Today I wanted to get the car lowered down to see how it will look when it's riding on airbags. I just bought a new jack and some jack stands to make it easier.

The whole car rides high, but you can really see it in this picture. Look how far the hub is from the frame.

Most custom car builders like to lay the frame on the ground, or as close to it as possible. I think that would be about a 13 inch drop for me.

After some measurements, I decided to try to get the bottom of my running boards about 4 inches off the ground. The rear axle was holding the car up a little too high, so I removed the U bolts to disconnect the axle from the leaf springs.

This is just a reference shot to show how it all goes together. See the little wood block holding up the front of the gearbox? It got knocked away during all this, and the next day the shop smelled bad from the gear oil all over the floor!

I think this little box inside the frame rail does something with the brakes, but I'm not completely sure. It had to be removed to get the axle off the springs.

Now the fun part. How do you lower a car down 13 inches? A little at a time. Here the car is on jack stands, and the axle is loose.

I jacked up the right side, lowered the jack stand a little, and set the frame down.

Next, jack up the left side, lower the jack stands, and sit the frame down.

Now the right side can go down to the leaf springs.

And finally the left side is all the way down.

The rear is really low now! Still need to work on the front end.

It took another hour to drop the front end. I dropped it as far as it would go, but it was still too high. I had to remove the right side suspension to get it even with the left side, which already had the suspension removed. Then it was finally level left to right. I had to roll the wheels over just for the effect. I was shocked how much different the car looked!