Air Suspension going on a '69 E3

teahead

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Awesome job!

However, I'd somehow beef up those rear shock towers since they are now carrying the full rear weight of your car.
 

dang

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Some progress, then a big setback. I got the whole system done, buttoned up all the air lines and wires, tested it again in the garage and then took it for a drive. There's a lot of adjustment in the ride so I think that part will work out great, but the custom struts I had made were built wrong. The camber and the caster was off. I thought the fabricator, I guy I've known for a long time, was going to make a jig off of the OEM struts and build the new ones on it, but he ended up just measuring the geometry by hand on the bench. He said he's done it many times before with good results but these struts must've been different enough to cause a problem.

Anyway, I've got the new struts off the car again and I'm building my own jig with the OEM struts and will modify the new ones myself. Oi.
 

dang

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A few photos of the the jig I used to correct the strut alignment. They look really close now, but after driving the car with the bad struts I realize there's no way the corrected struts will be perfect so I decided to turn my top adapter plates into camber plates. I'll post photos of the plates when I'm done, but between straightening the struts and having some adjustment at the top it should have a better chance of working now.

20220607_170920.jpg


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dang

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Here's a few photos of the home-made camber plates. Photos are taken from a video so they're not so great, but you get the idea.

camber plate 2.jpg


camber plate.jpg


camber plate 3.jpg
 

dang

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I've got the car on the road with the stock wheels/tires since they have good clearance on everything. I'm driving it around and playing with the bag pressures and damper settings but I can't find the ride I want yet. I also realize if I go with the Style 5's that the ride will be different so I guess I'm just practicing now. The Style 5's require another mini project adding the longer studs and spacers so I'll have to find time for it.

20220625_144633.jpg
 

teahead

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how does it ride? Super stiff?

With airbags, unfortunately the higher you go, the stiffer you get. You may need to lower it some more to get a better ride???
 

dang

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how does it ride? Super stiff?

With airbags, unfortunately the higher you go, the stiffer you get. You may need to lower it some more to get a better ride???
I'll need to drive it a lot more to figure out the ride. Once I find the ride I like I'll spin the struts up or down to the height I want.
 
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