What i wonder about the bushings is how good are they compared to energy suspension for being quality. I wonder if it's a good idea to put upgraded E-S bushings in the new A arms.
In the description it says they are "improved bushings" whatever that means. They look like rubber so you know there not as good as urethane. Thats ok with me though.
I'm not sure. on one hand new arms are nice, but it's not like you look at them a lot. On the other you could get new moogs and some es bushings and be happy everything is quality in there.
Or you could get the new A arms and replace those bushings. I plan on doing everything on my car at once, new balljoints, total energy kit, manual rack, springs and new shocks.
I just can't see why I should go out of my way to install the Moogs. The stock ball joints lasted 100,000+ K. I don't really see myself driving the car more than 100,000 K more so I think the stock style will be fine. As far as the bushings are conserned, the urethanes would be better. So if you are willing to deal with more hassle you can replace the joints and the bushings on the stock arms and have exactly what you want. Or for about the same price you can have new arms with inferior bushings. I guess you could buy the arms and replace the bushings. I am not really conserned how pretty it looks.
What I really wanted was tubular A arms but I can't find any that work with the stock spring set up only with coil overs.
I vote for replacing the entire control arm. The ball joints Ford uses in them are supposed to be the better "lifetime" ball joints and the PITA factor of replacing those bushings is not worth it, IMHO.
I ended up getting the Moog ball joints and some MM urethane bushings for my stock A arms. I knew I wouldn't be happy with those damn rubber bushing in the replacement model. I painted the stock arms and they look brand new (I guess I do care how it looks). I ended up spending way more money though. I went ahead and bought a ball joint press from harbor freight for $40. Then I had to buy a propane torch, $35, to heat up the bushings so I could press them out. I also had to buy some drimel sanding attachments,$5, to clean up the bushing sleeves for the new bushings. I used a wire brush attachment for my drill to clean up the A arms so they could be painted. Spent about $3 on paint. I ended up getting the Moog ball joints from Rockauto.com for about $45 each and the bushings were $40 from MM. I spent about $220 and I have a torch and a ball joint press for future projects.
I also painted the spindle and the dust sheild black. I painted my rotors white. I am installing some sp performance diamond plated rotors, hawk pads, MM endlink kit,and some MM SS brake lines.
I will post a pic after I press the new ball joints in and throw it back together. (probably this weekend)