The 1951 Chevrolet Lowrider

A 1951 Chevrolet is a bomb. Not an insult and not slang for something broken: in lowriding, a bomb is one of the rounded American production cars of roughly 1930 to 1955, and the Chevrolets of the late forties and early fifties are the heart of the category.

They have been lowered since they were nearly new, and understanding why means going back further than most people expect.

Where it starts

Lowriding begins in the mid to late 1940s among Mexican American youth in Southern California, though Tijuana, Texas and New Mexico all have their claims. It grows through the prosperity of the 1950s, and from the beginning it is defined against something: while hot rodders were going fast, lowriders went low and slow, bajito y suavecito, and the choice was deliberate.

The cars used were what was available and affordable, which meant production sedans from the 1930s through the early 1950s. Those are the bombs, and a 1951 Chevrolet sits squarely in the middle of the range.

The early engineering was crude and inventive in equal measure. Lowering blocks at the back, coils cut or shortened at the front, spindles cut down, frames Z'd to drop the body over the axle. And when none of that was enough, bricks, sandbags or sacks of cement in the boot, which worked exactly as well as it sounds.

Why the 1951 works

The shape does most of the work. These cars are rounded, heavy looking and low waisted, with a lot of body below the glass line, and dropping them exaggerates all of it. There is also a great deal of chrome to play with, and a bomb tradition that leans on accessories, sun visors, spot lamps, skirts and wide whitewalls rather than on modern parts.

The other reason is that a 1951 Chevrolet is a body on frame car with a separate chassis, coil springs at the front and leaf springs at the back, which is an easier starting point for suspension work than anything unitised. Everything the tradition wants to do to it is done to the frame and the springs rather than to the shell.

And there is continuity. This is a culture that has passed techniques down through families and clubs for eighty years, so the knowledge about lowering a bomb specifically, rather than a 1964 Impala, is still in the room.

"Somebody always tells me these cars were ruined by the lowriders. They were not. Half the bombs still on the road are only still on the road because somebody's family kept them going since 1958."

— Earl Dawson

Building one, and the mechanical truth

Lowering a car changes everything else about it, and on a 1951 Chevrolet three things need thinking about before the stance does.

Brakes. Four eleven inch drums on a single hydraulic circuit, with no assistance and manual adjusters. That was adequate for a standard car and it does not get better when the car is lower, heavier and being driven in traffic. A dual reservoir master cylinder is the cheapest thing you can do for it.

Geometry. Cutting coils and dropping spindles moves the front end geometry away from where it was designed to be, and worn king pins and tired bushings in a lowered car produce handling that people wrongly blame on the ride height. Do the front end properly first, then lower it.

The frame. Z'ing a frame or notching it for clearance is structural work on a seventy five year old chassis. It is done all the time and it is done well all the time, and it is not something to have done cheaply.

Beyond that, the decisions are cultural rather than technical. A bomb built in the traditional way keeps its six cylinder engine, its accessories and its period chrome, and that is a different car from one with a modern drivetrain underneath. Both are built. Only one of them is a bomb in the way the term is normally used.

Where this fits

Lowriding is one of four things people did to these cars and the others are mapped in the 1951 Chevrolet custom. The fastback that the tradition favours above all is in the Fleetline lowrider and the shape itself is in the sloping roof. The suspension you would be altering is in the 1951 suspension, the brakes that need attention first are in the brakes, and the chassis it all bolts to is in the chassis. The standard car is in the car all of this sits under.

Sources and notes

• Lowrider, Wikipedia - lowriding beginning in the mid to late 1940s and growing through the 1950s, the low and slow ethos set against hot rod culture, production cars of the 1930s through early 1950s known as bombs, the lowering blocks, cut down spindles, shortened coils and Z'd frames, the 1958 California Vehicle Code section 24008 banning any part below rim height, and the hydraulic pumps and valves that answered it in 1959.
• A brief history of lowriders, CarParts - the Southern California origin with competing claims from Tijuana, Texas and New Mexico, the post war emergence among young Chicanos, bajito y suavecito, the bricks and bags of sand or cement used to weigh the back down, and the aircraft hydraulics fitted in 1959 to comply with the new law.
• 1949-1952 Chevrolet Styleline and Fleetline, specs and history, Motogallery - these cars becoming a staple of the custom and lowrider scenes, lowered over wide whitewalls with skirts, spot lamps and deep lacquer.
• 1951 Chevrolet Styleline De Luxe Series 2100 JK, Classic Car Database - the separate chassis with independent coil spring front suspension and semi-elliptic leaf springs at the rear, eleven inch drums all round and worm and roller steering, which is what any lowering work has to deal with.
• Front suspension springs, Chevs of the 40s - the two front coil spring applications for these cars, which is what a cut or replaced spring is being measured against.
• 1951 Chevrolet De Luxe Series, conceptcarz - the scale of 1951 production that made these cars cheap and available to the people who first lowered them.