CAP.....not truthful?

[5.7 hemi]

I bought a set of CAP's tubular upper arms for my car about 2-3 years ago and I am pissed off!!! The arms supposed to be powder coated and since my car will be back from the painters this next week, I thought I would tidy the front suspension up..clean it since it's been sitting for 2-3 years. First I noticed the ball joint cups were shot, and I have extras, no biggie, I'll just switch them out and be done. Bullshit, the so called powder coating is really paint, yeah you read that right, PAINT!!!!! How do I know this you ask?, well I got something on one of the arms, grease or similar, and went to wipe it of and the friggin' paint came off with it. I just used wax/grease remover.

So I'm thinking maybe I grabbed the wrong spray bottle, and so my fault...bullshit!!! I used a scotch brite pad and it went down to bare steel, so I try the other arm, same friggin' thing. I tell ya this pissed me off so bad I sanded them both and repainted them.


Should powder coating come off so easy, HELL NO!!!
For you guys that own their stuff and are happy with it, I'm glad for ya, but I'm done with the low quality crap they sell, imho.

 

[Donny]

Powder coating is a beeotch to come off, and I'm a Media Blaster, and I fight with that stuff most of the time!

 

[69 Runner]

There is an old thread on FABO about a CAP K member a guy bought and had powder coated BEFORE he did a test fit. (I believe this is correct) Anyway it wouldn't mount to the car, and CAP told him it got WARPED when he had it powder coated.

ugly story

 

[Revhendo]

I remember that K-member thread. Seems to me, I remember a few threads, either here or definately on the A body site, about the arms breaking. Not trying to be a doomsayer, just saying be careful.

 

[Dodge 330]

There were some pics of a black roadrunner floating around that got the left front fender knocked down. It looked like the Cap upper control arm weld failed and caused the car to crash as the joint had corrosion where it came apart.

As I recall it was on Moparts.com.

 

[mark42202]

I've got the complete kit from CAP up for sale right now for the B bodies. I can honestly say it is a VERY good quality piece. Only reason I'm selling it is I am having the inner fenders removed on my race car and the CAP system uses the factory shock towers. I bought an Alterkation, which is also a very good piece and the welds look just as good on both. Trust me, myself and my chassis guy have been all over this thing with a magnifying glass. My car is being built to run low 7's in the 1/4, and we were planning on using the CAP until we decided to lose the inner fenders. I'm sorry you didn't have good luck with yours, but the quality of mine is top notch. BTW, mine came powder coated from CAP and it really is powder coated. Just my .02.

 

[5.7 hemi]

I read about the failures, and have come up with a solution to that. I made a plate to weld in, it ties both arms and the ball joint socket together, so if a crack in the weld from CAP does happen, it wont cause an accident. My concern is/was the powder coat or lack of. Either way, the point is mute since I'm gonna reinforce the arms and need to get to bare metal for welding. Personaly, I don't trust a single weld holding the arms together without a plate or tube to tie everything together whether it be from CAP, Just Suspension, RMS or anyone else. Also I'm not running a coil over and the little bit of room that I'm gonna take up is not a concern. I'll post pics when I get them done.

 

[69 Runner]

It's still a shame a part you pay your hard-earned dollars for isn't satisfactory "as delivered"

 

[71charger_fan]

I'm very satisfied with the quality, fit, and performance of the CAP products installed on my Charger.

 

[5.7 hemi]

Not complaining about the fit or performance, pwder coat should not come off with a scotch brite pad period. Powder coating is a hard top coat once it's been baked, this crap came off like it was paint. I will say this, they did warranty the cracked bushing, sent me 4 new ones, so I have no complaints on that. The ball joint boots took a ****, the car has maybe a 1/4 mile on it, (pushed, not driven) whats with that? I'll eat the boots. Now here is a pic of what I did (after finding out it was not powder coated) to bolster the strength of the arms due to alot of having failures. Notice the gusset's, this will spread the load out over a greater area and not just concentrated on the 2 welds at the ball joint.