Messages

To all who chimed in, Thanks - much appreciated!

Mr. Cowles responded as well and I followed his technique, which worked perfectly:

Heated up water to 212 degrees and soaked the bushings for about 2 minutes. Sprayed the ends of the bar with white lithium grease, used a heavy leather glove, and "boop" - they slid right on! I also soaked the ends of the bar in hot water for awhile before I started, which probably didn't help a great deal, but it didn't hurt anything either.

The difficulty I was having not even being able to rotate/slide the originals (even after heating with a heat gun) is what made me seek advice. To be honest, I ended up quite surprised at how easy the install ended up being.

I love it when a plan comes together!

Kieth

[very]

I'm reaching out here for advice before I even try this, but HOW do you get a 1"ID front sway bar bushing over the 1 1/2" wide end of a front sway bar??

The replacement rubber is very firm (and actually has an ID of 15/16" - yikes!), and I must admit I could not even slide/rotate the old one off, I had to cut it off.

There's a saying this old guy at work used to have, "With enough patience and the right lubrication, a man can do damn near anything."

But in this case, I'm all ears for any tips you guys can share!

Thanks,
Kieth

For any additional info on these upper arm supports, Dan said to contact him direct. His shop number is (920) 766-7933

I have responded to inquiries about the "two items" and have replied that yes, he has some in stock, but I was referring only to the two arm supports themselves, NOT the lift bar too (for that price)! I got ahead of myself on the Forum this weekend, and need to get caught up with Dan on details that I posted. I'll see if he's okay with me posting his phone number on the Forum, but you can always email or PM me for it.

I describe a set of arm supports as 'two items' because they are two different pieces (left and right). So, sorry for any misunderstanding here, that was unintentional.

I haven't spoken to Dan yet about making a lift bar(s) and don't know how his work load stands at this moment. He's certainly capable of making them, as you can see by the one he made for me.

Inquire if you have a need and we'll find out.

Thanks,
Kieth

No, I've never even heard of that place until you sent the link.

CPS is the one-man shop I'm talking about in Reply#14 in the link below:

http://www.saacforum.com/index.php?topic=408.0

Here's FORD's design. While it may be okay for the passenger side shown here (if you don't care about the finish on your frame rail) how would that "radius bottom edge" on the support accommodate your fuel line on the driver's side?

Here are photos of Dan's upper arm supports installed in my 1966 GT 350, with the car sitting on the ground. You just slide the long tab of the support into the upper control arm, slide the bottom back & forth to achieve vertical position, and then lift the car up. His specific design feature of fuel line clearance was NOT included in FORD's original design! FORD's original blueprint design would have required the fuel line clip to be removed and the fuel line physically moved out of the way to even be able to use it. I'll post that blueprint next for those who may not be familiar with it... 

Very nice Keith. A couple questions for you:

1, re:Lift Bar
1.1, what are you using as the lifting location on the car? The strut rod channels
1.2, based on the wood block (2x4?) position and shape, Strut rod cross member? See above, and yes, 2 x 4 pieces of wood
1.3, is the lift bar to floor jack attaching point "cupped" so it doesn't slip off? I'm assuming it is. Yes, it is a circular pad that has a machined ID that is .030 larger than the non-removable (but rotatable) pad on my floor jack
1.4 is the attaching point a standard diameter size? No, that will vary by floor jack brand/model

2, re: Upper Arm Support
2.1 is the square end insert and end that contacts the A Arm polyurethane material? It's UHWMPE (ultra high molecular weight polyethylene) plastic - the ultimate material for protecting the finish on your upper control arm and chassis rail. Dan has extensive experience with this material in his engineering career, and he knew it would be the best possible material for this application
2.2 is it  steel or aluminum? (I can't tell from the photo) It's steel, and I can provide the exact specs on it if you request
2.3 will Dan at CPS reproduce these two items? Absolutely. He already has a couple sets pre-made and in stock, and I think you will agree with me that they are an absolute steal at $100 for a pair. I can attest in person that they install perfectly on his 1967 GT 500 and my 1966 GT 350 - when they're sitting on the ground! That's the beauty of his design, the ease of installation with the car sitting on its own weight. They even work on my buddy's 1969 Boss 302, but they're about 3/4" short in that application. With his Boss sitting on the ground, we had to jack the car up about 2 pumps, then we could install the supports and they worked perfectly and didn't fall out. So we're still acquiring data on the different model years, but his current length/design fits perfectly in his '67 and my '66, and almost perfectly in my friends '69. But he can make them any length, and I've recently come up with the idea for potential customers to provide us with the length measurement of their frame rail to upper control arm (to compare to the same known measurement of our cars) and then he could make them the length at which we know they will install with your car sitting on the ground, which again, is the beauty of his design.     

The two pieces seem well thought out, as far as I know no one is making the Arm support for sale. I have seen several types of home-made versions of FORD's original design, but Dan was an engineer for his entire career, and his design speaks for itself.

Thanks,
~Earl J

When you don't have the ceiling height for a lift, you have to come up with other solutions for lifting your car.

I came up with this idea for a lift bar. It, and these brilliantly re-engineered upper arm supports, were made by Dan at CPS (Custom Precision Services, Kaukauna, WI).

This combo safely gets my car up onto aluminum diamond plate wheel stands, where the bottom of the rocker panels are 18" off the floor!

[NO PARKING]

I'm kind of afraid to - I'm parked by a NO PARKING sign on private property!!

Rod,

Your Powers Of Observation are not what they once were!

You did NOT note the difference between Reply#11 and Reply#12.

It's Cowles' fault.

Just sayin'...

[making this stuff up??]

Oh come on now, you're killin' me Rod!

Are you just making this stuff up??

[killer]

Rod - Fantastic ideas on what to do with the b&w photo, but THIS 'old photo' concept is just killer cool - I love it. Thank You!

And Rich - nice play on words!

I was just goofing around and shared this Sept 2018 photo of 1615 with a bunch of friends/forum members just because the painted sign is so old-school cool. The sign had a current seven digit phone number, but a couple of guys who were very knowledgeable of phone number history mentioned that if I photo shopped the "43" out of the prefix and inserted the 1960's Green Bay prefix of "HE" (Hemlock), it would realistically date the photo by 50 years.

So I did it - and they were right! I can also convert it to black and white for even more dated realism, but the color version turned out too cool to not share again: