64 Chevy Trailing Arm seperation?

[tomfg]

Has anyone ever had problems with the trailing arms on chevy pickup with the rear coil spring suspension? I'm in the process of restoring the truck, and noticed much rust / corrosion between the two pieces of metal that are spot welded together, which make up one trailing arm. I'm afraid that some of the spot welds may be ate through. The arms themselves seem solid. I was thinking of drilling a couple of holes and putting in some bolts to make sure the arms stay together. Has anyone done something similar or have any suggestions? Thanks, Tom
P.S. - Have new rear springs and trailing arm bushings ordered, so will be removing the trailing arms.

[JDL]

It is a common problem. you my be able to repair them and weld the seam up. I have some good ones and other parts.

[jim walker]

Originally posted by tomfg
Has anyone ever had problems with the trailing arms on chevy pickup with the rear coil spring suspension? I'm in the process of restoring the truck, and noticed much rust / corrosion between the two pieces of metal that are spot welded together, which make up one trailing arm. I'm afraid that some of the spot welds may be ate through. The arms themselves seem solid. I was thinking of drilling a couple of holes and putting in some bolts to make sure the arms stay together. Has anyone done something similar or have any suggestions? Thanks, Tom
P.S. - Have new rear springs and trailing arm bushings ordered, so will be removing the trailing arms.

Recently had the same problem with a set of 61 trailing arms and I was determined to save them. Center punched and drilled out all the rivets and split the 2 halves apart leaving them connected at the one end with the bushing. Cleaned all the heavy rust out with a scraper and sent them off for sand blasting. Once sandblasted, arms were painted with epoxy primer and then aligned back up and reassembled with grade 8 nuts and bolts and then finish painted. Worked like a charm!! Hope this info helps.

[tomfg]

I just finished fixing up and putting my trailing arms back together on my 64. I drilled out all the spot welds, seperated the arms, cleaned all the rust off with an angel grinder with wire brush, Por15 'ed them, and bolted them back together. I then went around all the seams with paintable latex caulking, and then painted over the caulking. This should keep out all the dirt and mud, and prevent future corrosion. Put new bushings in the arms while I had them apart. Keep em rolling......!