[Altered Image]

John droped his car off a few weeks ago with never as much as talking or meeting with us. Directions were simple, Bag it, Don't cut the inner fenders out and use the best stuff. Easy enough. On this install we used Slams all around RE 7's in the rear and XS 7's up front a set of 4 manifold valves, 2 AZ's and 2 Stainless 5 gal tanks.
Here it is when we got it. Can you say Donk?

Pocket ready to be clearenced

Lower bag plate in

Compressor, valves and tanks

Here it sits with the suspension done


Now it's on to the next step, some slight body mods, new paint, new interior seats, door panels dash etc. ,custom digital gauges and a new top.

[powerrodsmike]

That looks awesome. How low can you get the rockers off the ground.? What size fronts rims and tires are you running?


Baggin barges is cool.. I did a 59 caddy
a while back 8"Shockwaves in front and regular double conv bags in back

Right now I'm working on a 68 Imperial


w/ shockwaves all around. The front is done





and I started on the back today

Those aren't the rims we'll use. I just got a junker to play with
I wanted to get it lower but the ball joints are binding at 1" more of drop. My customer didn't want to modify the control arms and I won't set it up to bind the suspension. Any more drop in the front would require the inner fenders to be removed also.

Later, mikey

[Henry Highrise]

Both of you guys are doing some really good work! Are those Coker tires?

[Altered Image]

Those are some bad ars cars you built and are building there! The rims are 22"s the last pics are fully laid out I'm going to say 4" off the ground for the rockers 2 for the frame. My 66 is roughly 1/2" from laying out the frame. I like to use the double convoluted in the front becaus eit afords the lift it needs to clear the wheels in a turn. Shockwaves although very very nice don't get much travel.

[powerrodsmike]

No henry those are not cokers, they are tweeker treads.

from Meth head mfg
Coke is too expensive for my customers.

hahahahahahaha
Later, mikey

[powerrodsmike]

Originally Posted by Altered Image

The rims are 22"s the last pics are fully laid out I'm going to say 4" off the ground for the rockers 2 for the frame. My 66 is roughly 1/2" from laying out the frame. I like to use the double convoluted in the front becaus eit afords the lift it needs to clear the wheels in a turn. Shockwaves although very very nice don't get much travel.

man the 66 is low isn't it?
Air ride sold the kit to my 59 customer before he found me. But travel was not an issue on that.

The Imperial had no room for a shock. It would not drop anymore anyway due to the suspension.
With 275 45X20 tires in the front the crossmember is 4" off the ground. I think we'll try out some 18" rims and see if it gets lower.

later

Mikey

[Bryan59EC]

Personally---I don't think the Imperial needs to go lower---looks to be about the right stance to me

But then again---what do I know.

Bryan

[powerrodsmike]

Well Bryan, your excellent memory and ability to comprehend my second grade compositions would indicate a high level of intelligence. And your general high level of intelligence indicates .....

The King barge droppin it down further would look better when I use it for a backdrop...for my shop advertising pic. dare you ask. hahhahahaha

Altered image- Watch out on some of the earlier gm stuff. The lower control arm mounts at the front tend to rip out of the C-member. I have fixed 2 tri-five chevies and that 59 caddy.
Bagging them only seems to make it worse if the guy wants to ride around on the stops.

I like your 66 better than the ragtop. The hard tops are sleeker and take better to lowering. IMHO

What kind of body mods are you doing to the ragtop?

later, mikey

[Altered Image]

We are going to shave the doors. Not much of anything else the customer wants to keep it almost stock looking.

[BadA$$37]

Altered, just looking at your post and love the Cad. My wife has a 61 Cad convert and its sitting on cut springs right now, I am planning on baggin it. I am obviously a little far from you, but wondered the products and manufactures you used on Johns car? I have only looked into Airride and would like to find a couple other options and some advice. Thanks in Advance

[DrChop]

They ALL look cool sitting on the ground, but that kind of stance takes a LOT of work. I have told ppl that dropping to extremes includes their wallet getting lower as well... it's all proportional...

I think with what the customer wants/expects those cars are low enough. Truly sitting it on the ground and yet keeping it drivable is a lot tougher.

