I've got a street/strip '79 D100 that I'd like to rebuild the front suspension on and I'm going to need new upper control arms. I work at a dealership and my cost is $160 ish per side, and that's just the arm, no bushings or ball joints. I found a place on eBay that has bolt in ready sets with upper and lower arms for $399. I'd love to find tubular upper arms but that's probably just a pipe dream, as I suspect the only way I'd get that is to spend mega $ to have them custom made.I'm just trying to see if anyone has any other sources.

This may not be compatible, but here it goes.

I went to rockauto.com and bought new van lower control arms for my Ramcharger. They allow me to lower the front of the truck without changing the springs, because they fit the springs into pockets rather than on top of the arm. Their catalog lists new upper control arms for the vans, but not for the pickups so the mounting points and geometry of those may not help you at all. Someone will have to do more research, but it is a place to start. And they are relatively cheap.

Good luck.

I've seen those listed on rock auto before and always wondered what the differences are be tween truck UCAs and van UCAs. Because I know the LCAs are interchangeable wit a few minor mods. But I believe the van UCAs bolt on the frame wile the truck UCAs have brackets on the frame that they bolt into. But that's just my assumption.

The van uppers won't work
If I were you I would find a used pair from a dry climate & blast/paint them & install some urethane bushings with new balljoints.

Now I know that I need to save my existing upper control arms and replace the upper balljoints when I do the lower control arm swap on the Ramcharger. It is kind of nice to have two trucks of the same era to work with. I should have saved more of the parts off the Ramcharger when I stripped it for racing, but the only thing I have used off that and put on the D100 has been the clutch fan.

If I recall correctly there is a member on this site that makes tubular arms for 70s trucks , I'm 100 percent sure I remember seeing pics of them and of a frame he was working on....I'll try and find the post and put up a link if I can find it,

I would be interested in what you find in your research.

The post on upper tubular arms is on page 11 of this forum.

Thank you!!! I didn't even think they existed.

Brandon Fruth builds them