Bill Howell
08-04-2008, 06:13 PM
There is another thread about me ordering an airride system for the goat, but I can not find it, so I just started another one.
I have had several people pm me and ask me how I liked the system, how it worked, how it went on, did it make that much of a difference in the car, etc.
I have purposely not written this post until now, because I wanted to drive the car, both around town, and on a road trip before I decided if it was worth the time and money to install on the car.
First, everyone that really knows me, knows I don't pull any punches and tell it like it is, no sugarcoating here. Second, they know I have had a tough time with a Charger I am building because of premium parts I bought that just did not fit. However, that is another story for another time.
Back when I first took the GTO to Frank I had no idea what I was getting into. I took it down there to get it minitubbed and ended up with what you know know as the Billy Goat. There is another thread going on right now about build regrets and that really is true, no matter how hard you try to plan out the best deal and route for your car. There are a couple areas that I no doubt went the wrong way on with the Goat. One, I should have spent another $5K and done the interior different. Two,I should have spent the money and bought the best A/C system money would buy instead of trying to salvage the original system, big, costly mistake.
However, the biggest mistake I made was the suspension setup I went with. Those that read the articles on the car, know which one that was. I have never been so dissatified with anything in my life as I was with that setup. One, because I did not get what I paid for, and secondly, the company did not stand behind what they sold me. After replacing both front coilovers twice and then needing to do it again this spring I said enough is enough. I made a call to Tony at AirRide and within days I had the parts that were to transform the goat from a bucking bull to a cushiony soft ride.
First, we attacked the frontend. Now, anyone that has put this system on their car knows this is not a simple bolton deal. Yes, it does require some cutting torch time, and changing UCA and LCAs really make for a better package. My first suprise with the system was to find out that my original wilwood brake setup was not going to work, OH Great!
No, this was not an AirRide problem, it turns out the "other company" I first used had some morphidide spindle and the brake kit would only fit that setup. Oh well, I had always really wanted that 6piston caliper setup anyway. A quick call to Frank and CC# had that coming too...
Second hiccup came when we got the frontend all back together and I test drove the car. I didn't bother calling and getting the proper ride height info, so we set it at what "looked" right. After pulling out of the driveway, I am miserable, WTH, is THIS what the
car is going to ride like???
So, I get on the phone with Tony and tell him what the situation is. He laughs and then tells me how to get the RIGHT ride height. Once I got it set right, the car rode great, but, yes, third hiccup. For some reason, if you have a 65 GTO and have 19inch wheels up front, the 2 inch dropped spindles are not what you need. GREAT! after throwing the orignal spindles away, now I need a set. Thankfully, a board member here gave me a set and all is good in the world or at least the front half of the build.
Now we move to the rear of the car. We take the old setup off and pull the parts AirRide has sent out of the boxes and start doing our initial measurements. Guess what I forgot to mention to Tony. Some of you probably already know, that's right, we narrowed the rearend of the goat by 4 inches on each side when we minitubbed it. Between that and exhaust, there is just no real estate for the setup they sent. So, back on the phone with Tony (by now I bet he is hating to hear I am on the phone again) and more new parts show up two days later. Other than changing the angle of the mount on the rearend, the rears were pretty much bolt on.
The airpod setup was so simple, there is really no need to even cover that here. Really, one hot wire, one ground, one switched hot, and four air lines and you are done. It also fit right under the convert top with alittle trim on the cover and that was it, no mess, no fuss.
Remember, this was done in stages, so the frontend we did before driving the car 600 round trip to the Year One Experience this year. We got the car home, had two weeks to do the rear, and then it was off to Detroit to the Eyes on Design show. This was a car show deal, so we hauled it in the trailer since the weather was bad that week and I did want the car presentable at the show. Good thing we did too, because this ended up being the same weekend as the big flood in the midwest this June. No flooding where we were but that was some serious rain.
A month later, the car is driven to Columbus Goodguys show. I have since driven the car about 300 miles around here and I am here to tell you, I truely love the car now. Even the crappy seats are not so bad now that the suspension rides right.
Most of you that have been around for a while know that I never built this car to roadrace, but to drive on the highway. We have driven it around Road Atlanta a time or two, but other than that, it has not seen track time, but it does have 10K on the odometer now so yes I do drive the car.
Here are my impressions on the car since we changed the suspension with AirRide and got it tuned in. It is absolutely a different car now. No more rough riding, miserable driving and pothole diving. I can set the car at a comforable ride height for driving down the road, then the bonus is putting it "in the weeds" once I park it. The old girl still gets attention, we won the cool convertible award at Columbus, even though it was not even parked in the pro picks section. People are just drawn to it, and that is fine, but the really nice thing now is the fact that the real fun is driving it to the event and home. In Columbus, all the real hotrods were running down the interstate, wound up tight at 55 or 60 and we were crusing in the left lane at 75 or so, four in the car, trunk full of drinks, chairs and canopy. Top down, tunes blasting, life is good.
So, in closing, if you are on the fence about a similiar system, don't be. Tony, Bret and crew know what they are doing, and prove their parts somewhere just about every weekend.
If you are unsure about when parts you need, don't worry, they are more than happy to help there too and explain exactly what you do need. Me being Mr. Knowitall had to eat alittle crow and get more parts, but they were great about that too and had new parts on the way the same day.
If you go back and read my hiccups, you will see they were all my fault, yet they were more than willing to work with me and make it right.
