Maintaining Ride Height

So, i am rolling my rear fenders, but I am still afraid if i carry a passenger or two, my subwoofer box and a full tank of gas, the rear will still sag to the point my 17" wheels will rub on the fender. My car has a great stance with these wheels, so i'm not willing to give them up just yet. Does this maybe mean my rear springs are worn out? They are Mustang springs, but i don't know from what year or how many miles they have on them, so they are not the original Zeph springs.

I'm considering buying new Fox Mustang GT springs and trying that first. Does anyone know if they have a higher spring rate than Fairmont wagon springs? i could try those too.

The other thing i'm considering is heavy load shocks. Either air shocks or those ones with the coil spring built in. Does anyone have any experience with these? which is better? I think this might be the way to go because my car's ride is really bouncy as is. I think the shocks i have are Bilsteins, but again, i don't know how old they are.

Thanks for any help.

I dont know for sure, but i would assume most mustang shocks would be short, but stiff. I had put hd station wagon springs on my old fairmont, and it seemed to lift it up a little, you could try those.

Yep, that was a thought. Good to know they make a difference.

actually the rear shocks interchange way up to 2004 i believe.
BUT the mustang rear springs are a no-no, it makes the car a butt dragger and wishy/washy.
yeah air shocks are a good idea for the short term, but that means the rear suspension will always be "loaded". try napa, they can get the rear springs that you need for the fairmont. that's where i got mine. as for the cargo springs, you may find that they raise the ass end up quite a bit for a while.......but if you have quite a bit of equip in the trunk you may be ok.
dont forget to replace the spring insulators/rubbers.

Mustang springs make it sag, eh? good to know! I'll probably still shoot for the wagon springs though, just in case. Thanks!

I tried using 89 mustang GT convertible springs on my 78 2 dr Boxtop and they acually raised the car 1-1/2 inches. So I trimmed the stock cargo coils to get the stance i wanted. haven't driven it yet though, but it looks like I want it to..

hmm.. maybe mine are just worn out then.

Well, i ordered some Fairmont Wagon springs. I haven't put them in yet, but I noticed they are physically shorter unloaded than the ones i had in there. This isn't looking too good. Does that definitely mean the car will sit even lower in the back if i put these in? Or isn't that necessarily true?

dont be fooled by a springs unloaded extended lenght. you have to take into account the wire diameter and metal type/content.
i'm not a boxtop? freak, but when you buy something from crappa, and it dont fit, you take it back!!! thats the problem we have with a 30 year old car. the first set i got was off by one #, and it raised the car so high i had a severe driveline vibration. i got it right in the end, and have been happy with that part of the rear suspension ever since.
springs are easy enough to fit, so its only a little time.
i dont like cutting springs as it can be difficult to get them right, some people have good luck, some dont....
good luck, let everyone know how it came-out and provide some part #'s if poss.

Alright, i'll put them in and see what happens.

I ran Mustang GT springs on my old car for a while, before I got the Motorsport springs (for a Mustang) to lower it. It wasn't a butt dragger by any means.

Also, they were progressive rate.

Oh, yeah... The reason I put the Mustang GT springs on it was because I took off the "helper" coil-over shocks, because when you would go over a bump, the front would bounce a little, and the rear wouldn't. It was like having a pivot point on the rear axle. I took 'em off, and it was all saggy and whatnot, so I put on the GT springs, and all was good until I upgraded.

Hope this helps.

Later,
Mike.

I'm pretty happy with the wagon springs. The ride is still a little bouncy, so i might try stock shocks intead of the Konis (they are not Bilsteins).

After I posted that, I looked and the new springs come with this paper that says they will be shorter than the old ones.

the springs will settle down with a little time, mine were the same for a while, i suppose you guys with the Box tops have less weight in the rear than the coupes, that might be why the gt springs fit, i tried the gt springs in my coupe and was immediately disapointed, (unless the springs were worn-out).
its good to see people experimenting with different things to get their cars tuned to a higher performance level.
another good thing about this site as it is fairmont related, when everything is documented and info is shared.