My last set of Custom 3/5 Drop Springs is getting ready to find a new home.

[Candyman]

Hey Everyone,

Well, I am getting ready to ship out my last set of my now famous Custom made 3/5 Drop Spring. As most of you already know, way back when, I had really wanted to slam my Cruiser as low as I could go, but my budget wasn't up for Air Ride at the time, so I did my homework, an finally landed myself a set of the Goldline Super Slammers which were supposed to level out the PT with a 2.75/3.35 Drop which was, and still is as far as I know, the lowest drop spring kit you can buy, and in theory should have taken care of a good chunk of that wheel well gap found on all stock PT's which I hate with a passion! The only problem was after I installed the Goldline Super Slammers, my back end still sat a full 2" higher than in front. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper by any means!

So I went and saw a buddy of mine who CAD Designs, and Builds Off Road Trophy Truck Suspensions, and asked him if he could fab me up a custom set of springs on his coiler machine in his race shop to get my ride to sit at the right height I wanted. SO he measured everything out, did a ton of big time complex math and geometry to which I will never be able to get my head around in a million years, and then proceeded to turn out a fully custom set of Coils. By the time we were all said and done, Steve, and I had custom fabricated up the first, and as far as I know only full 3"/5" Drop Kit in existence in the world.

I first debuted the kit at the PT River Run back in 2007, an everyone kept asking about them during the whole show! Originally I had only intended to make only one set for personal use, but after receiving so many requests for us to build a few more kits, we finally decided to just go ahead and build a few and see where we go from their.

All together we made four Kits which some people later dubbed "Candydrops" short for Candymans Drop Springs. They all have been custom turned to the same spes as the first prototypes that wnet on my ride, and have all been custom Powder Coated any color per the Customers Request. To date their have been a Lime time Green Set, a Passion Purple Set, mine were Black Chrome, and the last and possibly final set of "CandyDrops" are slated to be Custom Coated in Deep Electric Blue per the lucky Customers request.

All in all, they were a fun little project to work on, and sure turned a lot of heads in its day! The PT sits a level 4" off the ground body height, and 3.50 under both front, and back which is only a little over a 1/2 higher than air ride sits when the bags are all the way out without major reconstruction to get a PT to seriously lay out like a few guys have done here. For those few, and proud who have taken their Drop to the next level I solute you!

As this is my last set of Springs I have under this Project, and their is a good chance we may never make any more, I decided I wanted to try n click off a few pic's of my Kit in a little side by side comparison with my old stock springs for fun, and to see just how much lower my Kit really is. Since they were still in raw metal form sealed in shipping cling wrap to protect it, it wasn't really perty so I decided since its going to be Sand Blasted, and Powder Coated this week anyways, I broke out my SATA Mini Jet Spray Gun and a little left over blue paint left over from a small mess up I had to fix on my old Peterbilt, and I went ahead and shot the springs up in a beautification attempt before unleashing the camera on them. Too bad Paint won't flex as they came out pretty oki doki if I don't say so myself!

So now, for the first, and possibly last time to be seen anywhere, here are a couple exclusive photo's of the world famous "CandyDrops" Lowering Coil Springs Kit. ...









And just for the newer guys, here is where my Ride sat on my CandyDrop Springs before I finally went and made the transition over to Air Ride.





Anyways, for those of you who have heard me talk about my 3/5 drop Springs forever, finally, that is a good up close look at them. A little piece of Candyman's legacy I recon.

Go easy Everyone, and I will catch yall later on.

Candyman

[lowpt]

The rear has to be pretty close to maxed out. What did you do about the bump stop?

[slayerdarkcross]

I pretty bottom out to everything already lol...

However I have been fortunate to drive the CandySprings and it was an interesting ride... You feel as if your part of the road!

Then again I got to drive the CandyBags! Smooooth

[Candyman]

Hey their lowpt,

Yeah they are pretty close to maxed. I wound up trimming the back bump stops in half to get a little more bounce out of it rather than have it sit ultra tight, which worked pretty alright. Surprisingly the back still has a little travel (not much) but a little.

The front is a little different story as it pretty much sits pretty tight even on 3/4 cut bump stops which makes for a kinda bumpy ride, but that is pretty much to be expected when you drop your PT that far without going to air ride.

