i would like to know if box welding the trailing arms is very important for stiffness??? Do I need to weld it up for a reg road car? or should i just leave them? What is the difference?
would replacing the rubber bushings be a more cost evective performance mod??

for a road car no problem, don't need to, in fact if done wrong can warp the the arm. Some debate on wheather or not race cars need it. Better to reinforce the suspension ear than the arm.........possible chop stick info here, add all legal quaifiers on opinions....

IMHO, boxing the trailing arms is not worth it on a street car. (Unless your "street car" is something really exceptional, then maybe...) Not worth it on most race cars either.

Replacing the rubber bushings with new ones == replacing the trailing arm with a new one. They're not available separately. There are aftermarket plastic ones available, but they're a pain to install properly, and they tend to squeak in a maddening fashion.

--DD

don't mind chopsticks, just don't want to make stir-fry out of perfectly good trailing arms, plus the liability factor of welding them up for the street...
thanks
steve

QUOTE (Dave_Darling @ Jan 15 2005, 12:27 PM)

Not worth it on most race cars either.

...

biggest problem with boxing the arms, if you hit something hard enough to bend the (unboxed) arm, just imagine what that impact will do to your chassis if the arm is boxed.
the impact force has to go somewhere, and i rather replace a bent trailing arm then start cutting into my tub trying to get it back straight ...

Andy

Good call! i never thought about bending the chassis!! I am running boxed on my car. think the guy who did the work shafted me took me three months of chasing around to get them done, he was to busy building horse-carriages