tubular control arms

[Moparmatt72]

What are some of you using to convert your mopar to coil overs. Who makes a good upper and lower arm, I just want to eliminate the torsion bars. Need the more clearence for my plans I'm doing.

 

[Mopar To Ya]

Here is what I did a few years back after doing some measuring on stock lower control arms. I saw a few vendors selling coil over lowers for around $350 per pair and figured I would make my own. They are made from 1 x 2 square tube .125 thickness. The ball joint ends are solid bar stock reamed to fit the ball joint stud taper. They insert into the square tube past the point where the bottom of the coil over mounts and are plug welded to the tubes. The pivot ends are 1.5" DOM seamless with turned nylon bushings. I used stock pins from a donor set of stock arms and drilled/tapped for 7/16 thread, lock tighter and pinned. A locknut with cotter pin keeps the arms from working their way off the pins. The uppers are from Bill Reilly Racing. Spindle and ball joints are stock. Coil overs are Strange adjustable with #180springs. This combo has over 6" of travel. Going to a cage for a mount on the coil over upper gives a strong support. Hopefully the pictures help. The headers are my winter project 2" x 34" based on a weld up kit from Jegs and flanges by Patriot. A soon as I figure out how to upload pictures from my IPad, I will send another response

 

[Mopar To Ya]

Send me a PM with your email and I will send you the photos I took, then maybe you can post them to this site for others to see.

 

[Budnicks]

CAP Automotive Products makes some bolt-on's @ www.capautoproducts.com they are Mopar specialist, Reilly Motor-sports makes some @ www.reillymotorsports.com , Magnum Force Racing also makes some @ www.magnumforceracing.com , you should support the upper shock mount with some sort of tubing & bracing to help stiffen it up, especially if it's going to be used for hard cornering or high loads of stress.... Maybe even consider a tubular K-frame with a front steer rack & pinion also... I have used all 3 brands I listed in some capacity at 1 time or another, I am putting the Caps Tubular Uppers CA's with adj. ends w/Polly bushings & Tubular Lower CA's with a rubber bushing & sway bar mounts, I will use the Cap's Adj. Control Arm's & Dynamic Adj. Strut rods on my current 68 RR project in the future {already have them}, but not the coil overs at this time, it's far more of a street/strip cruiser than an all out racer for the time being, I just want the handling, with cleaner looks & the far greater caster & camber adjustment capabilities....

 

[Moparmatt72]

I've look at those companies, I've heard mixed reviews on cap auto, a lot about welds not that great. I'm looking to just modify my stock k member but lighten it up, but convert to rack and pinion. Ill support the upper arms and coil overs off the from cage bars.

 

[Budnicks]

You can't always believe everything you read on these forums {especially the criticism} or the internet, {it doesn't mean some of it couldn't be true}, some of the criticisms are too subjective or just flat out wrong or at least not in my experiences anyway... I have used Caps products on several car now, I will be using them on my current 68 RR & have used them on a mid 8 sec. 3520# 68 RR, a mid 9 sec.68 Charger a little lighter 3250# {lots of fiberglass & full tubular K-frame}, they have withstood some big wheel-stands & hard drops with no issues, bending or breakage, many street miles on one of the cars, I haven't had any issues at all, the fit, finish & welds are all good on any I have used, they aren't cheap, I paid $399 for uppers & $459 for lowers & $180 for the adj. dynamic strut rods {or were anyway}, the sets I have now are from 5 or so years ago, but they are less expensive than the Reilly MS {which is a great more expensive product}, Caps also produce the A-Arms & other suspension components for Mopar Performance & Mancini Racing, I ran the Magnum Force stuff probably almost 10 years ago now on a couple of A & B body cars, but they still have them listed on their site, Ron the owner is a die hard Mopar guy & easy to deal with {well for me at least}... Opinions may & will vary... Happy Mopaing

 

[moparpoor]

Cap is no longer in buisness.I will tell you,I have seen his stuff in person.A display at Mancini's,his personal race car,and parts that were never installed.The display piece was crap.Poor welds period!!They were advertised as tig welded.If those were tig welds,holy **** shoot the welder.They actually look like poor mig welds,with a great deal of undercut and weld height.His personal stuff was much nicer.A member asked me to look at some parts he had bought.These were combination new and used cap components.The lower control arm mounting point rt side of the tube k member showed a crack with dye.The new upper control arm showed visual signs of under cut and dye showed worse.This was found on the inner most point of the ball joint mnt.These were the old style ,before the brace was added.They have since been bought out by I believe QA1.

Not saying others didn't or do have problems.Being a local company to myself,I was able to spend a little time investigating.Your best bet is RMS or Bobs Pro Fab.Magnum force builds good stuff,but customer service not so hot.Just my 2cents!!!

 

[Budnicks]

MoparPoor thats weird I have never had an issue with Caps Automotive Products stuff ever, all the parts I have installed were purchased about 5-6 or so years ago, I purchased 3 complete sets uppers & lowers CA's, dyn. adj. strut rods & 2 B-Body tubular K-frames to my specs from them, they all looked good, I have been around welding a Fabrication for over 40+ years now, if you count watching my step father Bob {he was a pipe fitter/welder for 35+ years} fab & weld in our family shop, when I was a young child, he is who originally taught me how to do basic fab work & introduced me to welding at 10-11 years old... So I'm not some stupid smoe that hasn't seen good or bad welds, good or bad fabrication stuff or someone who doesn't know how to weld & fabricate, or someone that can't set up a cars suspension properly... I am on my 26th ground up car currently, it's not too much to speak of though...LOL... "I guess I got the last of the good stuff", before they went to crap or out of business {I didn't know that either}, but your right about QA1 buying the "website at least" , I went to the Caps site I had saved on my favorites & it came up QA1 now, with a new distributor in Sacramento Ca. now... I Learn some thing new every day here...

 

[Moparmatt72]

Trust me when I say I'm not doubting you just looking at your experience with them. I went on the site and priced out there control arms, but they didn't have the price for the dynamic strut rods up yet. Thanks again for your valueable info. Its a big help.