I've got the front end torn apart in my IROC while I'm doing this LS1 swap. Last summer I installed Poly bushings and new ball joints in my stock A-arms while adding Koni strut and Sportlines along with other suspension goodies. I'm eying the UMI Tubular A-arms though, since they look good. Has anyone purchased and ran these? What are your thoughts? Worth the money? I'm going to be upgrading my brakes to the C5 ZO6 setup along with 17x9.5 wheels once I re-install the K-member so I'm trying to decide whether to buy the A-Arms or not.

 

I would vote yes. My take is the stock pieces design is dollar driven- to be cheap to produce. Plus, my take on UMI is positive. I think they do their homework and put out strong and good products.
There is another school of thought that thinks anything tubular is stupid because it throws away a lot of the LARGE safety margin the factory designs in.

 

That was my thought too. I think what scares me is the way the spring perch is welded. Seems that would be a weak point with the weight of the car pressing down on that, especially if I take the car out for a spirited driving session at Road Atlanta or something. I think the main thing that attracts me to them though, is the fact of additional clearance for larger wheels and tires. Plus they look cool... but I'm not the type that puts looks before purpose. So I don't know...

 

Here's a thread about the "new" UMIs;https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...new-style.html
This thinking occurs to me..."if the pressed steel A-arms are so special, why are the Corvette ones so different?"
Those UMI spring pockets look pretty substantial.

 

Thanks for the link. That cleared up all my questions, guess I will be ordering a set for sure now.

 

I have their older model and although they lacked the beefiness of the new ones, spring indexes, steering stops, bump stops, etc. they still held up since 2009 on HARSH HARSH potholed and bumpy roads up here in Montreal, Canada. No damage what-so-ever so far.. I've since replaced the ball joints but the ones that came with the a-arm were still good when I changed them (which was about 3 years of use).

 

They are worth it if you get the kmember to so everything matches. Other than that i dont see any advantages, you get alittle more room to access things with both kmember and A-arm plus 25 lbs savings. That made it worth it to me on my turbo build. I need the room

 

It's worth it if you need the room (that's the reason that I got a set + k-member), care about the slight weight savings (eh, it helps) and maybe marginally if you need to rebuild your stockers, especially if they've been rebuilt once already or you and the shops around you are pretty ham fisted about how they do things (once you wallow out the bushing/ball joint pockets in the stockers they're done).

If you tend to beat on your car on the road (_ever_ bounce it off a curb, a _big_ pothole or other large obstical on the road), you're better off sticking with stockers, which are more likely to bend but not break (so you can come to a stop safely, rather than skidding no the underbody, possibly with a tire/rim tearing up your bodywork.

 

I also agree. I have been considering going with a set of sphoon's, but i have heard bad things about fitment.