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Discussion starter · #21 ·
Mail time.

The Airlift 3P kit arrived.

Nothing much to explain here, just photos.





Installed the female end of the quick connect to the harness so it can match with the male end I previously attached to the compressors.

 

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Discussion starter · #22 ·
Here I connected the harness' power cables to the battery.

Had to remove the battery to make it easier to reach the grommet in the firewall, next to the steering column inside the car.

Sanded the factory ground, installed the included ring terminal on the ground cable, wrapped it in tesa tape and hooked them both up.



Got the positive cable, used a butt connector to hook up the fuse holder, put the fuse in and slapped some tesa tape on it.



Took off the positive battery terminal cover and hooked it up to an already populated bolt (direct to the battery connection, not fused).
I think* I had to get one of my ring terminals for this because the other included one was too big and wouldn't fit.



Put the cover back on, impress the dealership with that, looks OEM+



Put the battery back on, make sure nothing catches fire and pat yourself on the back.



Ran the USB cable along with an extension and connected the ignition cable to an add-a-fuse I already had in the inside fuse holder for the dash cam.
Didn't take pictures of this, I hate working under the steering wheel, barely fit in there and messes up my back pretty good.
 

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Discussion starter · #23 ·
Off with the trunk panels again.



Played around with the manifold on where to mount it so it didn't interfere with the trunk arm or anything else, then placed a template to drill out the holes.



This picture is busy.
We now have all 4 drains going to the outside of the car.
1. The compressor's big water separator that goes to the tank (3/8" drain).
2. From the tank we run another line to a filter that Airlift includes and from there it goes into the manifold, that one has a 1/8" drain.
3. The manifold has a 1/4" drain for letting the air out of the bags.
4. The ball valve's 1/4" drain to manually drain the water from the tank (Or the air if you need to service any fittings/lines).

Where necessary I covered the air lines with thick layers of tesa tape to protect them from rubbing the sheet metal.



None of the bags are on at this point but the manifold's valves all seem to work, the settings, buttons, compressor relay, etc, all work.

 

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Discussion starter · #24 · (Edited)
The bag install.

I already had the BC Coils installed so I went Frankenstein on this and kept the BC shocks all around.

As for bags, in the rear I went with the Airlift bags and brackets (~$590 for all of this).

This bracket... had me sweating, you have to slide a piece of metal into a hole then screw the bracket in, like 90% blind. First side was a pain, the second side I did in like 30 seconds.

Step one, thread bracket into the threaded metal plate you put in the hole, leave loose.



Then you can put the bag on, orient everything correctly and tighten down.



The reason I had such a hard time on the first one was because the instructions tell you to attach the bag to the bracket first, then thread the whole assembly to the car. No way I was able to do that, had to remove the bag from the bracket, insert the bracket alone and then thread the bracket to the bag again (like I pictured above).

You can find the instructions on their site: https://www.airliftperformance.com/vehicle/mazda-6-gen-3/

Anyways, this is how it looks like when it's aired out. The bag doesn't rub at all (half a month later).



This is what it looks like aired out in the back, with coils still in the front.



And here's a scenic shot for your enjoyment.

 

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Discussion starter · #25 ·
Similar to the back, wanted to kept the BC shocks in the front to not spend $1000 on the Airlift kit.

These bags thread onto the shock body and seal with various o-rings. My guess is that the Airlift doesn't have the same thread as the BC so I took them out of the equation.

Only brands I saw selling this were OCD bags that you have to buy from BagRiders if you are in the USA at $500 for 2 and ~$20 in shipping, or AirTekk, for about 50 bucks less for the pair.

I ended up going with some Aliexpress bags. :confused: I know right. But they were both $190 shipped.

Here are the bags (left is top view, right is bottom).



Jacked up the whole side of the car to run the air line from the trunk to the front.



Removed the top parts and spring from the shock and inserted the bag.
You can tell I purchased some quality parts right about now with the upside down logo.



Threaded the bag onto the body as far as it would go, then made sure the port on the bag would point to the back. Made sure the height on the other side of the car was identical.



Finally I attached the braided line to the port on the bag.
Used a braided line since this can move up and down as you drive and it most likely will rub the fender walls all it's life.
I need to take the fronts out later to replace a metal bushing I bought from BagRiders, but it's been back ordered and I still don't have it.



This is how I ran the air line from the back to the front, probably other ways to do it, but this way seems to be working fine and I could not see another easy way to get to the front without removing a bunch of panels from under the car.



Here's the bag in it's final resting position, you can see to the left of it how I cut a slot to insert the braided line into the fender liner and drilled 2 holes (in the plastic liner) to hold it down with some zip ties.



