69 camaro fender rub

[tkz69camaro]

As you can tell I'm new here. I have a 69 camaro, stock sub frame, 496 motor, aluminum heads, vintage air, and stock small block springs that are 40+ years old. The front wheels are 18x8. The tires are 245-40-18. The only time the tire rubs the fender is when you are starting up a incline or hit a bump with the wheels turned sharp. I need your advice on how to fix this, please. I know I can put big block springs on but I think it only need to come up about a inch or less. Everything I reed says this is a guessing game, if it set too high then you cut some of the spring off if it is still to low I guess you buy different springs. I thought with the small block springs being original maybe new small block springs would raise it up. Can anyone help with this?

Is coil overs the way to go? I don't know anything about them other than I reed where you can adjust them up or down. I guess I would need to know the spring rate for them. Can they be used with stock control arms? It looks like they cost a lot more than springs. Would I be paying a lot more to raise the car one inch or do they make the ride a lot better? Thanks for your time and any help you can give me.

Couple of pictures if that helps.

[Gitter Dun]

There are alot of different directions you can go with this. First off, how much is your budget. Secondly, figure out what your intentions for the car is...........street driving only, auto cross? The least expensive option is to put some negative camber up front. Addition of big block springs would be next.
An 8" wheel with 245's should not give you any fender rub with the correct back space on the wheel.

Here is a pic of my white '69 with 17 x 9.5 wheels with 5.5" back space and 275/40's. As you can see she sits pretty low. It has a slight rub in the turns on the driver side. I have 1.5 negative camber with Global West upper control arms. The rear tires and wheels are the same back space and size so that I could rotate them.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2012/01/LatestWhite69Pics004-1.jpg

[tkz69camaro]

Thank you for the advice. Your car has a great stance. I have gone over the budget a long time ago. The car will only be street driven. The back space may be the problem I think it is 5''. We were going to get a alinement but decided this problem would have to be fixed first. We do have all the negative camber we can get with the control arms. Do I need to go with tubular control arms first and if that doesn't fix it then go with big block springs?

[Gitter Dun]

5" of back space with a 245 on an 8" rim should not give you tire rub. Its been years since I've had a '69 with stock upper control arms so if you say it rubs with 5" of back space it must be the upper control arms. Changing out to upper tubulars is a must on these cars because the geometry in the stock arms is horrible. Go with CPP upper control arms. they are a quality control arm and cost way less than the others. You will not need to change your lower control arms. This should take care of any tire rub.

[exwestracer]

If you're happy with the ride height, try a taller upper ball joint to improve the camber curve. Just adding neg. camber (shorter upper arms, etc) is going to chew the inside of the tire off instead of the outside, so you've traded one occasional problem for another constant one... If you do want to raise it an inch, there is a very logical method for selecting the correct spring.

[Henesian]

Just the fact that it has the original 40+ year old coil springs SCREEEAMMMMSSSSSSSS new coil springs are in order. I would get the BB springs. Stiffer springs/shocks fix bottoming out issues that are caused by soft stock parts. I'm willing to bet it rubs up and down as well.

[tkz69camaro]

exwestracer, everything you said makes perfect sense. Can you tell me who to call about springs and if I go with a big block spring would it be good to also use the taller ball joint? Thank you for your time.

[tkz69camaro]

Henesian, I believe you are right 40+ year old springs have got to be hurting. Thanks for your time.

[exwestracer]

If you want a stiffer spring that will give you the same ride height you have now, you will need to measure the spring installed height as it sits now. Take one of the front shocks out and go up the middle of the spring with a steel rule until you get to the top rubber. Measure to the dip in the lower arm where the end of the spring rides. Get it as close as you can, this is a critical measurement if you want to get the same ride height with no cutting or fooling around with the new springs.

There are 2 ways to go from here. One is have the front end of the car weighed. This is easier, but you are going to have to figure out and subtract unsprung weight. The other way is to take the old spring out and go to a shop with a spring rater. Have them compress it to the installed height you measured and see how much weight it takes. You can select circle track springs with various rates and free lengths to get a stiffer rate and the same installed height.

[tkz69camaro]

Thanks, I will start to work on it today.