When I bought my Galaxie one of the previous owners had had a "shop" bag the front of it. The whole setup was a nightmare and I've replaced just about every component that they used as well as doing the rear. The last problem is the fab work done on the front. The car sits way too low when aired out, and is inoperable. With it sitting on the frame you can actually lift the front wheels off the ground by hand. Most of the bag stroke is used just to get the car off the frame, which is a major pain in the ass. The first couple of pics show how they did the upper mount. The next couple of pics show what it looks like with a bag installed and aired up to 120 PSI! The lower mounting is simple and consists of the plate simply being welded to the lower control arm. When the car is aired out the bags are straight up and down and the bow doesn't occur until you air it up. As you can see in the pics they did a very crude job of trimming the pocket out, and even with the RE7's that were in it when I bought it there was a rub issue. Obviously it's a lot worse with the dominators, so I will be taking an angle grinder to it too clean it up further and buy me some clearance in the front. My main concern is correcting the stroke distance. I don't care about "laying frame". I've got about 2" of clearance in the back when aired out, and I'd like to do that with the front as well, so that the only reason to lift is for additional clearance. I figure that upper cups are the way to go, but I'm not sure how to measure how tall they need to be or at what angle they need to be cut. Anyone?
I've only seen air bag setups, so I know nothing of how it's done, but.... DAMN. I hope someone can help you out and PLEASE, if you can, tell folks the name of that "shop". How do people sleep at night, doing this kind of work?
Yeah, in the first couple of pics you can see the steel triangle finger that they left pointing outwards. I smoothed it back some, but now that I know I'll have to trim deeper, it'll be gone altogether. I also don't understand why they cut in front of the pocket either, and plan to fill in those triangular slices. I wish I could remember who he told me. It's been about 4 years ago. They used some quality components: Viair compressor, DOT brass fittings, real RE7 bags, but only two valves, and one wasn't even a valve I've seen used before or even been able to identify. It's pictured below perched on the fender (under the wiring mess) I wanted a mid 60's car that I could make a bellflower car out of and so I had my blinders on when I made the deal. 4 years later I've learned ALOT...
Yuck! I've only done one airbag set up so I am by no means an expert but that can't be good having the bags at that kinda angle. I would venture to say that even if you rework the upper cups the bags will still be at an angle when aired up. You may need to make a mount for the lower arms as well. Like I said i've only bagged my truck but the bag travels straight.
The bag angle freaked me out too, but I've been told by numerous people and even a couple of local air ride shops (not the one that did it!) that it's not an issue. They say that it's important for the bag to be straight when collapsed, but a bow when extended is ok, as that's the reason that they are bellowed. If it was a sleeve type, then it would damage it.
Looks like you kinda have to start over. You should try and have your bags in a straight path with the suspension path. I would take the bags out, set your car up at what you want ride height to be. Take your bag with no air in it and set it on the lower a arm. you may need to fab an angled lower bracket to have your bag sit right. Now you can measure to distance from the top of the bag to the top spring bucket and make a top plate accordingly. You can adjust full dump height from here by making the top bracket shorter. Most bellow style bags have a built in bump stop as well. Hope this helps.
I have seen worse bag angles, yours would not concern me that much, but everything else is scary! I would look at putting some bag cups up front so you can gain a little height and will not have to run some much psi. Email me if you have any questions! [email protected]
I don't think they can travel straight without rubbing, and without sitting crooked when empty, which is worse I'm told. Yeah, cups is what I was thinking too. I'm just not sure how to angle them without increasing the bow in the bag.
That doesn't look that hard to fix from the pics. Just build a triangle shaped upper bag mount to make the bags fit proper at ride height.
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