by Doc Frohmader of Air Ride Technologies

1955-57 AIR RIDE FRONT STRONG ARM SUSPENSION

One of the things I see as most admirable and effective about the ’55-’57 Chevy is the suspension design. It was the first of the strong,lightweight, open driveline, modern IFS (Independent Front Suspension)cars that GM would do so well with for many years after. This IFS was verywell designed and in many ways a better design than later GM IFS. Ibelieve it to be superior by far to the 70’s and 80’s GM IFS, for example.For that reason, this suspension was more often upgraded as technologyadvanced rather than replaced. Racers and rodders both found that tomake them shine on the roads and on the track only took a bit moretweaking instead of heavy modification (like sub-framing).

As part of a program to develop a series of bolt-on control arms calledStrongArms, Air Ride has outdone themselves. Of course, they are in thebusiness of fabricating and selling air suspension components, so thesearms designed to be used with Air Ride suspension. In this case the kit isdesigned for use with their ShockWave combination air spring andadjustable billet race-style shock. If you’ve seen the AirBar rearsuspension, you know that the StrongArm front kit is the perfectcomplement.

As you’ll find with any Air Ride kit, it was carefully engineered to fit onreal-life cars and to be installed with a minimum of modification to theoriginal car. The control arms were tweaked to fit and function in the car asdesigned, but also to allow significant lowering without problems withalignment limitations. Made from heavy-wall steel tubing, these arms aremuch stronger than the originals and use modern bushings and ball-jointsto keep service or replacement costs to a minimum.

Then there’s the ride. There isn’t a steel spring made that will allow youthe control and adjustability of ride quality of a ShockWave. It’s a matter oftechnology. Spring deflection rates for steel springs are linear. They arenon-adjustable other than by replacement. A properly designed air springhas what’s known as an S-shaped deflection rate curve where the raterises as compression increases and drops as rebound increases (with a

long central area where the rate remains fairly constant). Of course airsprings are easily adjustable with air pressure..

The inspired combination of strong, stable StrongArm control arms andthe ride quality of the ShockWaves make the perfect combination ofstrength and ride quality. With the adjustable shocks inside theShockWaves, you can easily dial in the ride and performance qualities youlike best – and change them as your tastes or conditions demand. Add aset of dropped spindles and disc brakes as a bolt-on and you’ve got a 50-year-old suspension fully capable of the kind of high performancehandling and silky smooth ride that we only dreamed of in days past. Soput away the cutting torch and toss that Camaro sub-frame back into thescrap where it belongs. Here’s a much better way that doesn’t requirehacking junk parts onto your beautiful classic. This month we will coverthe front installation while next month we will install the rear ShockWaveand AirBar kits.

Parts Needed:21-317 Front ShockWave Adjustable Shock Kit

21-318 Front StrongArm & ShockWave Kit

21-305 RidePro Air Compressor & Ride Control Kit

To order parts call 1-800-456-1957 or visit ClassicChevy.com

Tools Needed: Coil Spring CompressorFloor JackRatchet & Assorted SocketsCut-Off WheelGrinder

Time Frame: 8 Hours

21-31821-317

21-305

Photo #3: Pull the two bolts outof the lower control arm toremove the shock. You can’tget the spring out withoutremoving the shock first. Thetop shock mount is approachedfrom the top inside the enginecompartment. This samelocation will be reused for theShockWave mounts later.

Photo #4:Before you gettoo far, you’ll

want to break the tie rod ends and ball joints loose. A goodway to do this is to loosen the nuts a little and then pop thejoint on the side with a hammer. A pickle fork also works fine.

Photo #5: Wedecided to workat removing thespring bydropping thelower control armat the cross shaftend. You’ll notethe lower ball

joint is under the arm so it would have to be lifted up whilethe inner end can just be dropped down. Be careful, workintelligently, and stay safe. It is best to install a coil springcompressor at this point to keep the spring from flying out anddamaging you or the car!

Photo #6: Lower thejack down slowly torelease the springpressure and removethe spring.

Photo #7: Now youcan pop the lowercontrol arm off theball joint and get itout of the way. Youcan also pop theupper ball joint andremove the wholebrake and spindle

assembly and get it out of the way. Remove the upper controlarm at the studs, keeping the shims together. While the car willhave to go in later for alignment, these shims should go backinto the same location. You can see here where the uppershock mounts are.

