800 is a good spring



Carl had .....I believe the factory z28 steering arm....I used the same steering arm before I went to the tru-turn system and I also ran 9.5 inch wide rims with 275's on the front

the z28 steering arms is much shorter and turns in more for better ackerman...remember they were running FAT rims on the trams-am cars back in the 60's and 70's...I pointed that out years ago and had a bunch of folks telling me on some forums, it wasn't true.... I was lucky enough at a restoration company I was at for many years to have not one but TWO original vintage trans-am Camaros to study

You all are providing extremely helpful info and suggestions....thanks a million for taking the time to get me up to speed. I'll digest all of this, do some more research and start formulating a plan. It's tough to resist blowing the budget, but the sensible side of me is saying the conservative approach will almost certainly wind up costing me more money or leave me unsatisfied in the long run. What I should really do is try to locate some first gen Camaros in my area with a host of different suspension mods to see what does what. Fortunately my neighbor has three and they are all very nice builds. He's more straight line oriented and has a nearly unlimited budget (and his builds reflect that) with all his cars having four links...not sure what he's done to them up front....but at least it's something to work with rather than just reading about it. A customer of mine mentioned he just got a full Hotchkis TVS kit in to install on a customer's second gen Camaro, so maybe he'll have that wrapped up in the near future and I can get a ride in it, as well. With almost all of my customers being racers, rodders or shops that restore, build and fabricate I might just be able to locate a few capable first gen g-machines in spite of that not being a popular type of build around here.

Since tires have arguably the greatest effect on handling, wheels and tire selection has become a priority...thinking I should make a selection and build the suspension around them. I've been on the fence about the appearance of wheels larger than 17" on the first gen f-bodies with some 18's looking good, others not and anything over 18" just not looking properly proportioned to the car. I don't really want wheels tucked up in the wheel wells as I'd like to avoid clearance issues (since this car will mostly be street driven and the industrial park where my business is located has ridiculously tall speed bumps) so I'll likely go for a ride height that puts the fender lip just a touch higher than the height of the wheel/tire combo. I found this picture and am really, really liking this look...but just a touch higher with the ride height. I was pretty much set on five spokes like a VWW V-series but this looks excellent. Alas, Forgelines are absolutely not in the budget.

I was on the fence for years, 22 years to be exact. 18's are proper and they fit proper brakes and provide a good selection of tires.

Next.

:)

Im a 17" fan but Sieg is right. For front suspension clearance at tie rod with deep back space plus tire size selections it appears 18" is the way to go.

BTW, also running the L2's