Poorboy,



For those that may wish to follow the example of this build with their own, where the Dakota clip was welded on top of the original 57 frame is likely the reason the finished product now sits too low. Its more work, and more difficult, but if the Dakota clip would have been welded to the 57 frame with top of the 57 frame welded at 1/2 the height from the top of the Dakota frame, the ride height would probably been correct.

For the record, the question asked at the start of this post was if anyone had experience ordering custom coils or air bags for a first gen Dakota. You have spent a bit of effort in your response, and I appreciate your interest. The photo do not show enough detail, but the Dakota frame is embedded into the '57 frame, not simply laid across the top of it and then attached. The section from the Dakota was cut away from the rest of the frame with fixtures attached to ensure the ride height was maintained along with the factory geometry of a-arm angles and steering rack output shaft/tie rod angle. Again, the photos I have provided are inadequate in giving enough prospective/information for that to be obvious.



As is, the Dakota crossmember is raised up from the 57 frame too much because the Dakota was welded on top of the 57 frame. I don't know what the height (top to bottom) the 57 frame is, but lets assume that it is 4" high, measured between the top and the bottom of the frame.

Again, the Dakota frame is sunk into/embedded into the '57 frame. The '57 has 6" of clearance from the ground to the bottom of the frame rail, and that was the clearance I provided with the fixtures prior to any cutting of the replacement frame. The clearance from the ground to the bottom of the crossmember under the engine was 9" on the Dakota prior to any cutting, which I provided with the fixtures prior to cutting as well. I am aware that a. that does not tell you what the distance from the underside or top of the frame rail of the Dakota was at the connection point, and b. 9" - 6" = 3", the amount I am attempting to recoup with different springs/bags. Hopefully by the end of this response, it will be understood that it is a coincidence that the difference in measurements provided is 3" and not an indicator of the cause.

If the Dakota frame was sunk into the 57 frame at 1/2 the 57 frame thickness (in our case 2") you would have raised the front of the 57 frame up 2"t higher in the air then it is currently.

Understood. No further explanation needed. I agree, sinking the Dakota sub-frame further into the '57 frame would cause the overall ride height to increase. However, as I have tried to explain, with the weak springs I would have ended up with a correct ride height, with no suspension travel, and poor suspension geometry.

The body sits on top of the rear section of the frame. The suspension attaches to the front frame. When you want to determine ride height, you need to make your measurements from either the top of both sections, or from the bottom of both sections. Measuring from the top of one and the bottom of the other will result in something either being too high or too low. Its best to make these measurements while the vehicle weight and the motor weight is still on the frame sections. If the front frame section is 6" off the ground, measured from the top of the frame with the motor weight there, at the cut location, and the height o the top of the rear section of the frame is 6" to the top of the frame with the weight of the vehicle on it, at the cut location, when you splice to two sections together, you need to maintain the two height measurements to maintain the same vehicle ride height.

I would think that it would be obvious that you would take your measurements from the same side of the frame rails, top or bottom and all sides/each end of the frames. Just to be clear however, you would not have to provided you accounted for the different datum points when calculating ride height.

If you want to lower the vehicle ride height, you can rise the front section the amount you want to lower the vehicle. That means that if you want to lower the front of the car 2", you will raise the front section 2" higher then your beginning measurements. Use caution here, this will be the actual height change at the weld joint, everything else will have to be adjusted accordingly, and any change in the equipment from the original equipment present at the time of measurement will alter the changes you are making.

Understood. What you are saying is that by raising the front suspension mounting locations i.e. the subframe/graft from the Dakota, as it relates to the frame you are attaching it to, you are effectively lowering the overall ride height of the car. No disagreement there.

In this case, he determined the front ride height from the bottom of the front crossmember, and from the top of the rear frame. Its easy to do. Had he taken both measurements from the top, he would probably have seen the 4" (or whatever the 57 frame height is) difference and thought it might be too much. Generally speaking, a 2" difference between the two measurements is a big difference on the ride height.

Incorrect. I did use the bottom of the front crossmember of the Dakota frame, along with measurement elsewhere on the subframe to provide the proper caster angles when completed, and I used the underside of the '57 frame to the ground as my frame of reference. Again, the pictures do not show enough detail.

As it currently sits, if I stand on the front horns of the frame with the engine and transmission installed, the lower a-arms run out of travel and contact the frame near the spring buckets. The angle of the upper a-arms even without my standing on the horns are angled upward from the center of the chassis to the outside of the chassis. The lower a-arms do as well though not as severely. Basically the suspension looks like a mini-truck with the coils cut too far. The springs need to be replaced. So my question was, does anyone have experience ordering custom coils or air bags for a first gen Dakota. It sounds like I might get away with just throwing some v8 springs in rather than custom order anything.

Shane