Air Ride
 

I'd like to get peoples opinions on the different manufactures of Air products. I am seriously considering putting the Impala on bags. What are the Pro's and Con's of having a bagged car? What are the differences between manufacturers? I have been quoted 6 grand for a system (Air ride tech), and I have been quoted $1200 for a system (cannot remember mfg. name).

I guess I am more into the simple approach and don't really need auto leveling, and other 'add-on' features.

Please let me know your first hand experiences with different manufacturers, as well as your suggestions regarding bagging the Impy!!!

:lateral:

I don't want to speak for the folks at Air Ride, but I will offer my opinion. I have had good luck with their stuff. The items that I tried to skimp on and bought from others have been where I spent most of my time.

I'm also pretty sure the Air Ride folks can get you set up for much less than $6K - especially on an Impala (what year?). I've also had good experiences with Air Ride customer service and tech. I would try to give them a shout and tell them what your budget is and see what they can do.

Their are other companies out there that make parts that I'm sure would work just fine - these are just my experiences.

Brandon

Thanks for your posting, Brandon! I appreciate the info!!

Oh, BTW... The car is a '61!

yeah it could be almost 6000, but you buying a arms and rear suspension stuff, not just the air ride stuff. So your getting new ball joints and bushings, new rear control arm bushings. plus all the compressors and stuff for a solid bolt in product. You could bag your car with the old cups and and airbag stuff, but it will take a mont of sundays to get everything like the air ride will bolt on for ya in a decent amount of time.

If you need some help on the price email what you need and I can get you a super competitive price.

Rodger

Ahhhhhhhh - '61 - my favorite of the early 60's Chevs

I kick myself for not buying a '61 Biscayne when I had the chance.

Post some pics if you have some.

Later,

Brandon

Here is a link to a few pics of it at the Car Craft Summer Nationals. I was fortunate enough to be able to showcase it at the Tracktime Motorsports Zaino display:

http://mnfbody.com/showthread.php?t=...ht=1961+impala

I apologize that I do not have smaller pics to post on this forum.

I personnally don't have Air-ride however I know a quality full-service restoration shop (one that wants and drives its customers to do what's right) - They recommend Air-ride highly. I have spoken with three of their customers and beyond the quality of the whole car they like/love air-ride. If you haven't already ... you should hit a Goodguys, Super Chevy, or some other event that they have a booth. You can feel and touch their products, sometimes they have a mock car and with out a doubt they can direct you to a customer's car.

Once again .. I'm just using old fashioned shocks and springs :(

Wow- that car is beautiful!

most cars that leave our shop seem to be on air ride these days but after fitting quite a few kits i am on the fence as to whether or not i would install it in my own car, if you are fitting the basic analogue gauge and switches type then there is not much to go wrong and are fairly reliable, i am in the process of doing a 64 impala at the moment and the new control arms look good and fit well but we have several unhappy customers with the digital setups even though they are more expensive, recently we fitted a road scraper type kit on an s10 with twin compressors and tanks with big lines and solenoids to lift or dump quicker and boy have we had problems, the front sway bar mounts on the arms are welded on at the wrong angles so the first time the air was dumped it bent the sway bar bolts into a 'j' shape!! not a big deal to put right but where is the quality control ? these are crucial to a safe vehicle , there were also 4 out of 5 pressure sensors that were faulty and were sending a low pressure signal to the controller which kept the compressors on permanently until they burnt out, i am not knocking air rides warranty though as they will replace parts and really try to help sort the problems , its not all their fault as i would think electrical items and solenoids are bought in from other suppliers.As an installer though we have to eat all the costs for putting the new parts on and have over 600 bucks into the s10 alone! I just think that for 6 g's you could have a pretty trick set of coilovers and have enough left for new suspension arms etc, see if you can take a ride in a vehicle with air to see if you can justify the expense, as the ride never seems to be as smooth as you might think it would be for the cost, but it does look damn cool to dump the car down when parked.
Once again i will say , i am not having a go at air ride just that i have been witness to some scary looking failures of several brands and none seem to have a lasting quality about them especially as a daily driver type vehicle.

If you are looking for the best of the best then yes, 6g is about right. But you could get a really nice kit for a fair amount less. For example:
SKW1021sa-LUCA Front Shockwaves w/ upper & lower StrongArms $1599
ARR20600-LUCA Rear CoolRide w/ upper and lower StrongArms $899
ARC4100e2 RidePro E2 Comp. kit $1695
Total $4193.

For the extra 2g you would also get the Double adjustable shocks front and rear, front and rear MuscleBar sway bars and the LevelPro compressor system.

We do offer kits that will work with the factory arms as well, but like Ironworks said; if you have to replace the ball joints and bushing anyways you might as well get the tubular stuff.