well this sucks!

[tb3]

look at me, all trying to make progress and stuff on my 84 gn.    
so I rounded up a spare set of stock rear upper and lowers, bought the boxing kit from hr parts, paid a guy a 100$ to tig them super nice.  then powder coated them.  I went to install the hr greaseable bushing into one of the uppers  and while I was pressing them in with the bushing tool,  I noticed they where caving in on one side after it was too late.   
I must not know my own strength.  its caved in pretty nasty, see pic.  It was worse, but I sorta knocked it back out abit with a punch.   
I guess I'm screwed, and even worse, now I gotta hear you guys bust my balls about why in the heck I'm bothering boxing the uppers on a car that will never be faster than low elevens.   
I want to increase handling on twisty roads, I figure it will only help to box the uppers.
I can't think of anyway to save this thing short of putting way more work into it than its worth.
Should I just bite the bullet and go buy some boxed uppers and lowers?
or am I probably not going to see much of a increase in handling in the back by boxing the uppers if I already am boxing the lowers, and installing all new poly bushings?
Was planning on just going with the atr bar.  I've debated and went went back and forth on deciding if I wanted to put in a hr sway bar setup,  but I'm just thinking its gonna be overkill


 

[Scoobum]

UMI uppers and lowers would work just fine...and they're inexpensive.

[Steve Wood]

my guess is that you will find absolutely no difference, boxed or not

[Steve Wood]

also, paying that kinda money for tig on something like that was money down the tube...just mig them up and be done...push the bushing back out, straighten them, then put something in the end to try to hold the ends apart while pressing....cl ean up the bore a bit and hopefully they will distort less....

[tb3]

the instructions are pretty detailed about how they should be welded in as far as tacking 2" and going back and forth to their filled in, and also says to wait and let it cool a bit inbetween welds so not to warp.  So thats why he went ahead and tigged them.  I know, over kill. 
 
I don't know how in the world I would get these things straightened out with out cutting the plate back out.  I was only able to restraighten as much as I did by using a punch on a angle.
I'm gonna throw them away and just keep the uppers stock I guess

[Steve Wood]

talented as you are, you need to go buy a 110 v and learn to weld...sure comes in handy for small jobs.  Yep, jumping back and forth keeps them from warping.

Still think  you can find a way to straighten them...but...

Uppers are under tension during acceleration so they seldom get deformed.

[Charlief1]

Everyone said the ones I did for my car were over kill. The bushing area is completely boxed just so I wouldn't do what happened to yours. Doing the bushing area first also helps keep the arms from getting tweeked as much. The spacer where the sway bar mounts is also welded in which helped keep the arms straight while welding the last piece. I've seen some of the mistakes others had made, and while mine aren't as pretty as yours, they will hold up pretty good.

[tb3]

talented as you are, you need to go buy a 110 v and learn to weld...sure comes in handy for small jobs.  Yep, jumping back and forth keeps them from warping.

Still think  you can find a way to straighten them...but...

Uppers are under tension during acceleration so they seldom get deformed.

thanks steve.  I'm not to bad of a welder, but I've never really thought about just breaking down and buying one.  I always seem to know somebody close by that has a really  nice one when I rarely need one.
I'm gonna do some looking around, maybe get me a christmas presant for myself.  might go all out and get a tig.  I'd really like to be able to weld aluminum also.  I have 0 experiance doing that, but I'm sure with some practice and some tips I'd get the hang of it.

I've decided to just powdercoat some stock uppers (not box them) and install the poly hr bushings. 

[tb3]

and I got one done at least.
this is how its looked for awhile.
I still need to bolt back up the exhaust from the body bushing install.
my front seal on the rear is leaking, I'm gonna replace that, finish the new lowers, install fuel tank and bumper and then get back to the front

[Charlief1]

You don't need a TIG to do aluminum, but you do need at least 220 to do it. Get something you can learn with and make sure it will do all that you want. If you get one that's to small then you'll have to get a bigger one when you take on a bigger job.

[tb3]

You don't need a TIG to do aluminum, but you do need at least 220 to do it. Get something you can learn with and make sure it will do all that you want. If you get one that's to small then you'll have to get a bigger one when you take on a bigger job.

I do like the look of those tig welds though. 
I'll definetly go big

[Charlief1]

You don't need a TIG to do aluminum, but you do need at least 220 to do it. Get something you can learn with and make sure it will do all that you want. If you get one that's to small then you'll have to get a bigger one when you take on a bigger job.

I do like the look of those tig welds though. 
I'll definetly go big

Get a MIG first and do some practice. TIG takes a lot to make it look pretty, believe me. We had one in the machine shop and my welds were ok but not really nice looking. Mig also give you the advantage of just feeding the wire in while you're welding rather than having to feed it in with one hand while welding with the other.

[daveismissing]

That car is very nice underneath. Presume it took some work.
Do you have a before picture?

[tb3]

not alot of work at all.    entirely stock car when I bought it. has 78,000 on it now. was bought new here local and I am second owner.  the lady that owned it daily drove it until the car started running poorly due to exhaust leaks and faulty maf.  parked it and sat for over 15 years. several of those years was outside in the driveway.  the only corrosion is a couple mild surface spots on the trunk floor inbetween the gas tank, and along the top of the hvac box.  I hand sanded and painted the trunk spot you see.  the firewall should only take a very minor disk sand.   
I have a low mile 87 t that was t boned extremely hard that I've been using for the ic conversion.  when I finish the rear stuff, I'll turn the car around and get back to work on the firewall.
everysingle bushing is new on the front.  everysingle removeable part on the front frame is either new or restored including all hardware.  the rad support is from the wrecked t.  I powder coated it and just have it mocked up for now. all new stainless fuel and brake lines where installed when I did the body bushings. 
I'm going way overboard for doing a ic'd conversion match.  did you know the hood light for the hot air cars are moved over from the ic'd cars because of the turbo location?  I installed the 86/87 fuel lines and relocated the fuel filter on the frame rail. the filter is up front on the hot airs.  did you know the tube hardware for the lines are installed in differant bolt hole locations on the frame on the ic'd cars?  lol
I could go on with a few other tidbits of useless info, but can't remember off the top my head right now
 

[Steve Wood]

You're doing a beautiful job!  Gonna really be nice to drive.