1958 chevrolet Impala 2 door hardtop - Lateral-g Forums

lloyds58 · #1 03-08-2015, 05:21 PM

I recently bought a set of tubular a-arms on e-bay and put them on my 1958 chevrolet Impala, well to make a long story short I took the car to a frame shop in san jose, california, I live in Sunnyvale,ca. Come to find out I had a lot of frame damage, the frame was broken where it meets the cross member, anyway it was real expensive, but the guy did not like tubular a-arms, so he left the lower tubular a-arms on and I had the stock upper a-arms and he put those on, now I have a car with stock upper a-arms and tubular a-arms on the bottom with a hotchkis 1/1/4 front sway bar,Does any one out there think that was a good move or should I put the upper tubular a-arms back on? I rebuilt the front and with a new idler arm, new inner tie rod ends, it also has a 605 steering box. Yesterday I drove the car around 20 miles and when I was coming back home when I hit the brake pedal I heard a clunk when applying the brake pedal, got home and checked the front sway bar to make sure I had all the bolts tight, they were, raised the hood and all the left upper control arm the nut that holds the shims in the control arm backed off and all the shims were laying on the frame, talk about being scarede, I put lock=tite on the nut, so far so good, taking car back to frame shop in the morning, sorry to write a book but I need some good advice or help, thanks, I am new here nas of today, Lloyd Tremayne

**GregWeld** · #2 03-08-2015, 06:56 PM

What brand are the control arms ----- and why did the guy "not like them"??

Everyone around here uses tubular A arms.... but there must have been some reason the guy said he didn't like them.

Also -- WHO put the control arm bolts in --- and why weren't lock nuts or pinch nuts used. Lock tight isn't the way I'd do that job.

lloyds58 · #3 03-09-2015, 03:43 AM

I got them on e-bay and he said they came from a warehouse called rpc here in california, do not have a brand name and they were $399.95 with free shipping,I am thinking about putting the tubular a-arms back on, as far as rhe loctite that was and is a temporary fix, The guys that did the work really screwed me real good, almost afraid to take the car back to him, but if I don;t I have no recourse, would not reccomend him to my worst enemy, thanks for the input, Lloyd