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Headroom? Is it too late?

Unofun

Member
:cool: LOL!!!!!!! OK guys quit talking about me!
It is the best entertainment I have seen in a long time!
Over the years I have owned well over 40 Sterlings. Have I flip them? HELL yes! ahh... unless the wife says no. BOY talking about wives having POWER! :cry: It is always the ones I intend to keep that I end up selling though! Do I ever intend to sell one after having them home for 3 or 4 days? Hell no. but I have. When someone offers you 7 to 10 times more than you paid for it, how could anyone not sell it when having others that your not getting any work done on? I love these cars, I LOVE helping other people find them all over the World, and I try keeping in contact with them to find out how it is coming along. And of course showing mine off to others. I always try to find parts they may need, and of course try to give them the best ideas I can think of for them. Because I do that, often they get brought back to life again. Woohoo!
Everyone in this forum is jealous { even me } of you for getting the yellow one for probably less than the 1,500 it was advertised for. As you mentioned, you may fall in love with it, BUT you will sooner or later get tired of it, or you have to move, or become short for money, 0R the ones in POWER make you sell it. THAT is why I have so many.
You always end up talking to people who ask about the cars that you never expected to talk to, have pretty women flirt with you, sometimes even have a wife that refuses to let you getting one. { never let her I forget that she did that! } :devilish: I have sold at least 7 of my sterlings and ended up with them back 3 or even 4 times. Usually with my name still on the titles. Have I ever lost money on it being this way? Hell no.
 

strlngsilvr

New member
OK, looks like I have 7" of clearance. I have a plan to drop the pan another 2" (leaving me with 5" of clearance). What do you think of that?
 

farfegnubbin

Site Owner
Staff member
It's worth a try. I know there's only about that much clearance under the tip of the nose of my red car. If one of our cars has too little ground clearance I worry it could actually get stuck on a speed bump. BUT it makes some sense that if the nose goes over, the rest of the car will probably make it, too. I wouldn't go any lower than what you're talking about. And plan to make any fasteners face UPwards. (i.e. don't have any seat bolts that hang down an additional inch.) My maroon car has a very nice floor drop (about 4 inches under the entire crew compartment) but then the builder put 1.5 to 2 inch seat bolts through the floor. The ends of the bolts looked...unhappy.
 

letterman7

Honorary Admin
7" from what to what? The ground to pan? You can go with a physical 4" drop in the pan, and change your wheel and tire combination to make up for lost height. As Warren said, expect the nose to crash on speed bumps and sharp entry angles. Most of those you take at a 45° angle to minimize the crunching noises. First car had a 4" drop, riding on 15" wheels and 60 series tires. Had about 5" of clearance under the pan to the ground. Ally-oops in the roads at speed were interesting....
 

strlngsilvr

New member
Yes, from ground to pan. I just measured my Fiero and it is only slightly more than 4" in the lowest place. If I take out another 2 inches and add an engine it should be doable. That's my plan now.
 

Nic

Active member
Hi, Tallest Member of the community here at 6' 8". I dropped my floor pans 5" and will need to highly modify my seat in order to get enough headroom. Also, please understand some of us have been working on or owning these cars for decades and have answered this question and many many more (different chassis, engines, transmissions, brakes.... most things) and often find that when a new owner purchases the car, they didn't realize what a specialized and quirky vehicle these are. Don't get me started on symmetrical either, one of my headlight buckets in 1/2" shorter than the other.
So, while no disrespect was intended by Letterman, realize we've been doing this for decades and get weary of the same questions. That said, we are a very supportive group and are willing to help new members out, but we aren't great a spoon-feeding (not that that's what you were after).
 
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