Coach23 Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 I have been looking for a air suspension kit to put on my 67 Buick riviera.....the one I have had my eyes on is with a company called accuair, which Iam sure you guys heard of. Would you consider those kits kinda pricey ?? And are there any other good quality companies that you guys suggest over accuair ?? If so please share. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockitRiviera Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 RideTech is what I have on mine. I've only purchased the airbags so far. I have not bought the controller or the air pump. That's another $1800 above what I spent on the air bags. For the front, the Lower Control Arm needs to be HEAVILY modified. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smithbrother Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 I don't know a thing about this, but are you replacing COIL springs? If so why would lower A-arms need to be beefed up? Are you making this a bouncing car? Dale in Indy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RivNut Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 I don't have the pictures any longer so I can't post them here for you to see. The gentleman to whom I'm referring is also a member here on the forum so if he sees this perhaps he'll make a contribution. He installed some custom coil over shocks on his latest '65. He can control the ride and the height with just the one item. No compressors or hydraulics. It's not quick but he's not in to getting into bouncing contests either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach23 Posted January 24, 2016 Author Share Posted January 24, 2016 Heck no, Iam not into hydraulics...I want air suspension. Slam it to the ground when it's parked, have a better ride and be able to control the suspension. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelman Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Interesting that when you look at the Accuair site, they show you products from Air Ride Technologies. I have Air Ride Shockwaves on my 63. Only modification needed was a slight 1/4" trim of the outside of the upper front spring pocket to clear the bags at full compression. No reinforcement needed. Rear is a bolt in. Will most likely have to modify the exhaust to clear the bags in the rear, as the bags need more clearance than the stock springs. These get pretty wide at full down. I prefer to go straight to Air Ride for their products as they have great customer support. Really happy with their setup on my 63 and other vehicles I have put these on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CTX-SLPR Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 I don't have the pictures any longer so I can't post them here for you to see. The gentleman to whom I'm referring is also a member here on the forum so if he sees this perhaps he'll make a contribution. He installed some custom coil over shocks on his latest '65. He can control the ride and the height with just the one item. No compressors or hydraulics. It's not quick but he's not in to getting into bouncing contests either.Ed, Are you sure he doesn't have the Ridetech Shockwave system which is an air spring coil over? I'm not really sure how you'd vary the ride height with just a coil over of any other kind unless he has some sort of mechanical jack screw to physically alter the mounting locations. Slow moving sounds like he's running tankless and letting the compressor feed the bags directly. Heck no, Iam not into hydraulics...I want air suspension. Slam it to the ground when it's parked, have a better ride and be able to control the suspension.I think you're looking for the Shockwave mentioned above. You have to trim the spring pockets to keep them from rubbing the bags but mostly it just bolts in like a shock, stud top and all. The rear I think they use the Cool Ride setup which is a separate bag for the spring and long travel shock. Can't comment on the original Accuair question as I've mainly investigated Ridetech's stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach23 Posted January 25, 2016 Author Share Posted January 25, 2016 So with the ride tech shockwave....you can't control the height with a switch or button ?? Because I didn't see u mention a compressor ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CTX-SLPR Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Unless you're going to fill them through a schrader valve and leave them (possible but generally something that non-street cars do), you need a compressor and tanks and valves to use any air suspension setup. Ridetech has controllers from the simple "add air and watch the gauge" type to computerized where you program the height you want and the computer adds air to make it happen and different ride heights are just settings on the controller. http://www.ridetech.com/store/musclecars/?subcats=Y&features_hash=V252 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RivNut Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Ed, Are you sure he doesn't have the Ridetech Shockwave system which is an air spring coil over? I'm not really sure how you'd vary the ride height with just a coil over of any other kind unless he has some sort of mechanical jack screw to physically alter the mounting locations. Slow moving sounds like he's running tankless and letting the compressor feed the bags directly. I think you're looking for the Shockwave mentioned above. You have to trim the spring pockets to keep them from rubbing the bags but mostly it just bolts in like a shock, stud top and all. The rear I think they use the Cool Ride setup which is a separate bag for the spring and long travel shock. Can't comment on the original Accuair question as I've mainly investigated Ridetech's stuff. I found the pictures in an old email but I'm unable to download and save them. The pictures that he sent me showed a true coil over. I am probably mistaken on the fact that they can change the height of the car. They're a billet coil over that replaces both the coil spring and the shock. But I could be wrong about the height adjustment, I'm just trying to gather info by looking at a picture. There's a collar that can adjust the length of the coil and a couple of valves that control the stiffness of the shock. I'll email the guy back and see if he can't post some pictures and an explanation of the operation. I think that the owner of the car is more into getting more performance out of the chassis than he is going for the slammed effect of a car sitting still. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelman Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 (edited) You can change the ride height with the coil overs, but not more than an inch or two. Have to crawl under or possibly disassemble the suspension to do it.Air springs and Shockwaves give about 7" adjustment. Some even more. Just hit the button.Coach, look at buying the complete system for your car. Air springs, shocks, tank, compressor, and controller. Best way to go if you have never had these before. Edited January 25, 2016 by steelman (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool57 Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 You can change the ride height with the coil overs, but not more than an inch or two. Have to crawl under or possibly disassemble the suspension to do it.Air springs and Shockwaves give about 7" adjustment. Some even more. Just hit the button.Coach, look at buying the complete system for your car. Air springs, shocks, tank, compressor, and controller. Best way to go if you have never had these before.Do you have any installation pics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelman Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 No installation pics, sorry. Wish I did. I found a couple of as installed pictures. Maybe these will help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cstang50 Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 im running the ridetech kit with the shock waves up front and bags with rear shock and it rides nice. was 100x better then my old wore out stock stuff and you dont get a lot of body roll in the corners, i was very impressed. i did have to open the spring pocket to clear the bags up front but wasnt to bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool57 Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Thanks steelman. Cstang, did you beef up the control arm to mount the Shockwave? I've been told the SW puts undo stress on the original shockmount. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cstang50 Posted February 3, 2016 Share Posted February 3, 2016 no i'm running the stock control arms and have had no problems with it. i did have a leak from one of the lines and pulled it down and inspected and everything looked fine. Iv put about 8k miles on the car since iv put them on and really enjoy the ride and being able to adjust the ride. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now