ok, the control arms ARE funny....

[dguy]

how did the rears go? did they give you an awful time or not too bad. I am not looking forward to them as they look so inaccessible.........

All things considered, not too badly at all.

The left side bolts were rust-welded to the inner sleeves, but I managed to remove them after three or four hours of persuasion.  After burning away enough of a bushing to expose the inner sleeve, a combination of vise-grips & a screwdriver in the split which runs the length of the sleeve prevailed.  After breaking the "weld" between the bolt and the sleeve, I used a small pry bar between the bolt head and the cradle to pull the bolt back while I turned it with a ratchet.

The right side bolts were much easier, but that may have had something to do with the alignment shop greasing the sleeves after removing that control arm last summer in order to replace the ball joint.  

[fiero308]

yeah, that is about what I was thinking. Hours with vice grips.
Next time I ask - LIE to me.  Tell me they fell out or something.
I will probably do something like watch hockey or something instead now.
GO SENS GO!!!  .........now that the leaves have fallen..........
 

[fiero308]

just to show what I am doing with poly bushings:
pic 1 is the bushings I will use. I verified that the inner steel sleeve rotates against the poly material. Simply tightening a nut and bolt against the ends of the sleeve is enough clamping to make it 'slide' inside the poly liner. Was pretty easy, actually. I am going to have to trim mine to length; they are intended for an 82-92 camaro, but they are the right diameter and they are poly, (just not that super cool red colour I wish I could have... )
So I have driven out the inner liner so that I can put some grease grooves in the poly material (I will drill it and put in zerk fittings) and so hopefully the grease will have some place to go.
The second pic shows just how smooth the inner sleeve is; except there is no place for grease......  it came with a sort of 'sticky' lube on this surface, somewhere between lube and adhesive.
I am going to spot weld the sleeves that are already in the control arms (pic forthcoming) - these are the 'leftovers' from the original rubber bushings - as I have heard some people say that these steel sleeves have been known to start to slide themselves! and that would be the beginning of the end for the control arms.
I will update this (hopefully) daily as work progresses; next - welding the existing sleeves, cutting my bushings to length and putting in grease grooves.  
By the way, dunking the (remains of) the old rubber bushings into a big can of lacquer thinner dissolved the rubber very nicely. The inside was 'pristine'!  No scrubbing or anything; just wipe it out. Most of the bushing has to be gone, however.
If anyone wants pics of anything in particular let me know; I will see what I can do.

[fiero308]

ok so I showed the wrong pic; I was hoping it would accept two pics at once.
Attaching a pic of my bushings; left is o'all; right is with the sleeve taken out, prior to cutting to length or 'grease-grooving'.  I guess that is what we are all doing, right?  Grease-grooving?  eewwwwwwwwww. bad one.......
 

[dguy]

[singing]Grease is the word[/singing]

Oh crap I think I just dated myself.  

Just curious--what brand are your replacement bushings?  The Prothane ones I bought already have "grease grooves" around the inner sleeve.  Yours also appear to be provided with a new outer sleeve as well?  Prothane's bushings simply sit inside the original outer sleeve.

Sounds like the same grease came with each of our bushing sets BTW.  Part glue, part lubricant, and nothing at all like the synthetic grease I loaded them up with after installing the zerk fittings.

Laquer thinner, eh?  Never thought of that one.  I found a wire wheel for the drill that is a touch larger in diameter than the outer sleeves, and it cleaned them out perfectly.

[fiero308]

these are actually for an 82-92 camaro, but they just happen to fit perfectly and include an outer sleeve which won't hurt. They are from Energy Suspension; I bought 16 of them for ......... nah, don't ask..... a project from another lifetime.
I trimmed my testcase bushing yesterday and then cut some grease grooves in it and drilled it for zerk fittings; I also drilled my control arm 'sleeves' (the leftovers from the originals ) and will be tack WELDING those sleeves in place to avoid any possibility of them rotating (heard on Pennocks that it can happen)...... more pix to come but I have to do some real work work today.
Got some of my brake stuff yesterday and hopefully will have everything for "phase 1" of the brake upgrade by the wknd; and will be working away at it!  
My mystery brake upgrade is looking like it will work, I will also be taking pix of that and posting but that will be next wk.
Stay tuned!