Does anyone know what air bag system i should get for my 51 merc if i want it to sit on the ground? it has the original frame.
i'm gonna say you'll want to fab up your own mounts if you want it on the ground. not sure if Air Ride Tech sells a kit for that car or not but i'll bet it does'nt sit the car on the ground if they do. i've fabbed many kits for lots of stuff over the years... i'm even an Airlift dealer so i can get you the parts you need. the fabrication is up to you. i'd be more than happy to lend a hand if you lived a tad closer... PM me if you wnat prices or parts... Mike
putting bags on car is a lot of work. plus if you want it to sit on the ground you have to do that stuff. what are your plans then? are you after a bolt on kit? they don't have any. "Does anyone know what air bag system i should get for my 51 merc if i want it to sit on the ground? it has the original frame."
no, i would rather weld it on anyway. but i am just not sure about cutting all of the pieces the right size, but i will contact the guy who did the 50 on ruffrodders.com and see if he would build any or if he has any other advice. thanks
The others gave you good advice. As you have probably figured out, there will be no "kit" ready to go that will lay the frame on the ground. Lots of cutting/relocating/fab work will be needed for sure. To lay the frame out you now have a car that stock has maybe 3" of suspension travel. The cars chassis was built to accommodate those needs. Now you will easily have 10-12 inches of suspension travel and change in ride height, so lots of stuff is gonna need changed/cut/moved for it to all work out and function. The 50 in the tech section on Ruffrodders you mentioned is a real accurate idea of all the changes needed to accomplish your goal though. It is definitely very possible, but you'll be doing lotsa changes to make it all work. Good luck on the project
if your stickn with the stock front suspension you can put the dropped uprights from fatman on, and bags and the front crossmember will touch. the bags im using on one now arethe 7" convoluted ones. they fit insidethe spring pocket without rubbing. all you have to do then is cut mounting tubes to size to get the heights correct. all my parts are at the powdercoater they should be back in a couple of days ill send you some pics and some measurments if you want. the rear is a lil more work to get it down but always worth the effort. you can get away with not doing this much metal work, this car was kinda rusty.
If you really want to save a buck take a look at www.welderseries.com and weld up your own brackets. Pick up a TRUCKIN magazine, the adds for air bag stuff will overwelm ya
Yea...DRIVE the f***in thing! Oh,and don't BOYD the thing either. Die behind the wheel,not in the driveway. Post pic's of your progress,for the rest of us Merc lovers.
i'm waiting to get my 327 back from the shop, its getting bored. once its back i'm building it and putting it in. today i also put on a different back piece that the deck lid closes on, the other one was smashed in when i got it, it looks a lot better now!
If you wanna do something kinda temporary and alot cheaper, you could do air - over - leaf. Its not a great system but you can do it if you're not hitting the switches alot. http://www.ridetech.com/productinfo/airoverleaf.asp I wouldn't recommend it, but some guys on here say it has worked fine for them, do some searches on it. You might wanna try it. It wont put you on the ground, but you can get low L
I agree it's best as a temporary solution. I've got it in the rear of my Caddy, and it isn't smooth in the least. I feel like I'd need another 3 sets of shocks to keep the rear on the ground on some roads. It could almost get me on the ground though, oddly enough, if I went with different brackets, but I'm about to build a 4-link, so I won't even bother going through that much trouble for the 3 months or less that I'll be stuck with air-over-leaf.
cool, i guess i will check with suicidedoors.com for the 4-link because i don't need them right now, so i should probably do it right the first time.
SuicideDoors will treat you right. They may be a mini-trucking based company, but they do good work, and have great prices. The only problem I've ever had was with online ordering, where it didn't seem to go through, and had to phone in my order, but it's been great with them otherwise. A small suggestion for when you do the bags. Use SlamSpecialty bags. They won't expand out when they are aired, so you don't need to clearance your spring pockets as much in the front. For the rears it doesn't matter that much, but I prefer their bags anyways for the extra $6 a piece.
I agree on the suicidedoors 4-link. You really can't even build them yourself for that price. Just in bushed link ends alone you'll have a fortune. They are all nicely tigged, and he'll make them to your specs. I've used him a bunch and always been happy
They don't offer vehicle specific kits for anything except minitrucks. But they will custom build the link bars to your length for $50 per bar, or $200 for all four. Heres a link: http://www.suicidedoors.com/4-LinkRoundAdjBarwithPolyBushings.php You'll still have to fab up your own mounting tabs to mount the 4-link to your axle & frame. Or you could buy these if you don't wanna make them: http://www.suicidedoors.com/4LinkParts4-LinkMountingTabs.php Theres definitely not a ready-made frame laying kit for the 51 merc though. You'd be set if you had an S10 though
do you know how to put it together, or do they? just the general layout, i never used a 4 link before.
on the merc i pictured i used a universal kit from these guys www.classicstreetrodmfg.com and it worked great. i think it was $300. youll have to notch the floor and seat for clearence. in the new rod and custom it talks about a swing arm style that was used on old chevy trucks, not sure what they were puttn it on. i made a similar style for a 51 ford that worked great, it all fit under the car and the only place i had to fit new metal was over the notch. got your PM i will send you pics as soon as i get my goodies back.
I'll add to the others and highly recommend Suicide Doors. They have a well organized web site and you know you are going to receive what you order. Unlike some other places that can't even take a phone order correctly. If you do a search here on the HAMB you'll find alot of threads about 4 links. You can learn from those threads how to set them up with the correct geometry. I did my front bag setup completely with raw materials and components from Suicide Doors (combined with Fatman dropped spindles). There might be someone who makes a complete bolt on kit for your Merc. But if you want it to really lay low, then you'll have to enter the territory of trail and error fabrication and experimenting. In other words, traditional hot rodding and customizing.
here's a what a basic 4 link will look like.... there is no bolt on kits for laying frame. bag set ups are all custom stuff.
I don't suppose you have more photos of that setup do you? I'm in the process of trying to figure mine all out, and the more photos I can get of how guys have set theirs up, the better mine will turn out (I hope).
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