While the factory suspension and stock ride-hight was just great for cruising the states, it was basically clear from day one
that the Caprice needed to be lowered. There's just no other option for a V8 cruising low-down H-Town !!!
Once the car had arrived in my peepz garage, I immediately headed out to Mr. Grieche to borrow his tools for spring-
compression. At first I planned to use the two-ton lift at my friend's back-street car shop for getting the car up, but - plans
needed to be changed! Damn was I lucky that my boy Lez was off work during that week, 'cause we ended up
swapping everything in my driveway. Both of us had never done somethin' like that to a US-car before and the biggest
problem was the time issue.... OG Grieche wanted his toolsback by 6 p.m. -which left us with just 5 hours to get it all straight.
It was so damn hot that day and we really sweated our white asses off while un-bolting the a-arms, but luckily we
got it all done in time. All it took was a speeding drive back to Grieche to finish the day. Time-wise: it
took us 3,5 hours to swap the spindles that afternoon. As a result, the Chevy was nicely lowered and tucked
them stock wheels deep into the wheel-wells... and that's just right 'cause: I don't like it stock!
While still in the US, I didn't think about getting a pair of used Caprice springs form the junk-yard.
So back in Germany, I had to come up with a supplement and finally decided to throw-in some factory
rear Mercedes springs. Now, a classic Mercy is much lighter then the V8 Chevy, but we thought
that it might just be right since the spring measurements were almost identical - only with the Mercy
springs being two spindles shorter. After we had installed all suspension parts again and
after the car was dropped from the jack-stands, we reallized that the front was too low. The frame and
the lower a-arms now almost meet and are seperated just buy the thick rubber stopper.
Call me a sissy, but that is simply too low... I'll have to unbolt everything sooner or later. Luckily I found another
pair of chevy springs that I'll just cut-down this time.
The top-left photo shows the brand new set of 16x7 California Wire-Wheels that I ordered from Florida.
They were were inside the car when it was shipped over here. Those are neither big nor small, but
fit the Caprice just right. Although I wanted to sell them at first, I currently roll them on the chevy. Just can't roll
all stock when one has a set of custom rimms in the basement. The final mod was supposed to be the install of
a glasspack. While still in Nebraska, I had a shop weld in a new exhaust pipe and muffler and ever
since then, the car was just not loud enough. It sounded like a V6 all-stock Honda and the V8 power
just wasn't coming to my ears. Lez and I soon found out though, that them guys at Zig's Mufflers in Lincoln did a
quite good job with the welding. We just couldn't take the new exhaust apart and ended up just cutting
the pipe under the passenger-seat. No glasspack now - but still great damn sound !
my thanks go out to
- Tortelez -
for helping me out with the stereo and the suspension
- Frickel Jordan -
for joining me for the trip to the harbour where we picked-up the car
- Hydraulic Else -
for supporting my ride with a set of tires from his burn-out storage
- my dad "big daddy $'s" -
for letting me use his driveway which is now all messed-up and dirty
- Grieche -
for borrowing his spring-compressor to me time-and-again
© 2002