1949 Chevy Ridetech Air Suspension System - Air Raising

With the airsprings inflated to maximum pressure as shown in the previous picture, this is what the fully "up" setting looks like. The Purple Pig hasn't sat this high for years!

Ride height will be very close to, if not the same as, this, just above the scrubline with sufficient underbody clearance for normal driving.

This is the fully deflated setting. My careful calculations during construction paid off, as no part of the body or undercarriage touches the ground, meaning it'll be driveable in emergency situations should I lose all air.

Just as important (actually more so!) as what the car looks like lowered, is the underbody clearance, which goes from around 6 inches to a scant 1 1/4 inches, depending on height setting. At ride height (middle picture) it's clear all the mechanical and chassis components are above the scrubline.

Though the majority of the wire harnesses are routed nicely, I'm not sure where I'll mount the battery, so I deliberately left the main power harness long. The remainder of the wiring will be tidied and zip-tied in due course but I wanted to test-run the system. It worked the first time, with no leaks whatsoever. Now I'd better get on and hook up the fuel system ...

As mentioned in the last installment, I intended to use dropped spindles. Though the front suspension came from Chassis Engineering, they used Heidts A-arms on this application, so I approached Heidts for a pair of their 2-inch dropped forged steel spindles. As it turned out, I didn't need them, as they'd cause the front crossmember to sit on the ground on "full drop", which I didn't want. I did think briefly about moving the ShockWave lower mounts back up to where the shock bolt holes still are (remember I only tacked the new brackets on) but this would equate to more than 2 inches of travel at the wheel, and even with dropped spindles this would raise the car from where it is now for no appreciable gain apart from a little less camber at "full drop".