64 Ball Joint Replacement

[M W.]

Hi all,

I am restoring my upper and lower control arms and was wondering what everyone's opinions are regarding the ball joint replacements? The parts houses offer both a OEM style and a replacement style. One cost $75 and the other $25. Is there a real noticeable difference between both for the additional $50. Any help here is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Craig Willetts

[Mark #28455]

Re: 64 Ball Joint Replacement

The replacement style ball joints are obviously different from original. In addition, the repro "OEM style" are close, but slightly different from original. The "real NOS" ones go for a lot more. I recently sold a pair of the NOS uppers for over $300 on e-bay.
Mark

[Mark #28455]

Re: 64 Ball Joint Replacement

The replacement style ball joints are obviously different from original. In addition, the repro "OEM style" are close, but slightly different from original. The "real NOS" ones go for a lot more. I recently sold a pair of the NOS uppers for over $300 on e-bay.
Mark

[Eugene B.]

Re: 64 Ball Joint Replacement

Craig,
You may thinks that what I did is silly, but I'll offer it for your consideration.

When I restored the control arms on my '65, I drilled out the rivets in the upper ball joints. The ball joints were original and were not worn out. Folks say that the upper bj's do not wear out nearly as soon as the bottom ones.

After the control arms were restored and painted, I took the arms with the original "hand cleaned" upper bj's to Bairs and had them re-rivet the originals into the control arms. I had no choice but to replace the lower bj's with ones that looked good from Bairs.

Call me crazy, but I wanted the original captured boot joints back on the car.

Good luck with your restoration project.

Regards,
Gene

[Eugene B.]

Re: 64 Ball Joint Replacement

Craig,
You may thinks that what I did is silly, but I'll offer it for your consideration.

When I restored the control arms on my '65, I drilled out the rivets in the upper ball joints. The ball joints were original and were not worn out. Folks say that the upper bj's do not wear out nearly as soon as the bottom ones.

After the control arms were restored and painted, I took the arms with the original "hand cleaned" upper bj's to Bairs and had them re-rivet the originals into the control arms. I had no choice but to replace the lower bj's with ones that looked good from Bairs.

Call me crazy, but I wanted the original captured boot joints back on the car.

Good luck with your restoration project.

Regards,
Gene

[Alan Drake]

Re: 64 Ball Joint Replacement

Caution, please do some searching on the subject before jumping ahead. One of the biggest problems you (&I) are facing is to make the rivets look the same. As noted the real ball joints installed on the production line are different from those available today. The closest you will get is to purchase some service joints from ebay and then solve the rivet problem. ($300/2 is a good estimate & the lowers are the one's which fail first and may be worth more $)

Here is another idea, purchase the a arm sets complete with repro joints and save your originals and slowly restore them as parts and rivets become feasible.
Not sure how many points cars are getting hit for with these sets, but it may not be enough to worry about.

[Alan Drake]

Re: 64 Ball Joint Replacement

Caution, please do some searching on the subject before jumping ahead. One of the biggest problems you (&I) are facing is to make the rivets look the same. As noted the real ball joints installed on the production line are different from those available today. The closest you will get is to purchase some service joints from ebay and then solve the rivet problem. ($300/2 is a good estimate & the lowers are the one's which fail first and may be worth more $)

Here is another idea, purchase the a arm sets complete with repro joints and save your originals and slowly restore them as parts and rivets become feasible.
Not sure how many points cars are getting hit for with these sets, but it may not be enough to worry about.

[Alan Drake]

Rivet Correctness

Gene was thinking to try the same thing for a future project. How was the result of the Bairs rivet work. Was is Exactly Correct ??
Thanks

[Alan Drake]

Rivet Correctness

Gene was thinking to try the same thing for a future project. How was the result of the Bairs rivet work. Was is Exactly Correct ??
Thanks

[Gary B.]

Deduct for incorrect rivet squash?

Just a practical question. If one deducts 1 point for bolted vs. riveted upper balls joint, how much can one fairly deduct for a riveted ball joint where the rivet squash is not 100% correct?

Gary

[Eugene B.]

Re: Rivet Correctness

Alan,
Now that you mention it, Bairs rivet work is probably not identical to the factory. I'm not wise enough to know what "exactly correct" is. I have not had my car judged yet, so I don't have a feel for any possible deductions.

Regards,
Gene

[Kent K.]

Re: 64 Ball Joint Replacement

When I restored my '67 back in 1993-4, I left the original uppers & lowers on. They're still there and work just fine.
Kent

[Rob M.]

Re: 64 Ball Joint Replacement

I started a thread a couple weeks ago on this. Check out the link below for some comments and pictures.
Rob

https://www.ncrs.org/forum/tech.cgi/frames/read/321951