the search has sucked the life out me .... anyone know this ?

center cap to fender , front and rear

 

FSM lists bumper heights. 17.74-20.24" ground to center of front bumper. 18.88-21.02, ground to center of rear bumper. From experience, ground to center of all 4 wheel well arches, about 24" with lowering springs and stock tires/wheels.

 

I'm still still interested in the stock distance for:

center of rim cap up to fender lip , front and back

 

I just checked a stock 79 at all 4 corners. 13 3/4 both fronts, 13 3/8 both rears. Center of wheel cap to inside of fender radius.

 

 

The stock springs do not age gracefully, and after 20+ years they can sag by as much as an inch from factory specs. Keep this in mind. Father time has likely installed his lowering kit on your car.

 

Yes, I thought of this too, the struts and shocks are still original. Figured it might explain why the rear was 3/8 lower than the front. That's why I looked at all four corners-to see if their was any side to side difference. Surpisingly it was very consistant that way. No way of knowing exactly how much sag has crept in.

I also compared Trochoids FSM listed bumper heights (to check sag) and did come up lower at 17 1/8 front and 17 3/4 rear. But there are also all kids of tolerance stack ups in doing this. You have a big possibile varience in just the shimming of the bumper alone. It seemed to be getting too cloudy and complicated real fast.

I figured it was better to just keep it simple and list what was asked as a baseline to go from. Guestimating another 1/2-1inch may be more representative of new.