So, I finally had some time to pull apart the front end and find a home for the new control arm bushings, bilsteins, ball joints and turbo tie rods. In the process I got my first good look at the torsion bars on this car.

One end is stamped "18" (which I assume means it's the stock size).

The second pic shows what appears to be a large wear area (the paint is gone) with about a 1mm ridge cut into the side near where the bushing was.

I assume I should replace? If so, then with what? I'd like to stay close to stock and can't seem to find anything lower than 21, which seems like a big jump from 18 for a street car. FYI I plan on putting 100s or 110 springs in the rear. Front sway bar will be installed this week.

Thanks!

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Pretty typical when the the bushing wear & sag under the weight of the car.
If its just the paint they are fine if its actually cut into the profile of the bar
I consider them shot.
No point taking a chance and have one snap at the most inopportune moment.
Why not just replace with "good" stock bar(s)?

I'd be up for stock. But my thinking is that this is a wear item and originals are 40+ years old. Unless that's not an issue?

Age is not an issue. Breakage is rare. I have good stock used ones.

Make sure to install them on the same side of the car they came out of. They should be stamped "L" and "R" for that reason. The metal apparently does take some kind of "set" from stress being almost entirely in one direction, and reversing that can cause failure.

Note that turning a bar front to rear does not change the orientation of the stress, so which end is in front doesn't really matter so much.

--DD

Thanks, Dave. Yes, they're stamped L and R. Good to know the direction doesn't matter.

I got the left side out today and the wear area is larger. See pic below.

So do you think these can be re-used despite the wear and ridge? Should I just polish the ridges out and prime?

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I would reuse on my own car. If it was a customer car, I would show them and let them decide. So many things can fail on our old cars but most of the time they don't.

What size is stock?

17.9

Were the stock bars reddish orange like mine? Or do they look aftermarket?

If the wear is less than 10% of original thickness just clean up sharp edges.

Didn't one of our vendors have a group buy at one point on an OEM size bar for 4 cylinder cars?

I wanna know about the group buy please.

I have nor seen any group buy on torsion bars. If there was enough demand they could be done. I see some need for stock or 19mm T bars.

Bruce