Lavron's '64 Build Thread

The Era of The Square Body Racing Comets
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

Post by lavron »

Santa's Comet wrote:Mike, Do you expect the air bags to loose air often? Just wondering about the tank reserve air. I've never messed with air bags or shocks so I'm curious.
I have never done anything with bags either but I hope not to have an issue with too much leaking, I will try and be very careful making good connections. I have decided to get some 545 Loctite to seal my threads, seems to be a popular choice and many claim leak free installations using it.
Ratical wrote:I am thinking you have to run the air pressure switch to a relay and run a larger wire direct from battery to power the compressor.
Yes I will be doing that, in my map it has one listed but just doesn't show it separate from the pressure switch (they have them that way, but going to go with separate ones).
Ratical wrote:Thinking front to back (teeing front bags together, teeing back bags together) you will still want to use check valves per bag or in a sharp turn it will lean as air pushes from left bag to right. just a few things I see
One issue with Teeing the bags is possibly not getting them level side to side, one bag may need a little more or less air to ride level, also what you mentioned about it loading the other bag an a sharp turn. Everything I have read says keep each corner on it's own control. The difference in cost is in the neighborhood of $40 more for the additional paddle valves, maybe less because I would have to run a second line with fittings and some way to air them down that would bypass the check valves.

Thanks for the input.

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Mike
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poboyjo65
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

Post by poboyjo65 »

That makes sense,pumping each bag separate. you could have a preset or just know how much in each side for when you are by yourself & one setting for with a passenger.
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

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If I could come up with some way to (cheaply) give me height of each corner in the car that would be great, I guess I could do some bubble levels like they use on campers (or small string level vials) and set them from a level surface, wouldn't be ideal but might work, I have plenty of stuff sitting around like that to test with.

If I did something like that I could record the pressure on each corner in different situations and eventually would not need them, unless I could make something that looked cool and appropriate.

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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

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I use the reflection in a store's 2 glass doors to check my brake lights & blinkers. you could find one with a level lot & please the eyeball.
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

Post by StPro »

Now you know why companies like air lift get so much for their kits. There is a lot of engineering in their kits
My Lincoln has a computer to control height. It uses 3 sensors, one on each front control arm and one in the rear. It runs the compressor quite often maybe once an hour driving around. There is no storage tank. I have soaped everything down many times and have never found the leak.
Only use the brakes to stop and get gas.
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93 Mark VIII Supercharged w/Fogger
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lavron
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

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StPro wrote:Now you know why companies like air lift get so much for their kits
Just fittings alone are bad enough, I have been doing mine piecemeal and it will be a little cheaper than a kit but not a lot. But then again I get the satisfaction of saying I did it myself :roll: :P I also get to pick the parts I want.

I could buy sensors but on a manual system they wouldn't help much, maybe some sort of rheostat that would show voltage or something and you could figure how high you were, maybe a future project. There are tons of people running air springs with no sensors I am sure I can too.

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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

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Just an update, I know I haven't said much here lately, that doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything :roll:

After my study of air ride and planning what I want to do I have been collecting :P I think I have everything now except a few key components that I have chosen but haven't wanted to spend the cash for them yet (bags, compressor and tank)

I have all the stinking fittings :roll: I did try and keep them minimal to reduce the occurrence of leaks and I did buy mostly all D.O.T. approved fittings and not the cheapest ones I could find, I did find a couple of good places to buy from and will share that later for anyone wanting to attempt such an undertaking (you may want to wait and see if I fail miserably before you follow my advice)

Just a few of the major components I lack right now before I think about tearing my car apart; Front crossmember & control arms, driveshaft, T-5 adapter & bell housing (may have the bell), clutch, and the wheels & tires. I have chosen some of the things just haven't got them yet.

A buddy of mine has a plasma cutter and has told me I can use it when the time comes.

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Mike
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

Post by Rocket989 »

Good deal!! I remember reading somewhere that certain Crown Vic and or Aerostar driveshafts were workable for Comets. If mine ever needs any major surgery, I'd be off looking for an aluminum donor!
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

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Rocket989 wrote:I remember reading somewhere that certain Crown Vic and or Aerostar driveshafts were workable for Comets
Could of been on here, the Crown Vic Police car driveshafts are supposed to work.

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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

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I was at Wallyworld this week and they had some tires on sale, there is a temptation to grab them even though I never heard of the brand (Dextero), they had 225/60R16 for $54 and 195/65R15 for $46, that would be $200 for a set of tires, I would say I could mount them myself and then take and have them spin balanced after I decide on wheels.

Of course I might not need any because I got my Air Ride installed today and my Comet hovers.

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Or I took my wheels and tires off and put them on the parts car so I could finally get it off the trailer where it has been for months, I need my trailer :roll: And then I might of done a little retouching in PhotoShop to get rid of the jack stands and hubs :P

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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

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So I got some tires but they are Douglas Tires, 45,000 mile tires so not the the best but were cheap, I figure if I end up scuffing and rubbing anything it should be cheap ones, I can get better ones after all the adjustments are done.

I stuck the rear tire up under there, I think I will be able to work with it, pretty sure I will need to move the rear back a bit and may have to tub some, and/or roll the lip, I took a picture but they are not the best, everything came out kinda dark.

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I need to start looking for wheels now, and it is a bite to find matching ones in 15" and 16" with the correct offsets, initially I wanted 7" wheels in front and 8" in back but have almost decided 6"&7" would be better choices if I can find them, guess I will start looking.
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

Post by Rocket989 »

7's fit up front w/ 4" of BS...ride height will probably determine how tall of tire you can go.

What size tires did you go with??

Yeah...in all my impromptu wheel searching 16-inchers are kind of a step-child in the aftermarket. Lots more choices in 15 and 17"!! Thankfully tire choices are actually pretty good. For the rear, there were three wheels on the planet I could run without going custom, all 16".. Looked at A LOT of rims and even called a several places. Most said no can do or HUGE $$!!
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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

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Rocket989 wrote:What size tires did you go with??
The fronts are 195/65R15 so a 25" tire, 7.7" wide. The rears are 225/60R16 a 26.6 tire, 8.9" wide.

I was looking and Pops favorite TT2 wheels come in sizes to fit, there is a 15x6 with 3.26"BS and a 16X7 with 4"BS, they are right around $150 each which is probably a good price unless you are a tightwad like me. I would really like satin black centers (they are the classic grey), I wonder how hard they are would be to paint?

I think those wheels would fit right in there, what is the most important on the rear is that they will tuck ok because I am doing the 4-link rear I can set the rear where I want it front to back (also with bad rear wheel lips stretching the opening is not out of the question) and with air ride I can set the ride height I want later, the only thing I don't know right now is how far up the rear would go before it would hit the frame. In that picture the rocker is about 13" or 14" off the ground and I would like to see 10" or so but that might not be feasible.

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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

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And the current rear diff in the car and my new one are the same width 56.5" so I was measuring off the front flange on the one in there and decided anything sticking out over 4" would probably rub (would make a width of 64.5" overall plus sidewall).

I also thought a 8.9" wide tire on a 8" rim might look funny, the web recommends 6" to 8" wheel for that tire so I figured right in the middle was a good choice.

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Re: Lavron's '64 Build Thread

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I painted my front TTO's with new ford grey engine paint in a rattle can. not too hard ,just tape up the shiny lips. The TTO's came silver & I wanted to match the grey TTD's I had on back . I wanted black at first but got to noticing some that were black kinda disappeared ,harder to see. American racing has a TTD that is black already but the specs are a little different than what you posted.(TTD's are Pop's fav)
http://www.americanracing.com/wheel/639 ... q-thrust-d
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