I've advocated for a place like this subforum on the HAMB for so long, I feel compelled to dip my toe in the water with a thread that would get booted in about 15 seconds on the main page. I've had HAMB relevant cars since I was 15 years old. And one of the first things I'd do upon obtaining said car, was putting a set of lowering blocks in there and cutting a coil out of the front. That lowering dramatically improved the looks, but also, often degraded ride, handling, and general functionality in the name of looking cool. Here's my old 57 Ford. I could get the toe of my boot underneath the lake pipe. Looks cool, right? Well, that car drove like ****. I was constantly s****ing over everything. It ate through probably 4-5 sets of lake pipes over the years I had it, and the driveshaft chewed a hole through the floor under the rear seat. I've dragged the skirts for miles down the interstate on more than one occasion. It was virtually converted into a 2 seater, since the weight of a third adult in the back seat rendered the car basically unusable. I was more tolerant of these issues in my teens and 20s, but in my 30s with a wife and family, the poor road manners just meant the car barely got used. So when I cracked into my 61 Oldsmobile Super 88 for a complete rebuild, air suspension was at the top of the list of must-haves. I could drive the car like a human being without it beating up me, my p***engers, or the car, and I could show it with an aggressive stance. The best of both worlds. Let's begin. Perhaps some of you are familiar with the build as a whole. I posted a build thread on the main page but omitted the off-topic work. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-consolation-prize-61-olds-super-88.1267254/ Here's what I started with. Don't let the pics fool you, it was a mess. The Olds is a coil spring car at all four corners and this one had a set of Eibach springs from a 94-96 Impala SS in it. It lowered it a bit and drove OK, but it still sat too high for my taste. Let me preface the rest of this post with a few things. -The Olds ch***is is totally unique to the Olds. So utilizing aftermarket components from something like an Impala is not an option. -I spoke to a few people who I knew had bagged Oldsmobiles, but I didn't love a lot of the approaches I was seeing. The intention was to do this job the right way and not have reliability issues with the system. -I've never done air ride in any capacity before, so the learning curve was steep on this one. -While I've never bagged anything before, I consider myself to be a capable fabricator with a decently well equipped shop. I figured the task would not be a job for the faint of heart, and that proved true. I'll address the fronts first. I opted to use a bellows-style bag in the front for a couple reasons. First, they were a fraction of the cost of a ShockWave. I decided to use a 6" Slam Specialties bag in the front, which has an integrated snubber in the bag. However, the main reason that I used a bellows bag in lieu of a ShockWave is because of structural issues. On the Olds, from the factory the spring fits in the pocket and the shock p***es through the middle, mounting at the top under the upper control arm, and attaching to the lower control arm. This stock upper shock mount retained only the shock, not the spring, and was never intended to be a structural component of the ch***is. By mounting a ShockWave bag here, the entire front of the car (engine, trans, cooling system etc., and the dynamic load of driving conditions) is supported by two 7/16" bolts in double shear. I'm not an engineer, and while I'd think this could work for a while, it didn't look like a viable option for a long term solution that would be safe and trouble free. The Olds lower control arms are two pieces of heavy C channel with a spring pocket riveted in. First thing I did was grind off the rivets and punch them out. The last two pics show that I left the front of the bottom portion on so the ball joint could bolt in place. Next, I started remaking the lower portion of the control arm with flat steel so that the bag had an appropriate way to mount. I used 3/16" right angle for the sides and 1/4" for the bottom. Overkill perhaps, but I did not want any deflection. I TIG'ed everything together.
More construction shots. While I was at it, I pressed in some new bushings. Fusick had these in stock.
Next, I moved on to the top. The Olds has a spring pocket integrated into the frame. I elected to close this off to allow the bag a flat piece of steel to press against. There was a lip on the edge of the recess, which I simply ground off. Then I added threaded inserts so the plate could be removed and reinstalled later if it needed to be serviced. Then I made a crayon rubbing of the top of the bag so I could have a accurate template to drill for the mounting bolts. I did the same on the bottom as well. Then I bolted it all together to test the fit. On face value you'd think that the air bag needs to go right back in the same place that the spring does, but that's not the case. Having two flat plates allows you the flexibility to mount the bag where it fits best. I was able to move the bag inward, toward to the middle of the car, which was the wider portion of the control arm. This gave me additional clearance around the bag to ensure that nothing was going to rub and cause a bag failure. In my research, bags that rub on items they're mounted closely to are the largest cause of failure. Here, the 6" bag has nothing within 1/2' of it inflated or deflated.
As the last photograph also shows, you can see I'm working a shock into the mix here, which needed to be moved to the outside of the control arm. I measured the stroke I would need laid out versus aired completely up. Oddly enough, a 57 Ford shock had the appropriate stroke to handle this. It did require a small modification though, which was to remove the lower metal mount out of the rubber bushing. I just left the rubber bushing. Retrofitting this into a fairly decent car made this task much more difficult. My inner fender wells were smoothed and painted, so cutting them to accommodate the shocks was not an option. I was able to make shock mount stanchions and snake the shock in between the inner fender well and the upper control arm.
