I was thinking of switching to the Global West upper A-arms. My car is already drilled for the 1" lower Shelby/Arning drop. Would I have to patch/fill in those holes and redrill, or could I run the Global West arms in the Shelby holes without too much issue? I would think drilling the 1-3/4" lowering holes would put them too close to the Shelby holes, creating a weak point. Please chime in if you have experience with this.
Negative Wedge Arms/Shelby (Arning) drop
- Thread starter Randy'65
- Start date
S-Car-Go
Member
The Arning drop is 1", the GW drop is 1-3/8, the negative wedge drop is 1-3/4. The GW arms are shorter than than stock.
Don't drill another set of hole in your towers.
What is your reasoning for a change? Better camber gain or stonger arms? Or are your stock arms trashed? Track car or street? You may want to look at the new Street or Track arms. Shorter than stock for more camber gain and you can use the holes you already have. + cheaper than GW or TCP.
Street or Track Tubular Upper Roller Control Arms
Don't drill another set of hole in your towers.
What is your reasoning for a change? Better camber gain or stonger arms? Or are your stock arms trashed? Track car or street? You may want to look at the new Street or Track arms. Shorter than stock for more camber gain and you can use the holes you already have. + cheaper than GW or TCP.
Street or Track Tubular Upper Roller Control Arms
Basically, a potential good deal. I've got Opentrackers street arms that he rebuilds and welds the tab on to prevent backing off, they are installed (mostly) but have zero miles.
Found a deal with GW upper and lower arms, a full disk brake package (not sure which one), grab a track mid eye 4 leafs for the rear with beefed up shackles, front sway and maybe a couple other goodies, all with 1000 miles on them. Owner is yanking to put on a full Griggs setup. Thought this might be a chance to upgrade the arms because I need the leafs and I've been looking at disk brake setups, trying to pick a direction on those, and my lower arms are 25 yr old repros. This setup may answer all my questions and fill in all the holes in my current suspension.
Going for a street car that can handle mountain twisties with ease, hope to put a 331 or 347 stroker and a T-5 in someday.
Found a deal with GW upper and lower arms, a full disk brake package (not sure which one), grab a track mid eye 4 leafs for the rear with beefed up shackles, front sway and maybe a couple other goodies, all with 1000 miles on them. Owner is yanking to put on a full Griggs setup. Thought this might be a chance to upgrade the arms because I need the leafs and I've been looking at disk brake setups, trying to pick a direction on those, and my lower arms are 25 yr old repros. This setup may answer all my questions and fill in all the holes in my current suspension.
Going for a street car that can handle mountain twisties with ease, hope to put a 331 or 347 stroker and a T-5 in someday.
calpolymustang
Member
I have the same setup: shelby drop with GW a-arms
for some reason this made the front sit much higher, but im using the shelby drop since i didnt want a weak spot from patches and redrills.
also, my bolts are too long, and need to be cut down so they dont hit the headers. i currently have the bolts at the stock GW length, but have their spacer there. the problem is that it creates too much camber, and im actually +.5* rather than negative camber. this fall i will take out the a-arms and cut down the bolt length, then use thinner spacers to get the a-arm closer to the body frame for negative camber.
as for the ride height, i cut down my 620 springs. cant remember if they were originally lowering springs or just 620s, but they sit higher from the wacky geometry. be prepared to do some cutting and driving around the block to setle the front end. make sure its at the right height before going to the alignment shop.
another thing is that using an adjustable strut rod like the ones from GW or Rosehill Performance (better price) is that it helps the alignment shop dial in settings. the downside is that adjustable strut rods make the control arm bushing bind, so i put in control arms with a spherical bearing at the frame pivot (open tracker control arms with his bottom renforcement plate welded in).
for some reason this made the front sit much higher, but im using the shelby drop since i didnt want a weak spot from patches and redrills.
also, my bolts are too long, and need to be cut down so they dont hit the headers. i currently have the bolts at the stock GW length, but have their spacer there. the problem is that it creates too much camber, and im actually +.5* rather than negative camber. this fall i will take out the a-arms and cut down the bolt length, then use thinner spacers to get the a-arm closer to the body frame for negative camber.
as for the ride height, i cut down my 620 springs. cant remember if they were originally lowering springs or just 620s, but they sit higher from the wacky geometry. be prepared to do some cutting and driving around the block to setle the front end. make sure its at the right height before going to the alignment shop.
another thing is that using an adjustable strut rod like the ones from GW or Rosehill Performance (better price) is that it helps the alignment shop dial in settings. the downside is that adjustable strut rods make the control arm bushing bind, so i put in control arms with a spherical bearing at the frame pivot (open tracker control arms with his bottom renforcement plate welded in).
Interesting. The GW lowers have a heim joint connection, so that should take care of any bind there. I already have the bolt hitting the header problem with the Opentracker uppers, so I'm prepared to deal with that. Not sure why ride height would be more with the GW uppers than stock.
Not to hijack my own post, but I noticed in your sig you have BMW seats with built in seat belts. What model did you get the seats from? I've been thinking for quite some time that I wished someone in the aftermarket would sell a seat with a built in 3 pt seat belt like some trucks have, but haven't found any. I didn't know any passenger cars had this setup. If you could send me a pic, that would be great, too.
Not to hijack my own post, but I noticed in your sig you have BMW seats with built in seat belts. What model did you get the seats from? I've been thinking for quite some time that I wished someone in the aftermarket would sell a seat with a built in 3 pt seat belt like some trucks have, but haven't found any. I didn't know any passenger cars had this setup. If you could send me a pic, that would be great, too.
