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Originally Posted by **grumpy**
.....Hey Scotti
I was looking at a thread you posted in from 2008 about self-made lowering blocks. I have the same 2" square heavywall that I plan to copy your design.
Im on a shoe-string budget, so it works for me. I like how you welded panhard tabs on sides.
Can you send me pics of the whole panhard set-up? If I can figure a way to build one like you did, it would be much cheaper than a super trac bar for sure.
Thanks, I appreciate it.
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Grumpy asked if I could share some pics/details of a previous incarnation of my 'better/optimized' Panhard bar (PHB) arrangement. Unfortunately, I don't have those pics any more. But I can describe what I did & took some pics of one of the blocks....
I made some standard 2" x .250" wall lowering blocks & put them in place for 'brainstorming'. I then installed the PHB into the factory 68 driver side frame mount w/a level attached. I moved the PHB until it became level & surprisingly found it was on the same plain as the lowering blocks. This gave me the idea to fab an integrated double shear bracket set-up for the PHB off of the lowering block.
If you were to look @ the top of the PHB where it would intersect w/the pass side lowering block, I mounted the tabs fore/aft of the PHB bushing. This placed the forward tab roughtly @ the middle of the block & the rear tab was roughly 2” from that.
For the forward tab, instead of just butt welding it to the block, I actually notched the block & slid the tab in. This allowed me to weld it from the front, top, & opposite side. This ensured the bracket wasn’t going anywhere. The rear tab was just butt welded to the front of the block surface.
For the PHB, I intended to use a long adjustable bar from CPP but hated the ‘remove, adjust, re-align, re-install’ method of adjusting when I used their standard length adjustable bar (because they adjust @ one end only). My budget solution was to cut-up 2 different original bars @ one end leaving the full length of the bar & 1 bushing. I installed the bushed ends on each side (1 @ the driver/frame mount, the other @ the lowering block tabs) & then marked each where they intersected. I then trimmed them slightly shorter (equal amounts off each bar) & had each end threaded LH/RH (just like a tie-rod). I used a GM disc brake truck tie rod end sleeve & turned the sleeve to shorten/lengthen the bar as needed to get a true center w/full weight on the suspension.
I revised the PHB mounts on my next round of changes because I went even lower & using these lowering blocks did not allow the bar to be parallel @ ride height any more. The combo of parts used was: 2” home built lowering blocks, home built adjustable long (approx 34”) PHB, 2500#/RE-6 dbl convoluted bags directly bolted in, modified OE shock brackets, stock replacement gas shocks, & CPP bolt-in notch.