Hello everyone!! I'm introducing myself here. My name is Raquel and I'm from Spain.
My husband bought a C3 Corvette and we need to change several things, including the trailing arms.
I'm looking at several pages like zip Corvette, vtechcorvette, vansteel... to buy the complete set and have it all assembled so I can get there and install it. The thing is that the arms are offered both rebuilt and new and my "problem" in buying them rebuilt is that the transport to send mine would be very expensive, in addition to not knowing if they will take them to return the deposit that is paid for them.
Can anyone give me their opinion on this? Or should I just buy them new? Where do you recommend I buy them? I have a friend with an address in Miami who would send them there, I won't buy them directly from Spain.
I'm attaching photos of how the ones on our C3 are.
Thanks, greetings to everyone

 

welcome.
they do look crusty.
I can't say whats best.
I don't understand how any new ones exist.
only way would be "offset" ones which are new made.
yes, the rebuilder wants the old ones to replace the ones sold.
usually there is an added "core" charge when no old ones are turned in.
good luck

 

Welcome to the forum.

Why do you feel you need to replace the arms?

 

Call VanSteel and buy new ones with new bearings installed. Do it once and do it right especially with the shipping costs to Spain.

 

I would go with Van Steel. They are located in Clearwater Florida. The shipping from Clearwater to Miami is not too expensive. I would contact Danny at Van Steel with the pictures you have to see if yours are candidates for return and or rebuilding. Van Steel is local for me and I have used their trailing arms on my 66 and 68. Great product and service. Jerry

 

I think being overseas, simplest path is to buy new and not attempt to send cores in. The end of the trailing arm in the pic below looks like it's beginning to break down and showing layering - if that's the case, it's not worth anything.

 

I was looking at the same thing, thinking the same thing. The rust on the outboard ends looks bad.
I would just buy new.

 

After giving it some thought, considering your location, I would dismantle the entire suspension, front and back and determine exactly what parts you need to refurbish the suspension and driveline components. In the long run, it may be less expensive to ship all your parts at once. Do you have an AIM or Assembly Instruction Manual for your car? Are parts available on the Iberian peninsula? Jerry

 

Thank you very much guys for the answers. I'll answer you all in this message.
@69L88 I don't understand much about mechanics but indeed as @67:72 says we are starting to see layers in various areas and we prefer to change them. As well as many other things that look quite rusty.
I take note of your advice to disassemble everything and look at it well, as well as seriously look at buying from Vansteel. The truth is that it seemed to us the best also from comments I've read on the forum.
Here on the peninsula there are few or no spare parts. And yes, I have several workshop manuals and others. It was the second thing I bought after the first, the car hahaha.
I have contact with people from Spain who bring containers from there from time to time and thus we save on transport costs.
Thanks!
Greetings from Spain to everyone, a pleasure to be here and the help received.
Raquel

 

Jeez, that's a lot of rust. Before spending money on this car, make sure the frame and the birdcage are solid which I doubt.

 

110%

Based on the amount of rust that ( i can ) see, I wouldn't put any time or money into this car until the entire frame & birdcage are thoroughly checked as stated above. I'm thinking your NOT going to be happy what you are going to find. Way too much heavy rust, but i'm hoping for the best / my fingers are crossed for you & your Corvette.

 

Hello! We have started to disassemble the rear arms to assess the rust on everything. The truth is that the front part looks much better overall, even if we sand the rust, it comes off quickly and it is not deep. In any case, we are considering purchasing the complete new arms from the vtechcorvette page. Does anyone have references for these arms from this page?

 

I just did my suspension. I used new replacements like these, https://www.ebay.com/itm/40032243971...jkv2_ZA&edge=1
I was able to transfer everthing else over from the old arms. in hindsight Ishould have bought these also but I bought stainless brake hardware. https://www.ebay.com/itm/22566821336...cpP2_ZA&edge=1

I also bought new bearings and the tool to install from ebay. options for overseas may be limited. you will also likely need other stuff like rear shock mounts on the arms which will be frozen.
I would reuse your front arms they look ok unless you want tubular. I went with POL tubular arms myself as the kit was very competitively priced.
Good luck, this is a project but if you work on a bit at a time its not so bad, I had no experience and I managed. I watched a lot of you tube videos on the subject.

 

I don't know anything about Vtech Corvette, I've never heard of them and I've been dealing in Corvette parts for 40 years. Maybe someone else on the Forum is familiar with them, but I'd be careful about ordering something like trailing arms without first talking to someone whose had experience with the ones from Vtech. Van Steel and Bair's are probably the two leading suppliers/rebuilders of trailing arms, and personally I'd stick with one of them.

Looking at your pictures, I have to agree with others here and say the actual metal arms are in bad shape, but the arms themselves aren't where the core value is in trailing arm assemblies. The real value is in the bearing assembly and spindle yoke, which is just held into the arm with four bolts. I would order rebuilt trailing arms with new metal arms, and return just the bearing assembly. While still not to light, without the arms attached, the bearing assemblies are a lot smaller and thus cheaper to ship back. I know Bair's will sell you rebuilt bearing assemblies installed in new arms and I'm pretty sure Van Steel will too. The new metal arms that Bair's use Bair's is having made in the US. I don't know where Van Steel get their arms from, but many of the rebuilders are using arms coming from China.

What kind of shape are your brake rotors in? If you're replacing the trailing arms you may want to get new rotors installed on them when ordering, to save on buying and shipping them later.

Whoever you chose to get your arms from, reach out to them and explain to them your metal arms are bad and that you want rebuilt bearing assemblies installed in new trailing arms and you'll return just the used bearing assembly cores without the arms to save on freight, and get a price quote for arms that way. I think this would be the most cost effective way to replace your trailing arms. Make sure you get new arms with rear swap bar mounting holes, because they're available with and without the holes.

Below is a link to the page from Bair's website showing what they charge to rebuild arms and what work they perform when rebuilding a trailing arm. The price given doesn't include the cost of a new arm, but I think it's only about another $150.

http://www.bairscorvette.com/service...uspension.html

Welcome to the Forum!

 

Just another recommendation for Blair's Corvette's. As a overseas customer as well I can not only comment on the excellent quality of there parts and services. But also there excellent customer service which these days seems to be a rare thing.
Also of great note. Bairs is extremely helpful with overseas shipping. They are willing to work with the customer which has saved me a LOT of money in shipping. PM me for details if you Would like.

 

Thanks for your opinion. I'm glad to know that it is possible even if we don't have much experience, we just like it. I will visit the spare parts and take your advice into account

 

Good night. After disassembling some things and an afternoon of my husband with the corvette, he cleaned the arms and this is how they are now. Actually the first photos I posted looked bad, but after cleaning and sanding (although not very thoroughly), they look like I show in the photos. They don't seem to be as bad as they seemed. What do you think? I think we will first consider cleaning all the rust until we see what parts we can salvage, before buying anything. The truth is that transportation to Spain is expensive enough to take a good look before spending money. Thank you. P.S. Sorry if my English is not entirely correct, I do it with the translator

 

Here is also some photo of the chassis from the middle forward, which is not as critical of rust as the rear part.
Frame transmission support

 

Okay, I see that you agree in recommending Van Steel and in this case also Bair's. I didn't know that they were considered the main ones and now I do, thank you very much. I take note of all your advice and would talk to them before purchasing. Also when we analyze the brake rotors I will tell you. I take a look at the bairs link

 

Customer service is an important point, and even more so if you tell me that I can contact them to tell them about my case and they can give me a solution to return certain spare parts. And being abroad it would give me more security to have good service in addition to the recommendations I see here.