I just switched out coil springs on my 1/2 ton C10 62 Chevrolet that had been lowered about an 1" to 1 1/2" with the springs still intact on the truck. I replaced the coil springs with supposedly stock ones from our host, http://www.classicparts.com/1960-72-Coil-Springs-Rear/productinfo/74-481/ and could not fit the shocks up to the rear axle. The shocks I took off were between 21" to 22". It was difficult to find anything longer than those..Bob at NAPA had to go through 60 boxes of shocks to find 23" in length, to fit on. From my research, the original shocks were 19" fully extended. Can anyone shed some light on this? Everything is put back together and the ride is pretty good anywho.
New springs will settle in, usually 1 to 1.5 inches over time, you can speed this up however by carrying some weight around with you, maybe a couple of bags of sand or old lumber.
Coil Springs Those appear to be the light duty ones and yes , they'd settle in and droop a little bit soon . I'd rather have the heavy duty 1/2 T. springs , I found a set but stupidly didn't grab them and the truck was summarily crushed for scrap .
American Classic still sells them, part number SHK-30: http://www.americanclassic.com/asp/...nd+Steering+Parts&iyear=1960&ytype=to&exyear= They appear to be the same Gabriel part number G82086 (obsolete) shocks I purchased on Ebay back in 2010. I’ve never found any other shock listing that provides the required open length for a stock rear 60-62 shock mounting.
