Hello all,

My father got his 1967 Camaro restored a few years ago and it's becoming clear with time that some of the mechanical work wasn't clearly executed very well. The car has a quite a few drivability problems..It's frustrating that I don't have paperwork for the restoration so I don't know exactly what was done and with what parts - especially when almost all of my wrenching experience relates to modern BMWs.

However, so far all of the work I have done on this car has been very rewarding and successful, so hopefully with a bit of research I can get this sorted out as well.

The main problem is bottoming out on the front end..even on moderate bumps etc it will skid on the oil pan. This is especially unpleasant when it occurs at high speed and upsets the cars balance obviously....Visually inspecting the pan you can see a lot of damage from these impacts...scared it's going to fail eventually & seize when it loses all of it's oil

At the rear end one of the sides doesn't feel right when on the road..if I try to push down on it from the top I can't get the suspension to do virtually any movement

I stuck my head around and couldn't see anything obviously broken, but then again, I don't know jack about solid rears.

Where should I start here? The drivability is so poor right now you almost can't drive it on backroads, and if you do, you have to drive like it's a Prius. Depressing. I'd love to invest in some performance oriented mods once we fix the current issues, maybe some Hotchkis braces etc as obviously it has lots of flex..

Can someone recommend a trustworthy shop near Oakland, CA who specializes in these cars? I'm thinking of having an inspection done, that way I can get a simple list of parts I need to be changing etc

Thanks for reading

 

Don't waste your time working on it. Tell your Dad I'll give him $300 and take it off his hands. I'll even haul it away. I can drive it like it's a Prius too! Lol.

 

On a serious note, sounds like the suspension was setup for drag racing, soft front end, stiff rear.

 

Well, for those of us who still have a fair bit of testosterone in our blood, we like to drive cars like this the way they were meant to be - ****in hard. Anything less is like having to listen to a great piece of music through headphones missing 1 channel...

Yeah, maybe so. From what I understand if I go with the Hotchkis tubular LCA I can use shims to adjust ride height (raising by 1 inch, lowering by 1/2 inch)..this should be enough to get it to stop scraping. Currently the car has no rate, ride height is about equal front/rear - looks great...If you go with a tubular LCA, would it be a bad idea to cheap out and not get a matching tubular UCA?

Can anyone recommend a sump guard for it? I tried to find ready made ones on ebay etc but couldn't find anything.

 

Wow, I'd like to see a side shot of the car. Mine has 6 cyl front springs, and the engine has an extra capacity (deeper) oil pan. Even with that, my oil pan is still at least 6" off the ground. Your car must have received lowering springs and/or drop spindles to make the pan a ground scraper.

 

My guess would be the springs are shot and are sagging both front and rear--and the shocks also are shot--anything can be fixed it just takes time and $$$$$$$

 

Here's some pics of the car. Sorry, no quality pictures of it - too lazy to take it outside for pictures today...plus there's several transmissions in the way


Here's my main project, BMW 7 series with a custom 6 speed manual swap..total rebuild in process, going to add a blower..even without a blower it's sadly faster than the Camaro (this needs to be corrected, eventually....)

Is there any way to visually inspect the leafsprings in the rear? For the front I guess I'll probably just end up disassembling everything. I suppose the shop who did the suspension used low quality stuff...It was fine for several years but lately the problems have started, progressively getting worse

 

Looking at the rear leaf springs is an easy way to tell if they are shot. If they are somewhat flattened out and don't have an arch to them anymore they are shot (single leaf are more likely to wear out before the multi-leaf and look almost flat, they make good carbon fiber replacements now that reduce wheel hop). Looking at the differential rubber stop bumper clearance will also tell you if they are worn out. Sounds like they are. In the front either the springs are worn out or they used lowering spindals (the originals will have the part # stamped on them), lowering springs or cut the springs (the cheap way of doing it wrong). Do check the shocks but if the springs are good it shouldn't be bottomed out even if they are shot.

 

I highly recommend you spend some time over at Pro-Touring.com it is one of the best sites around to find information on how to make a 1st Gen Camaro handle as well or better than a modern sports car. Mark Stielow is a GM engineer who has built several 1st gen Camaros the latest one has out run a new ZL1 Camaro on a road course.
I would also recommend you look at 1st gen suspension upgrades from http://www.ridetech.com/store/musclecars/ and http://detroitspeed.com/ You might be surprised at how close you can come to your BMW handeling by doing a pro-touring suspension on the Camaro.



I scrapped my leaf springs and installed a 4link coilover rear suspension.



I also installed at Detroit Speed subframe.

 

Nice car. If the ride height is OK, it is probably just a shock issue. Take the shocks off the back first and see if it moves OK. Then get some good 50/50 shocks and see if it keeps it from bottoming out on the front. There are tons of upgrades you can do but this is the least expensive start.