ok, there are 3 sets of rear control arms, trailing arms, bars whatever u wanna call them. I saw the article in camaro performers about the hotckiss rear trailing arms installation and i want to do this. I dont know if i want to spend $254 on hotckiss lower trailing arms. I am also looking at the edelbrock kind that are $209. I just saw Lakewood Rear Lower Control Bars for $89. This is a daily driver and im willing to use the lakewood kind as long as they will provide a noticeable difference...should i avoid these or what?

hotchkiss trailing arms

edelbrock trailing arms

lakewood control bars

 

I've ran the Lakewoods for the past year, no more wheelhop for me. they all do the same thing, there was no way i was spending that much for the Hotchkis ones. The lakewood ones are very nice, and powdercoated.

 

i appreciate your response, they do seem like a good deal. Does the kit come with everything you need? Installation and removal should be fairly easy im assuming....

 

I've had Lakewood on at least one of my cars for the past 5 years.
I just recently swapped my Spohn Adjustables for Lakewoods from my brothers car since the adjustables kept getting loose.
They come with everything to install them.

These are on my old 86 Trans Am,

 

Mine were corroded to high heaven, and the original ones look a bit flimsy [obviously they work ok] but also expensive from GM.
I got the Lakewood and they work a treat. I do like the grease nipples everywhere, goes back to the days when you only needed new bits if you forgot to use the grease gun now and then.

 

so did they provide a noticeable difference?

 

im getting lakewood trailing arms, they use polyurathane bushings....do i need a special type of grease for these bushings? where can i get it?

thx guys

 

i've had the hotchkis ones for about 5 years now, and they're awesome....they're a little beefier than the lakewoods, not that it makes that much difference, but im a fan of hotchkis parts anyways.

regular grease will work fine

 

I dont know exactly how much beef you realy need to keep the axle on the ground in its proper place, but I do know that beefier usually means more weight. I have the lakewoods on mine, they seem to work perfectly. Im not about to spend $200+ on a part that has very little in the way of advanced design structure. Regular greece works fine in the poly bushings, and the lakewoods come with everything minus the bolts- I had to replace my bolts as they were pretty rusted after 20 years of driving. Go figure.

 

Another one with the lakewood LCa's also got their adj panhard rod

 

so lithium grease? i see like 3 different types of grease at the store...lol i ask too many questions

 

i guess im into saving money...i just boxed my stock lower control arms and then used the money i saved on the lca's to buy a set of lca relocation brackets...which will help with wheel hop issues better than buying a "pre-boxed" lca.

 

mw66nova, that is exactly what I am doing. I boxed my stock lower control arms and now I just need to get the car to stop squatting, so I ordered up some relocation brackets. I welded up my stock lower control arms and Panhard rod for free, and I used Poly bushings as well. I think it would be next to impossible to get a set of welded stock parts to flex, but thats just me.

 

thinking of welding up my lcas also........what matls did you use, anything to watch for??

 

i used 16ga steel from lowes. nothing to really watch for though.

anyone got a decent price for poly bushings?

 

i cant weld nor do i have a welder so thats not an option for me

 

i have the hotchkis lca's and adj panhard bar.i'm veryhappy with the quality and performance

 

Mw66, did you do anything on the inside of your boxed LCAs to protect the welds from rust? I've wanted to box mine for a long time but I don't want to start any rust on such a critical spot!

 

Well I relize you didnt ask me but here is what I did. I only boxed the bottom of the control arms from about the center of each bushing this way air can get to them and they can stay dry. Just spray them out occasionally. I dont drive my car in the winter so that makes a big difference.

 

ummm...never thought about it i guess...but no, i didn't do anything...but i live in GA, and i don't see the kinda rust you do up in Jersey....all those cars with suspension parts that are rusted...yeah...i don't see that down here at all. everything is just dusty, but all of the components still have the factory black paint on them when washed off.

 

I would box it, then remove the control arm bushings and sleeves. Then you can see in the channel. Might be able to spray the inside of the welds then. I just left it, figured it'd only get surface rust anyway probably...

 

why not spray the inside of it with some weld-through primer before welding it up?

 

wouldn't it "weld-through" this pimer though and still leave an exposed weld? i would think that boxing it completely, making it air-tight would help with longevity...i know for a fact that the guys at hotchkis and spohn and bmr and lakewood don't do anything to the insides because they are welded shut.

 

I bought my LCA and panhard rod off of ebay about 2 years ago from hotparts.com. They eliminated alot of issues with the rear suspension. I bought it in a package deal for $119.00. Easy to install and come with poly bushings and grease fittings. I think they also make LCA relocation brackets and caster/camber plates. They somewhat look like the ones that BMR used to sell. Might want to check into these if you are on a budget.

 

Kind of, but not quite, Weld-Through coating will conduct electricity and allow you to weld through it, but will leave a corrosion protection layer on the weld. really trick stuff, but expensive as hell, about $20-25 for a regular sized spray can of it.

 

Just FYI Hoychkis LCAs are heavy, very strong but they are at least twice the weight of boxed stock ones.

 

Buy lightweight tubular ones- they have new bushings and the lightweight helps the ride quality. Any time you are welding on plating or increasing the weight with such products as the very heavy Hotchkis arms, you are raisning the unsprung weight of the suspension and it is more weight inertia thrown upward at the chassis to unsettle it over a bump.

ps- welding primers are basically Zinc primer