how can I remove the rubber bushings?
 

I bought a master set of Energy suspension bushing for my 86. I cannot get the bushings off of the lower control arms. I have gone through several razor blades. like they have a steel belted middle. Now they are so cut up, there is no way I can reinstall them.

Help.

the twofold path. the rear bushing can be clamped and then pressed off with a hyd press. or you can burn it off. messy and takes a while

I finally got it.
On one I drilled a bunch of holes. I scarred the control arm a bit, but only where the new bushing covers it.
One the other one, I did the same thing, but it would not budge. So is sprayed it with lube, I was able to get it to turn a little, but nothing more than that. so I drilled more holes, nothing. I finally had to break out the 3" cut off wheel. nervously, I started cutting into it, breathing burning rubber. Then I struck metal, but I was only half way through. There is a metal color in the middle of all that rubber! so i cut as much as I could on opposite sides and pried. I was able to move it up more, but had to use the cutoff wheel again to cut the metal band the rest of the way. It took over an hour to change those bushings. I'm really glad i will only have to do this once.
I say once, but I do this to almost every car i have owned. most are not this hard though.

I used a bearing knife and a jack screw (similiar to what they use to pull bearings off differentials.) I heated up the rubber to soften it up around the control arm.

Fire's cool!

The process I usually use it drill holes to get out the center peices then burn the rest out.