I did a tall spindle conversion on my '68 El Camino. Since it works better with aftermarket tubular control arms, I looked at all the options. The available arms for the conversion cost between $400 and $600 dollars!

Since I'm not a wealthy man, I decided to make my own tubular arms out of 4130 Chrome Moly Steel.

Following are pictures of the process as it went along.

First, I had to get some specifications to find out how to make the jig which the arms would be built on.

I found out that the balljoint placement is about an inch rearward of stock, and the length needs to be about 1/2" shorter. So I made a jig.

The jig is made with a short piece of 6" channel, a short piece of 2" angle, and an OEM cross-shaft.

You can see that the balljoint positions are drilled in place on the jig, and the bushing positions are set up on the cross-shaft.

The above pic shows the 1.25" tubing being held in place for tack welding. The balljoint support wasn't actually tacked in place until it was bolted to the jig. I still had to go get the bolts and nuts when this picture was shot.

Below is a pic of the arm all tacked together and ready for final TIG welding.

I will post more details as this project moves along.

Here are pics with them welded up.

And with 'em painted red right before installing on the car.

Now they're on the car.

Click here for a drawing with dimensions. The drawing was made by a friend using the Hotchkis arms as a reference. The dimensions are my own, though they're pretty close to the Hotchkis dimensions.

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