Well, now I gone and done it: For better or worse, no more springs!

[Candyman]

Hey their 808,

I thank you big time my man! This one took many a cold beer to contemplate turning into reality, but it was killing me knowing I had all those parts just sitting their ready to go, so I went and decided to go No Fear and dive on into it. Its actually been a pretty crazy ride, and I really think now that for some reason the left rear part of my ride is cursed, or got some bad juju going on or something! Read the story below! Its been an adventure on this one!

Candyman

[Candyman]

Hey Everyone,

Here is the whole epic "Story of the Bags". A trying tale of what not to do! for you guys.

Well, let rewind a couple of months back. Ray had made me a way cool deal on an Air Ride System, (Thank You Ray) and since Slayer is not too far from the PTeazer, had picked them up and put them into safe storage at his place. I was actually getting ready to head back into the Paint Booth and do some more work on my Flames by way of breaking out my air brush and ghosting in some skulls, as well as one really cool design I have been kicking around where I would have kind of a half skeleton air brushed into the grille with his hands extended up into the engine compartment like he had been trying to hold on when someone accidentally closed the hood on his hands kinda look to it. Anyways, I decided to hold off on paint and instead put what resources I had towards trying to figure out how to get those bags on their so I can try to keep from hitting my head every time I go over a bump with the extremely little suspension I had from my drop. Only two problems with the Air Bag Project was, I am good at cosmetics, but not so hot when it comes to mechanics, and both Ray, and Slayer are based out of Santa Ana, CA which is a good 2 1/2 hours from me.

So, I found what looked like a good Custom Lowrider Shop that specialized in nothing but Air Ride, and Hydrolic's that was close by the guys to do the install. Did the homework, and the guys looked legit. Went by their with Ray, an Slayer, and it looked good. So we dropped the car off on July 3, it was supposed to be ready by July 6, and all was cool! It was supposedly ready for pick up on Tuesday July 7, so Slayer went to pick er up, but after he left the shop he heard a funny noise so he went back ASAP. Turns out they forgot to put the top bolts in the shocks, and they were just hanging down! At that point, it was late afternoon and they were ready to go home so when they saw the PT coming back in with a stupid mistake like that, they were not happy campers. So they jacked up the back to fix the problem and somehow managed to make things worse by snapping three of the wheel studs off me left rear wheel, and somehow managed to mess up one of my lug nuts beyond repair as well! So it stayed on the jack stands all night and they would fix it the next day. Came back and they had put new studs in, completely removed the rear shocks and said they were not necessary now, and did a Home Depot Fix by way of putting 5 hex nuts to hold the wheel on! Side Note: This is the same side where my Stereo Installer accidentally slipped on a screwdriver a few months back making a nice big dent in the quarter panel which I had to go and fix up..like I said, bad juju or something! Anyways, at that point, I was off the charts, ready to go with this bunch! Ray went and mixed words with them, and decided to just pull out and handle it elsewhere. So they picked it up, and about a block later, one of the rear bags was down again! Turns out they had routed an airline up right next to the muffler which had melted it in two! Luckily, Ray came to the rescue, and found another shop close by that took it in, and completely went through everything, got all the lines straight and nicely put in, and now everything is finally working the way its supposed to!!! Lug Nuts are on and good, and its finally done

So, now you all know the tale of the Bags! All that's left is to bring her on home, and spend some quality time with my buffer and a bottle of polish, and try to forget this ever happened! I know every time you go in for something bigger mods like this, especially away from home like this, you really take a gamble on having everything go 100% smooth. Its a roll of the dice, and all you can do is just try to find the best place, and hope you made the right decision! In this case, it just fell apart. I totally have to give mad props to both Ray, and John on this one as they worked through the mess, and put 110% in to fix everything no matter what! I picked the shop, it turned into a train wreck, but they kept their cool, did some serious damage control, and got it done!

Now its time to finally cool down a bit from the adventure, hit some shows, toss back a few cold ones and contemplate the next big thing. Between redoing the stereo, and now this, my mad mod money is tapped till after the first of the year. I figure next year I am just going to stick to what I know, and concentrate on paint and body! Be sure to stay tuned to the never ending epic saga of Candymans insane Dreamz!

PS: If you ever are in the market for suspension work around Santa Ana, CA, please steer clear of these guys!!!

Chonchis Kustomz

Go easy,

Candyman

[Tinker]

Great story and background info Don. Glad to see everything turned out well for you. Amazing ride as always...

[808]

Any updates for us Candyman??

[slayerdarkcross]

Plenty of "up"dates its been "down" to a new shop

[Candyman]

Hey Guys,

Thank you Tinker. As always, it is much appreciated!

Not much to update yet their 808. We had a slight left over glitch from the first shop that we had to address, but everything should be up and running once again sometime Monday. Turns out, the power wire was not correct and was kicking off a relay so they are re-routing a new one, and then hopefully we should be good to go.

Will let you guys know how it comes together, and promis epics as soon as she is home and all polished to perfecion once again!

Go easy, and stay tuned.

Candyman

[Candyman]

Hey their Everybody,

Well here is a quickie Vid ol Slayer shot out by his place today. Though it was a bit of a rough project, I really kinda like how it all came together in the end. My big goal was, I have seen a bunch of Air Ride Kits that went up and down pretty hard. In fact on one, it went up so hard it caused an overhead monitor to come unsnapped and smac into the dow position, as well as occasionally pop one or both of the rear bags out of the upper socket! After extensive work on his, its better, but still pretty harsh. With this said, I really wanted to try to figure out how to get mine up and down in a slow, smooth motion so it would be easy on the equipment, the car, and on me! One of the cool things about the way its set up is, it goes up to 70% so I can come back in and reform new front inner fender wells, and a few other tricks and it will go down further when I get everything else done in the near future.

So, I know its slow. Meant it to be that way, which I really like! Anyways, here is a quick Vid. Just click on the thumb to redirect to the Vid. Much thanks to Slayer!



So, what do yall think? First time playing with Air so its a learning process, but I am figuring more out all the time. Decent for a first attempt anyways. Now where we go from here is the fun part!

You all go easy, thank you so much for all your comments, and I will catch ya later on!

Candyman

[Candyman]

Sorry for the repost. Accidentally clicked on it twice. Please remove in you would like. Thx,

[808]

It's funny, cuz in the down position, it looks almost exactly like your custom springs' stance! But man, it just looks right. It looks definitely meant to be with the paint job and everything to have that Air Ride. Keep them pics/vids comin'!