[BudgetPlan1]

...Poly bushings or spherical bearings?

Looks are of no consideration at all, function over form. Right now I'm looking and the CHE tubular (View the Tubular Rear Lower Control Arms<br>Part # CHE1K at http://www.cheperformance.com), wondering about any advantages/disadvantages of tubular over the boxed steel/billet pieces from BMR or others.

Car will be used for occasional 1/4 mile nights over the course of the season, just looking to cut down on some wheel hop. Really don't wanna get into adjustable LCA's (one more thing for me to mess up) or UCA's/panhard bar stuff at this time.

Thanks for any input you may have.

[psycho bob]

CHE's a good brand. i'm very happy with my BMR and will continue to use them. you don't really need the adjustable pieces anyway unless you will be lowering your car. if you won't be doing much track time i wouldn't get the spherical ones. just stick to the poly bushings for mainly road use.

[07stanggt]

you want poly bushings. spherical rod ends will have no deflection and are going to be harse for a daily driver and noisey. the poly bushing will have some deflection, they are still very stiff but they allow a little bit of movement for the daily driver.

The heavy duty billet aluminum arms are one peice t6061 aluminum laser cut and unbreakable, the boxed steel, are just that boxed steel. But there is really no difference performance wise, your not going to break the boxed steel either. The billet arms are just nicer looking they have the BMR logo on them and come in that annodized black hammerton paint job. where as the boxed steel just come in red or regular black and have no logo on them. and i know what your thinking you cant see them anyway but if you get lowered and instant center brackets you will be able to see the control arm in between the tire and wheel well.

So an honest answer is that its just 99% for looks. I have the billet LCA's from BMR and i love them. Keep in mind i have a 15% sale off bmr stuff starting Friday.

[stangNV]

and billit is lighter!

[07stanggt]

actually the billet bmr arms are a touch heavier then the box steel just becuase they are a solid peice and bigger. the box steel is hollow inside, its boxed! that is their point heavy duty billet arms. but the box steel isnt going to break either so unless your makeing some 1500 horsepower it doesnt matter. and if you are you should get rod ends anyways.

[07stanggt]

bmr will tell you that of their arms there is no perfomance difference in the tubular, boxed or billet arms really, its just a looks issue. the billet arms look the best. when you jack your stang up you can get a woody looking at those annodized black arms and your yellow bilsteins and blue frpp shocks and stainless steel mandrel bent exhuast setup, oh and that pretty one peice aluminum shaft.

i dont know maybe you could look at it from a rust issue down the road. could the boxed steel rust? but are you going to care if 20 years from now they rust. i dont know.

[07 STROKER]

i got BMR boxed and they a holding up great.

[07stanggt]

yea see. are you willing to pay the extra 100 for this look is the question.

Hopefully a lot of people are cuase i got 20 sets of the billet. so let me change my statement billet all the way it will cut 2/10s off your 60.

[07stanggt]

by the way 07 where is the nipple to grease the bushing on yours i dont see it?

[07 STROKER]

yup one on each end

[07 STROKER]

at the front it comes straight out and 90's down...the bracket id hiding it in the photo

[stangNV]

so how much is that kit 07stang since your sale is going on on friday?

[07stanggt]

just the arms or with the relocation brackets?

[07stanggt]

its 15% off.


that kit in the picture with the billet arms and brackets its 293.20. Your saving $51.75

you can just get the brackets and the boxed arms as well. so it would be less probably about 200. i got to check the price on the boxed arms i dont have any.

[07 STROKER]

160 ish for boxed i believe

[07stanggt]

Originally Posted by 07 procharger 160 ish for boxed i believe

oh really i thought they were less, like 128. bmr doesnt have them on their site. the have a picture but now price except for tubular with poly bushings.

[IronStomach]

Originally Posted by 07stanggt actually the billet bmr arms are a touch heavier then the box steel just becuase they are a solid peice and bigger. the box steel is hollow inside, its boxed! that is their point heavy duty billet arms. but the box steel isnt going to break either so unless your makeing some 1500 horsepower it doesnt matter. and if you are you should get rod ends anyways.

Aluminum is significantly less durable than steel structurally, as such it'd have to have super thick walls or with time repeated stresses will crack the aluminum. At that point it's probably cheaper from a manufacturing process to just fabricate aluminum arms billet style.

The bicyle industry went pretty much all aluminum many years back because it's much cheaper to form an aluminum tube set than high quality steel. But a high quality steel tube set can have much thinner walls than aluminum and be as light or lighter and more durable than alumunium. Of course titanium's the better choice than both... but comparitively costs a fortune to cold work it.



Speaking of titanium... read a cool article on a TVR 12 cyclinder monster that someone had to rebuild with a titanium rear end. That's the spirit!

[07stanggt]

you would be the first person i ever heard say boxed steel was more durable then t6061 aluminum. they are lazer cut out from a hunk of aluminum and solid. Im not questioning you, your just the first person i heard say that.

[IronStomach]

Originally Posted by 07stanggt you would be the first person i ever heard say boxed steel was more durable then t6061 aluminum. they are lazer cut out from a hunk of aluminum and solid. Im not questioning you, your just the first person i heard say that.

No, I didn't say the boxed steel is more durable than the solid aluminum. I was careful not to say that. The aluminum has to be solid in order to have similar or superior durability -- and billet looks really cool too.

Molecularly, steel has some flex to it whereas aluminum is really rigid. And just like with nature -- in a strong wind the inflexible tree will snap, whereas the one that bends in the wind will remain standing. Once you hit a certain fatigue point on the two metals, steel and aluminum, steel will give up to a point, but then bounce back. Aluminum will give and crack.

The billet aluminum is probably substantially stiffer and more durable than the boxed steel. Without testing though I wouldn't know by how much. But suffice it to say, they're both overkill enough to be better than the OEM.

[07stanggt]

oh i see what your saying. i dont know anything about all that metal stuff.