If the rear of your vehicle dramatically dips when you hit the gas, or if going over a speed bump feels like the rear end of the vehicle is going to come up through the floor, then you probably need to fix or replace the rear suspension. On classic cars, like my 1954 Chevy Sedan, the rear suspension was a pair of leaf springs. Over time, these springs get tired and can even crack. This can cause the problems that I mentioned above. This car drove straight but wanted to lung into oncoming traffic when you hit the gas, or veer off the road when you let off. These are clear signs of suspension problems. I decided to replace the original setup with an aftermarket rear leaf spring suspension kit from Chassis Engineering. The kit comes with everything that you need to replace the entire rear suspension.
A project like this should take a solid day, depending on what issues you find and how difficult the original suspension mount rivets are to get out. Our project (me and my 5 year old son, Blake) took a solid weekend as the rivets in this car just didn't want to come out, and a section of the right side frame rail was rotted away (under the rear leaf mount), so we had to fix it. After removing the old mounts and fixing the frame, it was simply a matter of drilling and reaming a few holes, and then bolting the new kit in place.
The car drives and handles like new again, and more importantly is safe. Blake and I took it for a test drive and he loved it :)
Special thanks to Kevin MacLeod for the funky music incompetech.filmmusic.io/song...