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Air struts not as low as coil-overs were...Fab time?

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  • Air struts not as low as coil-overs were...Fab time?

    What's up guys,

    This is probably as simple as it sounds but the logic of the situation is just no clicking with me.

    Side by side as complete struts, the air struts compress down a little more than the old B&G RS2's, yet it looks as if I gained another 2" of lift w/the air struts completely aired out.

    What I'm most confused about is how side by side(with the air struts pushed down), they were about the same height, the air struts even went a little lower actually.

    The most OBVIOUS difference in the struts is the differnce in the length of where the knuckle bolts to the actual strut:






    I'm trying to decide what to attack to gain the two inches back:

    My horrendously huge strut mounts(which I'd have to figuring out a way to mount a bearing set-up being the hardest issue):

    I'm thinking of chopping the top hat and making it completely flat to gain about another 1" of drop.

    Tape measure in MM...all I could find in the Spanish workshop.





    Here's the before and afermath:

    Coils...then air




    Anyone have any ideas I can elimnate that mount completely and know of a place to get some decent bearings? Or should I just fab up new mounting brackets to sit the strut down a little lower? Thanks for any input on this...a little rushed at work at the moment, hope the message is clear.

    I also need to find a way to address the not having any kind of camber adjustments clearly
    Last edited by Dom_J; 08-03-2011, 10:01 PM.
    E90 LCI 328xi / Autosupreme Coutures / Mission:Conquer Slamming AWD BMW #vipe90

    "Chasin' the dream, never the competition..." #@lifestyle "Chromed out bimmers & Gold Alpinas......." -Dom Kennedy

    "A supercar doesn't need to be incredibly wide and have enormous wheels. It must have height, stance and length. It must be as low as possible and reasonably short in length, but it still must be substantial and have an unmistakable attack in its stance."

    StanceWorks....for supercars as well.

  • #2
    seems like you could cut that upper mount in half like the flat one, and for the camber why not make the holes in the air strut mount look like your coil ones? like slot them for some adjustment
    Insta Mintyhinrichs

    Comment


    • #3
      Thanks for your input.

      Yea, I think that's what I'll end up doing for the strut mounting holes...I have to figure out if my actual wheel well is the culprit now because I noticed that the car may actually be stopped from coming down lower by the wheel wells themselves.

      The back was cake, I needed to make brackets to keep the height from being too low, going down a bit further out back should never be an issue. The new wheels are going to be 18's on 225/40 vs the 235/40/17's so that's a taller tire which may take up more wheel well...


      E90 LCI 328xi / Autosupreme Coutures / Mission:Conquer Slamming AWD BMW #vipe90

      "Chasin' the dream, never the competition..." #@lifestyle "Chromed out bimmers & Gold Alpinas......." -Dom Kennedy

      "A supercar doesn't need to be incredibly wide and have enormous wheels. It must have height, stance and length. It must be as low as possible and reasonably short in length, but it still must be substantial and have an unmistakable attack in its stance."

      StanceWorks....for supercars as well.

      Comment


      • #4
        why not just go with a boc set up if you still have your old coils?
        and do you still have a front sway bar? i'd lose that.

        build thread?

        Comment


        • #5
          What do you think ditching the front sway bar would do for the lowering of the car?

          The bag over coil over strut idea is a no go because one of the front coil overs is broken beyond repair(the actual rod coming out of the shock body snapped). I also need to find the inner diameter of the boc type bags.
          Last edited by Dom_J; 08-09-2011, 11:44 AM.
          E90 LCI 328xi / Autosupreme Coutures / Mission:Conquer Slamming AWD BMW #vipe90

          "Chasin' the dream, never the competition..." #@lifestyle "Chromed out bimmers & Gold Alpinas......." -Dom Kennedy

          "A supercar doesn't need to be incredibly wide and have enormous wheels. It must have height, stance and length. It must be as low as possible and reasonably short in length, but it still must be substantial and have an unmistakable attack in its stance."

          StanceWorks....for supercars as well.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Dom_J View Post
            What do you think ditching the front sway bar would do for the lowering of the car?

            The bag over coil over strut idea is a no go because one of the front coil overs is broken beyond repair(the actual rod coming out of the shock body snapped). I also need to find the inner diameter of the boc type bags.
            Removing the front sway bar really depends on if it's holding you up or not. With Volkswagen's most MK4's and MK5's will remove their swaybar because they get caught on it and can't go low enough, but other generations can keep the front sway with no issues.

            If it's easy to remove, unbolt it and see if it makes a difference and if it's a pain to remove, I would do some checking underneath to see what's holding you up.

            - www.bagriders.com - Email us at: sales@bagriders.com -

            - Did you find a lower price? We Price Match! -

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            • #7
              I removed my endlinks but left my sway intact. That's what was holding me up the first time around.