In my case I wanted the front crossmember and rear bumper on the ground. Nobody made a kit to bag the '54 Ford at the time so it was up to me. I got my bags thru AIM, found in Truckin' magazine, and had the 2600# double fronts and 1700# rears in a few weeks, made some simple plate and tubing mounts, and it's all good. I soon found out the steering was the lowest point up front, with the car on the stops and the rear set up with blocks as well. I ended up rotating the steering box and idler arm back about 15-20 degrees, and as a side benefit it also lowered the steering wheel and put it farther back, a plus to doing the top chop. At this point when the front is down the tubular front crossmember under the engine is 1/4" from level pavement. I also ended up going with the 195-50-15's up front to avoid the more expensive drop spindles needed to slam it and use a taller sidewall tire. Of course there are no inner wheelwells up front, but I can live with that.

In the rear it sits on 3/4-elliptic springs from S-10 packs, using 3 main leafs and a shackle kit to build both springs. This of course meant wider front mounts to accomodate wider/longer leafs, and a clamp system on the rear framerails to hold the solid end of the goofy leafs rigid. Same setup is used sometimes on 4x4 trucks to allow for more axle droop, and I knew i'd need droop to get the rear tires off with how much I wanted the body channeled.
The 8" Mustang axle bolts to the S-10 leafs with a set of 2" blocks, and runs 205-50-15 tires.. I then realized the rear bumper was still a foot off the ground, because of the frame shape, that's no good...

The bumper was dropped by cutting the last 8" off the frame and using Model A framerail stock (C-channel) to get it to it's taildragging stance. Sort of a frame kickdown, for a change...

The entire trunk floor was cut out of the car body and new inner rocker panels welded in place before slicing out the remaining flooring clear up to the middle of the firewall. The shell was lowered over the frame, and centered at the front/rear (stock body is offset a little over an inch to allow a bit more steering clearance) and then I started trimming away the lower quarters (rotted) and blocking it up with cribbing until I had the body channeled 5" at the firewall and 10.5" at the rear bumper, could have gone lower but had to keep checking for tire clearance issues at the rear, as it is now I can BARELY get them out with the frame jacked up and the skirts off... Sort of an angle channel, easily seen in the Featured Projects pics. Once I had the body where it needed to be I welded in 2" square tubing between the inner rockers and the framerails, flush with the top of the frame. The floorpans are sitting on top of this, rosette welded to the body mount tubing and frame, and fully along the rockers. The only piece of stock flooring left is the trans tunnel hump, it just cleared the TH400, although I did end up raising it slightly when I made up the lower firewall and toe board parts of the flooring. The entire driveshaft area was cut off and has safety loops as part of the floor bracing, then was skinned with more 11 Ga.

Of course, motor and trans mounts for the Caddy combo also had to be checked and adapted so I would'nt scrape those along the road when it's slammed... The 472 oilpan has an inch of clearance and the trans had a bunch, so even with a deep sump cooler style pan it's still OK.

Doc

[Altered Image]

Originally Posted by BadA$$37

Altered, just looking at your post and love the Cad. My wife has a 61 Cad convert and its sitting on cut springs right now, I am planning on baggin it. I am obviously a little far from you, but wondered the products and manufactures you used on Johns car? I have only looked into Airride and would like to find a couple other options and some advice. Thanks in Advance

The companies used on our airride installs consist of the folowing.
Bags- Slam specialties - best bag avalabile
Compressors- Air Zeineth
Valves - Asco manifold valves
Tanks - Stainless 5 gal 4 port.
Mounts custom made in house here.
Controlers- AVS or some rocker switches
Gauges- Dakota Digital or Airlift


A couple companies to stay far far away from- AIM, Chasis Tech, Bagit.com, Bag pro.com, Ricky Racer, Or whatever name they are using that week. If it looks cheap and is priced cheap it most likley is cheap.

[powerrodsmike]

Altered, I agree with your choice of companies to do (and not do) business with
I will say that Airride has worked with us several times and IMO are a stand up business also.

Later, mikey

[Altered Image]

Sorry Fixed the post.

[powerrodsmike]

I fixed my post to reflect your repair
Mikey