i'm restoring a 1967 RS. I just got the subframe back from blasting/powder coating and am cleaning and/or acquiring parts to put the front end back together.
i've had the car since 1979 and have never had an accident in it since i've owned it. upon tear down i've started noticing "clues" that it had some damage done to the passenger side before i bought it. the inner fender had some wrinkles around the edge, an out of round hole on the lower control arm where the sway bar ends bolt in, and a very different upper control arm shaft--all on the passenger side.
assuming that the driver side was ok and would be my "template" i ordered a new lower passenger side control arm and an upper control arm shaft.
the control arm shaft i rec'd from one of the standard aftermarket Camaro restorers was different than the two mismatched control arm shafts i already owned. so after looking at the other standard Camaro restorer parts catalogs, i have found that none are like the control arm shaft from my "template" side.
i've included a photo comparison of all three shafts.
the shaft on the top is from the driver's side. it has the "dumb bell" shape and bolts that screw in to hold the control arm bushing.
the shaft in the middle is the shaft I received from the first mail order. It does not have the dumb bell shape and also has the screw in bolts to secure the bushing.
The shaft on the bottom is from the passenger side, which I thought must have been replaced during the damage that occurred before I bought the car. It has a slight dumb bell shape (hard to see in this photo) but has a ginormous nut that secures the bushing.
The shafts on other mail order sites look more like the bottom shaft…the one I thought was NOT original. They all have slight dumb bell shape and nuts rather than bolts.
Does anyone have any ideas on which ones are “more” correct and what might have happened for me to end up with the mismatched arms? I know a lot of front end parts were exchangeable on 1960s cars…maybe the bolt variety is from a Nova or something?
Thanks