The rears were substantially easier but posed their own issues. The bag was able to mount to the rear with only a small tab welded on to secure the mounting bolt. However, the much larger issue was the upper bag mount. Typically, there would just be a long threaded rod that could go through the upper crossmember and hold the pocket in place. However, that was not an option for me here since the upper crossmember is threaded, and there is no hole in the trunk to get to it through. If this were a frame off build, this could have been rectified easily. But since it wasn't, I had to make an upper bag cup that bolts from the bottom and not the top. That would mean making a 2 piece bag cup.
I tried to be a tough guy and plumb hard lines as much as possible. I used stainless Swakelok bulkhead fittings to p*** lines from under the car, into the package tray where the components were mounted. I had a few push-to-connect fittings that threaded to Swagelocks as well to transfer from the flex line to hard lines. This might be the one biggest thing I'd do differently next time. While the Swagelok fittings work great, they were a damn fortune. I probably spent $500 in fittings for this job in total. The Push-to Connect air line fittings are perfectly fine, ONLY if you use a DOT rated fitting. DO NOT skimp on these. I had a couple cheapo Amazon fittings that leaked almost immediately, and I took special care to use only the best DOT fittings I could get. I figure if semi trucks can log millions of miles without issue, then the same would hold true for me here. But the transitions from air line to hard lines caused extra fittings. I used 3/8" lines for the project, and in hind sight, would probably go down to 1/4", simply because of how much more flexible the 1/4" line is. I could have eliminated the transitions and bulkhead connections. I also wrapped the lines with wire loom and taped them to add an extra layer of protection from rubbing and damage.
For the rest of the system, I used the AirLift Performance 3p system. Though it wasn't cheap, it was easy to use, with great directions and lots of diagrams. I also opted for the second compressor, so it would take less time to fill the tank, and also serve as a redundant backup if one should ever fail. For a nominal uncharge I bought the second compressor wiring harness so it was basically a plug and play. The biggest upside for me for the AirLift system was that the controller has individual air readings digitally in the controller, which just tucks under the drivers seat. That way I can see how much air I have in each bag, but I'm not cluttering the dash up with dumb extra gauges. The compressors are Viair 444s and the tank is a 5 gallon aluminum deal. I mounted all of it on a tray that fits under the package tray so I can simply remove 2 bolts and slide the whole thing out to service it if I need to.
Overall, I've been very happy with the result. I have several thousand miles on it and have a good feel for the system. It has been totally trouble free so far. It rides firm but not harsh. I retained the sway bar so it handles well just like it did before. It is maybe a little bouncier than it was, not to a point that is problematic. The adjustability of ride height totally outweighs any drawback though. It has made the car not only killer looking to show, but far more useable as a car to drive and enjoy.
Nice work! Thanks for taking the time to post. Air ride is pretty much standard fair on customs these days and it's exclusion (which I understand) is definitely part of the substantial drop in custom build threads on this board IMO.
Thank you and I agree with you. The irony of which I think is that virtually every hot rod build lately is using aftermarket rails from some provider, if not a conversion from a buggy spring to coil overs. This might be utilizing an air bag in place of a coil spring, but the entire ch***is is basically still 61 Olds. Stock upper and lower control arms, stock bushings and ball joints, stock arms and shocks in the rear... generally speaking, the architecture of this setup is much more HAMB-relevant than it isn't. But I digress. There is a place here for it now and it's something that I think guys should give consideration to. I think there is a good reason why air suspension has become so common on customs today. It allows you to have your cake and eat it, too. We spend so much time, effort and money to make these cars nice, that you want to drive them without them being destroyed by the use. And the old tropes of air suspension being unreliable and dangerous are really just that. The bottom line is that if you take your time, think your way through the install, don't cut corners, and ultimately do the job in a workmanlike manner, it will be safe and perform well. This was a difficult install in that there is no pre-engineered kit buy, so I had to do the R&D on the fly, and I hope this thread helps anyone that wants to bag their Olds and comes across it in their search for answers. But I also hope it's confidence inspiring, especially for folks where you can get a pre-engineered kit for their make and model.
This car blew my mind at Detroit this year…to me the highlight of the show..I only wish Mike and Larry A could have been alive to see it…they would have loved it
Thanks man! That's really a huge compliment that I appreciate sincerely. I think Mike and Larry would have liked it, too.
Thanks bro, that could definitely be the case. I think it's more coming from the rears than the front, which I gather is from the difference in operating pressures. The larger the bag, the lower the operating pressure they can work at for a given ride height. And the lower the pressure, the softer the ride. The fronts use a 6" bag, and pressure at operating height is around 115 psi, which is actually fairly high. On the contrary, the rears are 7" bags and the pressure at driving height is around 35 psi. So the rear is substantially softer than the front, and perhaps the rear shocks aren't quite up to dampening the softness. Even still, it's splitting hairs. The car drives great, and doesn't bounce on regular roads. I'd say the ride is firm but not harsh. Probably a poor comparison, but maybe like comparing a BMW to a Grand Marquis, where the former is firm but connected to the road, and the latter sort of floats and lumbers down the road. Maybe it's a bit amplified for me since the road that I live on is a country road with farms and is a glorified driveway, but highways and regular roads are totally fine.
The Jalopy Journal
