Now I cannot decide whether I should reuse the stock A-arms using Del A lum and new ball joints, or simply buy UMI A-arms.

One of the reasons I'm inclined to buying UMI is I don't have much confidence replacing old bushes and ball joints because I've never done that before.
Of course I've done a lot of research on this, but found out sometimes stock a-arms can get twisted when replacing bushes, and also bushes and ball joints can get pressed in a wrong angle.
And in the worst case, I have to get my a-arms to the shop while my car is on the jack for a long time.

Also, replacing these requires several special tools which cost some more money.

Considering all of these, I cannot find big merits of reusing stock a-arms, except for the fact I can get a good experience of replacing bushes and ball joints.

Under this circumstances, what would you do? Which would you choose?

 

rent the tool and its stupid easy for ball joints, or just drop off the parts to any local shop that has a press for bushings and see if you can cash n carry, most are around $45-55 to get them to swap them out on the side.

 

I am going with stock a-arms and del-a-lums because I'm not ready to fork out the cash for tubular. But I am certainly adding the umi road race kmember and a-arms to my wishlist.

 

Yeah, replacing ball joints seems easier than bushes.
And as you said, if I can cash and carry, that will be the safest way...

BTW, do you think I can replace bushes with the same tool as the one to push out and press in the ball joints?
Or do I need a big press?

 

Are you going to replace ball joints and bushes yourself?

 

I am accumulating all my parts right now. But I plan to take the a arms to a shop to do the bushings and depending on cost I will have them do the ball joints too. I can and have done all my own ball joints in the past. I will use moog ball joints.

I plan on painting the a arms spindles and steering linkage black with por15. Paint is easier to touch up than powder coat..

 

It would be awesome if you could post some pics and/or a line-by-line account of how you do this job. I'm interested in doing this on my '88. Been quite a while since I took any suspensions apart, and then it was in garage, with lots of appropriate tools. If I do my '88, its going to have to be a driveway job with whatever tools I have on-hand, or can rent. Are you doing your A-arm job with kind of a minimalist work area and tool set?

 

I'm also accumulating my parts and yes, depending on cost I want to have them do... (The problem though is it costs quite a lot here in Japan...)
BTW, any reason you won't do yourself this time? Time consuming?

I'm also going to use moog ball joints, together with moog steering linkage.
And yes, it's a good idea to paint with por15. I want to paint all the chassis parts with it (And I will!).

 

I also have to do a driveway job, so I don't want to keep my car jacked for more than one day.
So I'm going to ask my shop if they can finish my job on the day.

 

You need a large bottle jack press to push out the bushings and reinstall them. The balljoint tool is not a press, more like a large C clamp

 

So the balljoint tool is not powerful enough to push out or reinstall bushes, right?

 

I've never done the bushings and have read they can be difficult so i'd rather pay a professional. If its not to much more i will just pay them to do the ball joints too because it more time and cost effective than renting ball joint press from the parts store. I last changed ball joints on my truck and finding a ball joint press with the right size sleaves/cups was a hassle.

 

the UMI A-arms come with ball joints and bushings already installed.

 

I agree.
I've just checked up the cost of having bushes and ball joints changed, and found it's much cheaper than I expected (around 100$ for all).
I think it's more time and cost effective unless you already have special tools required.

 

Yes, that's why I was thinking about getting the UMI ones.
But after the research I've found having bushes and ball joints replaced is more time and cost effective, even with delrin bushes, so I've decided to go for the stock a-arms with delrin bushes and Moog joints.