I will say I have energy suspension poly cab bushings on my Ford truck which I've driven a good bit and they are definitely a little bit harsher than the rubber bushings, but the truck also feels tighter and more confident around turns.
body bushings
- Thread starter wskirvin
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A case of US made hockey pucks on eBay is $30. Get a 2 1/2" hole saw, some 1/2 fender washers, and bolts, then go to town. Works great!
I have had the poly energy suspension body mounts on my car for 15 years (as well as front suspension bushings going on 19 years ). No complaints or squeaks. They are great
My bushings were wasted and the frame holes were rusted on many of them. I went with prothane bushings, they are a bit of a pain in the *ss to install because of the multi piece construction and the steel bushing in the center being only large enough for the bolt. The original mounts have a little more room for bolt misalignment. The car isn't a driver yet, but the doors an my creaky old t-top car shut better than they ever did. I also took the opportunity with th body raised to box the framerails.
Unless you're doing a 100 point concourse restoration I would use poly. I just installed a set of Energy Suspension poly bushings on my 87 442 this past summer and its a night and day difference even though it only showed 59k on the odometer. I wouldnt say it rides harsh at all but the car does feel much tighter and more confident overall, and being a t top car it can use all the help it can get. I've experienced no squeaks from the bushings and actually the car is much quieter overall with fewer rattles and squeaks than before.
I agree with this assessment, except you forgot the part "Unless you're doing a 100 point concourse restoration, or totally retarded like 69hurstolds, I would use poly."
You want a harsh ride? Pop 75 psi into those air shocks! 🙂 I'm still at a loss to figure out why they put air shocks on the VIN 9 G-body Olds (optional in '83, standard starting in '84).
Personally, I'm going with the NOS stuff. It's boxed up and still in perfect, pliable condition. A couple of the bottom ones are just washers anyway. I just checked the bolts as well recently, and they aren't the original trilobular ones. But there you go. Probably because they don't make them any more. I dunno. I live in the south and there's no rust under the car, so I'm confident there shouldn't be a huge problem in getting the original bolts out.
You don't know how often I've wrestled with "should I go all out with the NOS stuff or is 'restify' a better alternative?" Since it is a T-top car, I'd love to put some front/rear and rear shock tower frame bracing in and considered hiding the back seat bracing, along with the poly bushings, but then, it wouldn't be bone stock, would it?
<------ restifies errything. Compromises were made during production; there's always room for improvement. Show me a perfect car, and I'll point out something that could have been done better.
I totally get that. One side of me would like to do that too, but I have all this NOS stuff...the sole purpose of starting back in 1985 for the eventual restoration of a then-brand-new car with as many GM parts as I could. And I kept it going for 30+ years. I even keep mulling over should I perfect the imperfections as I go, or re-create them? You know, overspray on this, tape stripes not being perfectly straight. 80's build quality was generally for sh*t.
I'm totally whacked, right? I bought a new set of grilles and floor mats as my first restoration items. I think I might have got 10% off the retail price, maybe 5%, I don't recall. They're still in the boxes, waiting. I just know that I might be the only crazy mother-f-er to even do this the way I'm approaching it. After searching for parts in the days before interwebz and resto parts explosion for my 71 442, I made it my mission to seek out GM parts as many as I could for this car before they went extinct, too. As for the rubber bushings? I'm not going to auto-X the car, and I'm sure not going to be daily driving it, so polys aren't required. I'll probably have $432,000 invested in a $16K car in the end, but, hey, it's my car. It's a restoration attempt based out of love for this particular car, even if it doesn't come out perfect. It's the first 442 I ever got to order my way.
But I digress, The key to body bushings, especially the poly, is to TORQUE DEM BOLTS! I know it sounds obvious, but my uncle replaced bushings in his old truck he fixed up several years ago and just used a ratchet to install the bolts and a few of them fell out. Not good. I don't recall if he used rubber or poly bushings, but a couple of them soon became phantom bushings!
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