I have interest in slamming my car. Yes stupid idea, but I'm still a kid and I was told that you can get away with stuff like that while you're young. I've researched on drop spindles, lowering springs, and even lowering springs with the lowering ball joints.
Obviously most people wont chime in because of the idea and pretty much ruining a Fiero, but what would you guys recommend?

I have nothing to add personally, but theres nothing wrong with lowering a Fiero. They sit way too high in stock form in my opinion. It also depends what your idea of "Slamming" is. A 2in drop gives it a good stance, but I've also seen bagged fieros that look great.

On the contrary Pierre....Fiero's beg to be lowered my fine feathered friend.
Both of my Fiero's are lowered 2 inches all around. Any more and you start to risk bottoming out on speed bumps, hitting stuff on the road with your crossmember and/or cradle. Lowering & wide, low profile tires do look nice on a Fiero but really do give a harsh ride. Oh, and there are MANY on here who have and LOVE their lowered Fiero's .
Kit

quote Originally posted by Kitskaboodle: On the contrary Pierre....Fiero's beg to be lowered my fine feathered friend. Both of my Fiero's are lowered 2 inches all around. Any more and you start to risk bottoming out on speed bumps, hitting stuff on the road with your crossmember and/or cradle. Lowering & wide, low profile tires do look nice on a Fiero but really do give a harsh ride. Oh, and there are MANY on here who have and LOVE their lowered Fiero's . Kit

Can you upload a picture? I've rode in many ceral box ricers and stupid low s-10's, and the ride doesnt bother me that bad. I just want it to be clean when I do decide to go low.

Give me an email address to send some pics to and post for me. I have an Iphone only and can't post pics .
Kit

quote Originally posted by Kitskaboodle: Give me an email address to send some pics to and post for me. I have an Iphone only and can't post pics . Kit

Casteelcustoms@live.com

quote Originally posted by MiloFiero: Casteelcustoms@live.com

Two pics sent to you of my 86 GT. Can send a pic of my 85 GT if wanted.
Kit

Bag it.

Then you can at least have reasonable ride hight and suspension when you need it, and drop it down for showing off at cruise nights or whatever.

You will need to be careful to keep it from scraping though, as dropping a Fiero all the way the frame on the ground could crush the coolant pipes and cause worse problems than style and image worries.

As long as you're not "laying frame" or doing some stupid camber or "hellaflush" BS, there is nothing wrong with lowering a car a little.

I'm in the middle of lowering mine an inch and a half, but I will also be running 17" wheels with 235/45 tires.

Just don't go too crazy and I think you'll find a lot of support here.

Dude i say go for it, if that is what you like, do it !

I like them looooow as well.

A little inspiration perhaps ?

On the topic of bagged fieros. Does anyone know how bad the handling gets?

If i can find the right rear struts with bags for a good price, I will wait and hold off on lowering until i can buy bags. Anyone have any idea where to get the rear strut bags?

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/092857.html

Can you weld?

Just be careful not to let it bottom out too hard.
Those coolant lines really don't like that

I think ive determined to bag it. Going to order wheels for My car later on this week. After that its going to be saving every penny for bags. After income tax and birthday and christams money should have it spring!

Do you have to make sure your wheels will fit the bag components? I mean order them after bag parts?

quote Originally posted by 2.5: Do you have to make sure your wheels will fit the bag components? I mean order them after bag parts?

Im going to keep my stock wheels and put them away just incase my new wheels dont fit. Also theres always the option of selling the new wheels once i get bags. Its going to be a while before i commit 100% so might as well let my car look good until then.

quote Originally posted by Kitskaboodle: Both of my Fiero's are lowered 2 inches all around. Any more and you start to risk bottoming out on speed bumps, hitting stuff on the road with your crossmember and/or cradle. Kit

What have you done to correct your axle deflection. I have a 3800 II S/C mounted to the Getrag at its stock location, I put Eiback 7/8" lowering springs on it and now she sits static with negative deflection. When I hammer it she squats further into the negative and I have broken 2 axles because of the binding. How can I keep her lowered and remove the negativity with out raising the engine inside the engine bay area.

Bump to help this guy get help^^

Also, is there anyway to go lower than 2" on the rear? Seams like all the coil-over options leave you with just 2 inches.

quote Originally posted by MiloFiero: ... is there anyway to go lower than 2" on the rear? Seams like all the coil-over options leave you with just 2 inches.

There's a lot more to lowering a car than simply reducing the wheel to fender gap. I hate to be the party pooper here but unless you're going strictly for looks and don't care at all about handling, ground clearance, or ride harshness, then stick to no more than a 2" drop.

For starters, the stock ground clearance on a Fiero is 6". Using more than a 2" drop places the underside of your car dangerously close to the road since a stock suspension can travel upwards of 3" under real life scenarios. When you consider that ruts in the road or speed bumps can drastically reduce that clearance, you'd be taking your chances with a 3" drop. Remember that the oil pan, fuel tank, radiator hoses etc. are flush with the bottom of the car.

Next, consider that the struts have about 4.5" of upward travel from stock ground height. The last inch of travel is available only if you remove the 1" bump stop on the strut shaft. If you lower your car 3", that leaves you about 1.5" of strut travel before you lose all control of the suspension in the rear. The only way to avoid bottoming out (and potentially destroying your struts) would be to use extremely stiff springs... something in the order of 700 lb/in. With springs that stiff you can bet on several things: losing any fillings in your teeth, bending wheel rims far more often, and having structural cracks develop in the frame, especially in engine and transmission mounting areas. You had also better make sure your upper and lower frame rails are in mint condition since all of the road bumps will be transferred to the rails.

