Im also interested, let us know witch one,s you go with and how they work out . I know Moog use to be top notch !
Dorman replacement upper control arms
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But are they identical?? We have the Moog at twice the price. Are we just paying for the name on this mass produced item? I mean, how much demand is there and are these left over parts that were original but not branded?
Moog is Moog, but many other brands seem to be rebranded. I'm looking for a tethered gas cap for my Jeep. The part store have the same one in different packaging and little difference in price but none of those are tethered. The dealer wants $39 for it. I was recently looking for a MAP sensor, all the parts stores including Napa was almost identical in price but no one had it in stock so I thought I was going to get robbed at the dealer but I was shocked to find the dealer was a couple of dollars cheaper. I doubt there is 4 or 5 different plants producing that part.
More paint on them than factory stuff??? 🙂 GM assembly control arms appear to be dip painted or the ball joints and immediate surrounding area is covered before painting. So it leaves raw ends. It appears the Moog and/or Dorman parts are completely painted.
AH , yes the old proverbial Chinese quality steel and craftsman ship ! WOW , man glad you made it through ok , i bet there still laughing about sending that CRAP ! over here. Things like that , that are safety related should be against the LAW ! Sad but i have seen things like this many times before ! If that were a american company there would have been a dozen law suite,s filed before the sun went down !!!I agree, this is a made in china truck ball joint I was using on my GP that broke at 50 mph
Looked at the NOS GM control arms I have this morning and verified all of them are raw on the ball joint ends, too. That's just silly IMO, but I didn't make them, so....but the nice thing is they're all ready to bolt on. Dorman parts usually have a "D" or "Dorman" stamped into them somewhere on the part if it's metal and big enough. It's not uncommon that parts are made at one division of a company, and re-branded all over the place. Needs more investigation I think. Interestingly, I checked gmpartsdirect.com and you can still get upper control arms...how about that. P/N 19133654 for list price of $322.41 each!!! Only $304.16 for the other side! p/n 19133653. Are they the same?
GM parts are really strange. Contrary to popular belief, GM normally does not make their parts in house (one exception that comes to mind is the 2010-2015 sheetmetal parts they stamped out and robot-welded together to make the body at the Camaro assembly plant in Oshawa). At least years ago before everything went global. Yeah, they may have owned some automotive parts suppliers that made parts, but they usually don't make the parts themselves. They perform salt spray and temperature tests on their undercarriage parts to ensure they hold up under extreme conditions, as well as real world testing. But they don't look at them as 30+ year service parts because there is a cost point for the return on investment and R&D costs a lot. Service parts over the counter NORMALLY come from the original manufacturer, and that's a good thing. But when they switch manufacturers of a part, it usually will fit and perform the same, but it may not be cosmetically the same nor last as long as original parts. They don't tell you who makes what for them. Sometimes if you look at the part, there may be a clue as to who made it. I know some of the 442 body stripes were, at one time at least, made by a Michigan company, the upper front fascia for 81-86 Cutlass G47 was made by a company somewhere in Ohio, the door jamb security/tamperproof decals were made by Avery, some of the weatherstrips and SSII and III wheels made in Canada (at least some were if not all) and the company that made the interior dash panels eventually re-melted the molds and used them for something else. IIRC they were in Michigan too. Delco has had parts made in England and Mexico and Japan for years. I recall at one time, Borg Warner sold atmosphere pressure sensors found under the hood in their boxes at the big box auto parts store with the GM logo molded in the bottom of them. It looked like the same part as the one in the GM box, but for about 1/2 the price. So I'm guessing, Borg Warner made those for GM. Gates/Dayco/Goodyear all had a hand in their belts and hoses.
That said, there's a lot of GM parts today that come from Korea and China. The Camaro wheels for 2010-15 came from China for one. But regardless of origin, GM has to "buy off" on the quality of the parts.
I feel blessed in that I have a complete factory assembly line steering linkage setup with paint marks and everything ready to bolt on when I get around to redoing the 85. Along with the new control arms, I have NOS springs, shocks, steering knuckles, new bolts, steering box and lower steering shaft assembly, bushings, calipers, rotor, backing plates, bearings sway bar and attaching components - all GM stuff.
GM parts are really strange. Contrary to popular belief, GM normally does not make their parts in house (one exception that comes to mind is the 2010-2015 sheetmetal parts they stamped out and robot-welded together to make the body at the Camaro assembly plant in Oshawa). At least years ago before everything went global. Yeah, they may have owned some automotive parts suppliers that made parts, but they usually don't make the parts themselves. They perform salt spray and temperature tests on their undercarriage parts to ensure they hold up under extreme conditions, as well as real world testing. But they don't look at them as 30+ year service parts because there is a cost point for the return on investment and R&D costs a lot. Service parts over the counter NORMALLY come from the original manufacturer, and that's a good thing. But when they switch manufacturers of a part, it usually will fit and perform the same, but it may not be cosmetically the same nor last as long as original parts. They don't tell you who makes what for them. Sometimes if you look at the part, there may be a clue as to who made it. I know some of the 442 body stripes were, at one time at least, made by a Michigan company, the upper front fascia for 81-86 Cutlass G47 was made by a company somewhere in Ohio, the door jamb security/tamperproof decals were made by Avery, some of the weatherstrips and SSII and III wheels made in Canada (at least some were if not all) and the company that made the interior dash panels eventually re-melted the molds and used them for something else. IIRC they were in Michigan too. Delco has had parts made in England and Mexico and Japan for years. I recall at one time, Borg Warner sold atmosphere pressure sensors found under the hood in their boxes at the big box auto parts store with the GM logo molded in the bottom of them. It looked like the same part as the one in the GM box, but for about 1/2 the price. So I'm guessing, Borg Warner made those for GM. Gates/Dayco/Goodyear all had a hand in their belts and hoses.
That said, there's a lot of GM parts today that come from Korea and China. The Camaro wheels for 2010-15 came from China for one. But regardless of origin, GM has to "buy off" on the quality of the parts.
I feel blessed in that I have a complete factory assembly line steering linkage setup with paint marks and everything ready to bolt on when I get around to redoing the 85. Along with the new control arms, I have NOS springs, shocks, steering knuckles, new bolts, steering box and lower steering shaft assembly, bushings, calipers, rotor, backing plates, bearings sway bar and attaching components - all GM stuff.
Yes there are still plenty of american made company,s out there , but due in [ part] to corporate greed you really have to search them out . They likely dont have the advertising budget of the job killing conglomerates that feed on, the 3 bowl,s of rice a day workers they so eagerly employee across the sea,s !they can be found ! That is my first priority when looking for new parts and so far have always been able to find the part AMERICAN MADE ! And now it has become so entrenched in our society that everything,s made in china , that people dont even look around anymore and the little guys making great parts get over looked . Look around theirs nothing thats made in china that cannot be found made in AMERICA ! While it is true we can,t offer people living in 10 story concrete warehouses that make a couple buck,s a day , We certainly can give them our attention and our dollars when ever possible . And yes AC DELCO is owned by GM and is now almost 100 percent chines .
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