Narrowing lower control arms,...

[lolife99]

I'm thinking of doing Slammed67's control arm "mod" to my '71 project truck. I like the idea of the front wheels being in the "center" of the wheelwell when aired out. My question is,... Most lowered trucks have alignment problems, because you can't put enough shims on the upper control arms. So,... I would like to narrow the LOWER arms to help with that. I'm thinking 1/2 inch. Has anyone done this before?

[XXL]

Originally Posted by lolife99

I'm thinking of doing Slammed67's control arm "mod" to my '71 project truck. I like the idea of the front wheels being in the "center" of the wheelwell when aired out. My question is,... Most lowered trucks have alignment problems, because you can't put enough shims on the upper control arms. So,... I would like to narrow the LOWER arms to help with that. I'm thinking 1/2 inch. Has anyone done this before?

I'd like to take partial credit for Slammed67's mod... even though he did all the actual work

Many moons ago I narrowed some arms so I could get more tuck under the truck to aid in steering when dropped. The only real issues I experienced were with wheel backspacing and rubbing the narrowed arm... which would have been worse had I not been using FWD wheels (read as serious positive offset)... and that was back in the days when a 15" wheel was about as big as you ever saw, so it was much closer to the control arm than bigger wheels we have available today.

[SCOTI]

Before switching to AirRides 'Strong Arms', the lower arms I've been using on my RestoRod are narrowed either 1/2" or 3/4" per side.