              Comment


              • #8
                Appreciate the input fellas...I've found the issue with why I'm not as low as I should be.

                The bag was re-sleeved incorrectly:

                Before brand new out of the box next to a stock strut/spring




                How I received them back; didn't notice it right away.




                It was minor miscommunication issue I believe....taking the struts back off of the vehicle to have it sit for about a month just isn't ideal. I'm a military member stationed overseas so the wait time for that would have my car immobile for too long.

                I just need to get another 1.25" to a 1.5" lower out front. I didn't think twice before making some new top mounts to get an extra inch of low!



                The top hats are designed w/that "hat" type of design so they can fit in the strut tower! Me pancaking the extra set I had isn't exactly going to play well w/the strut towers, I can already see it.

                **old engine bay pic**



                So I'm kind of back to square one, squashing the top mounts was definitely the easy way out IMO.


                I'm still waiting to hear back from Chris @ Airlift Company on what they think we should do about the issue. Can't really hold my breath on that one as they've been pretty busy down there. The guys are great down there but its like they just won't sit down for a sec and listen to what's going on. Their assuming this was a protype of re-sleeving when in all actuality they already have a sleeve design for my car. Their Cobalt/HHR designed kits utilize the EXACT same suspension components/drivetrain/layout, the prototype kit that they built for the Ion Redline actually used a bellow type of bag, I got the pictures and all from me tracking down the owner of the car threw the interweb lol. I just need someone to listen to me for second! I'm no pro but I've done some research lol....gimme a listening ear airlift!!!


                Until then, not too sure what to do:

                -Raise strut towers entirely
                -New Brackets sitting the struts lower on the knuckle
                -Come up w/a completely new bearing design elimnating the the need of the bottom half of the strut mount.
                -Letting my car sit for another month or so for the struts to be re-sleeved

                I hope this is worth it in the end.
                Last edited by Dom_J; 08-13-2011, 02:55 AM.
                E90 LCI 328xi / Autosupreme Coutures / Mission:Conquer Slamming AWD BMW #vipe90

                "Chasin' the dream, never the competition..." #@lifestyle "Chromed out bimmers & Gold Alpinas......." -Dom Kennedy

                "A supercar doesn't need to be incredibly wide and have enormous wheels. It must have height, stance and length. It must be as low as possible and reasonably short in length, but it still must be substantial and have an unmistakable attack in its stance."

                StanceWorks....for supercars as well.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Design inputs are more than welcome!


                  Close up shot of the brackets again:

                  The brackets bolt to the strut, then I bolt them on the the knuckle:





                  New bearing set-up ideas as well! This behemoth of a bearing set-up just screams anti-drop. Completely eminating it would probably sit the fram of my car to the dirt(usually I'd be ecstatic for such a thing) but that's not feasible for the look I'm going for. I just need another 1.5" in a perfect world. The rotation bearing sits in a trace that is imbedded in the bottom of the lower piece of the strut mount.

                  The way it's set-up is I bolt the air strut INTO the strut mount THEN the strut mount into the strut tower. Weird as hell, I know.









                  Their prototype Ion Redline:



                  Bellow style bag, I'm sure they'll let you get little more drop but not significantly more.



                  Looks like they did something different w/the top mount! Wish I knew what it was!! I don't think the guys who did this build are still around @ airlift though


                  ....so now you can see why I'm a little frustrated over here. I just want low, I don't want much.


                  Look at all the weel gap killing me!



                  Back is playing quite well...Rotiform 18's en-route should look amazing.

                  Last edited by Dom_J; 08-13-2011, 03:41 AM.
                  E90 LCI 328xi / Autosupreme Coutures / Mission:Conquer Slamming AWD BMW #vipe90

                  "Chasin' the dream, never the competition..." #@lifestyle "Chromed out bimmers & Gold Alpinas......." -Dom Kennedy

                  "A supercar doesn't need to be incredibly wide and have enormous wheels. It must have height, stance and length. It must be as low as possible and reasonably short in length, but it still must be substantial and have an unmistakable attack in its stance."

                  StanceWorks....for supercars as well.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    So I thought about it a little more...

                    I think I'm going to chop the tabs off of my old coil-overs and weld them onto the brackets into a position giving me that extra drop I'm looking for. I'll still be able to use the original mounts for support being I'm welding to them while also drilling a hole through them to get the bottom knuckle bolt through.




                    E90 LCI 328xi / Autosupreme Coutures / Mission:Conquer Slamming AWD BMW #vipe90

                    "Chasin' the dream, never the competition..." #@lifestyle "Chromed out bimmers & Gold Alpinas......." -Dom Kennedy

                    "A supercar doesn't need to be incredibly wide and have enormous wheels. It must have height, stance and length. It must be as low as possible and reasonably short in length, but it still must be substantial and have an unmistakable attack in its stance."

                    StanceWorks....for supercars as well.

                    Comment

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