[TDSjr]

Guys
Looking to see if anyone has installed Global West upper Control arms on their FB. Do you need to change uppers and lowers or can you get away w/ just doing the uppers. Long story short.....had the front end replaced w/ all new poly not long ago and one of the bolts/nuts holding the control arm to the frame fell off while i was driving it.....Control arm is hangin on by a thread. Had to have it towed home and haven't touched it since. Looking to swap both uppers if it's worth it. Any info is appreciated.

[Flowjoe]

Put them on my '67 convetible. project is not yet done so can't tell you how well they work in the real world. initially GW only made teh uppers...so you can run tublar uppers and stock lowers (what I did in fact as GW promised me the lowers for almost 6 months but they could never get their act together and actually produce them).

I believe they come wioht teh upper bushings already installed and the cross shaft installed.

Nice pieces.

Originally Posted by TDSjr

Guys
Looking to see if anyone has installed Global West upper Control arms on their FB. Do you need to change uppers and lowers or can you get away w/ just doing the uppers. Long story short.....had the front end replaced w/ all new poly not long ago and one of the bolts/nuts holding the control arm to the frame fell off while i was driving it.....Control arm is hangin on by a thread. Had to have it towed home and haven't touched it since. Looking to swap both uppers if it's worth it. Any info is appreciated.

[Engo]

I have the GW uppers only on mine 69 with poly bushings. Great thing. Camber and caster can be adjusted to your needs which is the primary reason for having these.

[67 455 Bird ragtop]

I think a cpl of you need to get back with GW. I have a full set of upper and lower tubular arms with QA1 shocks sitting boxes at my garage waiting for me to install them on my 67. They have had both uppers and lowers available since sept/oct of last year I believe. I ordered mine with their shafts and delalum bushings. WIll be curious to getthem installed and on the road.

Keep us informed, and I will too, as to how your tubular change over progresses.

[rattus]

Take a look at pro-touring.com

There's lots of info on tubular upper and lower control arms.

Several companies are now making tubular control arms for the 1st gen f-body: Hotchkis, BMR, Global West, Detroit Speed & Engineering, Speedtech, SPC. Usually people don't use tubular lowers because they don't improve suspension geometry (except for DSE lowers which add some positive caster). Only some of the uppers add positive caster, e.g. Global West, DSE, but they all make it easier to do the Guldstrand mod (because you don't have to "dog ear" the upper control arm mount to clear stock upper control arms).

I use DSE lowers (mainly for the added strength vs. stock lowers) and SPC uppers. The SPC upper control arms are adjustable (you don't have to use shims to set camber/caster and camber/caster can be adjusted independently to a much larger range than non-adjustable control arms). Savitske Classic & Custom offers a front suspension kit that bundles the SPC adjustable upper control arms with tall ball joints (that improve camber gain w/ or w/out the Guldstrand Mod) and tall stud tie rod ends which improves bump steer. Its a pretty slick setup for not much more $ than many companies charge for just upper control arms (that offer little or no improvement in suspension geometry).

[Flowjoe]

Originally Posted by 67 455 Bird ragtop

I think a cpl of you need to get back with GW. I have a full set of upper and lower tubular arms with QA1 shocks sitting boxes at my garage waiting for me to install them on my 67. They have had both uppers and lowers available since sept/oct of last year I believe. I ordered mine with their shafts and delalum bushings. WIll be curious to getthem installed and on the road.

Keep us informed, and I will too, as to how your tubular change over progresses.

I ordered and installed mine in the spring of 2002...at taht time GW was int eh process of releasing the lowers. The QA1 shock compatible ones came first but I didn;t want to go that way (don't ask me why, I jsut didn't want to move toa coil over) and so GW lagged on devolping/producing the Koni shock lower arm. I got tired of being told "they'll be here next week sir...but you should talk to Doug anyway" and having doug say "We jsut can't get the quality high enough and have trouble with our vendor..would you like to move toa coil over? We have those in stock."

Anyway, I did my whole suspension with the del-alum including the tubular A arms.

I mostly went with the tubulars for strength and the weight saving over stock. To be honest, I also thought they looked cool. I still think the GW has the best handle on early F-body handling.

[TDSjr]

thanks guys for all the input!

[steve]

i have global west tubular uppers on my 67 bird right now. i have been cruising them for a few weeks. i installed them myself withe the delalum bushings pre installed. i added delalum to the stock lowers too. i also added aset of qa1 coil overs as well as all new tie rods and ball joints. every thing is new except for the center link, pitman, and idler. I LOVE IT ! this car now handles like a late model sports ride ! not to mention i can adjust the ride hieght in the front to exactly where i want it. and when i took it to the local alignment specialist he was very impressed ! he had a huge smile on his face after the final test ride and said that the new geometry was exactly what the car needed..in fact he said if i went back to factory size tires and wheels it would still handle great because of the caster. the only drawback i have encountered is that it set the wheels farther back in the wheel well and i had to get one series smaller tire to fit without rubbing. one of the least expensive upgrades i have done with the most effect.

[TDSjr]

Steve
Thanks for the info! What size tires are you running up front? I've got 225/60/14's and i'm hoping this won't be an issue.

[steve]

i was running 225/60/15 and was really happy with the look. i had to go all the way to 205/60/15 ! you may not have as much trouble as i had though...thanks to input from another thread here i learned to i foolishly trusted the sales rep at summit to sell me the right centerlines. i have 15" autodrags with the 3 5/16" backspace. i was told that with front discs i should have bought the 4 7/8" backspace. i feel that should be the difference in being able to fit 215/60/15 in front. (i am unsure that 225 would work though). i have 275/60/15 in the rear and want to balance the look with as large a tire as i can go in front.

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

a cool tire size calculator.....

[gto406]

What do you guys think of these tubular ctrl-arms - http://www.racingjunk.com/General/21...-69-Nova-.html?

Seem like a lower cost alternative to the GW-setup. Considering running these for a drag-racing application. My hope is to be able to use them with a rack & pinion setup - such as the following http://www.trzmotorsports.com/316.html.

Thoughts appreciated!
BR/Brian.