My friend and I just removed the front suspension from his 68 camaro. The lower A-arm bushings were so old that they were frozen onto the bolt. While removing the rear bolt, the bushings inner metal sleve was tapped along with the bolt and proceeded to dent the inner bolt hole in the crossmemeber. We did not realize this was happening until the bolt was out and the A-arm was off. Question is, has this happened to anyone else and do I need to fix it? If so, how?? Thanks guys, your posts on rebuilding the front suspension made the job a cinch...

RACERMIKE66

Was the A-arm damaged or the bolt?

The A-arm was fine, it was the crossmember the A-arm bolts to that was messed up. Its the bolt hole that you have to use the extension to reach that got dented in. It looks like there will now be a 1/4 inch gap between the bushing end and the crossmember when the A-arm is reinstalled. I hope this helps. Thanks.

Get an extra Grade-8 bolt and some needed washers and tighten it down until it pulls back into position!! You might need to pursuade it w/ a big Ford tool if you can get a whack at it. IMHO. Good luck, be careful and don't get carried away. pdq67

Thanks guys, I will give that a try. One more question. I was taking out the control arm bushing yesterday and they were a B!T@#... my question is, is it ok that the arms took a beating while getting the bushings out? I am worried that the slight dents around the busings might hurt alignment. Anyone else beat up their control arms while removing the bushings? Thanks again...

if they're bent up straighten them out. i cant imagine that it would do you any good to use bent up a-arms.