I would have replaced it as well. Even if there is a tiny arc in the rod it's a pain in the *** to align the front end. Keep the old one as an example of what not to do. I just rebuilt a front end on a model a for a lady in our club last month. Her tie rod looked about like yours does, and she had been driving it like that for years. She always complained about how if steered, and we all kinda just wrote it off as driver error. If you knew her, you'd understand. Not trying to be ugly, just saying she's a wild one... Which is what probably cause the tie rod to get as bent as it's gotten. So I agreed to rebuild it for her when I had some free time from other work. (She got the family discount) I never drove the car, I towed it home. But I could only imagine what it was like to try to keep it In one lane. When she got the car back, she couldn't believe how much better it drove. It tracked just like a normal car and It didn't go to the other side of the road when it hit a bump in the road.
