I removed the springs and am wondering if they have still a bit of life. Car was driving fine for its age.
What is the overall length we should expect from the springs?
Camaro Coupe 68 V8 3651 with Air Conditioning

 

Over all length of a uncompressed spring does not mean much. Normally the spring rate is what decreases with time. but that is not proportional to uncompressed length. Put simply two springs can have the same uncompressed length and one is good and the other is shot. Ride height of the car is the best way to determine life of a stock spring. Next would be how it was handling.

 

Thank you. I thought this would give a clue. Now the next question is, what are the chances that a spring is shot? I mean a lot of classic car run their original spring. As long as they are not broken ...
Getting them in France is costly and useless if not necessary.

 

Its going to depend on your definition of shot. Like I said before if the ride height is too low the car will bottom out in normal driving and a front end alignment shop will not be able to bring the alignment back into spec. After that is all about how you think the springs are performing. Bumps are mostly about shocks but if the whole car leans or feels mushy when it stops then springs are the fix. Life of a spring is difficult to predict. There are so many factors. Road condition, driving habit, Slight material variation at the factory even the manufacturing process itself. Remember these cars where built to last 5-8 years, there was not even a thought given to how these springs would hold up after 50 years. I have known guys to add spacers and even stuck wood into there springs so the car could get aligned. In my opinion that is not safe and I refused to do a few alignment over the years because of shenanigan's like that.

True spring failure is breakage. I could not tell if a spring will break today or 20 years from now. There are labs out there that can find spring fatigue by looking at the micro structure on a clean surface but that would cost way more then rebuilding the whole front suspension. There are cars out there that under engineered their springs. I had a VW rabbit that broke both front spring in less then 10 years 100,000 miles. I had no warning and less then a year after a front end alignment. I just hit a bump and the passengers side it not come back up. At the time I asked a VW expert if I should replace both, He said its random there was not way of knowing, 3 months later I was back needing the drivers side. But that is In the mountains in coal mine country, the roads sucked.

The only real downside to trying your springs is the cost of an alignment. After you put the front end back together it will need alignment. Assuming you do your own work then the only extra cost will be if the car will not align or your are unhappy with it your redo your work and pay for another alignment. If
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