As soon as you hear me say... "Hold my beer, watch this" bones get broke and car parts are turned to scrap metal.

 

Nah, it was more like; "so I've never seen you get on that thing. Does it even get out of it's tracks?"
Guess I showed him! It not only gets out of it's tracks, but it leaves a trail of tracks!
Had to turn around and go back to his house so I could borrow tools to remove what was leftover! Good stuff!
But the good news was it allowed an encore performance after the broken bars were removed, which resulted in one of his neighbors calling the cops, who he said arrived about 20 min. after I had left. (fortunately for me!)

 

I really got a feeling for how big a car the Camaro really is today! Decided since my garage is so tiny I'd swap places in the canopy with my Austin. Since the Austin is about as done as I want this summer, I figured it could go in the garage, and the Camaro in the canopy in the backyard to start tearing into the suspension.
Did some measuring of my gate to the backyard, as I knew it would be close. The Austin goes in and out without even looking, but the Camaro had maybe 2"-3" of clearance to get through the gate! Had to get the boss out to watch the pass. side wheelwell to make sure I didn't scrape things up!
Once inside the 10'x20' canopy I've got enough room to tear the front and rear suspension out, but I'll need a spotter again to get it back through the gate for sure!
After swapping places I walked around the Austin, something I've never done when the Camaro was in the garage! Amazing to have several feet in front, and a large walkway all around. With the Camaro I had to keep it tight to the pass. side just so I could open the driver's door and barely get out. No room in front or behind!
Once the weekend is over, I'll start tearing down the front suspension to replace all the bushings, and add the subframe to firewall supports, plus the new ball joints. Then back to the rear foir 2" lowering springs, bushings, ladder bars, etc....

 

I'm interested in your take on new bushings after driving on yours since new. I doubt I'll ever were mine out.

 

Well I've definitely worn mine out! Any more wear on the control arm bushings and they'll fall out! I was shocked to say the least when I decided to replace them, and got under to take a close look. I saw the control arm shaft was sitting in a large hole inside the bushing!
Amazingly there seems to be no issues with handling, as she drove wonderful even with this badly worn bushing. So the question will be how much better will it drive with all new parts everywhere?
I'm guessing from what I see that my 20 ton press wont have any trouble removing the stock bushings.

 

I've read horror stories about the sleeves. My car came with the control arms empty, it took about 30 seconds to sell them on Nasty. The Delrin in my new ones should outlast gasoline. Oh yeah, one of the first pages in my project thread has a pic of the deal I made to spread the control arm pockets out. It seems that when the factory tightened the bolts they pinched the tabs. So when you put the new, uncompressed bushing in. It won't fit. The tabs need to be spread. I used a piece of 1/2" all thread with two nuts and washers. Slip the rod through one hole, add the nut then washer. Then spin it up until you can get the other nut and washer on from the inside. Then use the nuts to spread the tabs apart. Worked great.

 

Never heard of control arms being compressed. If they fit on the shaft, then the new ones should fit on the same shaft. Only reason they might not fit correctly is if the new bushing was longer than stock.
I figure I'll measure mine to compare with stock before pressing them in, and if by chance there's a difference, then I'll use your method to spread the ends of the arm. I have heard of shops pressing new bushings in and tweaking the arms which caused them to be too close.

 

No, no no. The lowers. The two tabs one each side the the lower arm mounts to. The pivot if you will. When the factory installed the arm and tightened the bolt it pinched, compressing the rubber bushing. No big deal really until someone pulls it apart and cant figure out wht the new one won't slide in.

went back and found the pic for you. LOL before I knew how to resize pics.

 

That lower doesn't look like mine. Mine isn't here in front of me now, as I pulled them today and dropped them off at a friend's shop to have him press in the new poly bushings. But my lower is the same shape, but with a rolled lip where the bushing goes into the arm. Shouldn't matter if the doubled edge was off in width, as the bushing will space it where it goes into the subframe. If the total outside width was off, then it would be an issue.
Here's what mine looks like after a day under it:




Had a bit of a surprise when I tried to remove the bolts from the lower control arm. They had put both bolts in from the front to back direction. The rear bolt wouldn't come out without dropping the header, so it came out and I'll have to put new gaskets on before I put the header back.

I have to pick up the new coils tomorrow from our local spring shop, and then paint everything up, and that's probably all I'll get done. Should have it back together by the weekend if I get the frame and other things cleaned and painted too.
Then I'll be heading to the rear for the rebuild.

 

I couldn't force my bushing in, that was the reason for the spreader.