A-body Questions:Tubular FRONT Control Arms and Rack and Pinion

[mrgto]

Hey everyone, I am staring on the chasis and I really want to use Tubular control arms in the front. BMR doesn't make fronts and Global West's and Hotchkis's are fairly expensive. Was wondering if there were any other companies producing those for 64-72 GM A-Bodies.

Also, any bolt in(if you can call it that) kits that allow for the installation of a rack and pinion steering for the same car?

Thanks.

[derekf]

Speedtech has some A-body tubular UCAs, I believe. http://www.speedtech-performance.com/ . I don't have any first-hand experience with them though. Price with cross-shafts and bushings is $439.

I picked up my set of GW uppers used to save a few bucks. It looks like the bare uppers from GW are only 259, what kind of budget are you looking at for your control arms? Are you planning a tall-spindle conversion, or are you staying with stock spindles?

As for rack-and-pinion, nobody makes a setup that I'm aware of.

[SS Drifter]

Here's an R&P in process: Chevelle R&P

Tubular UCAs like Spartan can sometimes be found on ebay, too.

[Elusive R]

If you're looking for affordable front lower control arms, call Fatman Fabrications. I have their arms and was pleased with the build quality, but make sure you specify which ball joint you'd like to use. If you're running the B/F-body tall spindle, let them know or you may have to have a machine shop fix up the ball joint cup as I had to do with mine. Oops. Private message or email me if you need to know more.

[Marcus SC&C]

If you`re looking for lowers I`d splurge for the Global West arms or leave the stock ones on. They can be boxed and if you install good bushings like Del-a-lums they`ll do everything the tubular ones will. You get exactly 0 geometry gain from tubular lowers (they do look cool though ;) ). I`d save the money spent on the arms and spend it on a good set of adj. shocks liek QA1 Stocker Stars.
For upper arms you have a lot more choices. Most look good and work fine although the only thing they add is a little +caster. The B spindle swap does wonderfull things for the suspension geometry and handling. Unfortunately is also makes the already bad factory bumpsteer very bad! Some folks don`t notice it much,especially if they run stiff springs and drive on fairly smooth roads but it`s still there. The 12" B brakes are a bit better than stock 11" A discs but not that much and bigger brakes aren`t as easy to bolt to the B spindle (properly) as the stock A spindle which is already modular in construction. You may want to check out our SC&C StreetComp Stage 2 package. It`s comprised of fully adj. tubular UCAs (std. or ProLite with aluminum adj. sleeves),with modular tall stud upper and lower ball joints(stronger/smoother than stock, rebuildable and greasable). It duplicates the suspension geometry and handling of the B spindle swap but rather than making the bumpsteer worse by lowering the already too low steering arm further it dramatically improves the bumpsteer by raising it closer to it`s ideal height. Then you can run any brake combo from stock to huge Baers or a pretty inexpensive 12"/13" PBR Z-28/C-5 homebuilt swap. We`ve been doing a lot of testing with this package lately and we`re really happy with it. The handling is as good or better than the B swap cars we`ve built/driven but it`s easier and more pleasant to drive (especially driving fast!). It`s not on our web site yet but it`s similar to the 1st gen Camaro Stage 2 and is the same price. www.SCandC.com If anyone would like pics before we get them up on the site you can e-mail me at [email protected] Mark