This comes up every so often, and its not in the manual. Except that it is, its just in a really odd place.

see pic. from the center of the wheel to the fender is 364mm in the front, and 358mm in the rear. the tolerance is huge, +/-20mm....
they list it the same from 79-85....

 

I used that a couple months ago to check when swapping rear springs.

The tolerance is probably to account for variation in the body, the front fenders are bolted on after all.

 

So, just for fun I checked my original car, bought new in Aug of 79. Just under 32K miles and still riding on her factory shocks and struts. It's settled some over the past 44 years, riding at 349mm in front and 335mm in the rear. Guess maybe its due for some replacements, but I'd be losing originality........good thing I have more than one to drive.

 

its actually just barely in spec, so its good! keep driving!

 

Well, with 35k original miles, that's an argument that gravity alone is enough to compress springs vs. driving for hundreds of thousands of miles. I can remember the first time I installed a set of RB "lowering" springs on my 150k mile 80LS and it actually RAISED the ride height by about an inch all around. Of course the RB springs were much stiffer, and made the car corner on rails. After about a year, the ride height settled in at about where it should have been according to RB specs.

Today, those very same springs are riding on my 84SE and put in 100k miles on the 80LS and about 150k miles on the 84SE - so far. They're probably lower compared to new, but they look and feel oh so nice! I suppose 250k+ miles of wear and gravity have settled them in perfectly for how I like to drive.