I've had this same problem for the last 7 years I have owned the car and I cant seem to figure it out. I am thinking after 18 years the frame may be a tad tweaked. Car has never seen an accident. In measuring all 4 sides from ground to fenderwell I have come up with 27.5in for both sides of the front. Driver side rear is at 28in and the passenger side rear is 28.75. You can knotice by looking it is differant and when rebuilding the rear suspension from stock to aftermarket, nothing changed. I have the stock WS6 springs and have switched side to side with no change. I have also swapped isolators from side to side to with no change. All bolts were TQ to spec with the car on all 4s so there is no binding. This is a stupid question, but would I be able to trim one coil on that side to lower it? Any other suggestions or something else I should look for?

 

All those numbers don't sound right for anything meaningful... that's even farther off the ground than a truck sits. Even a 4WD truck frame is only 12-15" or so off the ground, in stock trim. I'm having a hard time imagining a Camaro or Firebird sitting up that high. Should be more like 7".

Sounds more like, the top of the wheel wells?

If so, that's not the CAR; that's just some dressy-looking sheet metal hung on it. Trim, basically.

How about the actual CAR? Is it level, front and rear? What are the corner weights?

 

Car is stock. The measurements listed in the origional post stated from ground to fenderwell. Weights are stock. Looks level except you can kinda see the pass rear a tad higher from the side.
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Are fender wells and wheel wells differant?

Ahh Hows the top of the fenderwell sound? lol.

 

OK, so what are they?

The wheel wells are not THE CAR. They're just some trim stuck onto THE actual CAR.

Where is THE CAR? Is it level? Ignore the trim (sheet metal). Measure THE CAR. Make THE CAR sit level. Then adjust the sheet metal to match THE CAR.

 

No idea. Whatever came from the factory in weights. Nothings been removed. I've meaured the car in a few places, home, parking lot, friends house, dyno, at he track. Its 100% always the same. How can I measure the car and adjust a rear quarter panel?

 

You measure the corner weights by putting each wheel on a scale individually. It would be kind of pointless to talk about cutting a bunch of 20-yr-old stock springs, if it turns out that the problem REAL is, that there's 50 lb of lead shot in the spare tire well, or the like.

The part of the car that MATTERS, i.e. the part that's REALLY THE CAR, is the frame. All of that shiny crap with the pretty paint you see sparkling in the sun up there on the top, is just a bunch of trim. You don't go hacking on suspension components like springs, to adjust the actual functional live load-carrying work-performing parts of the car, to where they match the trim. That makes about as much sense as noticing that the picture is hanging on your living room wall crooked, so you get under the house ans cut the foundation down until the wall matches the picture. You do it the other way: you level the HOUSE, then you adjust the picture until it matches the house. Same here: you make THE CAR level and straight, then you adjust the sheet metal until it's true to THE CAR.

Measure the height of some convenient component of THE CAR, not THE SHEET METAL, that's the same on both sides. I'd recommend the front mount for the rear LCAs on the rear, and the rearward bushing for the front CA for the front. Or, look in your factory service manual (you do have that don't you?), on the page with body specs, and locate some one of the factory gauge points for frame straightness, and measure there.

If THE CAR is straight and level but THE SHEET METAL is not, then your car is either bent, or was improperly assembled at the factory. Neither is too terribly unlikely. The factory's tolerances for such things aren't super close. And of course if you put SFCs on it with the car bent, well....

If you find that they're off, take it to a frame shop and have the body pulled straight, before trying to adjust ANYTHING.

As far as how to change it: on the rear, I know of no good easy way, other than to cut the quarter panel off and put it back on where it belongs. On the front, you can move the fenders around an amazing amount; ½" easy. Just loosen the bolts and move them. Or, if necessary, put shims behind the bolts, or take shims out. That's one of the first things I do whenever I get a car: line the doors up to the quarters, then line the fenders up to the doors, then line the hood up to the fenders. On these cars, you can also line the deck lid up to the quarters, by taking off the trim below it, loosening the hardware (4 nuts I think) that hold it to the glass, and moving it until it's straight.

But Step 1 is, measure THE CAR. Forget the sheet metal and the gaps around the tires, and concentrate on the stuff that's real.

It's AMAZING how much better a car looks with all of its parts fit together right!! Do it right, and you won't have ugly-a$$ mismatch gaps like where your passenger fender fails to line up with your door, in your pic.

 

Another thing, even if you are measuring the sheetmetal, you never measure off the ground. You measure from the upper lip of the rim, or center of the rim, etc. The tire inflation, tire wear, tire size can change that.

You said it was this way before and after rebuilding the suspension. What all did you change during that rebuild?

 

Accually the door gap is consistant down, under, and up the other side of the door. Doors are not sagging. Gap on the driver side is identical as well. I've never touched a panel on this car. Everything on this car body wise is stock and untouched. I kinda find it hard to beleive GM messed up every gap on this car.

I checked the LCA point and in deed its up about 1/2 in on the pass rear area. Who would I go to, to get it straightened out? Also how would it get like this? Like I said never in an accident, no bondo, origional paint and all origional untouched panels. Underside is flawless as well with NO evidense of anything.

 

Everything is now aftermarket on the car underneigth except the springs. I like stock heights. New LCA's, Reloc brackets, sways, bushings, endline, panhard, torque arm, Koni shocks. I tried indexing the springs numerous times with no results. After doing a search it seems kinda common with my problem. I have located 6 other threads about the same problem. All the replies are what you guys mentioned.

 

could also be a worn out shock absorber.

 

Are you shure that the spring is sitting correctly in the spring pocket. My car did the same thing after i rebuilt the suspension. For some reason unless someone held the passenger spring in place it would always miss the nipple on the spring pocket and sit off- about 3/4 of an inch high. Just a thought.

 

I somewhat argre with LS2 here, but it doesnt make sense that it would get off in the first place (before him), then it still be off 2 other times he has been in/under the car changing stuff.