De-arching leaf springs

I have a set of leaf springs for my Cuda that always made the car sit too high in the rear. They are Espo +1" BB springs with 6 leaves.

Can I stick these in a hydraulic press to take a little arch out of them? Anyone ever do this that could give me some pointers?

Bending them in a press is only going to weaken the spring by over loading it basically.

A spring shop would be the proper way to do it I would say.... you need to relieve the temper, lower them, and retemper them IMO to have the correct tension again.

yes you can . been doing it for 30 + years on race cars . if you only want a ride height adjustment , you can cold bend [in a press] the springs main leaf near the eyes. this way you don't change the whole springs arch but you move the mounting points some... lay them out and pull a straight edge across the eyes and record the actual arch measurement. then make small adjustments at each end until you get about an inch less measurement in the free arch. the best thing about doing it this way is , you don't have to break the springs down to do it

take the secondary spring out.

ek3 is 100% correct!

I called Espo since the springs I want to de arch are from them. They said I could just put them in a 10 ton press and press down on them a couple inches from the center bolt...with the leaf spring assembled. I was surprised it could be this easy. Guess it can't hurt to try?

if you try to change the entire spring , you will have a harder time getting them the same. do the main leafs like I said and you can get the ride height change with ease. it is the more "simple way" to do it.

My dad worked in a spring shop in the forty's, they would re-arch bus and truck springs by laying the spring over an anvil type deal with about a 4-5 inch gap then hit with a large hammer.I used a heavy piece of channel steel. The hard blow is what gives it the set it needs to stay in the arch you want. I've done this to get more arch on sagging springs with great success. You could bend it into a circle if wanted. You have to be in center or it will bias to one side. Only bend the rear part behind the spring bolt and think of it as a package, don't just do the main but do the second one and maybe the third.

Well I tried the press with the spring assembled like ESPO said and that didn't seem to do anything. I think I am just going to try to find a spring shop in the South central PA/Baltimore, MD area. My brother in law said their used to be shop in Baltimore that you could take springs to and tell them how you needed the ride height adjusted and they would re-arch or de-arch the springs.

I installed the ESPO springs earlier today with the expectation that the car would sit level in the back. What I ended up with was the driver side was sitting 1" higher than the passenger with the front level. Is this normal? Based on my measurements I need to drop the driver side 2.25" and the passenger side 1.25".

Might be easier / cheaper to get some lowering blocks.
You'd also be able to dial in the exact stance you want.

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Well I tried the press with the spring assembled like ESPO said and that didn't seem to do anything. I think I am just going to try to find a spring shop in the South central PA/Baltimore, MD area. My brother in law said their used to be shop in Baltimore that you could take springs to and tell them how you needed the ride height adjusted and they would re-arch or de-arch the springs.

I installed the ESPO springs earlier today with the expectation that the car would sit level in the back. What I ended up with was the driver side was sitting 1" higher than the passenger with the front level. Is this normal? Based on my measurements I need to drop the driver side 2.25" and the passenger side 1.25".

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He's probable thinking of Fallsway Spring in Balto., I've heard good stuff about them.