ConcoursMustang Forums

Restoring - General discussions that span across many different groups of years and models => Suspension => Topic started by: indianfire on April 14, 2014, 01:48:52 PM

Title: 1969 upper control arm crack
Post by: indianfire on April 14, 2014, 01:48:52 PM
Hello I'm was the process of restoring my upper control arms and noticed a crack. the crack is about 1/2" long and is just outside where the ball joint rivets in and the arm begins to roll. It appears to me that this possibly could have been caused by a machining flaw, due to the fact that the end of my control arm stops short and doesn't roll over the end like other pictures I've seen, but that's only speculation. The parts are off of a 69 Mach 1 Q code and  I guess I'm wondering how I should proceed. I'm trying to be as correct as possibly and the car will probably see very little drive time.
thanks in advance
Jon
Title: Re: 1969 upper control arm crack
Post by: Bob Gaines on April 14, 2014, 03:09:47 PM
Hello I'm was the process of restoring my upper control arms and noticed a crack. the crack is about 1/2" long and is just outside where the ball joint rivets in and the arm begins to roll. It appears to me that this possibly could have been caused by a machining flaw, due to the fact that the end of my control arm stops short and doesn't roll over the end like other pictures I've seen, but that's only speculation. The parts are off of a 69 Mach 1 Q code and  I guess I'm wondering how I should proceed. I'm trying to be as correct as possibly and the car will probably see very little drive time.
thanks in advance
Jon
I have seen it before .Like most things it can be fixed but unless you live in Cuba and have to reuse everything better to not. Effort to fix vs. another leans towards another . The short answer is that typically it makes the most sense to replace it.
Title: Re: 1969 upper control arm crack
Post by: indianfire on April 14, 2014, 03:22:55 PM
awesome thanks for the input i'll probably get a hold of rare parts. they seemed to have some pretty nice stuff.
Title: Re: 1969 upper control arm crack
Post by: J_Speegle on April 14, 2014, 04:20:13 PM
awesome thanks for the input i'll probably get a hold of rare parts. they seemed to have some pretty nice stuff.

If your doing a restoration some pieces they have have a nice while others sill require more work to redo what they do to the parts :(  and others are not close enough to get by. Like every supplier (in general) you need to pick and choose through their offerings :)

Some suppliers do powder coating while just makes the effort not worth the extra work as one example
Title: Re: 1969 upper control arm crack
Post by: Rsanter on April 14, 2014, 09:02:46 PM
Typical stress crack
I have seen many of those arms break off the entire ball joint area.
If you are just a show car and must have those correct original arms then have it TIG welded.
If it's a driver then replace it....no questions

Bob