The next 2 photos show the clearance around the bag, I cycled the suspension up and down with a camera in there recording from various angles and there seems to be no contact with anything.




Last, but definitely not least. You have to be mindful with the braided wire.
The picture below is the driver side tire, full lock turning left. Hard to see but when low the tire would rub onto the braided line. I had to raise the zip tie a bit on this side to lift the hose up, that fixed it.



Ran out of attachment links on this post so this is to be continued. Just need to show the "fitment" since this covers the whole install.
 

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Discussion starter · #26 ·
The last part of the Air install, for now.

Here's what everything looked like installed.



With the compressor in it's place.



The back of the tank, all lines installed.
1. Tank to management.
2. Compressor to tank.
3. Plugged off.
4. Tool line & Safety valve



Now... Here is the part I had mentioned earlier.
The big air filter in the pics above is N.O. (Normally Open), meaning when there is no pressure in the system the drain is open.
When compressor starts, the air pressure should close it, but the compressor is too small so it doesn't, I had to plug the drain in the meanwhile.
So, I needed to buy a N.C. (Normally Closed) filter.

Removed the old one and installed the fittings on the new one.




Had to modify the holes in the bracket to fit this new one.



And installed back in it's place.



Here is a close up of all the drains.



And finally...

The finished trunk install pics.
The tank needs to be cleaned but everything is done.


 

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The system and DIY are both looking great. How are you enjoying the ride?

Did you run the lines from the tank to the bags underneath the car or through the interior?

Were the bags/struts hard to install?

I helped my friend install BC coilovers onto his IS250 and it was a complete nightmare, which makes more worried about touching the suspension
 
Discussion starter · #28 ·
The system and DIY are both looking great. How are you enjoying the ride?

Did you run the lines from the tank to the bags underneath the car or through the interior?

Were the bags/struts hard to install?

I helped my friend install BC coilovers onto his IS250 and it was a complete nightmare, which makes more worried about touching the suspension
The ride is good, doesn't air out as low as I would like in the front and have to make some modifications to the rear but I'll work on that next week.

Ran the lines outside/under the car, if you scroll to post #25 you will see how, but here is a more detailed picture.

Down from the manifold out by the bumper, behind the rear wheel and into the plastic piece under the side skirt all the way to the front. Just pushed it in there and it came out the other side. It's never exposed or a low point in the car.


Bags/coilovers in this car are not hard to install, with the right equipment.*
Get a jack, stands, wheel chock, breaker bar, torque wrench, an extension to tighten the front shock behind the brake disk, pliers to remove brake clips and an impact gun if you have one, why not.

But very important, a spare scissor jack to lift the suspension arm in the front when you need to install/remove your sway bar end links and the two bolts that hold the shock in place, in the rear to install your bottom shock nut.
The sockets you need for sure are 14, 17, 21 and 22. maybe 19 and 24, don't remember.

If you have all that, the suspension won't be a problem.
 

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The ride is good, doesn't air out as low as I would like in the front and have to make some modifications to the rear but I'll work on that next week.

Ran the lines outside/under the car, if you scroll to post #25 you will see how, but here is a more detailed picture.

Down from the manifold out by the bumper, behind the rear wheel and into the plastic piece under the side skirt all the way to the front. Just pushed it in there and it came out the other side. It's never exposed or a low point in the car.


Bags/coilovers in this car are not hard to install, with the right equipment.*
Get a jack, stands, wheel chock, breaker bar, torque wrench, an extension to tighten the front shock behind the brake disk, pliers to remove brake clips and an impact gun if you have one, why not.

But very important, a spare scissor jack to lift the suspension arm in the front when you need to install/remove your sway bar end links and the two bolts that hold the shock in place, in the rear to install your bottom shock nut.
The sockets you need for sure are 14, 17, 21 and 22. maybe 19 and 24, don't remember.

If you have all that, the suspension won't be a problem.

Yeah, I think if I had the tools, then it would definitely help. At the end, we stripped one bolt and couldn't reassemble the rear strut and had to get it towed to a shop :lol:

Did you get an alignment yet and would a typical shop like Good Year know how to do an alignment for air suspension, especially making sure nothing punctures the bags.
 
Discussion starter · #30 ·
Yeah, I think if I had the tools, then it would definitely help. At the end, we stripped one bolt and couldn't reassemble the rear strut and had to get it towed to a shop :lol:

Did you get an alignment yet and would a typical shop like Good Year know how to do an alignment for air suspension, especially making sure nothing punctures the bags.
Got an alignment when I installed the coilovers, still have not aligned the car with bags, need to replace the BC front camber plate bushings that go on top of the bags with these guys.
https://www.bagriders.com/bc-racing-pillowball-mount-spacer-18mm-7508.html
Finally shipped from back-order but it'l be about a week until I receive them so about a week more before I align it.

