Technical 1959 Cadillac breaks control arm at car show

I think there's a lot of "that looks like it will be good" in the design of suspension by individuals not qualified to make those decisions. You hope that this was some conjured up custom job or an eBay special, and not made by a reputable manufacturer. That would at least rationalize it.

 

That aluminum Harbor Freight jack seems right at home. Had mine for almost 14 yrs.

 

I tried to get a photo of the broken control arm but I just didn't stick the cell phone far enough. I think I would have had crawl under the car or stick the cell phone around the tire and take a guess shot---no easy task. This was a very hot day and the tow guys were always lying on the asphalt trying to get things squared away. It was a job well done. I told the owner about the HAMB. Maybe he will join and chime in on this thread.

 

Or welds that look good or are not, maybe the wrong piece of hardware, something left loose. Possibilities for failure are vast.

 

In my limited discussions with the owner, who by the way was very well composed during this ordeal, he was going to transport the car to his house and off loaded, then, on Monday was going to repeat the uploading to a rollback process and take the car to a shop for repair. The Cad might be on the road again as of now.

 

Several years ago - on Mother’s Day - I picked up an older Yenko Corvette Custom Conversion out in the sticks.

The Seller knew nothing about the car - it was his father in law’s who had passed away.

Someone had either cut the front coil springs or bent the front suspension to get it even lower - it had less than an inch clearance off the ground - after I loaded it I was told it was only used as a track car for racing.

It took about two hours to load .....

Jim