69 Camaro Lean ?????

[Survivor 69/Z28]

I am stumped.
I have a very original 69 Z28. She has a little lean to her. It really kind of irritates me a bit. The right rear is hiked up about 3 quarters of an inch. The front right is up about a half of an inch from the left side of the car.

The car has never been in any kind of a accident. It still has the original front springs and all of the original rubber bushings throughout the car.
The shocks are 15 yrs old. The rear leaf springs are 3 yrs old.

Here is the strange part. I have become good friends to the second owner who owned the car for 34 years. He said that even in 1971 when he purchase it from his cousin the car had the same lean to it that it does today. The car in 1971 was 100% factory original by the way.

I have checked everything that I know to check. Everything looks in line and in good but old shape. Does anyone have any suggestions on what it could be? Or do I have a old car that just has a lean to it no matter what I do?

Oh, the guy that owned the car for 34 years told me other day that he put air shocks in the rear to try and level it out. He said it actually worked in the 70's. But said the ride was too rough so he took them off and went back to stock shocks. He claims that there is nothing I can do and that it has had this lean to it since his cousin bought it brand new in 69.



Thanks for the help!!!
Anthony

[njsteve]

My Z11 leaned 3/8" low on the left rear. The other 3 corners had the same height measurement compared to each other. It was bizarre. I tried shimming the body mounts, swapping rims, taking the spare tire out to see if it helped, but it never did. I even brought it to a frame shop and the measured the body dimensions and every measurement under the car was found to be dead on to the factory specs. I think the ultimate consensus was that the car was just welded up slightly off at the factory. I have heard from a bunch of other Camaro guys who have had the exact same problem. These were just metal boxes being welded together by low wage assembly line workers back then with no regard for future collectibility. Essentially, there is no fix unless you want to run one 15" wheel and three 14" wheels to make it sit flat.

[DM69SS]

One of my cars had the same problem. Drivers side sagged a bit. More in the rear than in the front. I even tried replacing the original springs (front and rear) with new repros. It was still the same so I had the frame checked and everything was fine there too. I was able to solve the problem by using an a/c shim on the drivers front coil and by making a shackle that was a little longer for the rear leaf. Looked fine after that, but it was a lot of trial and error to get the right shim/shackle combination.

[Survivor 69/Z28]

This is a strange deal. The idea anout the shims is good. Sounds like that is my only hope. My wife was driving behind me the other day in the Z. She said, hey honey the car looks like its sitting funny. I was like great, my wife even noticed. (no offence..LOL!!)
So now I really want to get this thing level.