This has probably been asked before ?? Who sells the best ,& most complete front end kit to suit a 1957 Thunderbird.  Quality will win over price every time .I  have seen a few (no brand ) kits on e-bay for around $200.?? They don't look that complete & quality does not seem to be one of their strong points ???.Please let me know what you have bought ?

Lon

yblocksdownunder

I,ve heard the over the pond variety are not the best when it comes to handling and steering especially the balljoints. On balljoints I try to buy them NOS on ebay a piece at a time. As for the rubber bushings I'll go with the NEW because nos may be drying out and won't last long from rubber deterioration.

-Gary Burnette-

Lon:

Be advised that the early Bird ball joints are very beefy, are not subject to great wear.  Check them carefully per the shop manual, you would be better off with good originals than Chinese replacements.

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

Lon, I bought new ones for my Custom, still have them because the 50 year old originals were better!

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

Check with Kanter. I have bought front end parts from them and I am satisfied. You will have to ask them the origin of the parts. www.kanter.com Ditto about the original ball joints. I have a 54 and a 56 and the ball joints did not need replacement while almost everything else did, especially on the 54.

54 Victoria 312;  48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ

If you still have OEM ball joints, they made a repair kit for them. They turn up on ebay fairly often. Much better than the offshore stuff...

BOO- YA!!!

I got a kit from Kanter about 6 or 7 yrs ago for my 57Bird.  As I recall, they offerred 2 options and I bought the one that had the most components, and of course the higher price.  In my case, they made the car handle like new.  I was and am very pleased with it. 

Joe in Washington state/puget sound

John,Frank .I agree with you on the ball joints .When I rebuilt the Victoria ,I replaced every nut & bolt on the entire chassis ,except the ball joints .They showed no sign of wear at all .Thanks to all the other replys as well. Think I will start with upper & lower control arm bushes and see what else I have to replace .I have already bought  shocks ,bump stops ,& sway bar end kits .

Lon

yblocksdownunder

Lon,  use a little "vegemite" instead of grease, that  crap should hold those ball joints together forever!!!!

I love the smell of burning rubber in the morning!

I bought new upper arm bushing kits about 2 years ago and I am  pretty sure they were Moog.That was from my local parts store.Very good quality. I ordered lower arm mounting kits from Carpenter which included new bolts and hardware as well as the 4 bushings.Opened the box-made in China.I used the bolts and bought new wide nuts-the ones in the box were skinny ones which puts far less threads in contact with the bolt.I would much rather had NOS or NOSR from USA but I coudnt reuse my old ones-too corroded.Sold the bushings which were REAL soft and used USA replacements.Emailed Carpenter and made them aware I was NOT impressed.They offered refund but I needed the bolts.Hope they are better quality  than the dairy products that killed those babies a few years back in China.Give me NOS USA anytime!