but i need a little help. i am brand new to this forum, and i am sure if i did a little searching i would quickly find the answer. anyways, i have a red 1986 z28 that i am restoring. i started saving for the car when i was 12 and have owned it since i was 15. i have now had the car for 10 years and can finally embark on creating my dream. the paint is okay, so the stance is the next step. ideally, i would like to have the fenders sit perfectly on the tires. i am currently running 18' chrome irocs. i know it's going to ride a little harder and scrape EVERYWHERE, but i wanted to get a little input from those that have already done it. i was thinking about the eibach pro-kit or sportline, but by judging how high my car sits now (on springs that are old and worn out), i am not sure that either of these springs will lower it enough. any help and advice is much appreciated. pictures would be even better. thanks for reading and i am looking forward to your input and being a contributing member of this forum.....

actually, while i am at it, gears are up on the list too. there is probably a section dedicated to that, but if you read this and have any advice on those, it also would be much appreciated. mine is an automatic and i was thinking about 3.73 gears to give it a little low end while still keeping it comfortable on the freeway. i'd love to do the engine, but i live in CA and dealing with all of the smog laws is ridiculous. i figure the gears would be a good bang for the buck. let me know....

 

If you really want to go that low, look into the Air Ride bag setup. Perfect stance and you can raise your height when you see a speedbump!! With the prokit you will scrape, with the sportlines you will scrape even more. Personally I feel these two kits suck major cajones. I dont know of any aftermarket spring company that has rates high enough to offset the reduced suspension travel and lower ride height. You could also go ground control weight jacks, however those are more for spring rate selectability and not for looks.

 

thanks for the reply. the ultimate goal was air bags, but i wondered about the handling. will it still corner well with the air bags? my buddy had them on his '66 coupe de ville and it was bad. laid full frame but could cross any bump in it's path. the best of all worlds....also, what company do you recommend, what's the cost, and how intricate is the install? i want to do this car right the first time. cost is an issue, but i'm willing to spend a little more now instead of doing 3 modifications i am not happy with. thanks again. all input is appreciated....
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just re-read your reply. looks like Air Ride would be the company. correct???

 

the car is already low enough, your gonna end up smoking your undercarriage for 'looks'

 

i hear you, but i have a daily driver and there are enough flat roads in my area that i can navigate my way around the true dangers. you really think stock is where i should leave it considering the circumstances and my goals? i just can't stand it with the huge gap between the fenders and tire. doesn't look quite right. it would look pretty bad *** and right at home getting sideways in a dukes of hazzard type setting though.....

 

right but you gotta think theres that space for a reason, a cushion for bumps and what not, they engineered it that way for a reason. I came on this site just to see the 3rd gen gathering, but i find that there are TONS of idiots(not you) on this site that just destroy the cars with 'custom' ****. I mean the cars are trashed enough as it is by people who just dont give a **** and think the car is worthless because they made so many, well they made so many because there ****ing good cars and a lot of people liked them. If you take care of them they'll just be as good as any 60s camaro which people seem to be hung up on. Lowering is suppose to give you better handling and what not, do what you wish with your car, i guess i cant see doing that mod outside of using the car specifically for rally cross where i want every edge i could use on perfectly straight roads that are maintained for racing.

 

fair enough. my dad and i always used to have this conversation. simply stated, it's not practical....but it sure does look cool. it definitely is engineered that way for a reason, i'll give you that, but race cars sit real low and encounter bumps. yes, they ride very hard, but i'm willing to live with that. i want the look with the functionality and increased handling of the lowering. leaving the car stock height would preserve my car the best, but i want the look. thanks you for the input. i hear what you are saying loud and clear, but it's going down, no exceptions. now i just have to find the best and most efficient way.....

 

Do what you wish, i wouldnt mess with the engineered height for just cruising around town,i mean the cross member is damn near couple inches off the ground, im surprised they made it that low to begin with, i just wouldnt do it for daily driving, where you arent exactly going to get the full experience of upgraded handling

 

If properly thought out, you will not ruin anything. There were many things suspension wise that were not engineered properly on a third gen, and yes ride height and travel are low to begin with. This is why I suggesested the bag set up and not ANY off the shelf aftermarket spring.

The company you want to look to is Air Ride Technologies. With this set up you will be able to retain a good amount of travel and comfort when daily driving, and be able to lower it when you stance is important. I was going to go with a bag setup for my Chevelle, so I researched this option a lot. The stuff they have is very trick, they have on board controllers in their kit and you can adjust ride height and "sping rate" from inside the car at the push of a button.
BTW where in CA are you located? Air Ride has their booth set up at nearly every GoodGuys show.
Oh, and the reason you buddies Caddy didnt ride so well is because, well, its a caddy!!

 

located in fresno....right in the middle. as i said before, air bags were the initial thought. hearing that spring rate can also be adjusted nearly makes this discussion a no-brainer. yeah, it's going to cost a little more, but it will satisfy my desires in looks, functionality, and handling. of course, caddies don't handle for ****. that's a given, i didn't realize that spring rate could be adjusted too. if this is the case, why doesn't everybody go with this set up? probably a bit costly, but when you consider all the damage you'll accumulate with a super low ride, why not just pay the money to raise it up when the situation deems necessary? i asked before, but what's the cost on the kit (i'll look it up if you don't know it off hand, no extra research needed), and what does a typical install run?

 

and 83Chevy_Camaro, i thank you for your replies and agree with all you say. thing is, i'm going to drop it, but i look to do it tastefully. your input and opinion are appreciated, thought on, and taken into account. if all goes right, i'll do this in a matter that everybody can be happy with. feel free to stay in the progress if you would like.....

 

Well technically its not spring rate per say. You adjust the air pressure in the bag. More pressure would mean a higher "spring rate", lower pressure results in the opposite.
http://www.ridetech.com/productinfo/airstrut.asp
Not as exensive as i wouldve thought. You still need the tank, solenoids, compressor, and the controller though. IIRC they sell this as a package for about 1k? Apparently they installed this system in an IROC in an issue of Super Chevy, so browse for that!
The reason people don't go with it is because its more expensive (but not too bad), and you have to do some fabrication to mount the tank and all the hardware. Not too difficult at all actually.

 

Jamex sells a lowering spring that would lower the car 1.5 -2". I believe summit sell them. It drops that car lower than either Eibach kit. You could put them in now and then save up for the airsuspension.

 

Intrax, look them up.

 

Our cars are already low, but you can't say that they are low enough. Have you ever seen a Vette? How about a Mazda MX6? Now those are low enough.

 

I'm surprised nobody came in here saying the faults with air bags. I'm sure if you searched a little bit you could find them, but I'll try to repeat it to the best of my ability.

First off, you have to have them set up for a specific ride height/psi. If your constantly switching it and driving around the tire treads get messed up.

The spring rate/psi thing is where it gets bad. If you want the car low you would have to lower the psi, which would make the bag softer, and when you raise it, the bag gets harder. This is the opposite of what you want. Also there isn't a spring rate. A normal spring will compress a specific amount for every x amount of pressure applied to them. Air bags have a variable rate.

I think there is more, but I don't remember most of it. They aren't supposed to handle as well as a normal setup. Do a search and see if you can find any threads about them before you go and buy the whole setup.