The alignment should be the same as with coils, just make sure it's set at the pressure (height) where you drive the car when you take it in, and let them know.
The only way to puncture a bag is intentional. Can't speak for the fronts as I don't have Airlifts but in general there is plenty of clearance and they shouldn't touch/rub any parts.
 
Discussion starter · #31 ·
Here I'm dealing with a problem when riding low in the back.

The tires rub on the metal fender/quarter panel, and the plastic guard.




With the guard removed you can see where I ran the lines for the front/rear bags.



A bit to the left you can see where the drains exit, took this chance to trim them all to equal length (roughly), though it will never be seen.



Started cutting the metal with a Dremel. you can see the shiny part that was taking chunks out of my tire.




Cleaned up with a grinding wheel, kept going a bit more from here but didn't take pictures.

.

Long story short, plastic guard still touches the tire, the metal barely rubs the side of the tire when airing out, but that's all the time I had for today.

Took some videos but not sure how to put them up, will do that later.
 

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Discussion starter · #32 · (Edited)
Here are some of the pictures I have taken after the bag install.
Don't think I ever got around to posting them.

All of the photos are aired out.







Have to be careful when backing up into parking spots, the other day I overshot it a bit.



I plan to install a camera in the front bumper somewhere, to aid in parking head on if I want to air the car out. That project is still a month or two away though, other things to do for now.

Some other pictures in the attachment section.

At ride height the car is level, aired out the front a bit higher than the rear.
Want to go lower when aired out, rear is easy to lower more but don't want to until I can figure out the front.
 

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Discussion starter · #33 ·
This next part of the build may be insignificant in size but the evil M logo I purchased from Aliexpress... long story short, can't stay on the car.

First world problems here, gonna have to modify the original one.

Chapter one: Gonna get worse before it gets better.

First thing I had to do was set some epoxy in the bottom part of the emblem to fill the void since this part will need to be molded by hand.



A day later the epoxy has cured, cut the top part off.



Cut it closer, got a small nick in the right side but we will deal with that later.



And got it perfect with sandpaper.



Here's where we are at, looks weird like this.



Afterwards, made a little template, centered it and marked where to cut.



And, cut it.



Still not the finished product... Just in case anyone was wondering.
 

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Discussion starter · #34 ·
Continuing from where we left off.

Chapter 2: The batman.

From the marks we made earlier, used a dremel and took off the bulk of the material.



Front view, took off some of the metal plating as necessary, it peels off.



Then did it to the other side. Looks cool like this, like fangs,



Make sure both sides are as perfect or as crooked as you wish them to be.



Get one side, dremel, file and sand it down to a tip.



Then did it to the other side.



Here's a view of how it's looking.
Doesn't have to be perfect, as we will take care of this in the next step.



Here it is next to the cheap one.



A few more pics.
The OEM one has a curve, the cheap one is flat so it does not lay correctly in the trunk of our cars.


 

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Discussion starter · #35 ·
Chapter 3: Dave Ramsey's Bondo Buggy.

Continuing from the last post, scratched up the smooth metal plating.



Filled in the imperfections with glazing putty.



Sanded it smooth.



Gave it one coat.



Two and three coats of primer, let it dry for a day.



Sanded the imperfections down under a bright light. A light sanding to the rest of it as well.



How it looks after that.




Gave it another 3 coats of primer and set it to dry until the next day.



Now I need to decide whether to chrome plate it, or paint it gloss black and paint all of the car's trim to match.
 

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Discussion starter · #36 ·
Got around to installing the bushings from Bagriders.

Here it is on the right, the one that comes with the springs on the left.



The install, had to take the whole strut assembly out and swap the parts.




Here's the new aired out stance.

About a half inch lower than before.
Next week I'm gonna find out how much lower she can go.




Officially tucking the front rim.
 

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Discussion starter · #38 ·
Chapter 4: The Decision.

A lot of thinking on whether to plate it chrome or paint it black.

Plating it chrome would be cheaper and simpler since I'll leave the rest of the trim chrome.

But, I don't know, grey and black, looks cool, at least from my photo-shopped pictures.
If I don't like it I'll just plate it afterwards.

The paint I bought.



After final coat of black.



After drying a bit.



Turned out good, no imperfections I can see.
Next week I'll sand it, spray on clear and sand/polish that to finish it off.
 

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The car is looking amazing. It looks like its sitting so much lower to the ground.

When you got the wheels, did you opt for 19s or 20s.
Any issues with clearance with the bags or fenders?
I really like the directional look

I wanted to get either some Rohanas that were 2k or a set of Rotiform that were 1k

Any thoughts of running spacers in the future?? or body kits from like MV tuning?
 
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