i think its definitely traditional. but is a t and a show car not really something that was driven very much at all. alot of things considered not traditional by some really are depending on the time frame your going for. for example disc brakes. they were used and put on older cars in the late 50's - the 60's. i have a little book with a tech on how to upgrade to disc brakes. there were lots of street strip model A's running disc brakes in the mid 60's. but most people look down on them and say they're not period correct but if your building a 60's car they are.
Strictly my opinion, if the stuff was 'out their' to be used, it's all fair game. Studebaker was the first US company to use disc brakes, and they used the same basic system (Girling) that Jaguar used in the early '50's. EFI and air bags were OEM options in 1958. Granted, they weren't well sorted out, but the parts were out there. Air conditioning was out there. I see nothing wrong with the use of these parts in their context. Ala Kart was built with money, show car or not. If you had rich guys making hot rods in the '50's & '60's, more of this stuff would have been traditional. Of course, many of those from that point in time were trying to be 'bitchin' and not traditional. If traditional means losing your imagination, that's a high price to pay.
And then so is running a newer Chevy engine, or small block Ford etc etc. There are some upgrades that you can do without hurting the traditional look. Besides, early Caddy's used air ride suspension. Your thinking is like saying everyone should go back to mechanical brakes and forget going to 12 volt systems. And as far as F'n my sister is wrong, I bet if you saw her, you'd take your remark back. You haven't seen her so how can you comment? LOL!
Swifster " If traditional means losing your imagination, that's a high price to pay. " YES!!! this guy is right on! traditional or not i believe air ride is the way to go if you want a enjoyable low ride. you guys that dis air ride have fun in your static dropped buck boards ... <!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
anyone got pictures of the A's with the airbag set ups? how do they look from behind? does it get rid of that coil over look? can you use the coil over mounts? Chassis shots? show me In my case it would be for ride quality..not to let the air out and drop it.
I dont like bags on A hot rod. my car is plenty low. If you were using them just as springs thats better, but using them to drop it when you roll into a show just doesnt do it for me. It turns it into a lowrider In my opinion. Almost anything but a rod I'm cool with bags. as far as traditional goes, I dont think they were used back in the day. Those guys just wanted to go fast. You dont need air springs to go fast. Who builds a Hot Rod for comfort anyway? Get a slead for that. Just my opinion not bahing anyone. Do it your way. Oh I have Firestone bags on my wifes car. Its a small car wit 2000 lb. bags. you could get away with smaller for an A. Good luck
Going by this and other posts, I think perhaps you should read a while before posting again otherwise people might get the wrong idea. And bags on a trad A? I don't think there's anything wrong with leaf springs, I think they get a bad rap due to builders using too stiffer packs and a bunch of other mistakes. Bags are the soft option (ha, ha, had to say it!)
If I may ACTUALLY answer his question. You can run a single leaf rear spring on each side of the car with the said airbag. It will give ride assist and shouldn't squat very much when the air is depleted. Not traditional looking at all, but it will do what he wants to do.
I have Firestone "rolling sleeve" 1020# air springs on my '27 Modelt RPU. They are simply piped together and are not used to lower the car, just used as springs. It rides very comfortably. I have 300# All American coilovers on my Model A Tudor Sedan.. the ride is harsh... very harsh compared to my Model T. Based on my personal experience I would go with the air bags.
heres my setup...double-convoluted bag- firestone 2500 or 2600 or airlift..try to stay away from companies like AIM just inferior made components!
Dropped axel in the front and reverse eye main leaf in the rear makes any model a have a perfect stance and ride as it should in my opinion, but that is just me. It's it's a 79 year old car, keep with it's style. it's like seeing a pair of air Jordans on a 79 year old man, they just don't look right. Yeah his pants will cover up most of the shoes but what you can see will still look funny on him. Yeah he may be a bit more comfortable in his Jordans but we are talking about a yung healthy guy in a hot rod not an old man just trying to get through the day on his feet. On another note to see some nice bag setups just open up a new mini truckin' magazine. Guys are very creative and doing some amazing work that will cross over to suspension on customs just great! Not saying I dig the s-10 frame swap idea lol, it's just another resource for good ideas. sorry if I got off topic, my fingers just kept typing. Anyway, I always think about the guy that is going to find my car in another 50 years. Will he be happy with what he finds?
On the contrary, light cars are the ones that can benefit most from air springs. Light cars tend to ride harsh because the spring rate needed to achieve a comfortable resonant frequency is impractically low. At a comfortable spring rate, the car would drop a lot when someone gets in, bottom out easily, and sit too high when empty. It's a basic small-car design problem. Air springs are by their nature variable-rate, i.e. the spring rate increases with compression. You can compress a coil spring until the coils bind, but you can't compress a fixed mass of air into zero volume. That means that an air spring can have a comfortable rate at ride height, but a much stiffer rate at only a little bit of bump. Furthermore, at appreciable droop the rate is so low that it won't support the car, so there's no huge rise when unloaded. The rate of spring-rate increase in an air spring depends on the amount of air: the smaller the air mass, the quicker the rate of increase. On a low Model A I'd therefore go for a small bag, or a larger bag set up close to the bottom of its safe travel (i.e. almost empty: use lots of leverage to keep travel short at the bag). You want about 1.1Hz at ride height with two people aboard, rising to 2.5Hz or more over 2" of bump. I don't know what that is in actual bag sizes: you'll have to experiment. But I agree with a no-frills passive system on a hot rod.
Von Rigg Fink: Here are some photos..... On my '27 RPU I put the air bags in front of the rear axle and built a triangulated 4-bar set-up. This gives a very clean look from the rear of the car. The first photo is a build shot where I was mocking / fabricating the rear suspension. The second photo is of the finished set-up. You can also see the sway bar in this picture. I used sway bars front and rear. The car handles very well. I agree with Ned Ludd about air bags working well on a light vehicle. Since my roadster is very light the air bags work very well. As I stated earlier I also have a Model A with coil overs, The Model T with the air bags rides like a dream compared to the coil overs. I hope the pictures help. John
I'll fix this for you: Look in the small lower corner,and if you need to,click on the image,then enlarge it:
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