For those who care and have something to add to make this a better build. I am fitting a 1990 camaro rear end into my 53 210. I was surprised at how the trailing arms and the shock mounts line up exactly with the frame and the oem shock mounts. The spring cups will need a little bit of crafty fitting but will work. I know many of you are thinking why would you want to use a 3rd gen camaro rear. Answer I already own the car and there are alot of aftermarket suspension parts to trick it out. The pedals are pretty much universal also so really I am just saving a few bucks on my build and put the money to better use somewhere else in the project. I am going to use the power steering pump as well and the cable shifter for the transmission. I will keep folks posted on the process if interested in how easy or hard it goes. There are so many of these 3rd gens sitting around you can get one for like a hundred bucks and save yourself a few bucks to up grade gears and other stuff. thanks for listening to my rambling Russ
i have four projects right now that all have 3rd gen rear ends in them. i think they work good because they are a good width, 5 on 4 and 3quarter bolt pattern and the iroc z cars have the factory disk brakes on them. they have been very usefull to me. i just picked up a 86 z car for 200 just for the rear. i have never tried to use the original coil st up though, i usually plasma off all the brackets and line or leaf it. good luck
I scored an $100 Iroc rear with discs, 3.73, and a newer Posi a few years ago. A day with a grinder and $10 at the trailer supply place, and it fits nice under my '39 for way cheaper than anything else I had looked at before. I couldn't find any perches for that (metric?) axle diameter, but it's easy enough to grind a bigger arc in perches made for smaller axles. Biggest hassle was getting u-bolts made, since the HD truck place I went to didn't have dies small enough.
no reason not to use those rearends.toyota 2wd truck rearends are narrow and tough, axles are larger than a 9" ford and have 5 on 4.5" pattern. oh did i mention cheap!
Hey thanks for all the replies I had purchased some PRC upper spring cups and I am going to try and use the trailing arms but if I do not feel it is going to come out right or there is a safety issue I may do what one of the other members in the post suggested and plasma off the OEM perches and put on spring perches. I will definately take pics and post them. I need to hit the bone the bone yard and get a Z rear I am working with an RS and I want those disc brakes and posi. Russ
Grab a set of S10 U bolts since the axle tubes are the same size. Or buy aftermarket ones to eliminate hassle if you need long ones. The S10 bolts are sized such that a human with a breaker bar can remove them at a U-pull. Not like taking apart a 3/4 ton truck.
What is the width of these 3rd gen. Camaro rears? Interesting this came up too. I have been thinking of a way to get around spending $500 bucks for the spring kit in the back of my 50....
BZNSRAT, I can not remeber right off hand I know that the 1990 rear is only 1 inch longer so 1/2 inch on each side is not much I will make sure I get the measurements posted for you.
ok guys I have got the rear pretty much in just a few things like the sway bar and everything tightened up as well as bolts replaced. Here is a pic of the adapters we made. I stick welded everthing to ensure nothing would come loose the trailing arms fit really well on the frame. Here is a site I started people can add their pics and post messages if they want there. http://thekids53customproject.shutterfly.com/
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