I ran across this guy on Ebay selling a front end rebuild kit. It had all the parts I needed in one kit and it was over $200 cheaper than buying it through Mac's or Concours or anywhere else. Everything looks great and most of the parts are in sealed packages. Everything is new. Here's everything I got in the kit. Price - $209.99 *** OUTER LEFTHAND TIE ROD *** *** OUTER RIGHTHAND TIE ROD *** *** LEFTHAND TIE ROD SLEEVE *** *** RIGHTHAND TIE ROD SLEEVE *** *** LEFTHAND SWAY BAR BOLT *** *** RIGHTHAND SWAY BAR BOLT *** *** LEFTHAND SWAY BAR BUSHINGS *** *** RIGHTHAND SWAY BAR BUSHINGS *** *** LEFTHAND UPPER BALL JOINT *** *** RIGHTHAND UPPER BALL JOINT *** *** LEFTHAND LOWER BALL JOINT *** *** RIGHTHAND LOWER BALL JOINT *** *** LEFTHAND UPPER CONTROL ARM BUSHINGS (2 EACH) *** *** RIGHTHAND UPPER CONTROL ARM BUSHINGS (2 EACH) *** *** LEFTHAND LOWER CONTROL ARM BUSHINGS (2 EACH) *** *** RIGHTHAND LOWER CONTROL ARM BUSHINGS (2 EACH) *** *** UPPER CONTROL ARM SUSPENSION BUMPERS (2 EACH) *** *** LOWER CONTROL ARM SUSPENSION BUMPERS (2 EACH) *** This kit also contains the cotter pins, ruber grease seals/boots, zirc fittings, bolts for the ball joints, plus the tie rod sleeve bolts, nuts and clamps. On ebay his username is 11karkrazy and his website is a-resto-parts.com.
The kit looks nice but I would ask where the parts are made first before I would order them . Some kits are cheaper and some are more costly for a reason ! Jim
Seems real cheap.. question is, is this Chinese cheap stuff? It's kinda like the OT BMW suspension parts on eBay... Hamburg Technic stuff, it's real cheap but it's chinese made garbage. OE quality Lemforder stuff is a lot more but worth it.
Never hurts to ask where they are made . Usually dirt cheap is cheap chinese junk . I understand that we try to find bargains when we can to safe some money and I will do that all the time I can . I do ask where stuff is made . Most is overseas but if you look hard enough you can find quality parts at decent prices . Usually these kits have the cheaper made parts but unless you really need a complete front end parts replacement , then why not just replace what is bad with the better parts ? Just a thought . Jim
Only time will tell. If I am replacing everything at the end of next year, then you'll know it was ****.
Put this in the back of your mind.... the Chinese DO NOT do the same testing on parts as we do here in the US for quality control and stress testing for possible part failure. Check out everything before you get **** parts and then have to replace them again. I tend to suggest to buy the good stuff the first time for peace of mind, safety, and dependability. my 2 cents.......
think about it this way.. our cars are over 50 years old and most of us are still using original factory suspension parts..that's because they were made from quality steel parts. i find myself trying to rebuild old parts instead of buying new if i can. although i do buy chinese tools at harbor freight..
As long as we are on the subject, is there a reliable alliance vendor that offers high-quality front-end rebuild parts? I know Jamco is an alliance vendor, but I have heard some customer feedback around here that makes me worried about using them. Any others that anyone has had a good experience with? Any non-alliance vendors or manufacturers that you know have high-quality parts? I am shopping for a kingpin kit and weighing my options. Thanks
I know it's not much, but here is a statement from their website. We are ANDERSEN RESTORATIONS LLC. We have been in the cl***ic car restoration business for over 30 years and through those 30+ years of restorations we have found that there are various degrees of quality available in suspension and steering parts. When we started ANDERSEN RESTORATIONS LLC we promised ourselves that we would always supply only the top quality parts available and we guarantee that we will take no shortcuts when it comes to quality. We sell suspension parts for American-made cl***ic cars, muscle cars, and pickups from the 1950's, 1960's, and 1970's. We can sell you one part or a complete suspension rebuild kit -- the complete kits are our specialty! As most car people are aware, the majority of the major manufacturers have taken their design and manufacturing processes overseas during the last two decades. Even though there are very few suspension, steering, or ch***is parts manufactured in the United States today, please rest ***ured that ANDERSEN RESTORATIONS LLC will continue to handle only products that meet or exceed all Original Equipment Manufacturers (O.E.M.) specifications. Because we are car enthusiasts ourselves with, again, over 30 years in the car restoration business, we will continue to add to our product lines and to provide you with the very best ch***is parts available at the very best prices you can find...we are the professionals!
I followed your link to the Anderson Restorations LLC website and could find nothing telling where they are located. When a company won't give their location, I won't buy from them, just seems a little shady to me. I did find an Anderson Restorations LLC located in Utah but don't know if it is the same one. The one located in Utah, buys at least some of their parts from India and China as shown on this website. http://www.importgenius.com/importers/andersen-restorations-llc My point is, I would check to see where the parts are from before I order them.
It could be this one:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Andersons-Customs-Restorations/153622788007136 there is also another Andersons Restorations with a 763 area code which is a Twin Cities suburb.
Sometimes you have to look at the big picture about import parts,over 85% of s**** metal gets shipped overseas so we can buy products made from our s****.Why can't we make these products here in the USA? Well where are the steel mills and the factories that once were the backbone of America? They are gone and the jobs and the trained workers that ran them are gone too We can thank the politicians in Washington for tree hugging liberal thinking and the EPA and their ilk for the situation we face from them "cleaning the environment" tonight they say Obama is going to ask for a relaxing of environmental regulations to create jobs,good luck with that! The parties will bicker and ***** to get their own agendas and little will get done to help the American worker.Now back to the "BIG picture" who will drive the trucks loaded with s**** to the docks? An American trucker!Who processes that s**** to load those trucks? An American worker! When that product comes back from overseas the American trucker will get it to the warehouses and to the distributors.When you buy that product from Summit,Jeg's or hundreds of other U.S. companies you are keeping American workers working as well as the good folks that deliver it to your door,so you see it's not all bad news because Americans have jobs.The sad thing is many American companies are not keeping a sharp eye on quality,these import parts are built to specs to comply with the size of the funds that are buying them,pay cheap you get cheap! An easy way to check things out is at your fingertips,let's Google these two as an example Fram and Jamco and add the word "complaints" in the search text and you will be busy for a while.
well i was googleing the anderson place i found this http://panjiva.com/Anderson-Restorations-Llc/4247300 i was surprised today, i put ball joints in a ranger and used moog joints. the box says made in usa. the big corps. are starting to bring manufacturing back to the states . the quality of the parts is kicking there *** . however dorman is still going strong on the china and india junk.
Jeff & old lady's mad, you both have links to sites spelled Anderson, in clustrfck's post it's spelled Andersen. That's what I looked up.
I ended up ordering a kingpin kit for a '52 from Mac's for about $40. I called before-hand and they said the that kingpin kit is made in the USA, so it was a good price for hopefully a good part. I'll see if I still like it in a few years.