Help on how to replace upper control arm mounts

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demon833

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First time poster here. My upper mounts are both riddled with rust. The frame channel looks ok from the outside. I bought the upper mount repos from Classic Industries and am looking for any pointers on getting the old ones out of the channel. My initial plan is to scribe their position, drill out the weld at the top, and ask you guys how is the best way to get them out especially inside the channel. I would sure appreciate any help from those who have done this before.
 
Never done it but there are some heavy welds at the bottom that will need to be cut with a cut off wheel. Also quite a few spot welds where they attach to the inner fender.
I would make some kind of jig to make sure it gets put back exactly where the original was.
 
Never done it but there are some heavy welds at the bottom that will need to be cut with a cut off wheel. Also quite a few spot welds where they attach to the inner fender.
I would make some kind of jig to make sure it gets put back exactly where the original was.

I think you might be thinking shock towers instead of upper arm mounting brackets.
OR, the OP might mean shock towers and is saying upper A brackets. :rolleyes::lol:
 
I cant figure out how you can get down in the channel to cut the welds and I was hoping to find someone who has done it. The car has been driven a week ago and it is not in parts or pieces. The inner fender well is on the car and I am hoping this doesnt require disassembling all the body work on the front half of the car to be able to replace both sides
 
I cant figure out how you can get down in the channel to cut the welds and I was hoping to find someone who has done it. The car has been driven a week ago and it is not in parts or pieces. The inner fender well is on the car and I am hoping this doesnt require disassembling all the body work on the front half of the car to be able to replace both sides
pictures
 
I cant figure out how you can get down in the channel to cut the welds and I was hoping to find someone who has done it. The car has been driven a week ago and it is not in parts or pieces. The inner fender well is on the car and I am hoping this doesnt require disassembling all the body work on the front half of the car to be able to replace both sides
I dont know if you guys can visualize this but you cant get your head directly over the assembly to see enough to cut it out. The only thing I can think of is to support the unibody channel fore and aft of the work area and cut the bottom of the channel out and then cut it out from below. Then reweld a base plate in or a frame cap. There just has to be a better way.... I hope..
 
Dont have pics at the moment. The car is up on a lift in my buddies shop 40 min drive. Will post when I can.
 
upper.jpeg


upper.jpeg
 
The inner fender is full of holes too. Based on that rust line across the whole shock tower and both mounts there isn’t going to be much left of the top section of frame rail either, that was the water line for all the junk sitting up there and
it was all sitting on top of the frame. Once you get down into it I suspect you’ll find the top of the frame rail is trashed too.

There’s no trick to this, you’ll have to cut stuff out until you get to the welds you need to get at. Assuming the mounts just don’t take the upper parts of the frame rail with them.

Measure and mark EVERYTHING. If you get the reassembly wrong you’ll never be able to align the car. I’d set the car up so it’s leveled and supported on both sides of the area you’ll be working on, you’ll need to pull all the chassis measurements like in the shop manual to check everything when you reassemble it.

As for the car remaining complete while you make this repair, I don’t think so. There’s more to replace there than just the control arm mounts and shock tower. The inner fender will need to be sectioned at least, it’s full of holes there behind the shock tower and mounts. On the bright side sectioning the inner fender back will get you more access. I’d pull all the sheet metal. Fenders, hood, latch panel, all of it. You’ll probably find more rust when you do. This isn’t a small job to be done quickly, especially if you’re doing this on both sides. That’s going to be a fairly significant structural repair by the time it’s done. And it includes all your front suspension mounting points, so it will have to be fairly precise too.
 
The inner fender is full of holes too. Based on that rust line across the whole shock tower and both mounts there isn’t going to be much left of the top section of frame rail either, that was the water line for all the junk sitting up there and
it was all sitting on top of the frame. Once you get down into it I suspect you’ll find the top of the frame rail is trashed too.

There’s no trick to this, you’ll have to cut stuff out until you get to the welds you need to get at. Assuming the mounts just don’t take the upper parts of the frame rail with them.

Measure and mark EVERYTHING. If you get the reassembly wrong you’ll never be able to align the car. I’d set the car up so it’s leveled and supported on both sides of the area you’ll be working on, you’ll need to pull all the chassis measurements like in the shop manual to check everything when you reassemble it.

As for the car remaining complete while you make this repair, I don’t think so. There’s more to replace there than just the control arm mounts and shock tower. The inner fender will need to be sectioned at least, it’s full of holes there behind the shock tower and mounts. On the bright side sectioning the inner fender back will get you more access. I’d pull all the sheet metal. Fenders, hood, latch panel, all of it. You’ll probably find more rust when you do. This isn’t a small job to be done quickly, especially if you’re doing this on both sides. That’s going to be a fairly significant structural repair by the time it’s done. And it includes all your front suspension mounting points, so it will have to be fairly precise too.
Thank guys for your input everyone. I am starting to see how big a job this is turning out to be. I hadnt thought of sectioning the inner fender well. I was just looking for a daily driver not a show car. I was just dumb enough to think I could cut a few welds and replace so I ordered those expensive parts without thinking about the details of how I was going to get to those welds
 
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