Bagging an 86 Olds Custom Cruiser

Ball joints arrived.

 

Now to unleash a little frustration knocking the old rustys out! Where's my hammer!!!

 

Should be a nice clean easy job!

 

Welcome TylerTJ
Looks like you got a cool project on your hands there.

 

Day 2: Ball joints and planning

Not much progress today, but I did manage to get the old ball joints knocked out and the new ones installed. The upper ones were surprisingly diffeicult to get out. I had to grind down the rivets and knock them out with an air hammer. Just the ball joints took quite a few hours in itself, so I didn't have much time to get anything else done.
But, we did figure out that we are going to mount the compressors behind the headlights. Some things will have to be rearranged in order for the valves to fit nicely, but that's easy.

Also, I tested out the rear to see how low it would go.

That's all, see you guys next weekend!

 

Welcome! Looking forward to your build.

 

Update for all you guys. I was just invited to bring my car to be entered into the Portland Roadster show, just one month away. I'm gonna have to kick it into high gear to get this build done, as long with a few other thing, to be ready for the show. If you live near Portland Oregon, come see the car! I'm extremely excited about this opportunity

 

Day 3: Huge progress

Where do I start? We got a ton done today. Also, one of the judges from the Portland Roadster Show came to my house to check out the progress.

First, I got all the air line run to all 4 bags. This went way smoother than planned. The line is run inside the frame to the rear spring pockets.

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All 4 bags mounted and suspension is back together. For the front, trimming of the spring pocket was required for full air bag clearance. We cut it with the plasma cutter, ground it down to be smooth, In my opinion, it came out extremely well.

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Next, we made the compressor mounts. We designed them so that the compressors show through the grille. This desing will give the compressors plenty of air flow, and it looks killer from the front.

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After this was done, we decided to test the bags. And man, I am not disapointed. Keep in mind, this is not the finished product. I still have to install the air tank, valves, switches and gauges. This was all controlled externally and was limited to just front and back. When complete, it will be able to articulate side to side as well.

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Very cool!

 

Huh, I wonder what's in these boxes?

 

Louisiana king cake?!

 

A wheel upgrade would be nice.

 

Noice! What are they?

 

They are Ridler 695's. 20 x 10 in back, 20 x 8.5 in the front. Overall a super nice wheel. I photoshopped this picture about a year ago, and it's crazy how similar it looks to the real thing.