Part 13. December- Mars 2006
4 link and airbags.
Now when the winter is ahead, it’s time to deal with the solutions that not work so well. As for example my rear suspension. My leaf spring set-up from a Firebird is not procedure the smooth ride that I want, and I now heading for a total reconstruction with a 4 link instead. Then you can choose either to go for coil springs, coil over or as I prefer, Air ride.
After
studying hundreds of Hot rod building sites on the Internet I choose to
built me a triangulated four link, or K-link as somebody says. The upper
bar is placed in a 45-degree angle in comparison to a parallel 4 link.
And you don’t need a Panhard bar with this solution. Above you can see
the upper and lower bar and the combined bar/shock bracket and
Polyurethane bushings.
I have to make a cross member with brackets for the upper angled control arms. I also made a kick up on it for the drive shaft. To the right is the axle brackets.
Hers the new cross member in place. As you can see the control arms angled 45-degree towards the axle end.
I removed the rear axle to have better clearance when welding the brackets. Some black paint and it ads a little more professional touch over it.
On the picture you can see the combined bracket for air bag and shocks.
Now I’m just waiting for the air bag that I have order. It’s hard to imagine how a dual exhaust system should find space enough in there. Tight is the word…
Finally, I got my air ride stuff. It took a long long time to reach Sweden. In fact it took 79 days compare to the 4-6 week that USPS says. I buy my stuff at Suicide Doors and I can really recommend the thorbecke brothers. You will find a link to them at the link page.
Rear bag with upper bracket that attach to the original coil mount. Also I have to drill a hole for the air hose from the bag.
The rear bags in place. The bags are Air Lift (Goodyear) and have the same bolt pattern as Firestone with two bolts on top and one in the bottom. I have to cut a little from the spring pockets to achieve the recommended clearance around the bag when it’s deflated.
Front bag with upper and lower bracket. I drill out the rivets in the lower coil-support bracket and made a new one for the bag and mount it in the existing hole after the rivet in the lower control arm.
Above you can see the modified spring pocket. I have to remove some material to achieve clearance around the bag. If your capable to get your finger all around the bag then you will be all right.
Inside the trunk.
From the beginning I use a modified fire
extinguisher as an air tank but I soon realize that it was to small, so I
fabricate another tank for a total of 3-gallon volume. Both tanks are
connected to a pressure switch that shuts off by 145 Psi and restarted
by 105. I use dual 12 volts compressors but I’m planning to use an Edc
in the future, a York preferably for its internal oil system.
To the left is the panel with the solenoid switches and the pressure gauges. 2 spring loaded switches, up = inflate and down = deflate. In the middle there is a power switch for the compressors. Just for security reason if I have a major leak somewhere to avoid the compressors to started and drain my battery out. And two pressure gauges, one for rear and one for the front end.
When I inflated the bags max she is higher then she was original with the 7.10-16 tires.
“Scraping low” If I want to take her down even more I has to do a C-framing and raise the floor for drive shaft clerance but I will drive with this stance to begin with.
Now I have to be concern about all the obstacles that’s lays ahead down the road.
Below is a nice, scraping low –48 Sedanette from the U.S.