My hat is off to AirRide for not only a great product, but a great company in general that puts customer service ahead of everything else. THANKS GUYS!
I have had several people pm me and ask me how I liked the system, how it worked, how it went on, did it make that much of a difference in the car, etc.
I have purposely not written this post until now, because I wanted to drive the car, both around town, and on a road trip before I decided if it was worth the time and money to install on the car.
First, everyone that really knows me, knows I don't pull any punches and tell it like it is, no sugarcoating here. Second, they know I have had a tough time with a Charger I am building because of premium parts I bought that just did not fit. However, that is another story for another time.
Back when I first took the GTO to Frank I had no idea what I was getting into. I took it down there to get it minitubbed and ended up with what you know know as the Billy Goat. There is another thread going on right now about build regrets and that really is true, no matter how hard you try to plan out the best deal and route for your car. There are a couple areas that I no doubt went the wrong way on with the Goat. One, I should have spent another $5K and done the interior different. Two,I should have spent the money and bought the best A/C system money would buy instead of trying to salvage the original system, big, costly mistake.
However, the biggest mistake I made was the suspension setup I went with. Those that read the articles on the car, know which one that was. I have never been so dissatified with anything in my life as I was with that setup. One, because I did not get what I paid for, and secondly, the company did not stand behind what they sold me. After replacing both front coilovers twice and then needing to do it again this spring I said enough is enough. I made a call to Tony at AirRide and within days I had the parts that were to transform the goat from a bucking bull to a cushiony soft ride.
First, we attacked the frontend. Now, anyone that has put this system on their car knows this is not a simple bolton deal. Yes, it does require some cutting torch time, and changing UCA and LCAs really make for a better package. My first suprise with the system was to find out that my original wilwood brake setup was not going to work, OH Great!
No, this was not an AirRide problem, it turns out the "other company" I first used had some morphidide spindle and the brake kit would only fit that setup. Oh well, I had always really wanted that 6piston caliper setup anyway. A quick call to Frank and CC# had that coming too...
Second hiccup came when we got the frontend all back together and I test drove the car. I didn't bother calling and getting the proper ride height info, so we set it at what "looked" right. After pulling out of the driveway, I am miserable, WTH, is THIS what the
car is going to ride like???
So, I get on the phone with Tony and tell him what the situation is. He laughs and then tells me how to get the RIGHT ride height. Once I got it set right, the car rode great, but, yes, third hiccup. For some reason, if you have a 65 GTO and have 19inch wheels up front, the 2 inch dropped spindles are not what you need. GREAT! after throwing the orignal spindles away, now I need a set. Thankfully, a board member here gave me a set and all is good in the world or at least the front half of the build.
Now we move to the rear of the car. We take the old setup off and pull the parts AirRide has sent out of the boxes and start doing our initial measurements. Guess what I forgot to mention to Tony. Some of you probably already know, that's right, we narrowed the rearend of the goat by 4 inches on each side when we minitubbed it. Between that and exhaust, there is just no real estate for the setup they sent. So, back on the phone with Tony (by now I bet he is hating to hear I am on the phone again) and more new parts show up two days later. Other than changing the angle of the mount on the rearend, the rears were pretty much bolt on.
The airpod setup was so simple, there is really no need to even cover that here. Really, one hot wire, one ground, one switched hot, and four air lines and you are done. It also fit right under the convert top with alittle trim on the cover and that was it, no mess, no fuss.
Remember, this was done in stages, so the frontend we did before driving the car 600 round trip to the Year One Experience this year. We got the car home, had two weeks to do the rear, and then it was off to Detroit to the Eyes on Design show. This was a car show deal, so we hauled it in the trailer since the weather was bad that week and I did want the car presentable at the show. Good thing we did too, because this ended up being the same weekend as the big flood in the midwest this June. No flooding where we were but that was some serious rain.
A month later, the car is driven to Columbus Goodguys show. I have since driven the car about 300 miles around here and I am here to tell you, I truely love the car now. Even the crappy seats are not so bad now that the suspension rides right.
Most of you that have been around for a while know that I never built this car to roadrace, but to drive on the highway. We have driven it around Road Atlanta a time or two, but other than that, it has not seen track time, but it does have 10K on the odometer now so yes I do drive the car.
Here are my impressions on the car since we changed the suspension with AirRide and got it tuned in. It is absolutely a different car now. No more rough riding, miserable driving and pothole diving. I can set the car at a comforable ride height for driving down the road, then the bonus is putting it "in the weeds" once I park it. The old girl still gets attention, we won the cool convertible award at Columbus, even though it was not even parked in the pro picks section. People are just drawn to it, and that is fine, but the really nice thing now is the fact that the real fun is driving it to the event and home. In Columbus, all the real hotrods were running down the interstate, wound up tight at 55 or 60 and we were crusing in the left lane at 75 or so, four in the car, trunk full of drinks, chairs and canopy. Top down, tunes blasting, life is good.
So, in closing, if you are on the fence about a similiar system, don't be. Tony, Bret and crew know what they are doing, and prove their parts somewhere just about every weekend.
If you are unsure about when parts you need, don't worry, they are more than happy to help there too and explain exactly what you do need. Me being Mr. Knowitall had to eat alittle crow and get more parts, but they were great about that too and had new parts on the way the same day.
If you go back and read my hiccups, you will see they were all my fault, yet they were more than willing to work with me and make it right.
My hat is off to AirRide for not only a great product, but a great company in general that puts customer service ahead of everything else. THANKS GUYS!