My Air Bag Install Mar. 2008

[67chevemall]

Well here is my write up for rear air bags in a 67 Chevy:

Meant to say March 2009........ooops

First I went shopping:

Slam Spec. The pic shows their kit. Front kit is shown too.......

Don't need the pipe unless you gettn crazy or need "cups" and c notch
$ tossed invoice can't remember slam costs

Then the Local Fastenall
Bolts you need :

All 3/8's grade 8
2 - 4 1/2" bolts
4 - 1 1/2" bolts
6 - washers
6 - lock washer

$10

[67chevemall]

AirRideFittings.com 4 1/8" NPT Schrader Valves
4 1/4" to 1/8" reducer bushing
4 3/8" OD to 1/4" NPT Female Connector

$37.00




Then I took my bed off but you dont have to.

Support the truck and get the jacks out to take out the springs, and a chain for safety, wrapped around the springs doesnt hurt anything.

[67chevemall]

I started on the bottom by sizeing up the plate and cleaning up the frame for the welds.
Off to the local nut and bolt supply. Be prepared to have to buy a bag of 10 or 20

Bolts are 4 1/2" -16 3/8 grade 8

The bolt holds the plate nice untill it is welded with the help of a nut.

You can drill out the other two holes in the frame and use one long bolt and 2 small bolts if you are really haulin.

I am lazy so one is good for me until it breaks or I crash because of it. Then I'll use 3 bolts.

[67chevemall]

Few more pics of the bottom

[67chevemall]

The top is a little more work but not so bad:

Clean it all up for the welds with a grinder

mark the holes to be cut with soap stone/sharpie
Take your time to center it all nice. Use the plate
for your template and just soap stone it when lined up

[67chevemall]

Rent a plasma cutter from local rental joint.

Cut no blast out the holes. You might want to take your fuel and brake line outta the frame.....
If it is your first time get some scrap and go fn crazy they rule!!

Be prepared to have a good dremel bit to bore it a bit and clean it up nice nice.

[OARNGESI]

Watching

[MAK191]

Nice simple writeup with pics. Are you using RE7's on front and rear?

[67chevemall]

Yes RE7's front and rear

Fit great even when jacked to the moon.

[72BlckButy]

Nice install!

[lts70]

Are the plates always used in the rear?

Did you get your stuff from Suicidedoors?

How high above stock are you when fully aired up?


Nice Job!

[CUSTOM_1O]

niceeeee now would u have to relocate them air bags if u wanted it to lay frame or could you just notch it while there n place of the old coils bekuz i want to bag it just not lay frame yet but eventually i would like to but i want to run the setup u have now too but not of id have to completly relocate the bags

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Nice write up...

[foosed]

Do you have any before/after comparison pics with the bed on? Looks great and cheap too. Hmmm Christmas is just around the corner....

[67chevemall]

He is one how it sits now. The bed needs another rubber spacer up front to make it level. The bed will go down more in the rear. The fender sits flush with the tire. But until the front is done it looks silly.
I should have a pic at home from before with the coils

[67chevemall]

c notch you would remove the rivets and braket and bump stop.
weld in the c notch.
The bags sit from 2.5" to 11" in hieght



If you want to lay the frame it is all different.

[foosed]

that looks great. I cant quite tell from the pics how much clearance do you have from the frame when you air it out?

[nds1968]

With your bags inflated to ride height how close is your axle to your fame with no C-notch? How much suspension travel does that give you? Thanks Nate

[Rich48]

Hi, About to do my 68 with Slam bags but have not bought a kit. I was going to bolt the bags to the trailing arms without the plate shown in the kit also the top mounting of the bags directly to the frame,again without the plate or do these plates help spread the load more? What do you think?
Cheers Rich

[67chevemall]

Ya I would use the plates. And a rear sway bar is good too.

With no air in the bag the axle sits on the bumper. It only takes 10psi to give me a good 3-4" and 20psi I would have to go measure the distance.

[67chevemall]

Well I started the front air bags today.

First I took off the lower shock mount bolt. Wrapped a chain around the spring and losened the lower ball joint nut. Now I'm just waiting for the ball joint seperator tool.


I assembled the front air bags like in this pic.
Sorry my camera is down right now so I borrowed this pic..

So far I needed

8 nuts bolts washer and lock washer to mount the plates. with lock tight
4 bolts washer and lock w to mount the bag 2 on top and 2 on bottom.

Installed the air line fitting into the bag.


Tomorrow off to get a ball joint seperator and some high end 3/8 drill bits.

And Air line as SD didn't supple enough.
And dont let your bags sit a while with the orange sticker on them. What a PITA to
get all the sh!ty sticker crap off the bag.

[foosed]

Any updates on this?

[67chevemall]

Originally Posted by foosed

Any updates on this?

Well the ball joint tool bent in half so I have to goto plan B to get the control
arm out of the way so I can fit a drill up there and drill the 8 holes.......
Upper ball joint with the forks and risk damaging the ball joint boot or
the four rusty nuts on the U bolts that hold the control arm to the frame

??



I bought $25 3/8 hard as $%@& drill bits so once the arm and springs are out of the way it will pop together.......

[mexgrhd68]

try cobalt drill bits, they drill through hard stuff like stainless steel!

[67chevemall]

Waiting for the ball joint tool and my air line from suicide doors. Was hoping to run the red line but they were sold out.

I'll have lots of pics soon.