Changing out ball joints on a 68

[Jeffrey A.]

The original ball joints on my 68 are no good and I want to change them
Out with . My question is who make the best oem style ball joint today that would receive the
Least deduction. I found a set on ebay for 1000.00 but that's nuts. The second part
To my question is when installing the rivet does anyone have the best way to
Install them. Thanks

[Edward J.]

Re: Changing out ball joints on a 68

Jeff,
Paragon Has The Correct Repro. Joints, As Far As The Rivets Go There Hyd. Pressed -youll Have To Send Out Arms For That,and Theres No-way To Reproduce The Factory Rivit Press.
From What I Heard Its Only A Minor Deduct For The Rivits.

[Jeffrey A.]

Re: Changing out ball joints on a 68

Thanks ed. I will have to research to can press the rivets.
Thanks. I was thinking of doing myself. I have a good friend with a shop
That would help me but maybe its better and safer if I send them out.
Thanks

[Jim T.]

Re: Changing out ball joints on a 68

Jeffrey if you have never check out what www.bairs.com can do for your front control arms check out the website. Nice looking refinished control arms.

[Patrick H.]

Re: Changing out ball joints on a 68

America's Finest Corvettes is actually the company that has the "most correct" ball joints manufactured, and whether or not these are the same ones that Paragon is selling I do not know. You might want to ask Paragon before you buy them. Short of NOS GM ball joints, the AFC ones are the closest to appearing correct.

Many companies catalog parts as "correct" when they're not even close.

Patrick

[Larry M.]

Re: Changing out ball joints on a 68

Jeffrey if you have never check out what www.bairs.com can do for your front control arms check out the website. Nice looking refinished control arms.

Agree with Jim. That is what I would do.

If you want to tackle the job yourself, very good reproduction ball joints are available from America's Finest Corvettes at www.corvetteusa.com. They also advertise in the DRIVELINE.

Larry

[Paul O.]

Re: Changing out ball joints on a 68

Jeffrey the America's Finest Corvettes ball joint look very good my only concern would be if your car is going to driven I would check with the company to find out who makes these parts and how they were tested. If an outside lab did the testing what warranties for the parts are there. If your car is going to be a trailer queen then I would have no concerns. For me driving on substandard joints would be dangers and would never consider using them. I am not saying these are substandard but would want to see to what degree they have been tested by someone like SAE. Just rather be safe then sorry I worked in the Aviation Maintenance field for 40 years every so often you would come across substandard bogus parts.

[Jeffrey A.]

Re: Changing out ball joints on a 68

Paul

I have the same concerns, my thought is once the car is judged the a level I am happy with next year (I hope) then I would changed the out the rivets so I then can drive the car without any worries. I appreciate everyones imput on this. I have bought parts from America's Finest for parts for my 63 coupe, they are pretty good to deal with. In the meantime, I am going to check out Bliar Website as well. Thank you all.. Jeff

[Joe L.]

Re: Changing out ball joints on a 68

Jeffrey the America's Finest Corvettes ball joint look very good my only concern would be if your car is going to driven I would check with the company to find out who makes these parts and how they were tested. If an outside lab did the testing what warranties for the parts are there. If your car is going to be a trailer queen then I would have no concerns. For me driving on substandard joints would be dangers and would never consider using them. I am not saying these are substandard but would want to see to what degree they have been tested by someone like SAE. Just rather be safe then sorry I worked in the Aviation Maintenance field for 40 years every so often you would come across substandard bogus parts.

Paul-----


I agree with you. I often wonder about the integrity of certain reproduction parts, especially when said parts have safety implications. I wonder whether the "focus" of the reproduction is on achieving "cosmetic" accuracy and whether the same degree of effort goes into making a part of the same quality as original.

With an NOS GM piece one knows that one is getting a joint that's the original configuration and the original high quality. With a Moog ball joint, one knows one is getting a joint that's configured considerably different than original, but it's a high quality piece with Federal-Mogul standing behind it. With these reproduction joints, one knows that they're getting a joint that's configured very close to the originals. But, what does one know about the QUALITY of the piece? It might be no better (or, possibly, not even as good) as some cheap, foreign "no-name" ball joints that one would not even consider putting on their Corvette. Form before function is NOT A GOOD THING.