63 Rear Spring Anchor Plate

[Tony B.]

I'm in the process of taking the entire rear suspension apart, cleaning, repainting and replacing bushings and some mounting bolts on my 63 roadster. I'm also replacing the rear spring. My question is that when I was disassembling the rear spring anchor mount, I ran across 2 additional pieces that were mounted on the rear spring anchor plate. I have not seen any refernce to these in any of the research that I have done. I'm attaching a picture. Can someone tell me if this is original? To my knowledge nothing has ever been done to the rear suspension.

Thanks....

Tony

[Joe L.]

Re: 63 Rear Spring Anchor Plate

I'm in the process of taking the entire rear suspension apart, cleaning, repainting and replacing bushings and some mounting bolts on my 63 roadster. I'm also replacing the rear spring. My question is that when I was disassembling the rear spring anchor mount, I ran across 2 additional pieces that were mounted on the rear spring anchor plate. I have not seen any refernce to these in any of the research that I have done. I'm attaching a picture. Can someone tell me if this is original? To my knowledge nothing has ever been done to the rear suspension.

Thanks....

Tony

Tony-----


I think this entire spring plate is a non-original sort of thing that was field-fabricated and installed at some point in the past. At least, I've never seen any original piece that looked anything like this.

You require spring plate GM #3817582 as was used for all 1963-77 Corvettes. This piece is GM-discontinued but easily available in reproduction.

[Tony B.]

Re: 63 Rear Spring Anchor Plate

Joe....

It has the original type spring plate. It looks like the 2 90 degree brackets had been added at some point in addition to the spring plate.

Tony

[Joe L.]

Re: 63 Rear Spring Anchor Plate

Joe....

It has the original type spring plate. It looks like the 2 90 degree brackets had been added at some point in addition to the spring plate.

Tony

Tony-----


OK, you can definitely rest assured that these pieces were added by someone.

[Paul Y.]

Re: 63 Rear Spring Anchor Plate

That apparatis looks exactly like the front portion of my hitch. They are attached beneath my original spring plate with longer bolts. Be sure when you remove them that you replace the spring plate bolts with the correct length bolts or you might crack the differential portion that they bolt in to. Not a very pleasant thing to have happen.

[Wayne M.]

Re: 63 Rear Spring Anchor Plate

Joe....

It has the original type spring plate. It looks like the 2 90 degree brackets had been added at some point in addition to the spring plate.

Tony

Tony -- [A repeat of what Joe and Paul have said] . Now that you mentioned it still has its original plate with "add-ons" (I can make that out in your pic), just make sure that if you cut those off, that you use the correct length bolts with 10 threads only (so they won't bottom on the forward cover holes and possibly crack the cover, causing an oil leak. Also make sure you have the original 9 leafs (unless F40) before tightening.

[Joel T.]

Re: 63 Rear Spring Anchor Plate

I'm in the process of taking the entire rear suspension apart, cleaning, repainting and replacing bushings and some mounting bolts on my 63 roadster. I'm also replacing the rear spring. My question is that when I was disassembling the rear spring anchor mount, I ran across 2 additional pieces that were mounted on the rear spring anchor plate. I have not seen any refernce to these in any of the research that I have done. I'm attaching a picture. Can someone tell me if this is original? To my knowledge nothing has ever been done to the rear suspension.

Thanks....

Tony

Tony,

Dumb question perhaps.... did the car ever have a trailer hitch installed? This is certainly non-original but looks like it could have been used to attach something like a lite duty/removable hitch. If you find other "strange" things under there, this might be the case.

In any event, follow the recommendations to get the correct plate (Paragon or LI Corvette) AND the correct length bolts depending upon how many leave your spring has... Paragon stocks both lengths. I've learned about bolt lengths the hard way recently!!

Good luck,

Joel

[Philip C.]

Re: 63 Rear Spring Anchor Plate

Looks like someone had add a traction bar to the car at one time, is there any trace of welding on the bottom of the cross member ahead of the rear end, thats where the other end of the bar is mounted. Phil 8063

[Harry S.]

Re: 63 Rear Spring Anchor Plate

Tony, since the 63 spring is a one year only part, do not throw it away. Salvage what you can.

[Paul Y.]

Re: 63 Rear Spring Anchor Plate

That hitch is actually pretty heavy duty as it mounts to that area and also to the bumper bolt brackets. The reason it is like that is to let down the back portion so that you can get to your spare tire. The back portion has a removable pin in it so it can be let down and swivel on the bolt holding the front portion of the bar to what you see left there. I doubt that they need to be cut off as they were designed to just be added to the bottom of the spring plate and held on with longer bolts to make up for the extra thickness. I could sent out a photo of the complete hitch if you want to see it. Let me know. Roy, I also have a Barrelcrafter ski rack that was made for my mid year. Accessories are great to have and use.