A friend of mine is wanting to replace his A Arms. He doesn’t want to pay the $$$ for QA1 or similarly priced arms. He is looking at BMR brand. Anyone have experience with these or have a recommendation? BMR is USA made it says, and he is afraid of the cheap Summit, Jegs & Speedway brands. He is waiting on a street 455 to be finished. Won’t race it but maybe a pass at the Nats? He currently has the front end apart and cleaning the frame. He converting to Disk brakes waiting on delivery. BMR is around $650-$750 compared to the $1200+ of QA1 & UMI etc..
I got some no-name ones from CPP for my 70 Stage 1 and replaced the upper ball joint with a taller Pro Forged unit. They are significantly lighter than stock. The bottom ones are heavier. I've had them for at least a dozen years without any issues. I put a set on my 71 350 car 4-5 years ago with the tall ball joints and also no complaints but the bumper on the arm deteriorated recently.
I have UMI uppers (only) with 0.90 taller ball joint on my stage 1, alignment by myself (IIRC - 0.5 camber, +4 castor, 1/16 toe), made a big difference. I see they are asking 700.00 for a set with the 0.50" taller ball joint (no sign of the 0.90) so not exactly cheap. Been on there for 10 years now, no issues... https://www.umiperformance.com/home...ar-front-upper-a-arms-1-2-taller-ball-joints/
UMI for me front with longer upper (.9) and lower (.5) ball joints. Big difference going to do the rears over the winter when I start the build on the new car.
Is he sticking with stock spindles or going with tall/lowering spindles? What tires will he be running? Knowing this would help clarify which parts would benefit the most. A lot of the cheap arms don't have any geometry changes, so the only improvement is potentially some weight saving.
I've got Hotchkis tubular front upper arms with tall ball joints (colonnade a-body lower ball joints), 72 Camaro spindles & disc brakes, with the stock a-body lower arms. The colonnade ball joints need to be turned down a bit to fit the stock lower arms, but nothing serious. Also switched to an 1.25" Addco sway bar with poly bushings everywhere. What. A. Difference. Bump steer? Gone. Leaning in the corners? Gone. Slowing down excessively for turns? Yup, gone.
If you get the right alignment on it with as positive caster and a little negative camber, they handle as good as any new car and stop wearing the outer edges of the front tires.
If he's sticking with big sidewall style tires, meteo's setup is exactly what I was going to recommend (tubular uppers, bigger sway bar, tall upper ball joints, no need to touch the lowers.) A big front swaybar (1.25"+) makes a HUGE difference by itself, especially with a big block. I run a 1 5/16" bar and it was night and day after putting it on. This combo gives the best bang for the buck ride quality/handling improvement without overbuilding/overspending IMO. Once you get to about that level on the front end, the wheel/tire combo and rear suspension start to become the weak link.
I used QA1 and changed the ball joints to Moog, Ride tech in the rear coil overs front and rear. I really like the ride. Handling in curves are great.
