1969 C10. Spent over half it's life in a field or my back yard but some how the a-arms were slightly cross threaded when I took them apart. I guess it happened on the assembly line. Can't see why they would have taken it apart after that with such little wear. Either way it's there.
Than I had them blasted and was in a hurry and didn't protect the parts as much as I would normally. The blaster didn't protect them like I talked to the company about... and they used steel shot. Which made a crazy rough finish. I than painted them ( yeah smooth move)... a really smart guy at work told me the threads in the a arm looked more like straight ribs and probably helped like a lock washer would. I didn't give it much more thought. Tell now...
I spent 1.5 hours carefully scrapping and wire wheeling the paint out of the threads of one lower a-arm but it still doesn't bottom out. I feel like I should just junk them and start over. I deal with threads, tapping, drilling and all that good stuff all the time at work. And they just dont look right. My dad restores muscle cars for a living and he said if nothing else piece of mind is worth changing them out. Better than wrecking later...
What do you guys think?
Also I don't really have any vision of ever lowering the truck ( besides with a load in the bed
), should I go with Repops (like from LMC $660 ish + shipping ) or Porter Built A-arms kit (for $1100 + shipping)? I already have replacement ball joints and cross shafts for the stock arms.... which I could save for another build or sell (even painted them lol)
Also Porter Built says they can move the ball joint 1" forward to center the wheel in the opening. I never noticed it was off set... input? picture?
Sorry I know this is getting long. Thanks for reading and I appreciate any input.