I am curently working on a 62 cadillac, trying to install air bags in the front. I have done many bag jobs before but this is my first cadillac. My question is what to use for cups/brackets, I am guessing it will have to be a universal cup kit. Wondering what everyone else is doing. If a universal kit is to be used then how tall are uper and lower cups?
When we did my '64 Olds 98, which should essentially have the exact same chassis as your Cadillac, we used cups/brackets from a Chevy Caprice, the whale-body era ones, 91-96 I think. We ended up cutting some height off of them for maximum lowness. Worked real nice, don't have the measurements for you though. The diameter fit real nice and those brackets are common/cheap, although it'd be easy enough to make some for it. Let me know what you figure out for front shocks. I don't have any and the ride is too bouncy on the road, thinking of switching to a Shockwave type bag in the front. Rears still work fine. PS I'm also parting out a '62 Caddy and will probably be scrapping it this week, let me know if there are any parts you're looking for.
Cool, I will try that. I have heard that the shock wave kit gives an awesome ride but they have no travel. You don't have a set of fenders do you, thats realy the only bad part on the car. Oh, and the rear inside arm rest (2 door model).
Fenders were all rotted out (Wisconsin car) and I'm keeping the armrests for my Oldsmobile (parts car was a 4 door anyway) so I can't help there. The travel thing would be a big deal on my Olds as I have very little trans pan clearance but it lays out nice with the regular bags, I'd hate to swap them out and either not be able to get high enough or low enough depending on mounting. But the lack of shocks really stinks, if you figure out something, be sure to post pics.
Ok, so the front is going pretty good, now to the back. I have seen that someone makes a kit for this car, the problem is you have to buy bags, cups, fittings and everything else. I just want the cups/brackets. Is there another one that can be used intsead? The brackets made for it are on an angle to correct alignment of bag and get the most lift.
I did some on a 63' coupe and it was just a round plate welded to the top of the lower control arm and the top cup for the spring I just drilled for the airline and a bigger hole for the bag to bolt to. I would guess you have the same suspension as me. Just cut a piece of 1/8-1/4" plate a little bigger than your bags bottom and bolt it from the bottom. I also boxed my lower control arms for extra strength As a side note. The top should just fit right inside of the old cup or you could extend it by buying a foot of 5" diameter tubing(1/8" wall minimum) and capping both ends with some nuts welded on the inside to mount the frame side and bag side too. You just have to figure out you hieght by subtracting the bags extended hieght from the old springs dimension. Sounds complicated but it's overall pretty easy in steps.
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