99 Grand Am aluminum control arms - Page 12 - Suspension and Brake Forum

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Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Saturday, June 30, 2007 4:13 AM
ready to go on the car? I am price?



Pete ***RIP John Lingenfelter***
2002 Flame Yellow Sunfire GT B+M shifted 5 Spd
Just looking for mods and prey


Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Saturday, June 30, 2007 9:46 AM
I was thinking just as they come off the donor car. I still haven't gotten a chance to look for a welder to fill the old holes. I dunno how much thats gonna run.
Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Saturday, June 30, 2007 7:56 PM
I still need a set......




SPD RCR Z - '02 Z24 420whp
SLO GOAT - '04 GTO 305whp
W41 BOI - '78 Buick Opel Isuzu W41 Swap

Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Sunday, July 01, 2007 6:05 AM
So would you guys want it with the old bushings left on? Removed? Pro-thane installed? Would you want to get it welded and re-drilled or would you prefer that was already done? I am still not really offering just curious how much work this would be. I am currently trying to polish mine up nicely. That's a LOT of work so I wouldn't offer that. Unless I found a shop that would do it for a reasonable price.

Just a feeler
Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Sunday, July 01, 2007 6:07 AM
Ethan wrote:So would you guys want it with the old bushings left on? Removed? Pro-thane installed? Would you want to get it welded and re-drilled or would you prefer that was already done? I am still not really offering just curious how much work this would be. I am currently trying to polish mine up nicely. That's a LOT of work so I wouldn't offer that. Unless I found a shop that would do it for a reasonable price.

Just a feeler
cleaned up nice, maybe wire wheel brushed
with the prothanes and ball joints ready to go! I know I would pay for the service, saves time...



Pete ***RIP John Lingenfelter***
2002 Flame Yellow Sunfire GT B+M shifted 5 Spd
Just looking for mods and prey

Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Sunday, July 01, 2007 6:09 AM
i would buy arms welded in and drilled, i would prefer no balls joints or bushings. But I woudl DEFINETLY buy them.



Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Sunday, July 01, 2007 6:50 AM
Hrm. It seems there is definitely some interest, but a few different requests. I'll have to get off my butt and start doing some research. If I could get some people interested I bet I could get a discount on the work I want to have done on mine so win-win.

At a minimum everyone would want

the old bushings removed
holes welded and re-drilled and the end cut to match
wire brushed

So 3 people interested so far?
Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Sunday, July 01, 2007 6:59 AM
I think the first two are the most critical. someone can grab their own wire brush if they want


I'm interested as well.






Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Sunday, July 01, 2007 7:24 AM
I am interested!
much easier to wire wheel them when not assembled



Pete ***RIP John Lingenfelter***
2002 Flame Yellow Sunfire GT B+M shifted 5 Spd
Just looking for mods and prey

Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Sunday, July 01, 2007 7:29 AM
I have a wire wheel at work, I can nstall poly bushings and ball joints at work, and I get discounts on parts through work... its not worth me paying extra to have more done when I can get the parts cheaper and the labor free. Hell I don't even car if the old bushings are still in. Me personally, I just want welded and redrilled, anytign beyond that doesn't interest me but its only gonna come a certain way I still want in on this. Why not make a seperate thread for a GP interest? You would get ALOT more people viewing it then asking in here.



Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Sunday, July 01, 2007 7:39 AM
Ok then, Once I see what services are available here I will start a new thread. It seems like just from the response here it'd be something worth doing.

Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Sunday, July 01, 2007 1:29 PM
I'm up for a completely stock set right off the car.....






SPD RCR Z - '02 Z24 420whp
SLO GOAT - '04 GTO 305whp
W41 BOI - '78 Buick Opel Isuzu W41 Swap

Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Sunday, July 01, 2007 4:55 PM
If you buy the arms completely stock and remove the ball joints, most shops will weld in the holes for about 15-20 bucks apiece.
That would cost you about 30-60 bucks for the set to have welded. That's what it cost me, 30 bucks to have both welded.
The arms cost me 33 bucks from the junkyard and I pulled the part.
Once that's done, the rest of the work is easy.
A grinder, drill, some measuring, and you're done.


Good luck with it Ethan.


Misnblu.com
Newbie member since 1999
Thank you Dave and JBO!





Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Monday, July 02, 2007 6:46 AM
ethan you've got PM



Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Monday, July 02, 2007 5:21 PM
Can someone condense all this information. That way everyone doesn't need to read 100's of posts.

That would be awesome not just for me.



Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Sunday, August 12, 2007 6:20 PM
^ what he said.... any write up yet?
Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Sunday, August 12, 2007 9:49 PM
^been done...look on page 6 of this thread. Reading 100's of post is never a bad idea and can keep you from costly mistakes.
Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Sunday, August 12, 2007 10:20 PM
Misnblu wrote:Last update on these control arms.
The bushings have been in and decided to get busy and finish the project.
I'll be installing the aluminum control arms in mid January along with the rest of the suspension goodies.

First, the Prothane bushings have a two piece bushing for the longer tube on the control arm. This makes it easy to install these and there's not much to show you there. It should be pretty explanatory.

Second, if you get the RKSport bushings or Energy Suspension bushings, I'd recommend not to.
They have one piece bushings for both the small tubular hole and for the flat hole. The flat is no problem to install but the long tubular hole with the one piece bushing is a real bitch.
I've given up for now on doing it because of the time consumption and will finish it later on the stock control arms I'm also doing.

Believe me, the Prothanes are the much better made units and easiest to install.


Get out your vice, an L bracket or anything that will help hold the bushing in place while you press these on.
Remember to grease the inside of the hole, the outside of the bushing and the ramp part to help it slide onto the arm.


Here you see the L bracket holding the bushing while I press the bushing onto the arm.
Remember to have the radiused part to the top of the control arm and not reversed. The instructions will help you with how to make sure.


Now as you press the bushing onto the arm, this is going to happen. I tried it several times to see if the bushing would stay straight and it didn't.
Now it's time to break out a set of channel locks once you've gotten this far and don't lose hope right about here. It's quite easy to finish.


Here you see me using the vice grip to literally help squeeze the bushing into the arm. With the pressure of the vice and you squeezing with the channel locks, should come together nicely. You may have to do this in a couple of places that are trying to be stubborn but it's quite easy to do.


Here's the bushing almost completely on and with the help of the channel locks on the top of that spot that isn't in, basically popped in with little struggle.


There you can see the bushing finally seated.
Again, it really took no strenuous effort to do this with a little manipulation of the channel locks.


The finished product and was actually the easiest to do in this whole project.

Now it's time to install this onto the car and will make my final report on how it handles.

Misnblu


I saw a little conflicting info in this thread. One says that the J-Body bushings fit just fine in the Alero aluminum arms, another one said something to the effect of need to get the Alero bushings before install. You DID use the J-body Prothane bushings, with no fitment issues yes? Also, did you use Alero balljoints, or j-body? Thanks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Sunday, August 12, 2007 10:50 PM


Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Wednesday, August 15, 2007 1:41 PM
Everyone that has done this to my knowledge has used J-body bushings.

As far as the ball joints: if you are staying with the stock J-body spindle, use the J-body ball joint. If you are doing the NFW brake upgrade at the same time, you need to use the N-body ball joints.






Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Wednesday, August 15, 2007 1:51 PM
id be willing to pay for the above said.....name the price



Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Wednesday, August 15, 2007 10:27 PM
Thanks 'lilcav, one more thing, aftermarket balljoints come with grease fittings correct? Do the balljoints stick far enough out from the end of the ca for the fitting to poke out? Assuming they do since the arms have that little curved cut in the toward the center bolt hole, just making sure though.
I'm stickin with stock brakes for now. Junkyards here suck, and I doubt I could source all the parts for the NFW brake upgrade. I'll probably end up doing the SSBC 12" upgrade.




Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Thursday, August 16, 2007 3:37 AM
Not all aftermarket ball joints come with grease fittings, just some of the better ones do. I actually haven't done J-body ball joints before (they were done when I bought the car 6 years ago), so I haven't really checked them out. The N-body ones have to be the smallest casing, because some of the aftermarket ones cause rubbing issues with the big brake swap.





Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Friday, March 14, 2008 8:22 PM
what do u got to do to the end of the control arm where the balljoint bolts to

i wanna swap my stamped steel one for the aluminum ones hope some one can help ty
Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Friday, March 14, 2008 8:41 PM
Read page 6 of this thread. The how-to is laid out with pictures.
Just have to shorten the arms 1/2" by filling the existing holes, cutting or grinding off the 1/2", then drilling new holes.






Re: 99 Grand Am aluminum control arms
Friday, March 14, 2008 9:12 PM








Hope that gives you a little more idea of what they'll look like.
I love these. You can tell these weigh less than stockers by how well the struts are able to contol the motions much better.
I'm making up another set for LAFNGAS and hope to have them done in about two weeks. They're already filled and ready for cutting and drilling.
This is also a very easy mod to do if you take your time with it.
Junkyards ftw.


Misnblu.com
Newbie member since 1999
Thank you Dave and JBO!





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