Changebout Upper Control Arms?

Duster360LA said
I've pretty much wrapped up my 74 Duster restomod project, but in going through and greasing my fittings I noticed the circular metal plate that the grease ripple goes in to on the passenger side upper control arm bulges up slightly and grease comes out around the edges. The UCA assemblies were rebuilt by the previous owner and never saw any driving.
While the easy fix would just be to replace it, I'm wondering what the benefits would be of getting tubular UCAs?
For background, my Duster is running a mildly built 5.9 Magnum (350 HP) with a 5-speed Tremec. The front end has all new performance bushings, hotchkiss shocks, Kanter sway bar, Borgson high ration power steering box, Flaming River column and new Pittman and idler arms. I also have a new set of 1.03 torsion bars coming in to put on.
I plan to take the car on 1,000 mile plus trips around the country visiting shows and swap meets. Won't see the track or do any road rallies.
Is it worth the cost to go to tubular UCAs?

It really depends on the set up that you have now, which doesn't sound entirely stock at least by your description. Can you post a picture of what you have now?

Beyond that, as go-fish pointed out if you have the factory arms you'll at least need offset UCA bushings in order to get decent caster numbers for running radial tires. Based on the description of your build though it would probably benefit you to have more caster than most people can get with the factory UCA's and offset bushings. Adding caster to the alignment settings really makes driving these cars a nicer experience when you're running more modern radial tires, and is absolutely necessary if you're going to larger diameter wheels and wider tires up front.