All,

My guy that help me replace the front upper and lower control arm bushings on my Chevelle, just left on vaction for a month down south.  Anyone know where I might go up here on the north side to have them replaced? I have the replacement bushings, but do not have a press or I would do them myself?  This is for my father/son Camaro project.

-- Edited by 69SSConv on Friday 18th of February 2011 07:39:17 PM

-- Edited by 69SSConv on Friday 18th of February 2011 07:39:41 PM

Dave has done this for members before. I would suggest getting in touch with him. And he isnt very far away.

I can help you with that if you can wait till the weekend of the 26th. I am up in cambridge if that is not to far for you.

If you don't feel like going somewhere, rent a ball joint pres from o'reilys and use some aluminum or steel as a spacer so you don't crush the arms, I did mine myself that way and they turned out great.

I never thought about using a ball joint press. I might try that first, if I have trouble I may look at other options.

"Pushrod" and I just redid every bushing on his upper & lower arms last Saturday.

We used the rental ball joint press, a selection of sockets (for spacers), a 2" x 2" piece of 1/8" plate steel (pressing pad), and the bench vise.

I'd highly recommend having a helper for this job (using these tools). You really need 1 guy holding the arm, watching the jigging and progress, while the other puts the effort into turning the press.

I did mine myself using a big vise. I also cut a steel pipe length wise and then cut the remaining "half circle" the correct width to fit around the bushing. This to keep from crushing the a-arms.

I got all the bushings installed except the last one on the upper controls arms with a ball joint press I rented from O' Reilly's. You were right John definitely would be easier with two people, kept dropping parts, slipping in the vise, etc. I took them to them to the body shop that is doing the work on my car and was able to use their press to install the last one. Now on to the re-install of the springs and control arms.

Glad it went ok... This is one of those jobs where some "shadetree ingeniuity" really comes into play. I did mine solo 2 years ago using the vise and a BJ press, and a selection of tubing sections/spacers (like Mitch described). Not fun, and especially if you want to preserve the paintwork.