Finally went and done Air Ride:

[Candyman]

Hey Everyone,

Well, after bouncing up and down the highway on my custom 3 / 5 drop on springs fro some time, I finally made the plunge into air ride thanks to a good PT Friend John (AKA Dark Slayer Cross), and Ray Newton over at PTeazer who between the two of them not only helped work an amazing deal on the Air Ride Technologies Kit, but were a huge help in the install as well!

This one was one of those projects that sounded fun at the time, and kinda went south on me about half way through.

I found what I thought to be a good Low Rider Shop up in Orange County, Ca. that supposedly specialized in Air Ride. SO I took my ride up to my friend John's house since he lived close by, and he brought the car tp the shop the next day. John, Ray, and I even went to scope out the shop the night before and met the boss man and everything looked good. They had some really expensive project cars in the shop, everything looked to be clean and organized so I was stoked. Was told that it would be three days or so for the install, and I couldn't wait to see this bad boy done! Then day four rolls around, the shop calls John and says its all ready to go so John heads over to pick it up, but when he pulls out of the parking lot he hears a clunking noise so he turns around and heads back right away. Turns out the shop had forgotten to put the bottom bolts in the rear shocks which were clanking against the under side of the car. By this time it was 5:00 PM and they were ready to go home when John comes Cruising back in. In a rush to get the bolts in the shocks, they somehow managed to snap off three of the studs holding the left rear wheel on, and damaged a lugnut on a forth stud which led to my ride being up on jack stands once again overnight. Next day they were arguing that the studs were not their fault, put on some Home Depot Special Hex Nuts and sent the car back out. By this time I was really pissed to say the least! Ray decided to just get the car out of their so they went and picked it up, got it out of the shop and about a block away lost all pressure in one of the rear bags. They wound up limping back carefully to Ray's shop as to not let it wind up back with those morons that did the work. They got up under the car and had found that they apparently had managed to tie off one of the air lines going to one of the rear bags right across the exhaust pipe which promptly melted the air line in two. Luckily Ray had a friend down the street at another shop that was able to go back over and get everything up and running again, and back to where it should be. What a mess, but thankfully its all over with, lessons learned, and we move on! ;D

The funny thing is that I always knew I was pretty well dropped on my custom springs my friend Steve had made for me, but to have put air ride on my PT, and when its dropped it it doesnt look much different than when I had my Springs kinda tells me I ws pretty friggin low! ;D ;D ;D The big thing is now I can lift it up to clear speed bumps, and driveways and such, get a much smoother ride when bouncing down the LA freeways, and I can now finally get my baby up onto a trailer so I can try n keep my paint up better when Cruising to away shows!

So here is the final results. Here is what she looked like sitting on my springs.




And here is my baby on Air Ride.




And a Better view.



And here is a short vid of my ride going down and back up.



So, that is my epic saga of the Air Ride Project. What do ya think?

You guys go easy, and Ill catch ya later.

Candyman

[jaxcruzzer]

What did it end up costing roughly

[Candyman]

Hey their jaxcruzzer,

Thank you for your question. I am actually running an older Air Ride Technologies set up in mine which is not made anymore.

My Kit would have ran me a hair under $3200.00 for the Kit itself, which consisted of a Single Air Ride Tech Compressor, a 5 Gallon Tank, and all the rest of the rest of the related components involved. The front Struts are nice as they are all polished aluminum which adds a nice look when showing them off at a car show. Luckily at the time I had a very generous Sponsor who was kind enough to donate the Kit to me in return for advertising, and the use of the Vehicle for a series of Shows to showcase other products for their Company. In this case, here is a pic of my Ride sitting next to my Sponsor's PT out in front of his Shop.



Here is a Link to one of the few, and one of the best Kits currently available on the open Market. I would big time recommend if you were going to do a complete air ride system including everything you would need to do a nice installation the right way without having to go an buy everything separate and try to figure out whats what, and how it all went together, this Kit is a complete System ready to go. From the correct Viair Compressor, to the 5 Gallon Tank, valves, hardware, and so on, this is just the right kit for the job hands down. Granted it is a hair higher in cost at a price of $3,499.00, but that is not too far off where I was when I was looking at everything for mine, and that was a while back so the cost is fairly reasonable for the Kit, and what all you get. Here is the Link.

lowandhaten.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_7&products_id=46

I then went ahead and added an AccuAir e-Level Stage II Air Management Package which allows me to have three programmable set heights and operation via key fob so I can lift or drop my ride to wherever I want it by push of a button, and have it perfectly level at whatever ride height I want it set at. The purpose behind having multiple preset heights is, you can have one set for a soft setting for more comfortable driving, and another preset for lifting it up to its maximum height of 1" above stock so I can clear a high speed bump, or obstacle safely, and easily, and so on. This Unit has full control over Air Management, and monitors with a digital readout the precise air in each of the four bags, and will alert you to any problems and so on at any time should something come up. This Air Ride Management System cost an additional $2,195.00. Please note this is totally optional, but a very nice thing to have if you can do it.

I then had this one installed professionally as their are a ton of components, and wires, and so on to the point I was in way over my head. The total install for just the basic Kit if you were to have a Shop do it should be around $1000.00 - $1250.00 and that should include the option of running either soft, or hard air lines as well. With the Air Management System my Install was $2200.00. If you are more mechanically inclined than myself, its not all that hard to put a system together.

Anyways, that is about the just of the cost of Air Ride. It isn't the cheapest thing by a long shot, but it does have its benefits as well. You have infinite adjustment over how soft, or firm you would like your ride quality to be via simply adjusting the air in the bags. If you have something heavy in the back, you can compensate by pumping up the rear bags to either hold the extra weight, or to compensate for ride height if the back is riding slightly low. And you can have that way cool completely slammed loo without having to worry about scraping your ride on the pavement, or sacrificing the cool looks for poor ride quality on drop springs.

As always if you have any more questions, please let me know anytime and I would be more than happy to try to help wherever i can.

Go easy, and I'll catch ya later.

Candyman