Topic: 1970 upper arm resto ?

[Wills70]

I have a couple of Nos Ford service replacement upper arms -80?s that I would like to try to make concours , how would you proceed to restore?   Should I remove the arm bushings ? Paint stripper and surface conditioning pad?
Thanks for your advice  Will

[Bob Gaines]

I have a couple of Nos Ford service replacement upper arms -80?s that I would like to try to make concours , how would you proceed to restore?   Should I remove the arm bushings ? Paint stripper and surface conditioning pad?
Thanks for your advice  Will

NOS service replacement upper arms did not come with steel metal colored painted son the end as a close up indicates. If they truly are NOS and are just low mileage ones that received a previous a paint job to protect the bare steel end by a past owner . Then to make them look new they need a few things. Low mileage inner shafts would typically not need to be taken out. They will be a darker metal then the lighter shade the steel arm frame looks like. You can use gun bluing to tint them.They would have grease plugs and not grease fittings. Chemical strip the paint and hopefully the metal under the faux steel paint and the black paint still looks good. You don't want to bead blast them if you can help it. If they have been bead blasted it will take some time in the vibratory tumbler and appropriate media to get them looking close to right.You will have to drill out and have new rivets installed . Without seeing which boot is on the service arm it will be hard to say if that needs replaced with a 1970 looking one or not. The 70 upper arm from the factory was not dipped in paint and were instead bare metal . You will need some form of rust inhibitor to fend off bare metal surface rust.  This a short answer but you can get the general idea. Of course this is to get them looking NOS assemblyline looking and may be over kill for what you are looking for . Alternative techniques will get lessor different results but a compromise may be what you are looking for. 

[J_Speegle]

You may have seen service replacements - what some people refer to as NOS fully painted. Many of these were used in restorations done in the 80-90's. Kept the parts from surface rusting while in transit and storage. No one like to buy rusty, new parts for well earn dollars

But for out focus here Bob is correct the paint needs to be removed and restored as it originally was done

[cobrajet_carl]

I can't tell from the picture but 75 and later service parts were cut in front, which is different  from assembly line arms.

[Wills70]

I realize that these are not assembly line parts, but what I have , Ford arms and not aftermarket. My goal is make factory correct as I can . It would make things easier to remove the shaft , but if you advise against this , I will do the best I can with the shaft and bushings in place
Thanks

[BHStang]

I believe it comes down to an opinion on what you want for your car.  That said I would really look for a good set of originals.  All the repops I have seen are all based off of the D5 1975 service part, as previously mentioned shaped differently.   

[Anghelrestorations]

Take a look here on page 16 of what I put together.  Shows what the control arms should look like:

https://anghelrestorations.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/65-to-73-Suspension-Guide-v3.2a.pdf