Going through old magazines last night and came across this. Hotrod Parts September 1965. They may have not used them in customs but the used 'em for drag racing. Who knows, maybe they did but didn't show it here. -stick Right on the cover. This logo look familiar? AIRLIFT Dig the bag mounts, gauges and switches.
This not Airbag suspension but rather airbags iused as stiffeners in coil springs like all the GM chassis Motorhomes in the world. A totally different idea that the modern "bag" suspension.
several '58 cars, in fact, but I think all were recalled and converted... The Ala Kart used Air Lifts made as overload supports, like the drag and circle cars mentioned, but was nearly entirely supported by them. If I remember correctly, it only used the very light coil springs used as retainers on Air Lift applications on which the bag could not go inside a stock coil spring. These springs had little support power, and served to retain and define the air bag. Drag use was very common, usually with a split system so one rear wheel could be preloaded. Nearly all early AMT custom and Rod kits circa 1960 came with Air Lift decals...
I wonder when the first adjustable airbag suspension came about, i/e for lowering, not for weight capacity.
Ya know, I rode in a buddies bagged 57 Lincoln up and down Congress during the Lone Star Roundup, and I was too busy grinning ear to ear while dragging-tail to worry about it being traditional or not. Maybe it's just me though...
Hot rods are what you make it. Rather it be air bags or dropped I beams, It can still be traditional. Besides who really cares if its old school or new school hot rodding ..... As long as we are all still HOT RODDING
I agree partly with you buddy, Hot Rods ARE what you make them! You can build them to suit you, the end user, and if you get satisfaction from it it doesn't matter what you call it. Safety should be priority #1 on any car you intend to drive hard and put away wet. That being said, a Camaro clipped '54 Chevy would not fall into a "traditional" category. "Traditionally styled", maybe, but seeing as Camaros hit the market in '67, and most Camaro clips being the '70-81 vintage, it cannot possible have been built that way in the 50's. The truly "traditional" hot rods are almost a restoration, with period parts and modifications you would have seen on any guy's hot rod then. There are guys I know personally and on here who have stuck to a set date, and use nothing after that date, nor deviate from what styles would have been popular after that date. To me, that is a traditional hot rod. The generally accepted date I see at most shows is 1963 and earlier, the last year before the musclecars hit the market. I see nothing wrong with a Camaro clips, air ride suspensions, disc brakes, or radial tires, but it is what it is. I don't intend to get into an internet pissing contest, just giving my point of view on "traditional" hot rods.
^^^^ I agree with you. Some might argue that if they had those parts way back when that they would have used them same as we are now but "traditionally" that did not happen and I see how some will point out that it could not be a traditional thing to ad or do. Like others, build to your liking and taste, airbags or not.
I have seen some really nice traditional cars with straight axles and airbags. I even heard they rode great with them. Not my car but everyone has their choice of suspension. I personally dig period perfect.
Shoot lowering your car is not a traditional rodder thing either. I don't care what any of you say. i have had lots of family members who were rodders in the 60's and no one lowered there car.
people have been lowering cars since before hot rods were called "hot rods". some of the first cars modified for speed and handling were lowered. albeit not to ground scrapping stance for sure. as for bags. they have been around for many many moons. they have however evolved in that time. Airlift (of which i am a dealer) has been in business since 1947 (or something close to that). Airlift bags were used quite extensively in the very early stock car days as well as drag racing. people seem to like to have their own narrow defintion of "traditional". for me, if the parts were available in a given era and even one guy put them to use on his hot rod or custom car then that makes the modification correct for that era and therefore it should fit into the "traditional" mold. for that matter VW Beetles are Traditional hot rod fodder (if you concider the 60s in your definition of traditional). some of you will argue this point but i've yet to hear a rational counter argument to it. i've got several mags from the early and mid 60s with gasser Beetles with both flat 4 four power and various V8s. it's no different than an Anglia, a Fiat or any other foreign car that was available here (in the U.S.) at the time. i'm personaly a big fan of the so called "traditional" style vehicles but some of you need to remember that the hot rodder back in those days, that we are trying to emulate, wanted the newest parts and the latest and greatest technology. the goal was not to have the most ancient and obsolete parts they could find but rather just the opposite. just like todays "Street rodders" realy. from an asthetics point of view i typicaly prefer the earlier styled cars of the 40s and 50s and even the 60s to some extent. you just have to realize that we live in a COMPLETELY different time than those folks did in the earlier days of our hobby. i believe we've pretty much come full circle.
I see your point. But people didn't lower there cars unless they were building a race car. Customs didn't come into a big stride until the 60's. Even in the 50's very few people customised cars and built hot rods. Hot rods were only build in the 50's as dirt track race cars for the most part. Street rods didn't appear until the very end of 58-59 and into 60's. People only started customising there cars because they could get 30's 40's and early 50's cars for dirt cheap or as a hand me down from family members. They wanted to do something different and cool so custom culture was in full effect in the 60's.
I would have to question this. The high point for custom cars was the late 40's and 50's. Builders like the Barris Brothers, the Ayala Brothers etc were at their prime during this time period and every car they built was lowered. By the 60's a custom car consisted of a wild paint job and mild dechroming not what anyone would consider the "big stride" of custom car building.
Like I said very few people did it. It wasn't a mass thing until the end of the 50's and it hit its stride in the 60's. I am just going buy what I have read and by what I have been told by family who grew up in that era. Hell for all i know i could be dead wrong. But i am just stating what I know.
so should we start a Nancy-Boy club? im in .... I love to drive low..... with out bags I would just beat the shit out of my car (no thanks).
Those airbags are more for preloading a drag race suspension in a "helper spring" application.Not really the "airbag suspension"in use today.They didn't use reservoir tanks or on board pumps.You are comparing "apples and oranges".
There was a guy with a pick-up parked behind me at the BTTB show,that kept fucking with his bags ALL day! UP...DOWN...UP...DOWN. Bags for an adjustable ride height is one thing,bags just to get attention is gay! He might as well been driving a Escalade. I like having the bags on my cars,so I can get in driveways,and speed bumps. Not dumping the ass while i'm cruising.
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