The last thing to consider is that by lowering the car, all of the angles of the suspension control arms change. A 2" drop rather significantly alters the handling of the car as I've shown in my build thread in the construction zone. Some will argue that they didn't notice any change in the behavior of their car, but seat-of-the-pants analyses are subjective. Remember, you're dealing with a modified Chevette suspension in the front and a Citation front end in the back. With a 3" drop I can guarantee that even the most inexperienced driver would notice a big change for the worse.

But it is your car... do as you like, just do it with your eyes wide open.

The ~1.5" drop from the ST springs I have on my car is probably as low as I'd go without doing some serious work to straighten things out and get the handling back to what it should be.

If one is dead set on it... isnt air bags best because you can pop it up for road clearance when needed? You could also probably limit how low it can drop.

What do air bags handle like in corners?

Taking into account of what bloozberry said, i think i will just stick to the wcf coil overs and 1.5 inch drop for the front until i save up enough for bags. I still want to have some sort of decent ride just in case if there is a date night sometime in the future. But bags are still on my mind, we'll see how the funds look when it comes car season.

You don't want to go too low or drive-ability will suffer greatly especially if you ever decide to add a chin spoiler. Coil overs is definitely the way to go in the rear. The 87 I just bought has the held coil over kit in the rear and it looks like I could go get more than a 2" drop from them if I wanted to.

My other 87 has cut springs and staggered wheels, which really helps make it look really low. I'm running 17's in the front and 18's in the rear, but my tire diameter up front is smaller than stock. But it can be a challenge to drive, you really have to pay attention entrances and inclines. If I park with my tires in one of the deeper cracks in my driveway I can't even fit my fingers under the bumper. Also keep in mind having it serviced, it is kind of a hassle to get mine up onto a lift, and I have to drive it up on boards to even get my low profile jack under the cradle or cross member, and I am pretty sure I will have to remove the front bumper if I ever have to have it towed.

quote Originally posted by zmcdonal: Also keep in mind having it serviced, it is kind of a hassle to get mine up onto a lift, and I have to drive it up on boards to even get my low profile jack under the cradle or cross member, and I am pretty sure I will have to remove the front bumper if I ever have to have it towed.

I have stock body on my car and can't even get my "low profile aluminum racing jack" far enough under the front to be able to lift it up, with the ~1.5" drop ST springs. Under the rear is no problem. Plenty of room back there. Lifting the rear at the center of the cradle all the way up with the jack, has the front nose almost touching the ground. The aero nose on the GT/SE/Indy cars is long and low, which makes getting a jack under the front annoying, even at stock height.

I cut my springs in the front and have coilovers in the back, the front "hops" a little to much, but my friend told me I shouldn't go to stiff in the front, what should I do?

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88 Fiero/LP640

Affordable Web Design

quote Originally posted by DavePatron: I cut my springs in the front... the front "hops" a little to much, but my friend told me I shouldn't go to stiff in the front, what should I do?

What condition are your shocks in? And did you shorten your bump stops? Perhaps you're hitting (or riding on) them.

I cut two coils off the front (and rear) springs of my '84, properly shortened the bump stops, and autocrossed it for four years. No "hops".

[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 10-11-2014).]

I just cut 1 1\2 coils front and back. Looks great to me and Fiero's need to sit low.

quote Originally posted by Patrick: What condition are your shocks in? And did you shorten your bump stops? Perhaps you're hitting (or riding on) them. I cut two coils off the front (and rear) springs of my '84, properly shortened the bump stops, and autocrossed it for four years. No "hops".

thanks that must be the problem, any good writeup on shorting them?

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88 Fiero/LP640

Affordable Web Design

quote Originally posted by DavePatron: thanks that must be the problem, any good writeup on shorting them?

I assume you're referring to the '88 front suspension? (Previous years are way more difficult to shorten their front bump stops.)

Fieroguru has written about this quite a few times. He's the fella I followed in regards to altering the front suspension on my Formula. Run a search on his posts/threads and I'm sure you'll find his excellent info.

quote Originally posted by MiloFiero: I think ive determined to bag it. Going to order wheels for My car later on this week. After that its going to be saving every penny for bags. After income tax and birthday and christams money should have it spring!

There is an alternative solution to utilizing air bags. I currently have a lowered 87 Mera using the Fiero Store lowering kit. It was supposed to be a one inch drop but ended up being two plus inches on my vehicle. I could not get out of my driveway without often scraping the bottom spoiler and speed bumps and gas station hills were equally bad. I installed two front air shocks, a reservoir, pump, operating switch, and pressure gauge on this vehicle and that has solved my problem. I can make changes on the fly and can generally correlate a pressure with a specific height (ignoring temperature changes). You may have to search some parts stores to find the correct length air shock but I like them much better than bags.

Nelson

quote Originally posted by hnthomps: I installed two front air shocks...

In the old days (1970's) we put air shocks on the back of our cars so the oversize rear tires would clear the fenders. Putting air shocks on the front of lowered Fieros to help clear speed bumps etc on the fly is a great idea.

Doesn't anyone use ball joints to lower there car. Rodney Dickman sell them. Are that any good.

quote Originally posted by jim94: Doesn't anyone use ball joints to lower there car. Rodney Dickman sell them. Are that any good.

Some have, they get good reviews, I have heard they keep the ride the best.

I have cut springs up front with modified subbers and coil overs in the back with the top hat flipped. I have added my own body kit to the sides and rear. I have a nice ride that is not bumpy. I am running 19" wheels. I have lowered the rear a nother 1" from when thirs pic was taken.

[This message has been edited by Kurtmylar702 (edited 10-13-2014).]