Im planning on buying a kit for the rear of my 68. Welding the shock brackets to the rear end and mounting a bar between the frame rails. My car sits pretty low now. I have a 275-60-15 BFG under there now and the car has been mini tubbed. Quarter lip sits down over the tire about 1-1/2. Being I still have leaf springs on the car would ajustable coil overs give me much control over ride height with the leaf springs? I know changing over to a ladder bar set up would give much better control over ride height or even better, air ride.

You have to run one or the other. Not both.

Thanks chicane67!
So having ajustables on the rear of a leafspring car will not give much ride height control. I was hoping to maybe raise an inch just for when loading the car up with luggage for the long cruises. A cheap set of air shocks would do the trick but may not ride as nice nor look as good.

Well, I have seen some coil-over like products work for something like you are describing. They are available at local parts stores and JCWhitney.

They basically are a 'weak' coil-over that is installed to your existing shocks and they can be adjusted. I dont really have any experience with them but it might be a direction to explore. They are kinda like 'helper' springs.....which brings up something else that may work you.....'Add-a-leaf's.

It might be worth it to just replace them with stock or aftermarket springs to begin with. :confused:

I added some of those clamp-on coil springs to a second gen mono-leaf Camaro my daughter had. She lived on a dirt road and the car was bottoming out. The car felt kinda weird with them but it worked. It didn't handle well anyway! smile.gif

With multi leaf springs, you lose the rate quickly just rasing it an inch, so the spring would have to be pretty stiff to help much. I'm not sure the springs would have their normal wheel hop control this way.

I did once see a guy with air shocks on a mono-leaf 68 Camaro. He was autocrossing the car and I was suprised he had no wheel hop problems. He let the air out of the shocks to lower the rear more, and suddenly had lots of wheelhop!

My point is, the shocks ought to be staggered to work best.
I don't really like this setup, can't say I'd recomend it at all, but it might work.

Guldstrand once did a Camaro project where he drilled and tapped the end of one of the shorter rear leaf spring ends, and added a jack bolt to it. I don't remember if it was for ride height adjustment or left right preload.

Tom, did you ever see that one???

Thanks for the ideas chicane and David. I'm going to be getting a set of Qa1 ajustables for up front. You think it would be a waste to spend the money for a set on the rear? This car is mainly a street cruiser and will see some track time this year. A couple long hauls as well. I've been thru many different types of shocks over the years and wanting to try something different. If the ride height wont ajust than no biggie. I'll pull my leafs and get them re-arched up another inch. They have settled over the past 2 years. I could also maybe have them add another stock leaf to help with any weight issues.
David I had also wondered about the staggering. Should they be angled towards the center of trunk or front to back? Seems most drag cars I see have them mounted straight up and down. This is also a drag car I know.
Thanks for the help.

[ 03-09-2004, 03:12 PM: Message edited by: sixd8rs ]

David~ I am not 100% on this, but I am pretty sure that it was for preload. I vaguely remember seeing something on paper.....but I never got to see it in person.

sixd8rs~ Shocks front and rear would be a good thing. At least you would have some adjustability in both ends. Definately not a waste of time and or money !! The additional leaf might also be a good route. I guess it depends on if you feel that you have enough spring rate or not. If you feel that you do, I would go for the re-arch......but if not, an additional leaf would give you some extra rate and a little height as well.

As for the shocks you want to keep the angles down to a minimum to keep the effective dampening. The more angle, the less effective. If you were looking aft-> forward, you would want to keep as little angle as possible. When looking from the side, you would want to split the difference from the lower shock mount (going straight up) to the centerline of the axle tube. That way it will clear the housing and still be off set for the stagger......I hope you follow me on that......

Is there a local 68 or later near by? Maybe you could get an idea from looking over that same set up and get an idea of the angles associated.

graemlins/thumbsup.gif

If you have stock shackles, I heard the engergy suspension shackles may be slightly longer, would raise the car a smidge. Second gen front leaf hangars will raise the car too...

I agree with Tom that the shocks need to be pretty close to vertical in both rear view and side view.
David

Thanks for the great help guys!