Let me hear your experience with air ride suspension.

I am thinking of using an air ride (shockwave) style suspension on the 39 Chevy that I'm building. I spoke to a tech at one of the suspension vendors today and he is advising AGAINST using air ride. He stated that many of the car builders that contact him refuse to build a air ride car. He sighted reliability issues with the system and components. I have not seen evidence of this in the forum threads but it may be a fact.

My car will be a driver so I'm interested in ride comfort as well as reliability. Also, since I'm wanting to install a triangulated 4 bar setup on my differential, he advised that I do away with my leaf spring GM 12 bolt in favor of a "steel housing" style, like a Ford 9". Is there not a retro-fit for the older leaf spring rear to use coil overs or shockwave suspension? My 12 bolt is out of an early Camaro or Nova.

Thanks for any help and or advice.

Pictures of my chassis: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rvpqfe20gvwbizh/GVkhuPGqky

1939 Chevy Master Build Page:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/887hu1rz7fpgn30/LXFeYRZrHq

I have a RidePro system on my 39 DeLuxe....in my opinion it is great. The ride is very good, especially over stuff like expansion joints on the freeway. It is handy to have the ability to lower the car when parked and to raise the car for steep driveway entrances. The compressor noise is minimal (it is in the trunk and insulated from the cabin). So far, I have had to recalibrate only once....you might do a search for any problems with the setup....some people say they are having problems with the new generation of controller....but mine is doing fine.

I've done a few, the one complete car I did was about 5 years ago. It's got almost 20,000 miles on it now, and still no problems with the original components. A word of caution, there is some real junk on the market these days for controllers and compressors! Stick with the quality parts and you shouldn't have any problems as long as the install is done correctly. The car I did used Shockwaves in the back, Firestone bags in the front in a Heidt's IFS that was built for air ride, and a parallel 4 bar in the rear with Watts linkage...

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Originally Posted by Dave Severson

I've done a few, the one complete car I did was about 5 years ago. It's got almost 20,000 miles on it now, and still no problems with the original components. A word of caution, there is some real junk on the market these days for controllers and compressors! Stick with the quality parts and you shouldn't have any problems as long as the install is done correctly. The car I did used Shockwaves in the back, Firestone bags in the front in a Heidt's IFS that was built for air ride, and a parallel 4 bar in the rear with Watts linkage...

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My chassis currently has an older Heidts front crossmember. Progressive has the necessary components to upgrade to tubular upper and lower control arms for use with either bags or Shockwaves. Can somebody outline the pros and cons of one over the other? Again, I'm leaning towards the Shockwave system.

Can't really say on the front suspension, I've only run the Shockwave's on the rear and am quite pleased with them, always ran bags on the front. Guess I don't see any reason why they wouldn't work just as well on the front as long as the brackets to mount them are sturdy and actually made for running coilovers or Shockwaves and not the OEM style coil spring..

the reason the tech guy suggested that you use a 9inch ford STEEL housing for the triangulated 4 bars was because of the welding of brackets to the housing---welding to those cast iron housings???????????????

also will give you a lower pinion location for lowering the car----------