Suspension bushings

While I'm awaiting the arrival of my body panels I want to rebush the suspension. Whats the general concensus...Poly or Rubber? And where's/who's the best supplier? Is it just simply measure the openings and order?
Thanks in advance.

Thanks Donivan65...is there a supplier name? What do you recommend...poly or rubber?

Thank you....inexpensive too! Probably the best thing to do is remove them...measure...then order.

WOW...impressive!
Thanks for the tip and great photos.
I sometimes get in that "replace everything" mode and on closer inspection my bushings look to be OK. My plan is to get the van up and going and see how it is on the road first. The bodywork is going to keep me busy for a while!
Thanks again!

Good advice...somehow I think you've done this a few times
And looking at the picture it obvious your van is from a dry place that does not experience rust...unlike New England
While my van has quite a bit of rust on the lower panels I've been surprised as to how easy the bolts (ie. the floor pan screws surrouding the steering colume base)were to remove. Nothing worse than that "BPINCK" sound when one snaps off! Floor material arrives today

I have to hand it to you on that one donivan65 GREAT idea on replaceing the shackel bushings with out takeing the front end apart. The more I learn about these's early's the more I love them..................

Thats one of the joys of these old vans...so easy to work on!
Still can't get the hang of posting pictures but did post some in my gallery...new floors in!
On to the side doors.

I'd rather be welding myself!
But I'll try again when I get the door bottoms done.
Good news on the radiator...just a small leak between the metal casing and the lower tank....a friend who used to fix them for a living is going to resolder it for me. The core itself is in excellent shape.

Guess I'll never figure out how to post a picture..I get to the copy part and it then goes back to the hosting page???
Why can't it be as easy as uploading a picture on the gallery page?
I posted the new door bottoms on my gallery page...why can't it be as easy as uploading on the gallery?
(sorry...venting!!)

donivan65 wrote:Take a number if you want to complain about the picture posting system here,,,,,looks like you are number 2126,,,,,,,if you click on your picture code and it gets highlighted, go up to EDIT, click COPY, click on that #! computer monitor icon, that gets rid of the host screen,,,,,click in the message box,,,,,thats VERY important,,,,,then go back up to EDIT, click PASTE,,,,,click PREVIEW to check out your work,,,,click SEND to post it.......

Or just hold CTRL + C to copy or CTRL + v to paste.

I see Don mentioned the different size bushing sometimes in the front passenger side front bushing. This happened to me and so I needed to order a different bushing. National had everything I needed and easy to deal with. I suggest finding out before ordering if you need the large as they charge a bit excessive for shipping.

I also suggest replacing the bolts. They were like $10 total and was so much nicer when putting it back together. That old rubber was actually caked to the bolt which was a pain to try cleaning off and putting into the new bushings. $10 is cheap to save sanity, and when spending $100 on bushings, what is $10 on new grade 8 bolts.

Don's pressing tool is very nice. I didnt have that set up so I used an air chisel and they came right out.

Matt did you find the correct bolts with the square shoulders or just reg grade 8 bolts!!!!!!!!!!! Bob

The rear bolts werent bad, just the fronts, so those are what I replaced, I should have stated that, my bad.

Thanks cool Matt, Just trying to find replacement for the shouldered bolts, I have a some but I need a few new ones Bob

I dont know, the name sounds kind of "Shaddy" to me... Just saying...