturers airbags in the early '70s? Oh yes, 20 years in the future. -Catalytic Converters-Been to LA lately? Imagine the LA Basin w/o emission controls General Motors developed the first practical catalytic converter under Stempel, and with knowledge of the impending cat mandate, worked with refiners to engineer unleaded gas beginning as early as '71. Lead in gas was banned in '96. -Repeated issues with design flaws (i.e. Pinto... Not going to argue there, tho I have not researched the specifics of the fault, Sidesaddle gas tanks in Pick-ups Ahh yes, the ones that require incindiary devices to ignite, Corvair handling Can't have this one- charge thoroughly disproven by the feds. Ironically, the Corvair's handling was on par with what Americans were not familar with at that point but would soon be told they wanted: European handling (ie: Porsche). Ohhh, so sad. That's off the top of my head....the cold, hard truth is that when it comes to preserving profit margins, many business leaders WORLDWIDE have done awful things (and still are!) Agreed- but I still stand by my initial statement: I've seen much more deceptive (as opposed to defective) proceedures from foreign (ie: asian) auto manufacturers. They will not pop readily into your head due to the minimalistic coverage & short-term memory (and long-term forgiveness) of the media, but they're there. Here's a monster to chew on: mitshubishi.

I believe a Tucker has broken $700K, but yeah. Yesterday I watched for a little while, top car of the day at that point was a '59 DeSoto Adventurer convertible, 1 of 97, black & gold & f@#king gorgeous. $230,000.

>>"They are independent, good or bad, so they really don't have to disclose anything. "<< That very well may be true, but why refuse to reveal those methods & formulas- why all the big hush-hush secrets ?? If the PR spin is to be believed- they are only 'in it for the good of the consumer' or the like... so prove it. I realize that for some, CR a faith-based religion, but proving your above-board goodness to non-Pavlovians will only stuff the till that much more. Unless........

w-wh-What? The lienarts are on the take from toyota but they're car reviewers?? Not that anyone would ever read a single article and then take them seriously, but that is just F-ed.

OK- as long as we ALSO offset-slam cars & trucks into immovable barriers @ 70+ mph! Can't wait to see the pics! Seriously, I would have to imagine the 35-38 mph a lot of impact tests are done at represents some sort of median speed: most vehicles are not averaging anything close to 70. While the results would be interesting (well, we have them for car seats anyway)- it's statistically immaterial. Of course, the point is that CR lied. What else have they intentionally misrepresented or lied about to serve editor's agendas/personal biases, because no way in hell is this the only occurance.

All you starry-eyed CR worshippers that get the warm & fuzzies when quoting re-affirming company rhetoric, you may want to reach for some Valium. The associated Press is reporting this morning that the Yonker NY-based 'consumer advocate' magazine has retracted a strong, damning review of infant car seats (only 2 of 12 'recomended') when federal government review showed CR tested the seats at drastically higher speeds than they claimed. Most of CR's test samples showed 'disasterous failure' at speeds stated to be as low as 35 mph. One infant dummy was hurled 30 feet. But NHTSA revealed that some of the crash tests were conducted under conditions that would represent being struck at more than 70 mph. Ahh yes: "no advertising = 100% no bias or agenda". IMO: The magazine has enough clout & influence that it's practices and formulas should be subject to full disclosure & government regulation. Repeated refusal to do so (full disclosure) only points to one thing: hidden agendas.

>>"I don't really see people buying Corvette for status or fashion at all.......people buy it because they respect what the car is and what it can do."<< You've got to be kidding. For decades, the Corvette has been the poster-car for the Mid-Age Crisis- at least thru the late '70s into the '90s. A sizable chunk of older consumers buy Corvettes and never push their performance capabilities. It absolutely is a status symbol for some. Reg is right- if you look at a random sampling of bmw drivers'- they're often teen-age girl with phones growing out of the side of their head or bored, middle-aged mail-order housewives.

'blu- can you get us a pic of the axle/perch/spring area on your truck- I'm still curious about the specific set-up.

In my lifetime, I have not seen the scandal, the lies nor the deception from domestic auto manufacturers that I have seen from the -generally speaking- asian brands. So, IMO, the generalization confined to auto manufacturers, holds water.

The question for me is: are honda & toyota off by 4% due to happenstance/innaccurate component design... or intent?

2018??? I'm sorry, is... is that ELEVEN years from now ???? And people bitch about news releases as far away as 2 years in the future!

I enjoy the O.C.... been going there since a kid. Not pretencious and stuck-up. House on a mountain lake, super quiet, hike thru the woods, cemeteries, railroad tunnels, mine shafts, fun kid stuff like that. Oh: O.C., N.Y.

Not only is it going to 'bop you in the eye', it's going to bop you in everything from the kneecap to the baseball cap. Unless your power seat can raise you all the way thru the sunroof, there's no way to avoid something so large & broad. Then again, I believe that might be the point. An 8-way power passenger seat is in no way a safety issue; it's a gadget. >>"a clunky manual seat in a $40k+ truck was and is just dumb."<< I have manual seats in my truck, which stickered at $39K & change. I've never adjusted the driver's after Day 1, and no passenger has ever adjusted theirs, tho they've been 5'0" to 6'3"; in fact none have ever tried or asked. Look, I have no problem if people want to pay for the option- that they get it. But this issue is not that monsterous of deal that 'GM is stoopit' and 'the Enclave ain't a lux truck without it standard'. The gushing & raves over the styling should still be flying hot & heavy; we shouldn't already be at the point we're building federal cases over 4- vs. 8-way power controls on a passenger seat. IMO