While your at it, grab a flashlight and look at the upper control arm spring perch and see if the coil spring might be binding against the small metal stop right next to the coil spring end.

 

The sway bar is not hitting the chassis, I shortened the end links and added spacers to the chassis mount for the sway bar. What I meant by geometry is that the end links are at about 85 degrees at ride height instead of the proper 90 degrees. However I can say for sure the end links are not the problem neither is the sway bar hitting the chassis. Since there is no interference and since the sway bar was on the car before I rebuilt the suspension it can be all but ruled out.
The spring sits correctly in the perch, I know this because I had to tap the spring stops a little bit to position them correctly. I don't know how bind can be caused here. Wouldn't the top of the spring spin in the insulator if there were that much bind from the bottom end? Seems like it to me.
I just rebuilt all the suspension on my car, before that it didn't do this.
I will check the spot welds since that sounds probable, however the car wasn't driven on the new stiffer suspension until after the monte carlo bar was installed. I'm running opentrackers 1" drop springs with 1 coil cut and kyb gas a justs. Since the shocks make this combo stiff, and since I am running streetortrack adjustable strut rods, I am thinking maybe some spot welds did break... tomorrow is going to be interesting... :0
Let me clarify the symptom btw. So when I said that a portion was going from convex to concave, we are talking about <1 square foot of the inner fender. Not a large section, but I agree that it shows something is up.
If the car ends up needing additional body/welding work I will be an unhappy camper... So many things have fought me along the way of this steering and suspension project, I can honestly say the project would be a lot funner if I had another car to rely on (Ive been borrowing friends truck for awhile now).

 

I know from whence you speak. I spent many years relying on mid-60's Chevelles, Mustangs, Fairlanes and El Caminos as my sole source of transportation reluctant to start a big new project because I had to get to work on Monday.

The busted welds do sound like a good place to look.

 

The oilcanning described sounds like the result of some of the shape that is usually rolled into large flat panels having been compromised in some way. Think flattened, creased, or the panel itself became convexed/concaved too far for some reason likely involving something like a crash or off-road incident.

Any stiffer than OE spring or stabilizer bar will tend to increase the loads seen by any sheetmetal panel in the vicinity of their attachment points, and flat plates will naturally try to buckle out of flat when that load is either compressive or in-plane shear.


Norm

 

Thanks everyone for chiming in. Today I explored this issue a little more and I realized what's happening. Well...looks like I'm a bonehead. While separating shock towers for monte carlo bar install, I barely crimped/dented a very small portion of the top inner fender. Looks to me like some heat and hammer should fix this issue. I did look for any other issues and found none. Learned a lesson on this one...feeling pretty stupid

 

When my brother and I installed the monte carlo bar some 20 years ago we also had to widen the shock towers a good bit as I recall.

I removed the tower to cowl braces and jacked the car up with the cross member that runs under the engine and let it set a while like that. Came back in a little bit and she slipped right in.

That was probably one of the best mods we did.