[DeTomaso] a arms

[hemipanter at hemipanter.se]

My own A-arms are not chrome molley, but high quality steel tubes. This
material discussion comes up now and then on different forums, also
"billet made" is discussed. In my opinion it is the engeneering that is
the main factor that should be discussed. "billet made" is a way of
fabricating parts and is NOT the same as high quality in ANY respect.
Billet made parrts do show a LOT quality limitations concerning both
engineering layouts and fabrication shape limitaqtion.
Chrome molly is a great material, BUT it will not override a less good
engineering layout.
Goran

> In a message dated 4/15/10 8 52 46, boyd411 at gmail.com writes:
>
>
>> Who can tell me about replacing my stock a arms with either new
>> replacements
>> , or billet replacements , or replacements that are supposed to improve
>> the
>> camber and Castor.
>>
>
> For awhile, the vendors tried to convince people that switching out the
> stock A-arms to billet aluminum ones was an improvement.   Besides the
> bling
> factor, the premise was that because they were aluminum, they were
> lighter.
>
> The reality is far different.   My lower rear A-arms were a bit rusty and
> one broke when Jack DeRyke was helping me out, pressing out a totally
> rusted
> lower shaft way back in 1989.   He welded it back together but I was
> always
> dubious of their structural integrity (it should never have broken to
> begin
> with!) and so I 'upgraded' to billet aluminum ones (just the lower rears).
>
> Turns out the new ones are insanely heavy!   Like, 3x the weight of the
> stockers!
>
> Chromemoly steel is the way to go as far as I'm concerned.   Although I'm
> not getting rid of my aluminum ones, if I had to do it all over again I'd
> definitely go with steel.   Dennis Quella is the only one I know of who
> sells
> replacements for the lower rear A-arms; they are beautifully made, and not
> all that expensive (they are less than the billet aluminum ones, I'm
> sure).
>
> Really though, if you don't have an actual need to replace your A-arms
> (due
> to crash damage, rust etc.) then why bother?   Some cars have collapsed a
> bit in the center, and can benefit from longer upper A-arms.   Some
> vendors
> sell replacements that have heim joints replacing the stock bushings (on
> the
> inside), or alternately, heim joints replacing the stock upper ball joint
> (on the outside).   But I think the best, smartest and certainly the
> cheapest
> solution is to just buy fixed-length, slightly longer upper A-arms.   This
> then corrects any alignment problems, and lets you set the alignment in
> the
> rear using shims on the lower A-arms as was originally intended.
>
> Precision Proformance is the only outfit I know of that sells them;
> they're
> cheap!
>
> http://precisionproformance.com/sc2020.htm
>
> You really don't need to do anything to the front, although the front
> A-arms are only spot-welded together, and Dennis Quella likes to seam-weld
> them
> for increased strength.
>
> So, my recommendations would be:
>
> 1)   Do nothing, unless you have to.
>
> 2)   If you have to do something, do as little as possible, as cheaply as
> possible
>
> 3)   Whatever you do, don't waste your money on expensive, heavy aluminum
> A-arms like I did!!!
>
> Mike
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