Hi All,

After disassembly of the front end on a 1968 442 Convertible, I found a terrible misalignment between the passenger side lower control arm and the bracket welded to the frame. Weirdly I did not notice the misalignment at disassembly and do not remember struggling to get the C.A. out. Even stranger is the welding on the bracket, it appears to be close to an 1" of weld build up between the bracket and frame, which looks and for structural purposes is insane. See drivers (normal) and passenger (bad) brackets in the below photos.

So my questions are,
Is the most reasonable option to remove the current bracket and replace with another or is there an alternative people have used in the past?
Where is a good source for purchasing a lower control arm with round bushings to match the stock driver side for a 1968 car, as remember hearing the bushing style is unique to that year?

Thanks
Nick

 

Is the Passenger side lower control arm that was on the car different from the D side?? That may give you a clue as to what happened.

 

Both passenger and driver side control arms are the same style and the same dimensionally. Both were rebuilt and accepted the same size bushings so that’s why I’m thinking the control arms aren’t the issue at all.

I will have to find a replacement for the passenger side as the previous owner had cut a hole in it on the underside of the spring mount, and I did a number on it trying to get it back in the car.

 

Check your driver side. I think you will find you actually need an oval bushing arm for the passenger side. I have an extra RH oval bushing control arm. PM if interested.

 

The only difference between the round bushing and the oval bushing control arm is the bushing. Either one will mount to the frame bracket. It looks like the outer ears of the bracket are bent inward, try spreading them a bit until the control arm slides in.

 

Any misalignment isn't apparent from those pictures (to me at least). Installing LCA's usually requires a large dead blow, some pry bars, and cuss words. As said, spreading the mounting ears apart can help. Use grease, wiggle, push.

It's pretty common for the rear mount cup to (partially) tear off of the frame, resulting in the kind of repair you see on yours. Hopefully they're usually done better than that, but looks like it held. You can grind down all that weld and re-do it if you want. I'd recommend reinforcing the driver side while you're in there anyway.
Patton was suggesting that you take an extra close look at the control arms to make sure one isn't tweaked, twisted, bent or deformed. The car might have hit something hard on the right side, tearing the control arm mount and messing up the LCA. The repair might've been done with a bent LCA. It happens.
If the LCAs are straight then there's no need to replace if you like the OE matching of the round bushings.

 

My 3 cents...
Make the frame right for safety and for chassis and sheet metal alignment purposes.

Make the frame a "roller" with new control arms orig or new springs spindles bushings etc...temporerly install everything, no final BJ torque, cotter pins, paint or detail work yet.
Have the frame put on a frame table to perform this repair and to check the frame for square before any cutting/welding takes place? Have good upper/lower A-Arms etc available at this time.
The frame shop will tell you what they need to do the job. Do your homework on the frame shop.
Don't step over a dollar to save a dime. It will bite you.

Why go through all the trouble of restoring/repairing a car with a tweaked frame. New upper or LCAs are not expensive.
The cascade effect will frustrate you and cost time and money if the frame or control arms are not square.
Might as well have the rear end bolted in too so the whole chassis assembly can be verified.

I see countless restorations where the frame received powder-coating, final assembly, and detail. Then it was discovered to be tweaked. Now what....start all over or do a half *** repair is what.
Nobody thought to throw the frame on a table before any work began.

 

The lower control arm mounts were prone to breaking at those welds. It looks like that happened and someone who maybe wasn't the best welder threw a sloppy bead on it. If you're concerned, grind the weld and have someone that runs a prettier bead make it look good for you. Personally I wouldn't do anything. If it isn't cracked, it's probably fine. I don't see the misalighnment

Just because a weld looks like crap doesn't mean it doesn't have good penetration

 

Thanks....that's what I was getting at. My thinking was the OP is looking for a "correct" style replacement LCA for the side that has the welding globs. I thought whatever he had found on the car might be an obvious replacement on that side...replaced b/c the original LCA got damaged beyond use in whatever incident caused the need to do the weld/repair.

 

I appreciate the replies and help. I was probably a little wrong by saying the original control arm was not bent because I ordered a new (not remanufactured) C.A. through Speedway and it seemed to be a much closer fit into the frame brackets. I opened the "ears" of the bracket up, less than 1/4", and the new C.A. seemed to slide in with very minimal effort. I also ground down the questionable welds and rewelded. But as droldsmorland stated above, the car should still get looked over by a qualified frame shop sooner than later.

Thanks
Nick

 

nice work looks like you got this !!!