I just bought my Expy a month or so ago and got a killer deal, but it needed some work that I knew about. My trailing arms and track bar need to be replaced. The upper trailing arms are the worst, so I decided to order some aftermarket arms from ebay ($165 + shipping). The lowers and the track bar were in decent shape but still need to be replaced. I decided to have my own made instead of paying PMT $700 for the five piece set. I did quite a bit of asking here on this forum and talking to the guys at Red9Fab (Red9Fab.com). They made some recommendations that I ended up going with. So here is your shopping list for tubing and supplies that you will need if you decide that this is something that you want to do. Keep in mind you will need to buy extra materials if you are making your own upper trailing arms.

I will warn you that most places will not sell DOM tubing under a full stick (10 or 20 feet depending on where you go) So this can get really expensive if you aren't as lucky as I am. Red 9 will sell you pretty much any length that you need so if you don't mind paying shipping they will hook you up.

Here is my list of supplies that I am using

8 ft of 1.5 o.d. .250 wall DOM tubing (trailing arms and track bar main piece) $80
1 ft 2.5 o.d. .500 wall DOM tubing (trailing arm bushing sleeves that need to machined to 2" I.D.) $10
1 ft 1.75 o.d. .375 wall DOM tubing (track arm bushing sleeves that need to be machined to 1.33")$7
1 package of 1/4 inch grease zerks $5

Here are the measurements that I have taken from the stock pieces (all in inches).

Trailing arms:
overall length- 20 3/8" on center
bushing mount sleeve- 1 7/8" wide
bushing mount I.D.- 2"

Track bar:
overall length- 47" on center
bushing mount sleeve- 1.35" wide
bushing mount I.D.- 1.33"

I am having everything welded up tomorrow and should pick it up on Friday. I will post pics of the finished product before I give them a coating of bed liner and install the new polyurethane bushings.

 

What did you decide to use for bushings (manufacturer and part numbers)?

To help complete your list above, how much are you paying for:

The bushings.
The grade #10 6 bolts/nuts.
The paint/bedliner.
The labor to weld everything and install bushings.

 

I bought stock sized polyurethane bushings from Energy Suspension for everything

trailing arms (I will have some extra since I bought the uppers with poly bushings already installed)- $89 shipped

Track Arm bushings- $15 shipped

Bolts, nuts and washers (total of 10 sets, 8 for trailing arms and 2 for track bar)- $40

Paint/Prep supplies- $20

Labor- case of beer for the Welding instructor at the VoTech

Total for everything including buying the upper trailing arms- $449 and a case of beer

To buy the steel and build the upper trailing arms would have knocked the cost down to about $300

So I am happy I went this route instead of paying $700 for PMT to weld up $100 worth of steel then powdercoat it and mark the price up about triple of they have invested in it. And before someone gripes at me about running a business and "keeping the lights on" a more reasonable price of $450-$500 for all five pieces would still make them money and I would have been happy to give them my business at that price.