69 Z/28 Day II Project (Air Force Brat)

[NorCam]

The bars are now welded up and ground down where the alterations have been made. They will now accommodate longer shock travel, extended shackles, airbags, and the required height of the N50s to be tucked under a freshly painted pair of NOS quarters. All is right now, and this afternoon I'll sand these down, paint them yellow and mount them back under the car. The other plates pictured below are a set of 4" and 5" high strength shackles that will fit the back of the car. I might have a gusset welded between them to stabilize them further after I choose which set to use.

[1967Z28]

There were Al Knoch deluxe door panels on my '68 Z when I got it and they were made too long so they hung up when you tried to open and close the doors. I hope you got a better set. I went and found some good originals in 714 black but nice '69s in yellow would be a near impossible find.

[NorCam]

I didn't know you could restore deluxe original door boards until Joe told me that was an option with Al Knoch. I had already thrown out an old set by that point too. I tried to get original boards from them after the fact but they said they didn't have any cores to use. On a good note, I have bought from them before and had good luck with the panels fitting. If they don't, I have some good fitters around here who can always trim them where needed.

[NorCam]

OK, the painting is done but now they need to dry overnight. My buddy didn't have time to bend the stirrups right now so a second set will be done later. Hardware is ready to go and so are the rear shackles. Once I have my coffee in the AM that is.

[whitetop]

Originally Posted by NorCam

Nope...not Mopar.

They also could have been Lakewood 55-57 Chevy which used a narrower base and look near identical to the camaro. Just because they came off a Camaro does not mean they were the right application to begin with.
I have sold probably sold 50 sets of Lakewoods Camaro and the j bolts were never squeezed in at an angle. The j bolt hole being a 1/8 from the edge is also another quandry which makes me believe these were 55-57 Chevy. The Camaro/Nova spring pads were very wide on the Lakewood bars see attached pic.

They also could have been the Street bars that did not come with j bolts and someone weled on the little triangles underneath.

Bars look nice though.

[NorCam]

Some clues that they are original Camaro bars. The inboard holes match my original stock multi-leaf lower shock mount plates to perfection. The outer holes are aligned just outside of the original multi-leaf hanger brackets, and they have shock mount tabs for staggered shock pattern. I'm also pretty sure Tri five-leaf spring pads are narrower than Camaro also. I've had several sets of these particular bars in the last few years on 3 different Camaro's and one original set on the 70 Nova and all were identical. And the lower angles do not appear to have been added???

If you mount the J bars into the outer holes outside of the hangers and then bring the front into the stirrups, you're bound to see an angle at the front of the J-bar bolts no matter what year they are from. It's impossible not to as it changes the angle when you use the outer holes and pull the fronts in by more than a 1/2".

In you want to assume they are tri-five bars that's ok with me. But I'd say nope. Notta.

[whitetop]

I also added they could be the Camaro street action bars that did not use J bolts and someone could have added the little triangle. Those used the narrower spring pad.

[rszmjt]

Interesting to note that Graeme’s bars have what appear to be factory slotted inner U bolt holes, 2 front to back & 2 side to side and the 1,s posted by whitetop do not? I’ve never seen the slotted holes before. Maybe a later issue from Lakewood?

Also whitetops have the rear spring small strap on the rear portion of bar behind housing.

Doesn’t really matter as long as you can make them work for you, they look nice.

[NorCam]

I did measure the distance from the inner holes for the u-bolts to the outer holes for the j-bolt and each of the j-bolt holes is 1.150" further outward. That's why there are such angles on the front legs of the j-bolts as they really turn in a lot to meet the eye holes on the front stirrups. I also tried mounting up an older set of original stirrups and they were tighter to fit and harder to align with the bolts than the NOS set I have here, so the NOS ones were used and they actually fit like a glove.

After welding extensions onto the Lakewood shock mount tabs, the new shock mounts move the eye upward by 2.5" and the shocks will now be well clear of the front legs of the j-bolt on the passenger side. When the car is positioned at the desired ride height for these tires, the rear shocks will be extended at 17" so there is plenty of room to extended or collapse within the shocks 13.14"-21.62" travel. As far as I am concerned, the bars are now finished and I am moving on to fit the rear brake lines as well as install the other Air Lift bag. It's gonna be sweet.

[R68GTO]

Thanks for posting these photos. I struggled to understand the J-bolt alignment thing and posted on the Day 2 page and got no responses. The inside holes on the TB line up much better with the stirrup, but then there's no place to mount the other u-bolt. I appreciate the detailed insight!