So.... here comes the biggy!!
Finally took the plunge and decided to go for air. Yup, its maybe fake lows and yup, Iâve even been known to dish out the abuse against them in the past..... but...... it makes sense for me in terms of using my car up north in the winter loaded with people and gear.
So, finally ordered up some kit. Airlift Struts and Autopilot V2 management. Dual 444c compressors, shiny polished 5 gallon tank and 3/8 lines.
When it came to stripping off the old coilovers - it was pretty obvious that these were never going to be adjustable again...... these went on pretty much exactly a year ago and as you can see have seen better days. The downside of cheap coilovers I guess!!
In went the bags (not much in the way of pics of the actual fitting going on - you get the idea though).
Then it was on to coming up with an install to house it all. My boot does tend to get well used, so I didnât really want to sacrifice a whole load of bootspace - but, at the same time - wanted there to at least be something to look at back there! So the challenge was a simple, space saving install with a small 'showy' element to it.
We decided to house the compressors within the spare wheel well and set about fabricating an enclosure for them.
In order to keep vibrations down and to absorb a little of the noise, we dynamatted the wheel well and the outside of the box.
All the lines and compressor wiring were run neatly round the edge of the enclosure and a couple of small push / pull fans were added to assist with airflow in the compressor enclosure.
Inside of the box was trimmed in alcantara and the compressors mounted.
Next up was the tank enclosure. The plan for this was to have most of the tank and its fittings hidden from sight, with space below to hide wiring / lines / manifold etc.
From here we trimmed the inside of the enclosure, again in alcantara and decided that as we'd gone to the trouble of sourcing some red airline rather than the standard black that comes with the kit - we should try and show off some of it. This resulted in us devising a small tray, again trimmed in alcantara to house the 6 lines coming from the manifold - we started referring to these at 'THE VEINS' haha, as thatâs pretty much what they looked like.
Then it was a case of getting everything secured down and buttoned in to place, and it was time to throw in some colour changing led lighting to illuminate the compressor enclosure, 'vein' housing and the tank enclosure.
Finally, on went a floor panel and tank front panel complete with windows to show off the important bits. These were just trimmed in acoustic carpet. Plan is to get some acrylic in the windows at some point in the near future.
Very happy with the finished product - boot remains usable without giving up too much space, but itâs also kinda easy on the eye at the same time.
And of course - here's some pics of how the car sits on air now. Still needs a bit of fine tuning and Iâm probably gonna have to re-think my wheels / fitment as I canât get the back end right down the way it sits just now.... but thatâs work in progress.
There's scope for the front to come down more as well if I chop the inner wings to make space for the control arms - but not decided whether Iâll go down that route yet or not.
Massive maaaaasssive MAAAAASSSSIVE thanks to Billy at Complete Auto Solutions for all his hard work on this, thereâs absolutely no way I coulda taken this on myself and the work and attention to detail he's put in to this is second to none.
Finally took the plunge and decided to go for air. Yup, its maybe fake lows and yup, Iâve even been known to dish out the abuse against them in the past..... but...... it makes sense for me in terms of using my car up north in the winter loaded with people and gear.
So, finally ordered up some kit. Airlift Struts and Autopilot V2 management. Dual 444c compressors, shiny polished 5 gallon tank and 3/8 lines.
When it came to stripping off the old coilovers - it was pretty obvious that these were never going to be adjustable again...... these went on pretty much exactly a year ago and as you can see have seen better days. The downside of cheap coilovers I guess!!
In went the bags (not much in the way of pics of the actual fitting going on - you get the idea though).
Then it was on to coming up with an install to house it all. My boot does tend to get well used, so I didnât really want to sacrifice a whole load of bootspace - but, at the same time - wanted there to at least be something to look at back there! So the challenge was a simple, space saving install with a small 'showy' element to it.
We decided to house the compressors within the spare wheel well and set about fabricating an enclosure for them.
In order to keep vibrations down and to absorb a little of the noise, we dynamatted the wheel well and the outside of the box.
All the lines and compressor wiring were run neatly round the edge of the enclosure and a couple of small push / pull fans were added to assist with airflow in the compressor enclosure.
Inside of the box was trimmed in alcantara and the compressors mounted.
Next up was the tank enclosure. The plan for this was to have most of the tank and its fittings hidden from sight, with space below to hide wiring / lines / manifold etc.
From here we trimmed the inside of the enclosure, again in alcantara and decided that as we'd gone to the trouble of sourcing some red airline rather than the standard black that comes with the kit - we should try and show off some of it. This resulted in us devising a small tray, again trimmed in alcantara to house the 6 lines coming from the manifold - we started referring to these at 'THE VEINS' haha, as thatâs pretty much what they looked like.
Then it was a case of getting everything secured down and buttoned in to place, and it was time to throw in some colour changing led lighting to illuminate the compressor enclosure, 'vein' housing and the tank enclosure.
Finally, on went a floor panel and tank front panel complete with windows to show off the important bits. These were just trimmed in acoustic carpet. Plan is to get some acrylic in the windows at some point in the near future.
Very happy with the finished product - boot remains usable without giving up too much space, but itâs also kinda easy on the eye at the same time.
And of course - here's some pics of how the car sits on air now. Still needs a bit of fine tuning and Iâm probably gonna have to re-think my wheels / fitment as I canât get the back end right down the way it sits just now.... but thatâs work in progress.
There's scope for the front to come down more as well if I chop the inner wings to make space for the control arms - but not decided whether Iâll go down that route yet or not.
Massive maaaaasssive MAAAAASSSSIVE thanks to Billy at Complete Auto Solutions for all his hard work on this, thereâs absolutely no way I coulda taken this on myself and the work and attention to detail he's put in to this is second to none.
