Alright so I pulled my control arms out of storage and bead blasted what I had, I will be using the ones still on the car since both ball joint boots are torn on the spare set. My plan is to primer and paint with rustoleum, but I'm not sure if I should paint the bushing areas. I'm installing ES bushings all around, I'm guessing I should gob on the grease, but should I bother painting the insides of the bushing mounting spots?

 

I would tape them off.

 

I'd primer inside, but not paint. You want something in there for rust abatement, but nothing so thick that it limits the bushing's ability to slide in.

Do yourself a favor and drill for zerks while they're all apart.

 

Do something more than primer as primer likes to absorb moisture, when i painted mine i used some industrial definitely use something more than just basic Rustoleum.

 

Paint the inside of mounting points with a rust converter (POR15 or equivalent), but keep it thin, and do not recoat.

 

Was it GRM that said "dont bother" with zerk fittings?

I forget why. Also do you drill through the bushing too? The grease isn't for the outside of the bushing, it's for the metal sleeve inside that...

 

The bushings don't quite touch each other in the middle, so as long as you center your zerk it will get through. This is with the exception of one of the bushings which you must drill through since its a single piece (instead of 2 piece like the remainder of the bushings). Zerk fittings make long term maintenance simple and make it easy to keep your bushings moving as freely as possible.

 

The grm article was about spherical rod ends. Drilling them makes them weak. Brushing should be fine.

I also remembered the split bashing setup... and the grooves in the interior against the metal sleeve.

 

That hyper grease stuff is too thick for using a zerk with, what do you guys use?

And I assume I'd be using the top, since gravity would cause it to leak out the bottom..

 

Grease will not "leak" out of a zerk fitting due to gravity. Hell it won't even come out of the container if you hold it upside down. Just use normal grease available from the hardware store, SuperLube has also been suggested and is available at Ace Hardware.

 

I've never dealt with them before, I did google it after asking though. Regarding the bushings that would need to be drilled through (the 1pc ones), do these poly ones not spin somewhat due to suspension activity, making the Zerk fitting not line up, or damaging it?

1/4" should be sufficient I imagine..

Edit- Looks like Emilio already did it, with some pics. Going to have to check clearance with my suspension..

http://949racing.com/installingzerkfittings.aspx

 

I painted the inside of them with rustolem and didnt have any problem with my energy suspension bushings, i just greased them with the supplied grease and they slid right in with no problems.

 

I coated my control arms with truck bed liner when I installed my ES bushings, it seemed to do the trick.

 

if its just rubber then the paint will flake off