DIY Deep Drop - Lowrider Garage - Hydro

12. The inner plates are supplied slightly longer than may be necessary just trim off the excess as needed.

13. The three holes on each side of the boxing plates are not only used for welding purposes, but to indicate front (two holes) and rear (one holes) positioning.

14-15. Now we were able to turn our focus toward the actual suspension, beginning with the Moser Muscle Pak rear end. Since this is a 12-bolt, having had its ring and pinion already setup by Moser, it remained in place, but the axles/brakes would not. Fortunately, the external-flanged axle housing made it much easier to do so, rather than having to remove any C-clips from the differential.

16. Basically, we’ll bolt all the components together, from the forward-mount crossmember to the twolink U-bolt mounts on the rear end, before welding anything in place.

17-18. The blocks that mate the trailing arms to the rear end’s axle tubes actually bolt to the arms, making it much easier to assemble everything with just two hands, as shown.

19-20. The front crossmember for the trailing arms has sliding frame mounts, allowing for any adjustment if needed. Ultimately, the ends will get welded to the crossmember as well as to the frame rail.

21-22. With the links installed onto the rear end first, they’re simply lifted up and installed on the crossmember. Having the rearend positioned on a floor jack will help in positioning everything when determining and setting the desired wheelbase.

23. The pinion angle can be set simply by loosening the U-bolts to allow the rearend to rotate. When all is said and done, we’ll most likely weld the blocks to the axle tubes, but considering the amount of horsepower/torque the car “won’t” have, that may not be totally necessary.

24. Now for the upper airbag mounts. These will be supplied as shown on the right—pre-drilled but flat with slots for bending the side gussets (as illustrated on the left in the vise).

25. At this point, both the bag mount and the upper shock mount have been tacked in place simply by installing the ‘bag/shock on the lower mounts and cycling the rear end through its range of travel of estimated travel. No real science there, but still plenty of room for error.

26. Only after we were 99.9 percent certain that the mounts were in the proper locations, at the proper angle and range, did we proceed with the final welding duties.

27. The last item to be welded onto the frame was the Panhard bar mount, which uses a flat plate base welded to the frame with attached tabs, making for a stronger piece with less stress on the thin rail.