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Thread: 68-72 A Body Rear Lower Control Arms On 65-70 C Bodies?

  1. #1
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    68-72 A Body Rear Lower Control Arms On 65-70 C Bodies?

    I believe I've just had a revelation! There's been a set of 68-72 A body rear lower control arms laying around the garage for a least a decade. I had my 67 Electra on the lift and just for giggles decided to measure them up to each other. Holy Cr*p they're the same!!! Same wall thickness, bushing size and location, Bolt distance center to center, even the same punchouts for the sway bar and such. Can anyone else confirm this? I have no idea about the upper arms as I don't have a set to measure up with to confirm it. I'm planning a rear sway bar for the car but an axle to frame not control arm to control arm one. However I would like to put a set of solid lower arms on there just to tighten it up and replace an arm that's bent like some idiot tried to jack it up from under it. - Bill

  2. #2
    wouldn't surprise me. i've heard that some of the big car rear carriers can swap in parts from an 8 1/2" rear as well.

    the big car rear is going to be wider than the A-body rear though.

    Bob has an article on fabbing up your own custom control arms from a piece of rectangular tubing:

    https://www.teambuick.com/forums/vie..._trailing_arms
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    Your revelation is correct! The Buick Master Chassis Parts Book shows the Lower Rear Suspension Control Arms are a part no 1384096 for '65-70 B and C bodies. The same part is used on many '64-72 A bodies and '66-70 E bodies. The exceptions are shown in the attached pages. There's lots of similar usage of this part no in the Olds catalogs.

    The Upper Rear Suspension Control Arms are a part no 1373776 for '65-70 Buick B and C bodies. No other crossovers could be found on this one.
    Attached Files Attached Files
    What has been, can be again. (Bob Wills, 1942)

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    Thanks for the responses guys and especially Todd for the conformation link.

    If all these vehicles share the same part number for lower control arms how come the aftermarket manufacturers don't list these parts as available for the big cars too?
    I would think it'd help expand their market beyond the A Body crowd and have them sell more product.
    But that's just the way I think I guess.
    I should have gotten a business degree instead of trying to get by on my mediocre looks! - Bill

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    Many of the aftermarket suppliers will go after just the low-hanging fruit. Of 100 possible sales of one of these parts, they will do enough research and marketing to sell say 50 for Cutlasses and 30 for Skylarks and call it a day. The 3 that could be for Electra 225s or 2 for Sportwagons etc would be too much work to catalog. As you can see from the parts book listings it would be quite a chore to accurately catalog the entire range of applications.
    What has been, can be again. (Bob Wills, 1942)

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