Photo #1: You might not tell the front suspension from a ’55, a’65, or a ’75 model GM car at first glance. There really wasn’t alot of change and most of it was negative on the newer cars. Ifyou consider this, you might realize that hacking in a Camaroclip accomplishes very little but to make the car worth less.

Photo #2: This upgrade willinvolve replacing theoriginal drum brakes withdiscs, so you might as wellstart off by disconnectingthe flex lines at the frameconnection.

Photo #8: Both upperand lower cross shaftsmust be removed andreused from the controlarms if you are using P/N21-318 kit that includesthe new upper and lowercontrol arms. If you areinstalling just theShockWave shocks P/N21-317 with your stock control arms, you may skip the nexttwo steps. Start by driving one of the bushings out from theinside out. Then you can slide the cross shaft back out of theother bushing and into the hole in the control arm. Then backup and it will come out completely.

Photo #15: The upper crossshaft gets a steel bushingpushed onto the shaft oneither end. This adapts to thenew, modern bushing used inthe StrongArm kit and saveshaving to get vintage parts.

Photo #16: The outerend gets anotherbushing – actually anextension – again so thenew, larger bushing canbe used on the originalcross shaft.

Photo #17: Justbolt the newupper controlarm in placeusing the originalhardware andoriginal shimpacks. It couldn’tbe easier.

Photo #11: Seewhat I mean? Allyou have done isa little light trimand you’d have tocrawl under thecar and up intothe pocket to seethe modification.

Photo #12: Upinside thespring toweryou’ll see a lipthat was madeas part of thestampingprocess. Youhave to grindthis flat andopen up the hole just a tad for clearance at the top of theShockWave shocks.

Photo #13: If you lookat the top of the towerwhere the originalshock mounted, you’llsee a bushing wascrimped into the hole.It’s wide at the bottom,so you’ll grind the lipoff the top side anddrive the bushingdown from the top.

Photo #14:Ready to goback together,clearanceschecked, wesprayed a littletouch-up painton the baremetal.

Photo #10: Thenew ShockWaveshocks P/N 21-317 (included inkit P/N 21-318)require a littlemore clearancethan the steelcoils. Markedhere is the areathat must be trimmed. Don’t worry, it will not alter the strengthof the frame at all and if you do a nice job of cleanup youprobably won’t even know it was done.

Photo #9:The samegoes for thelower crossshafts. Hereyou can seehow thebushing ispushed outfrom theinside.

Photo #22: Bolt the lowercontrol arm onto theoriginal location. Crank themounting bolts tight butleave the bushings (upperand lower) loose until youhave them at ride height.Bushings are in tensionabove or below ride height ifinstalled right.

Photo #23: The upperend of the ShockWaveshock has a bayonetmount and you just slipit into the old shockmount hole. There is aurethane bushing ontop and bottom, a large

flat washer and two nuts to cinch the connection.

Photo #24: On this carthe owner opted for atwo-inch droppedspindle.

Photo #25: The lowerend of the ShockWaveshock mount is thecontrol arm itself. Notethere is a spacer oneither side of theShockWave.

Photo #26: Theoriginal lower controlarm bumpers comeoff the old arms andbolt to the StongArms.No detail is ignored,and it all works like itwas designed that way– and was!

Photo #27: Thecomplete kit for the tri-5 Chevy StrongArmfront suspension.Designed to be easyand uncomplicated aswell as bring yourproject into the newcentury.

The ShockWave shocks are fully adjustable for ride height andquality. Both kits P/N 21-317 and P/N 21-318 are compatiblewith the RidePro compressor and ride control kit P/N 21-305.Good luck!

Photo #18: Thelower shaft alsogets a little changeso modernbushings can beused. Look at theboss on the shaft asit came off the car.

Photo #19: On oneend only, you have toshave a little off theshort boss. This allowsthe shaft to slip intothe control arm endwhen inserting theshaft before thebushings are installed.

Photo #20: The shaft has to be worked into the StrongArmbefore you try to push the bushings into the arms. Make sureyou have the orientation of the shaft and arm right before youpress the bushings or you get to start over.

Photo #21: Again,original hardware isreused with the originalcross shafts. Believe me,this saves you a bunch ofcash using original partsinstead of designing andfabricating new shaftsand related parts.