Bagging a Macstrut car

OK... I have an air setup that I was planning on putting on my S10, but a growing family forced me to sell the truck and get something larger. I got a smokin deal on a 94 Maxima, but I cant stand looking at it stock.

I understand that the strut turns in the bearing plate, so it makes bagging it a little more difficult. I have installed hydraulics on a Macstrut car before, and bags on a minitruck, but bags on a FWD car are a different animal.

What is the best way of bagging this thing without buying airstruts? Air cylinders? or making a top plate for the bag to mount to that can bolt into the stock bearing plate?

Any pics would be helpful as well...

i looked at doing the same thing b/c i didnt want to pay the price for strut bags either.
cylinders wont work-the twisting will cause the seals to go bad.
my idea was to drill a hole in top and bottom plate of the bag to slide the strut rod through, then having a plate at the top to take care of the rotating strut rod. It seemed like more work than it was worth, and would be hard to avoid leaks. I talked to other people that had done similar things, and they said the same.
So i just dropped the money on some easystreets.

Would it be possible to weld a bolt to an upper bag cup or plate that would bolt to the stock location, and weld a plate to the top of the cut-down strut?

I would have to find a place to mount a shock though, but would that work?

I did this once on a jetta and it worked: Take an old hydraulic cylinder and drill a hole in a bag and weld on end of the bag to the hydraulic stroke and the other end to the hydro cylinder body - the cylinder acts as a support for the bag. You then install the bag/cylinder the same way you install a normal hydraulic strut cylinder and wala!

dont they make bags for this ....there was a s-10 on here that used them for accumlators

Do a hybrid air/hydro setup. with the hydro cylinder actually on the control arm, but your bags in the trunk on a lever system pushing fluid into the hydro.

The tops of bags are way to thin to weld to and hold any weight.

Originally posted by AON-OFFDAHOOK



I did this once on a jetta and it worked: Take an old hydraulic cylinder and drill a hole in a bag and weld on end of the bag to the hydraulic stroke and the other end to the hydro cylinder body - the cylinder acts as a support for the bag. You then install the bag/cylinder the same way you install a normal hydraulic strut cylinder and wala!

So would it be a hydraulic system, air, or hybrid??

Originally posted by shvdass



The tops of bags are way to thin to weld to and hold any weight.

Kinda what I thought too.

I have seen some cups that were for a gm that had a threaded rod welded to them (to bolt into the stock upper shock hole?) Just wondering if that same idea would work on a FWD car. Any ideas?

remember, there has to be a shock/cylinder running through the center of the bag no matter what. other wise there is nothing to stop the spindle from flopping around, because there is no upper arm.
in my opinion just spend the $800 and buy strutbags kit and be done with it. i hate dealing with poor/cheap design problems.