the frame i bought for my 40 truck is a vintage stock car piece. the front lower control arms appear to be a ford part, stamped steel and have a strut rod extending forward. look just like mustang II stuff except bigger. they are approx 3-4" longer (wider when you're talking track width) than mustang II arms - i ordered some and they don't work. is there a ford product out there that used this style with a physically longer control arm? i'm looking to replace them with tubular arms for packaging purposes, the strut rods would look really stupid sticking out in front of my grill. would pictures and measurements help or am i only looking at a couple candidates that we can narrow it down to?
If it's a stock car piece, your situation is easy. Measure the distance from the center of the control arm bushing to the center of the balljoint. That's the length. Then, order tubular copies from someone like UB Machine, Speedway Motors, or Coleman Machine. Port City Racing would be a source, too. Those companies all offer them either with Heim joint inners, or standard Ford bushings (that's what you're looking for). If what you have is a stamped Ford piece, it's probably from a Galaxie or Torino. Yours has the strut rods running forward, but most asphalt cars now turn them around and run the struts rearward. Changing them is just a matter of fabbing up new mounts - no big deal. I'm betting that your car is running a Chrysler lower ball joint (welded sleeve in the control arm). If not, be prepared to switch to those, because modern stock cars all use the big Chrysler (k-772) lower balljoint, and either the K-727 Chrysler upper ball joint or the GM balljoint.
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