Originally Posted by Willcox Corvette

"tensile" oh you dare go there... That word cost me dearly in college.. It had something to do with a huge beer bet.. and how much our balsa-wood bridge would hold..

Turned out the guy with the 140 iq new more more than we did and the b'stard loved beer.. lol...

Originally Posted by MakoJoe

By the way if anyone would like to harden the steel rods you bought from China all you need to do is heat them up with a Map Gas instead of propane gas on the same type of plumbing torch until they are really hot they do not need to be red hot or you will catch the oil on fire and dip them into conventional SAE 30W motor oil that you use in your lawn mower heck the used oil will probably work better since it has already been burned. The oil creates a hardened Carbon Coating on the threads which will change any Chinese made steel rod into a hardened steel rod or at least harden the threads I learned this stuff in High School Shop Class 30+ years ago

Originally Posted by MakoJoe

While I partially agree with your thought the lower control arm will be lowered with a floor jack not using the tool I have built. In the procedure I will be using the tool is built to keep the spring from flying out from under the car as the floor jack does all the work. I will lower the control an inch or 2 at a time and do the same thing when installing the new springs and this tool will be used to hold the parts in place on reassembly while I reassemble the ball joints.

I do not go into what I am about to preform lightly and safety is my main concern.

I have read many stories where people have not used a compressor at all and just lowered the control arm with just a floor jack. I do not trust my floor jack to lower it slowly enough to be safe. So I will lower it then move the nuts to a safe position than do this multiple times.

The store bought spring compressors like this one are near impossible to install and remove out of the small hole at the lower shock mount.

http://htsmall.ecklerscorvette.com/a.../88-0152-1.jpg

The newer style outside spring compressors cannot be used because of clearance issues. Read this article from someone on the web that did a frame off and the problems he had to overcome. I will not have these problems because before I perform anything on my car I read about what others have done before me then use what they learned. If I can enhance it to fit my build I will because I am smart enough to look at it and say I can do it better than also safer.

http://mycorvetterestoration.com/196...p#.VCoNKvldXJc