Did Ford ever use this in 1958???

I came across an old magazine ad for Ford's supposedly "optional, new for 1958" air suspension system. I know General Motors offered an ill-fated and short-lived air-suspension system option on some of it's 1958 models, but I've never, ever seen or heard of a '58 Ford with factory air suspension. I vaguely remember seeing an an ad for the 1958 Edsel once, that alluded to there being an air-suspension system available as an option, but I've heard that none were actually produced and sold to
the public with it.Was this ad for something that Ford killed before it ever reached production??

Mart3406
=====================

 

I mentioned in my post that GM offered air-suspension
on some of their 1958 models. I was asking specifically
about the Ford system shown in the ad and whether
it was ever actually produced and released to the public..

Mart3406
================

 

Sorry ,,brain fart

 

This is a good question to post at www.fordbarn.com on the late V-8 ('54 up) forum. Somebody there will know.

 

Yeah they did, I do believe most got recalled and turned into standard sprung cars. I bet there are a few examples left over

Here's a nice short read on it.

I can't seem to find much more information on it, but I'll do some further research

 

it was like the gm not good and change to standard springs. i have a motor trend from 1958 that pick the ford the worst of the low price 3 funny causre my 58 fordf is the best car i ever had and i,m a sbc,s man

 

Not really relevant, but I believe Packard had an air suspension that worked in 1957. A former employer had a 57 Packard Caribbean that had self leveling suspension. When you sat on the rear bumper, you could hear the compressor come on and the car would raise back up to it's unloaded height.

 

The Packard's were full torsion bar suspensions with an Electric motor that leveled out the suspension. No air involved. And it was either a 55 or 56 . Not a 57.

 

58 fords did have that air suspension. Most were recalled. The cars that had that air suspension had a special chrome badge that went on the back of the car.

We had a 58 thunderbird come into the shop once with the old air pump and some of the air system still in place. I remember it also having 4 shocks on the front of it.

 

-----------------
No Caribbean For 1958. The last
Packard Caribbean was 1956 model.
Packard never used air-suspension
and also, for 1957 and the final 1958
model year, Packards were relegated
to being nothing more than re-badged
and re-trimmed Studebakers, with
the exact same engine, chassis and
suspensions used on the low priced
(and compared to "real", traditional
Packards) strictly utilitarian Studes.
What you probably heard about and
thought was air suspension, was
the so-called "Torsion-Level"
suspension used for two years only,
on the '55 and '56 Caribbeans and
400's and optional on the Clippers.
The Packard Torsion-Level system
was truly unique and made the cars
equipped with it ride and handle
amazingly well for their time. It
used two, parallel, longitudinal
torsion bars that ran the entire length
of the wheelbase and connected into
the front and rear suspensions at each
end, so that the front and rear
suspensions were linked and worked
together, to cancel out and even
anticipate bumps and dips.. Also, there
was an electric motor and ride height
and level sensors that connected to each
of the two torsion bars to compensate
for passenger or trunk load and kept the
car level and the ride height the same,
regardless of the load. The noise you
mentioned, that sounded like a compressor.
was actually the electric "ride height motor'
switching on and off and running while it
automatically levelled out the ride height.

Mart3406
================

 

Ahh, interesting. Never really did anything with the car, so I never knew exactly how it worked.

 

SquireDon, do you know what the suspension badge looked like?

I had a 55 Packard. Had a jungle gym of torsion bars, electric motors, and sensors across the bottom. Vintage electrical nightmare.

 

Squire Don... I had a customer that had a '58 T Bird with air suspension, never saw a '58 Ford (proper) with it...

 

My uncle bought a '58 Merc wagon to get the 312 out of. It had a load of options. And one of them was rear air ride. Don't remember if it self leveled or you had to adjust it. But it was there and it was factory, or at least dealer installed.

 

One of my neighbors had a 58 retractable with every factory option including air suspension.

 

My uncle had a 58 Chev with air suspension. Was a lot of trouble. Was replaced with coil springs.

 

The 58 Lincolns were originally scheduled to have air suspension as an option but it was cancelled before production started.

 

I parked - actually directed - cars at a summer resort when I was a young teenager, and after parking a Packard, I sat on its rear bumper. The rear sagged under my weight and then lifted back up to normal height. When I got off the bumper, the car raised slightly and then settled back down to normal height. During the day, I "rode" the Packard bumper numerous times. When the driver came to retrieve his car, the battery was dead. He claimed that that was the third time in the last year that that had happened. His kids snickered. These and other adventures are captured in my book entitled Davies Lake Episodes, available from Lulu.com

 

'58 T-birds had coils on all fours; with the expectation that air suspension would be added later that year or the following year. It never happened; the 59's had leafs in the back.

My 58 was converted to leafs at some point in its distant past.

There is no mention of air suspension in the Ford Shop Manual for the 58 T-Birds either.

 

Even today the air stuff isn't that reliable. Best example is the GMC motorhome. Ever seen one that wasn't squatting? If you did they just spent some heavy money to get the bags replaced.
Also, Lincoln actually offered a retro-fit dual spring kit to replace the defo air ride in their Town Sedans.

 

I like how even 60 plus years later there has never been a successful production car with air suspension that actually worked properly, just a bad idea then and now. Aftermarket stuff is ok because it's controlled by a human. Never send a computer to do a human's job and expect it to have good outcome.

 

I have two 1958 Ford "Aire Suspension" cars. A Skyliner and a Fairlane 500. The Skyliner is frame off restored and the suspension system functions perfectly. The mechanical leveling valves would never function in temps below freezing. That was Fords major flaw in their design.

 

I have owned 3 Lincoln Town Cars with rear air suspension. I still have 2 of them. All had or have close to 200k miles. No problems. I used to pull a 16ft boat and then load the trunk with beer coolers and food, and then load 5 people in the car, and loved the leveling quality of the air suspension.

 

I've spent most of my life driving Lincolns and never owned one that had an air ride that actually worked right. The last two I had, I pulled the air out and put in coil springs even before they started leaking. It's just such a stupid idea in my opinion that I can't understand why they still do it guess they make lots of money be selling replacement parts and charging $100 hr. to fix it at the dealerships.