61 special suspension

**61special** · 03-22-2011, 09:39 AM

Hey all, new to this site, my name is Pat and i just picked up 61 special! Now hopefully this is the correct place for my thread. What I was wondering was if anybody has attempted to put and air bag suspension on one of these specials! The reason I ask is that the previous owner has "lowered it" correctly in the rear, but the front springs have obviously been heated seeing there is now space between the coils

Now I do like the way it sits very much! I'd like to be able to put it at a decent ride height for driving and slam it in the weeds at local shows and what not. I'm a technician by trade with decent fabrication skills but I've never messed around with air bags. Just looking to see if somebody has done the hard work already (figuring out what type of air bags are needed for the front of the car). The rear air bags look to be rather simple to tackle so I'm not to concerned with that. Any help would be greatly appreciated

thanks everybody!
Pat

**SammaS** · 03-22-2011, 06:26 PM

I have Firestone bags in the rear of my 63 Lesabre along with the air command. Works good, its not all that complicated for the rear. I have been wanting to do it in the front too but am working on other stuff like and engine/trans swap and disk brake swap at the moment. The air bags simply replace the coils and just need a bucket or bracket to sit in. You want good shocks to go along with firestone bags. There are bolt in kits from sources like Ridetech but they are spendy. The main thing that you need to work out with fabrication is making sure you have poly bump stops that will hold your suspension from completely bottoming out and that you space the airbags properly for travel while driving.

**61special** · 03-23-2011, 09:14 AM

hey thanks for the input yeah i'm not worried about the rear thats a fairly bolt in affair. i was just hoping there was somebody out there that had the part number of the bags they used for the front suspension. i think i'm gonna go with a bag over strut set up in the front so long as it will fit in the spring pocket. figure i'm gonna have to make a stronger mount for the bottom of bag strut assembly don't think the stock bolt location of the shock is gonna cut it. so what drivetrain are you taking out of your buick and whatcha going with? i'll try and post up pictures of the process for anybody that is interested

oh any pics of your rear suspension i'd like to take a gander at that.

**SammaS** · 03-23-2011, 12:33 PM

Yeah I was thinking a bag over setup is the way to go, haven't looked into that close enough yet. I want to finish the disc brakes first. I got my Lesabre with a 67 340/TH400 and the engine was halfway torn apart and sitting in the dirt. I'm betting someone out there has my original 401 sitting in a GS. I'm swapping in an 01 Vortec 8.1 and keeping the turbo 400, should be sweet when its all done.

**61special** · 03-23-2011, 12:38 PM

dude thats the biggest RV gas engine they make!!! Wow I really wanna see some pics of this bad body. Do you have a build thread on this monster?

**SammaS** · 03-23-2011, 12:56 PM

No build thread yet, I got flamed a little asking questions about it early on. I'll definitely post a build thread when I get it in and running. It's gonna be a monster though.

**61special** · 03-24-2011, 09:23 AM

looks like ride tech is gonna be the best route for the front setup

**6D2Special** · 03-24-2011, 02:26 PM

there was a shop called Stoked Out Customs in TX that did bags on a bunch of these cars. It looks like they closed shop, I cant find any contact info for them.

**61special** · 03-25-2011, 09:14 AM

thanks for all the replies guys! yeah my buddy is a dealer for firestone airbags so i'm gonna check and see if i can get anything that will match up to ride techs stuff.

**SammaS** · 03-25-2011, 09:59 PM

I looked through firestones online catalog this morning. Looks like they have a bag for just about every need. I think it will be easier than I thought to do the front too.