First of all, from my perspective, no one has been beating a dead horse here. Oh of your comments have me thinking about the order of events that actually took place and the order of events my mind tells me took place.
I distinctly remember setting the suspension up the way it is today. With the upgraded front wishbones added at the same time as the springs. I know for a fact this was done in my house's garage since that is where all the equipment I used was and still is, sitting in the corner.
I also painted portions of the frame with POR 15 in the downtown garage. I know that's a fact as well because the stuff is still on the floor.
I painted the red in our driveway because blotches of red stone can be corrected with a rake.
I also remember switching out the springs again and again after the front spring/rear spring chrome debacle, because front & rear had to match, but the front springs weren't going to be seen anyway, but if you looked real close or from underneath, yoy could see them anywayyou and they were new. I also went back and forth with the new wishbones. The picture of the frame in the driveway reflects the point where the old springs and old wishbones were in place.
The human mind is very susceptible to suggestion and memories can be false, so now, with several new comments and suggestions, I'm beginning to wonder if the order of events as I remember them actually happened.
"Your front springs look MUCH stiffer than your rears."
If that were the case in the early photo of the car had been taken with the old springs in place, that could answer a lot. I did take weight off the front end, but "a lot" is a relative term so as far as weight goes, I can't answer definitively.
The dampers ARE new and as I recall replaced early on in the process. I also recall being concerned about the right height when I installed them. But by lowering the perches I was able to set the car at the right height. That one's a little more difficult to convince myself I'm thinking wrongly, but knowing me, it's not out of the question.
I have no idea if the old and new shock absorbers line up or not. I'm pretty sure the purchases are way higher than the original equipment. But I'm also unsure if the springs run further up the shaft. That's another thing I'll need to look at, thank you.
As far as the rear goes, I'm wondering if the PO hadn't raised the crossbar for what ever reason and I simply replaced it back to the proper position when cleaning it up. I'll have to dig through old photos and check that out. If it hasn't changed, I'm thinking, Hmmm...I have a brand new (to me) milling machine and I love aluminum billet stuff... So maybe cutting the springs wouldn't be the wisest thing to do after all:-).
I am sponsoring Nadia Azzi (Google her) to play here next month and have been quite busy setting things up. It's also eating into my car budget a bit, so I'm slowing down (not stopping, mind you) Lotus work a little until after she leaves.
As likely as not, I won't be able to experiment with the ideas y'all have given me until late October. So I f I'm going back to the original Springs, the break might give me time to have them blasted and powder coated.
Always looking for that silver lining.
