Urethane suspension parts - worth the extra $$$?

[highway13]

Hi all -

I gotta replace a control arm and a ball joint on my '60 chevy, so I figure I may as well replace all the ball joints, control arm bushings, the whole shootin' match. I hear the urethane stuff is great, thought I'd get the HAMB opinion. Any opinions on Energy Suspension vs. Performance Suspension? Anyone know where to get a good price?
Thanks all.
Cheers,
Blair

PS: Still no Mobtown Greaseball pics? As usual, I was too busy drinking and drooling over the cars to whip out the camera.

[Andy]

I am not a fan of the urathane parts. Rubber parts work by deforming in shear. They do not compress. Rubber is escentually incompressable. The urathane bushings do not shear. They act like a bearing and the parts rub instead of the rubber moving. The urathane manufactures now offer grease fittings and graphite to fight the squeaks. I worked on a guys car that had the urathane suspension bolts so tightened that the bolts were necked down. Said it was squeaking. Use the rubber stuff. You will enjoy the car more.

[kustombuilder]

urethane is no good for a street car. fine for a race car that actually needs the stiffer stuff and that gets the parts replaced quite often.

rubber will stretch and return to it's original size/shape but urethane will stretch and stay that way after a while. i worked several years ina suspension shop and we delt with it all the time. we sold the urethane stuff and made more money on it than the rubber but we talked people out of using it whenever we could.