Why Are People Bagging Hot Rods?

HOT RODS should not have bags!!!!! Air Ride is for customs not HOT RODS. I would like to know one good reason to use air ride on a hot rod...



Bigdaddy

 

I heard the best way to make your hot rod faster is to add a couple hundred pounds to it...

 

It's "traditional" like straight pipe headers without collectors and no exhaust system, and the frame and/or body so low it scrapes the ground at the slightest provocation even though hot rods have little or no front and rear overhang.

 

Sooooo....your bagging on hotrods with bags?????

 

Why not? If you don't like the idea dont do it, who cares what someone else does.

 

From what I've been reading, its mostly for stance and adjustability of that stance. Although yeah, the weight definitely does slow them down quite a bit.

 

He was talking hot rods with airbags being a bad thing, so I naturally thought of the cracked-out fenderless rat-rods with air bags the proliferate these days...

Your 38 is faster than any car I've owned so I wasn't BAGGING on it...

But you gotta admit, there's nothing that gets the indigestion flaring like a suicide axle with a couple of Shockwaves out front to spice things up...

 

new age and i think the ride is alot better

 

sounds like another religion/politics thread....there is no rational reason to put bags on a hotrod, so you (and I) will never understand why they do it.

 

What it boils down to is a traditional styled rod should probably not have an airbag suspension, and customs should stick to the old-style aircraft hydraulic cylinders and NO suspension which are traditional and so much heavier.

Advances are made in everything and the old style hotrodders would have been the first in line for radial tires, air-bags and four-bars and dual rear springs and coil-over shocks and throttle bodies and tuned port injection...wait a minute, they were!

 

I think it's because (and I know my oppinion doesn't mean much) not everyone wants to build their idea of a hot rod by some tried and true manual. I know this site is all about traditionalism, and that's great, some guys on here have phenominal traditional hot rods, but I think the true spirit of hot rodding is building what YOU like, not what the world says you should build. Sure, there's plenty of clapped out piles of shit running around dragging on the ground, but there are also some really nice ones with hidden air systems, that look very traditional, but lay on their ass. I don't think the original builders back in the 40's, and 50's were concerned with tradition.

 

I'll give you one. Pain. I've sold 4 daily drivers in four years trying to find one that my damaged spine can live with. I can easily imagine that some folks just don't want the abuse that a dearched model a spring with 1 inch of travel can dish out. I'm not going with bags....yet. I did give it serious consideration, though.
Today we can easily travel 300 miles to make a show or race. That's a great deal more that the average for anyone 30 years ago. Why shouldn't we build a car for long haul comfort?

 

'cause it's different

 

Ryan, and all the rest let me clarify.. I am taking fenderless say 23-34 coupes roadster sedans etc etc... Pre 35 I just dont get it...

 

I just dont like em. You can get them plenty low without them besides I hate seeing a frame totally on the ground. Just something wrong with that picture.

 

Didn't Clark build a bitchin 32 with a bagged rear suspension? They were hidden but totally made the car because he could slam the thing.

 

I'm with bigdaddy. I see no need to have the frame on the ground on a fenderless early car. I'm hoping that is a style that is fading away.

 

The only point I could see is for adjustability, the roads and freeways around here are really crappy and it would be nice to get some extra clearance sometimes. Even though I wont be running them on the 31 A

 

Fenders/Custom- bags. Fenderless/Hotrod--no bags. Easy enough.

 

Many younger builders that were previously building bagged mini trucks are now getting old enough and making more money. As they continue to build and graduate into other styles of cars you get an overlap of styles.

 

Don't really care for ground dragging cars, but with that said, I still like the attitude of build what ya want, the way ya want.

If the pieces aren't out in the open, it really doesn't matter what holds it up.

Just never got into bumper draggin' lowriders, more of a gasser, AA/FA type guy.

 

That's what I was gonna say !

 

I'm cool with it for adjustability and ride quality but think it's retarded when the idea is to lay it on the ground at shows. To me hot rods look lame when the body is sitting on the ground and even worse when they do a feaux kustom look with the ass on the ground. However, diversity is what makes rodding great and if I liked everything I saw it would get pretty damn boring. Plus it gives us something to talk about

 

Hot rods themselves are irrational.

 

Well I think my coupe looks as traditional as you can get and it has bags on the back. For long trips it's as comfortable as you can get. I dont use them to set it on the ground to impress people dragging my ass around. Just because people build something different than how it was fifty years ago shouldn't make it unacceptable. I guess my car sucks but hey...I drive it everywhere and my ass is comfortable!

You wouldn't even know there were bags under there unless you shoved your head under my rear.

 

Open wheel=no bags.

What confuses me is why so many people are bulding rods that are lower in the back than in the front. Taildraggers look slow and heavy. Hot rods are supposed to look fast and nimble.

 

taken out of context that is funny

 

I always thought hot rods were building a car how you wanted, and by any means to do it. If you want a period correct car don't use bags, otherwise its just a means of having a comfortable, low riding vehicle.