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Old 12-06-2020, 11:44 AM
allenga allenga is offline
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Default Control Arm Rebuilds - Lever Family Racing

I just stumbled across this video of a rebuild. Looks like $90 a side plus parts. Have you heard of this company.

I can't afford Global West and Hotchkis tubular.

What do you think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4Gx...ature=emb_logo

https://www.lever-family-racing.com/...m-a-body-64-72

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Old 12-08-2020, 12:39 PM
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ZeGermanHam ZeGermanHam is offline
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It's $90 per side, plus parts, plus shipping both ways. In my view, replacing bushings and ball joints on GM A-body control arms is not rocket science and is not such a specialized task that it requires paying to ship them to someone who owns a hydraulic press. If you're going to go through the trouble of removing the control arms yourself anyway, just take them to a local mechanic and save yourself the costly added expense of shipping big heavy parts. I know he says that he blasts and powder coats them, but frankly, you can just use a wire wheel and hit them with some durable paint on your own. Doesn't sound like you're working with a show car, anyway.

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Old 12-08-2020, 02:15 PM
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Originally Posted by ZeGermanHam View Post
It's $90 per side, plus parts, plus shipping both ways. In my view, replacing bushings and ball joints on GM A-body control arms is not rocket science and is not such a specialized task that it requires paying to ship them to someone who owns a hydraulic press. If you're going to go through the trouble of removing the control arms yourself anyway, just take them to a local mechanic and save yourself the costly added expense of shipping big heavy parts. I know he says that he blasts and powder coats them, but frankly, you can just use a wire wheel and hit them with some durable paint on your own. Doesn't sound like you're working with a show car, anyway.
I echo this sentiment. There's a lot of extra expense going on to ship these out when all you need is any basic mechanic who's shop includes a press.

There's no real need to blat the parts. Hit them with some heavy grit sand paper, knock it down after that with some red scotch bright and then use some chassis paint on them.

Put a set of ProForged .5" tall ball joints in the upper arms and a quality moog ball joint in the lowers, then select a good quality high durometer rubber bushing for the arms.

It may be "easier" to ship these out and get them sent back ready for install, but you'll save yourself some money and come back with an equal or better product if you take on some of this yourself and use a local service.

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Old 12-08-2020, 03:01 PM
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Have you heard of this company.
Glenn is a member here. Got a long thread when he was building his dragster. Think he sold it when he got sick a while back. Don't think he's posted here since then.

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...d.php?t=644003

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Old 12-31-2020, 08:04 PM
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Well if you are looking at global west control arms, I am assuming that you are okay with upgrading a bit if the cost is reasonable. With that in mind, Global West does offer their del-a-lum bushings to install into your factory control arms. Put in a tall ball joint and in my view, you would have a substantial improvement over stock without investing a ton of money.

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Old 02-04-2021, 10:05 PM
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Stock arms, Polyurethane bushings (no need for a press, DON'T remove the outer shells from the control arms) and new ball joints.

Worst part is removing the OEM rivets on the ball joints. Bushings get melted-out with a propane torch.. Easy.

And when you put them back on the vehicle, you don't need to torque the control arm bolts/nuts with the vehicle at normal ride height. You MUST have the control arms at normal ride height before torquing if you use rubber bushings.

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Old 02-16-2021, 02:04 PM
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Originally Posted by JLMounce View Post
I echo this sentiment. There's a lot of extra expense going on to ship these out when all you need is any basic mechanic who's shop includes a press.

There's no real need to blat the parts. Hit them with some heavy grit sand paper, knock it down after that with some red scotch bright and then use some chassis paint on them.

Put a set of ProForged .5" tall ball joints in the upper arms and a quality moog ball joint in the lowers, then select a good quality high durometer rubber bushing for the arms.

It may be "easier" to ship these out and get them sent back ready for install, but you'll save yourself some money and come back with an equal or better product if you take on some of this yourself and use a local service.
Last week I called 10 shops inquiring about R/R bushings on carried in factory control arms - none wanted to touch it. This is what has me considering the high expense of BMR arms.

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Old 02-16-2021, 02:13 PM
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Last week I called 10 shops inquiring about R/R bushings on carried in factory control arms - none wanted to touch it. This is what has me considering the high expense of BMR arms.
Dang, that's too bad. Though the BMR arms are nice.

I can walk a set of these in to probably 2 or 3 shops just in my town of about 100K people and have them back by the end of the day or the day after.

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Old 02-16-2021, 04:22 PM
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Wow- a couple shops actually told me not worth their time of off the car...at least they were honest

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Old 02-16-2021, 06:46 PM
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Originally Posted by grivera View Post
Last week I called 10 shops inquiring about R/R bushings on carried in factory control arms - none wanted to touch it. This is what has me considering the high expense of BMR arms.
Yet another reason to install Polyurethane bushings.

No press, no damage to the control arms, no special tooling. You need a propane torch + sandpaper/emery cloth, and a Scotchbrite pad.

And unlike rubber bushings, you don't have to torque the bolts with the suspension at normal ride height. So even the installation back into the chassis is easier.

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Old 02-16-2021, 07:04 PM
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So the rubber bearing shells remain in good shape enough to put the poly bearings in place?

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Old 02-16-2021, 07:35 PM
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So the rubber bearing shells remain in good shape enough to put the poly bearings in place?
Almost always. And if the outer shells are good, there's no reason to press them out of the control arm.

I've seen very few bushings that were worn so bad the outer shell had to be replaced. It can happen, though. Generally a matter of the rubber is GONE, so the inner steel sleeve is banging against the outer steel shell. I suppose there could be massive corrosion that would make the shells unusable, but I've never actually seen that.

My K1500 had the inner sleeves corroded to death, but the outer shells were fine.

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