jag1886

I purchased a rear sway bar and boxing kit from OPGI for $119 and installed it yesterday. I think it was a very good investment, the boxing kit fit perfect and after welding it in it looks almost factory.

Lady72nRob71

Wow - some of the few repro parts that are not a "modify to fit".
Glad it worked out for you so well!

Wanna shed some light on the methods of removing and replacing the upper rear arms and bushings? Looks rear to impossible without a lift...

joe_padavano

Yeah, you would have had to make crappy partial welds for it to look 100% factory.

Bluevista

Those do look too good.

Such a deal, I should get that set-up for my Vista, thing rolls like a boat during turns.
I'm not sure if it will fit though?
I wonder where I could find out??

You take the body off the frame to get to those bushings Rob, then you hit them with BFH and when you break the ears they fit in off the rear end housing they fall right out.

RAMBOW

Upper rear arms just unbolt from the frame & diff housing. Easy.

Upper diff bushings... I used a homemade tool to remove them, basically a steel cup, a peice of all thread and some thick washers on the other side. Sucked the old bushing right out of the ear. You can use a balljoint press as well. Now that i have one of those, i'll juse that the next time.

To replace- I reversed the cup, cranked on the allthread to get the bushing started... then removed that stuff, and beat it in with a short handled 5 lb sledge hammer. I've done it a couple times and have not broken an ear, but probably not the best method.

Again, now that i have a bj press, you can just use it in reverse to push the bushing back in... I'll probably do that next time around.

RAMBOW

One more comment...
Those repop boxing kits are nice... But $30+ shipping? I'm a cheap skate sometimes....

For about $5 at Lowed or HomeDepot, you can buy a 4' long strip of steel the right guage metal and exactly the right width to fit the bottom of the control arms. Just cut to legnth & weld on.

another $5 for some 1/2" square tubing to use for reinforcing the swaybar holes... (tack weld those in before the bottom strip of course)

Now you've got $10 into boxing your arms instead of $30+ shipping with enough material left over to do a 2nd set for your friend or your other car.

ziff396

For the upper diff bushings, I used a 1/4" drill bit. Using circular motions, it ate right in and removed the rubber in about a minute. Collapsed the bushing and out it came. Installing the new ones however was the BFH routine.

jag1886

I thought I was cheap!

joe_padavano

X2. Of course, it depends on whether you want the car to look 100% stock or not. Me, not so much.

OLD SKL 69

Last time I removed those bushings I just fired up my torch and burned em out! My air hammer removed the casing. I think I had both of them out in 20 minutes. My wife didn't like the smell though.