Getting rid of 67-68 Camaro rear wheel gap

[sam86]

I'm getting ready to start the suspension work on my 68 camaro, but had some questions first. What setups, besides air ride, are people using to totally eliminate the rear wheel gap in 67 and 68 camaros? It seems that 99% of the ones I run across still have wheel gap.

This will be a street car...not an autoX or road race machine, so I'm not looking for anything elaborate. More than likely i'll end up going with a set of coilovers, but again appearance (low ride height) is really my main concern, and i've not really seen a 67 or 68 on coilvers completely eliminate the rear gap. So...whats the deal?

thanks!

[sam86]

This is an example of the stance I want...

https://www.cachassisworks.com/site_images/vehicles/Camaro/Camaro67_BretErvin/Camaro67_BretErvin_side_PRKR.jpg

[Quickboat]

To eliminate "wheel gap" you must tuck the wheel inside the wheel house. This cant be done and look right without shaving the inner lip of the quarter.

[sam86]

but i guess the main question is...will these coilover kits (like qa1) lower the car enough in the rear to allow me to tuck a little tire on say...an 18?

[Josh@Ridetech]

We've got a coilover kit designed for the 1st gens that will give you the stance that you are looking for. We typically run 18's on everything we have. If you mini tub your car, you can easily fit a 315 in the rear. The TruTurn kit that we have for the front will allow you to run a 275 width tire so you can get more tire on the road. The ride quality and handling that is achieved from the Fox shocks in the kit is a huge change as well. It's all a bolt in kit that takes place of the factory arms and leaf springs, the only parts that needs to be welded are the 4 upper axle tabs. It's something that can be installed over a couple days if you dedicate some time to it.

Here is a link to the 48 Hour Camaro that we built (lots of pictures):

http://www.ridetech.com/garage/new-48-hour-camaro/

[icemanrd19]

coilovers worked for me. If you do the dse quadralink i would get a shorter shock if you want it to go lower. Im very close to the bump stops. I could prob go another 1/2 to 1" but in person you can really see the car slammed.

From the ground to the drip rail is 47". Highest part of my car is 50". I can bairly get my low profile jack around some areas. This to me is the perfect ride height for everything all around.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2013/03/IMAG0327-1.jpg

[Jon @ Hotchkis]

Hey Sam,

There are obviously a couple ways to go about doing this, but one thing that hasn't been mentioned is the suspension travel with the car that low; there just isn't that much useable suspension travel when the car is lowered that much. We have a 3" lowering leaf that will get the fender lip down close to the tire (assuming a typical 25.5-26" tall tire), but there is still about a .5-.75" gap between the tire and fender.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2013/09/sucp_1103_01_o1968_chevrolet_camarodrive-1.jpg

This is Carl Casanova's and he has the 3" drop leafs (http://www.hotchkis.net/6769_camaro_firebird_sport_leaf_springs_3_drop.htm l). You can of course add in a .5" or .75" lowering block to close up the wheel gap.

A nice thing about the leafs is that they bolt right on, and our Tuned 1.5 SPS shocks (http://www.hotchkis.net/19671969-camarofirebird-hotchkis-tuned-15-street-performance-series-aluminum-shock-4-pack.html) are valved specifically for the application.

You should be able to start the install Saturday morning and take your lady out to dinner that evening.