FALCON and FAIRLANE Air bag suspension

So you guys with bagged Falcon's and Fairlane's how did you fab your brackets, especially the front? post picts if you have them. If anyone else has any suggestions on how you would bag one of these shock tower unibody lightweights post up.
Thanks,
Jason

 

my buddy has a bagged fairlane wagon... Send a note to KustomBuick.. he did most of the work on it many years ago

 

I would love some info on this as well, this application is pretty much the same as my old ladys 61 Comet. It has the look but with almost 3 coils out of the front it rides like shit! Air ride has those nice shockwaves but they are almost 900 dollars by themselves. Is there another way?

 

I know that Shockwave makes a front system for that setup, but I'm sure its pricey. I may want to do bags on my Falcon, but not sure yet.

 

their was a guy from Austrailia on here who was bagging a ranchero i believe and was considering making a kit for them, this was discussed on here a few years back. if he went through with it i don't know?? i'd like to find out though so i could get my ranchero in the weeds.

 

The Shockwave front kit is like $800 on eBay. Keeps you from having to relocate shocks and is straightforward for those who don't have a lot of fabricating experience.

I'm hopefully doing my '62 Ranchero in the next few weeks, as well as doing the 5-lug setup at the same time. My plan is a simple two-link rear with drag link, possibly with relocated front link mounts if the stock leaf spring mounts would make the bars too short (I don't want an extreme arc of travel).

The front should be easy. Basic bag cups, and I'll figure out what to do as far as shocks when I come to it. Maybe some shocks mounted off of the lower arms?

 

I'll try to shoot some photos of my '61 Futura tomorrow.

My garage is cooold. I'm sure my valves are frozen.

 

I'm going to be doin one of these pretty soon here and i was thinking the easiest way to go would be with an air cylinder or a strut type deal like they do when they bag late model imports. If the customer actually comes thru and i do the job i'll take pics.

 

Hey, you guys are right across from my buddies at Dori2 and SR Motorcars, right?

 

here's a couple of bad pics of mine, it's all dusty cause it's getting bodywork right now.

 

you should be able to get a rough idea from the pics of what i did. i only got a couple pics before the camera died. finding room for the shocks was the toughest, you can see the half-assed upper mount, the bottom end is attached to the strut rod. it's real tight packaging with the disc brakes.

 

It looks like you bolted a plate to the sheetmetal to mount the shock? Am I looking at that correctly?

 

Yea, i know steve and adrian and ross and all those guys. In fact i work next door to them.

 

Cool, I'll make sure to stop by and say hey next time I'm over there. You guys have a lot of neat projects!

 

you got it.

 

Is that strong enough to hold it and not cause any damage with use? Also, do you have any more details on your setup? Year, engine size, size of bags, amount of travel and rear set up?

 

it's a 61, 250 six. airlift 2b6 bags, lots of travel. no bags in back....yet. that's changing very soon.

as far as bolting to the sheetmetal, i sandwiched the shock tower sheetmetal between two 1/4" plates, it's been okay for two years of hard driving. you can see i did build a monte carlo bar in the top view, to help stiffen things up, but have had no problems with the strength of the shock tower itself.

i also mounted the strut rod below the lower control arm so the car would sit lower.

 

Shaggin bagged his 62 wagon this past winter and it has worked great! Drop him a pm if you have any questions......hope this helps.

Shaggin's bagged Falcon.

 

I looked up Shaggin's username but nothing came up... :-(

Would you happen to know if the rear end in his car is narrowed? Are those pics you posted of the car at ride height? Thanks for the info.

 

In my searching I found these
a 64 Falcon; I like how he did the shock and kept the spring perch

 

Here are some of a 65 Fairlane I found. I'm not crazy about the lower part of the fron bags or how he did the rear but it is good for ideas.

 

More.......

 

Hey Guys,

After having my Ranchero on the lift today, my buddy and I decided that we might produce some Falcon/Ranchero air kits.

See this thread:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=162026

 

Hey Guys thanks for the pics. Now I just need to figure which direction to go....Its the old ladys car and I need it to be dependable. ( it rides so rough in the front now she has a hard time keeping constant pressure on the gas pedal)

 

Im almost done with my '62.

 

Nice!

Thanks for the good photos.

 

Hey, take some picts when you get the suspension back in j/k!
Damn that is low. Did you use a 4 link in the rear? Are the shock brackets welded to the strut rod?
Got any more picts?
btw post an intro in the Introduction section or someone here will jump your shit.
nice ride

 

The rear appears to be a two-link since having upper links over solidly mounted square bars wouldn't do anything.

 

Thanks!

The shock mounts are at the rear of the two link bars. The top of the shocks mount to a crossmember in the trunk. Ill see if I have any more pics of it.

Thanks for the heads up, I posted an intro.

 

Did you guys custom do the rear? Or is it a kit? I really like that setup.