The tires in back still have a lot of clearance and can actually still accommodate 20" wheels even with that much drop. I didn't think so, but the tire shop test fitted them for fun to see if I could pull them off, and sure enough.

The front tires again are a bit different as they are only approximately a good 1/2" off the wheel wells, but its set up so it wont go any lower so their is no chance of rubbing. Since you can go up to 19" wheels without changing the overall stock wheel dimensions, you can actually do a 19" / 20" wheel combo with no problems and still sit at the same height without any modifications which in theory should look pretty sweet! I was going for that look, but just never got that far. They do sit really close to where the air ride sits though. Here is a pic for ya showing the difference on my baby showing the difference in ride height between my springs and air ride.



On the up side, I loved the Springs as the cost was way cheeper than air ride, and their is less moving parts, and thus less that could go wrong if something ever were to happen.

On the downside, it sits low enough that you really have to pay attention to walking it really easy into driveways, and try to avoid speed bumps whenever possible as with anything riding that low, you have a high risk of scraping even if you take it at an extreme angle. You also really have to watch out for curbs and parking lot bump stops as they sit at a height of 4-5" and if your not extremely careful, you could easily find yourself running your front, or back bumper right smack into one which wouldn't be fun.

And the last, and probably biggest catch to these Springs is the cost involved in making them, as unlike big Companies like Eibach, or Goldline, who get good breaks on materials to mass produce their products, we have to pay a higher cost both in labor, and materials. We also use a lighter material than normally used in making drop spring kits which is used to make high end custom off road racing springs and components which also contributes to the higher cost, but gives you a slight weight reduction at the same time. The additional cost of Powder Coating also plays a contributing factor which adds up to a slightly higher priced set of Springs than normal which is why their are not more sets around. Basically to have that extra 2" drop in back, and close that wheel gap up is really nice, but unfortunately comes at a price.

Other than that they are big time fun, and have most definitely got the right look, are truly leveled out, and have that ultra cool perfect stance everyone wants to achieve!

Anyways, that's the low down on my Springs. If any of you guys ever have any more questions, or would like to possibly look into have a kit made or anything, please feel free to drop me a line anytime, and I would be more than happy to see what I could do for you

Go easy, and I'll catch ya later.

Candyman

[lowpt]

I don't remember seeing any pics of your airride install. I know you recently updated the stereo system so, did you mount the air goodies under the car?

[808]

Originally Posted by lowpt

I don't remember seeing any pics of your airride install. I know you recently updated the stereo system so, did you mount the air goodies under the car?

Well, now I gone and done it: For better or worse, no more springs!

[Candyman]

Hey their lowpt,

Yep, I switched over a while back. I wound up with an older Air Ride Technologies kit from a project that was never finished. I really owe it all to Slayer, and Ray for making the project possible! Otherwise I would still be sitting on my springs for sure! Here is what we put in.





The 3 gallon tank and compressor went under in the spare tire rack, and all the fittings went inside between the rear seat and my box. Ray and Slauer handled the install part for me so I didn't get to click off any good shots of the progress myself, but Slayer got a few.





And finally a quick vid Slayer made for me to show it off before I got her home. I requested using 1/2" air lines instead of 3/4 so it would go up and down slow and smooth instead of having that harsh jump to it. Anyways...


I still am wanting to go back and rework a few things to get her to sit better, but I am still kicking around a couple new ideas before getting too much further into it at the moment.Here are a couple of shots of it fully dropped.




That was the air ride project anyways.

Go easy,

Candyman

[slayerdarkcross]

Boy that car in a couple of photos looks familiar lol

So when am I getting a set of candy springs?

[lowpt]

Thanks 808 and candyman for those replies but, I did see those. I was meaning pics of the way everything turned out installed. The valves, tank, compressor. I have my valves under the car with the compressor. It's quite amusing to release some air while someone is walking close to your car. I am using a 3 gallon tank as well but would like to change it in the future to something larger. Like you, the compressor comes on everytime I raise it.

I had trouble with one of my Airride struts. I sent it back to them, only to find out they no longer make them and couldn't repair it. I still have them both if you ever need a spare.