has anyone here bagged a merc or shoebox?ive biult a few cars now but never did bags..i guess my question is will the car stop bottoming out at ride hight, i will not drive the car higher than it is right now!!! i want low all the time not just wen its parked (am i making sense?) this is how the car sits now and i wanna keep it that way
If the car is at the ride height you want it at (which looks great), I don't think adding bags will keep it from bottoming out - they will just give you the adjustability to raise the car when you need to, and I think you said you don't want to do that. It sounds like you have some chassis work to do instead. What has been done to the frame/floors to accomodate for the current stance? Curt
i have c-d the frame front and rear,retunneled the floor.the back has ghetto bags(air shocks) wich i can live with.the front springs wich are cut bottom to easy,even though ive notched the front of the frame for the control arms.im hoping the bags will have more tension i guess..same hight but wont collaps as easy
you could put stiffer springs in the front with height limiters to keep it at the same hieght or put a small coilover in the front. it seems that you really need to go back and make more clearnce in the front for the big bumps.
if your still bottoming out and the frame is C-notched, I would check to see if your differential is knocking underneath, and driveshaft clearance. This is overlooked sometimes. One way to check too is put it on a lift (drive up style) or over a pit and load up the car w/ a bunch of friends and get the rear down as far as possible. Have them "jump" up and down and listed for the knocking.
Killer stance on your Merc, I wouldn't raise it up either. I'm using those RV type bags (red color ones) that sit inside my front coils. I had the same problem, kinda, I've got dropped spindles. No part of the front suspension bottoms out on the frame, but the whole car used to come down and bottom out on the ground. The RV type bags make the front springs stronger. Trouble is, if you pump up the bags all the way, the car rides like the springs have been replaced with a 4 x 4" piece of lumber.
thanks for the advice...but the rear is ok the only trouble is basically the front end. it hits the frame ..the othere reason is i have to admit it would be cool to park it and let the air out so it sits on the rockers..just for the braggin rights around here in my town......(IM THE LOWEST YOU LOSERS) you know shit like that
great lookin merc..i think i saw that in a paso video i bought or somethin like that...those rv bags just might be the ticket to stop it from bangin for the rest of this season,then ill worry bout the bags over the winter..if you get a chance can you zip me over another pic of that merc thanks..... dave
Yep, those bags work great, I used to hit my idler arm on the freeway in dips. At 35lbs the car is 1/2" higher but rides like a rock. At about 15 lbs, I've never hit again at all the last two years. You gotta move the shocks outside though if you use them.
Old reader, new poster.... Probably will get blasted for not doing a re-intro but oh well... Never had a reason to post before, now I can help someone so oh well... If you need to get a set of those "red" RV bags... I am the program manager for AirLift Co. who manufacutures the bags and I will be able to help you out! Give me a call.. 1-800-248-0892 ext.249 Let me know if you need anything..
I'm going with ShockWaves on my Merc. My suspension has been rather radically altered to accomodate the Corvette C4 IFS & IRS, but the end result is pretty much the same, drivability at the desired height. I set the Merc frame up to have 4.5" clearance at normal height, I can then drop in down a few or raise it up a few as needed...
Hey dave, cool to see ur on here now. If u bag your merc call me up so i can come down and help!!! Nate
[ QUOTE ] i have c-d the frame front and rear,retunneled the floor.the back has ghetto bags(air shocks) wich i can live with.the front springs wich are cut bottom to easy,even though ive notched the front of the frame for the control arms.im hoping the bags will have more tension i guess..same hight but wont collaps as easy [/ QUOTE ] You sound like you know your stuff, so maybe the air shocks are working for you. I tried air shocks to raise/lower a car but ended up shearing the air shock connecting bolts because a dampening member is not meant to be a supporting member. I used the bolts that came with the original shocks. If you're not having that problem, then no worries. But it can happen down the line. I also don't see how air bags will help your situation if you're not going to change the ride height, but going to air bags may stem the shearing bolt problem that is possible with air shocks. Mike
Glassguy- First, big props on your Merc. I think it has a perfect stance and the entire car is perfect!!!!!!! Your truck is bitchin too!! I am c-notching(a huge step notch)the rear of my 50 Merc, and I am using the original suspension. I am moving the location of the leaf springs, because the bottom of the springs are to low to the ground. I am moving the mounting points and the springs, to the inside of the frame rails. I am gaining about 3" more of drop. I was just wandering if you did the same?
Dave, If you would have traded me you'd know the answer already. Seriously though, the bags would have to be pretty full to be stiff enough to stop your "contact" problem. A bag sales tech should know how full and what size you'd need. If you dont want adjustability id say don't bother with bags. They force relocation of shock and in my case limit turning radius. My stock bagged front end can only be aligned at higher settings, so driveability is very poor at lower settings. I guess what im saying is the bag lets you go up or down, the driveability is a function of your front end geometry. Good luck let me know what you find out.
Dave, your car sits great as-is, but if you are bottoming out the suspension, you need to make more clearance or use a stiffer spring. I'm not familiar with the front end of a '50 Merc, so I can't offer direct advice, but look to see what is hitting and see if you can move it, notch it, etc. I have a Falcon, which is a totally different car, admittedly, but I drove around on cut coils and blocks for a year before ripping out one of the front shocks when I hit a big pothole. After that, I switched to airbags. If you are worried about any stigma surrounding airbags ("not traditional"), don't even worry about it. There are about 10 people in the world that might give you a hard time about it, so you shouldn't care about what they think anyway. What the airbags offered me was a MUCH smoother suspension AND the ability to drop the car down lower when parked. Maybe you want to do that, maybe not -- your car is mightly low already -- but I think you might find the ride to be better. You set the suspension where you want it at ride height, place the bag so that you get the optimal pressure (mine is 80 LBS in the front) and you can always pop it up a little (a few inches added ride height and STIFFER spring) for when you want to thunder across some rough road. Pussyfootin' around all the time gets old, I think. Sometimes it's fun to pop the car up and just go. So the main thing is modifying for clearance and then deciding if the airbags are worth it.
thanks everyone for all the input..!!!! i think what i will do is order the bags,pop em in,and see how it goes.if it is to high wen im drivin and i dont like it i will space the bags and put in dropped spindles,and call it a day
Hang with me here this may take a while. Normaly what I do when I custom fab front bag mounts I will take the spring out totaly collapse the suspension then take a measurement from the top of the spring pocket to the spring mounting surface on the lower control arm. Then collapse bag and measure it hight and subtaract from the measurment you got from the spring pocket. This tells you the total height that the upper and lower mounting cups need to be. I try to make it so the suspension botoms out at the same time the bag does that way I get maximum lift. In your case your not looking for maximum lift your looking for greater spring rate so the suspension does not bottom out. In this case do just as I said before just subtract another inch or so from the cups so it will require more air pressure to lift to the same hight as I explained before. The higher the pressure the higher the spring rate, This higher the spring rate the firmer the ride, the firmer the ride the less likley to bottom out. hope that helps
when i get my thumb out of my ass.and do this within a few weeks ill take some pics, and let everyone know how it turns out
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