The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Camaro front clip coil spring recomendations??

Been lurking on here for 5 plus years and have with the help of the forum rebuilt a 1955 2nd series panel truck. Was smart enough to rebuild the truck but can not figure how to share my pictures with you. Well on with my question. Have added a 1978 camaro front clip and after driving for a year with the a a arms squeeking do to the bushings being worn out and feels like im driveing an old worn out dump truck would like to replace the a arm bushings and the coil springs. Looking for some recomendations and possible some pictures of your ride height if possible. Running a SBC 350 with air and 700r4 trans, all steel no fiberglass fenders or anyhing so she is still heavy. Thanks for all the help!!

Maybe I just needed to search some more try this out.
flickr

I would just change the bushings if your ride height is ok. My 55 has basically the same clip with the stock springs and the same motor/trans combo and it rides fine even though Ive just been around the block a couple times.

Thanks for the input. Did you use rubber or poly bushings? My springs are shot has spacer blocks already installed when I did the clip install. Should have done all this then.

I haven't changed anything on mine yet.

Anyone have any coil spring suggestion? Hate to just throw a set of stock camaro springs on and hope for the best.

Find someone with a good set of portable race car scales and find out how much weight you're carrying on each wheel. Several of the round track racing equipment suppliers such as Racer's Wholesale have a huge selection of coil springs of different heights, diameters, and weight capacities. Find something that looks like it will fit your application and try it. Fortunately, racing springs aren't terribly expensive if you happen to guess wrong the first time.
Jerry

Install a weight jack for each of the coil springs, then get some 5" diameter, 9 1/2"tall and 1000# Afco coil springs and you'll be close.

Where's he going to put the shocks if he installs a jack bolt?
Jerry

Install a bracket on the rear of the lower control arm and another on the frame. Going to take some measurements and research in the shock catalog to get the right length shock. Make sure to get the ride height set before taking measurements for the shocks.

I've been building race car shock mounts for over 40 years. It's not a simple process, since the stress on a shock mounting point can be measured in tons at times.
Jerry

I've been involved in a few of these Camero clip builds and have found the stock Z28 springs for the year of your clip work just fine.

You are right Jerry, lots involved in making a suspension work and not pound itself apart. That is the problem with guys wanting to cut off frames and put something different on. Back when I was involved in dirt racing we built a few IMCA type modifieds using a late model chassis with a stock front clip added. We used a Camaro subframe and then added a Howe suspension kit which had revised upper control arms, weight jacks and shock mounts. The cars were very successful and won lots of races.
Guys wanting to do a subframe graft should do some homework, its not just a slide it on and weld er up operation.

Building a dirt car is sort of like building a bridge, but without the luxury of using huge I-beams. We had a rule of thumb on the Northern California Sportsman cars we fabbed up- - - -"Build it 3 times as strong as you think you need it, and don't be too surprised when it breaks!"
Jerry

Perhaps we need to look at this from a different perspective. Comparing the weights and f/r splits of the stock Panel vs the same from the donor Camaro might be of help in figuring out what would be best. Starting with the Panel specs, it has listed curb weight of 3580#, with 1885 on the front/ 1695 rear. Those specs are with the base equipment and 6 cylinder engine. The Camaro, on the other hand, comes in at 3457 curb weight, with a 1900 front, 1557 rear split. Again, the specs are with base model engine (250 6) and equipment.
It would appear to me that even the standard 6 cylinder Camaro springs would be more than up to the task of supporting the Panel.

Thanks alot for the input everyone! Not realy goung to redesign the shock mounnts and alter anymore than I have too. I would just like to keep the same ride height as my worn out coil springs but have a better ride without haveing to change them out 2 or 3 times. So with that said the recomendations of z28 and the standard 250 6cylinder anyone have any after pictures of them installed. Also was that with or w/o A/C in the z28 and 6 cylinder. Thanks alot aggain for the help!!!

Not trying to rain on your parade but you need more information than you have. If you want to maintain your current ride height and get a better ride just swapping out a set of stock springs are going to disappoint you. If it was mine I would measure the installed height of the current spring. Then I would take them out and find a race car guy that has a spring rate tester. Then he can compress the spring to your installed height. Then he can further compress the spring and see if the rate changes. (it would be good to know how much suspension travel you have). Once you have this information call a spring manufacturer such as Afco or Detroit Spring and they can dial you in to a set of coil springs that will work for you.

One trick we used to use pretty frequently was to assemble the suspension without the spring installed and measure the distance between the upper and lower spring mount pads at the ride height we wanted, and again at the anticipated full compression distance and/or the bump stop. That information, plus the weight carried by the wheel gives a spring vendor most of the specifications needed to recommend a specific spring.

One of my competitors used an oddball-looking device for measuring wheel loading that used a bathroom scale. The linkage reduced the load by a 4:1 factor, so a 300-lb. capacity scale didn't get overloaded. It was made of square steel tubing and aluminum plate for the wheel to bear down on.
Jerry