What about using the air ride setup from a late 80's Lincoln

I know the Lincolns did have trouble with those as the miles packed on, but since I'm not a member of any Lincoln forums I don't know if it was the shock itself, or the electronics. I would bet it was the shocks that gave the trouble.

Looks like one could take all of the air control stuff of the Lincoln, and adapt it to the B, not so much to drag frame, but for an adjustable, and smooth ride.

Anyone have any comments or insight on this?

Yeah you can but there is not a lot of travel. Those units are like most shocks they can not run without air and blow the seals quickly.

Interesting, I wonder if there are any other factory air ride controlled systems that could work, and be had for cheap.

I wonder if you could upgrade the shocks to Shockwaves by Ridetec? I know this would blow the budget, but I already have these on my truck, and the Ridetec controller full setup is over $3k.

I've personally never done it. I've heard of people hooking up solenoid valves to them to give them control but that's about it.

Not easily grabbed from a junk yard like Lincoln bags...and not even really that easy to use but...

I was going to use these bags from Mercedes Benz R-Class. They are rear bags. The R-Class can tow 4000 lbs. and payload 500 so, they're pretty tuff. I got these because they were pulled for leaking down when the R's are parked. Band clamp at the top of the bag leaks a bit. For me, "falls down overnight?... Whatever..."
I was going to try and make them work (and still may...) but for the foreseeable future I'll be rolling static.
This is fully compressed...

...Full inflated height...

...the air line inlet and the top...

And the bottom, which is a little weird. You can see how you could position it to work, or you could grind it flat. There are no threaded holes to bolt them in with though..


I don't think you could ride them deflated. The plastic ends would just hit until they broke.
You could hit up a local Benz dealer who throws these things into the scrap dumpster (ask first!) and even ask if they would set aside a few for you.
I have about 4 or 5 of them and anyone would be welcome to them if they like.
Just an idea.

Good info, what about the rest of the system like the compressor, and air tank.

Also, was the Mercedes air bags adjustable from the dash, or were they programed to keep a certain ride height?

The compressors are slow but build good pressure. Near 125 psi.
No tanks on these systems. Compressor to a valve block to the bags. They are for load leveling so, they just maintained ride height. There are level sensors on both sides of the rear axles and a control unit does all the figuring. Real basic.
I figured with these bags, the old fittings from them, a valve block, old compressor, line from Home Depot and a tank, I could make a slow and basic air ride system. Just to clear bumps, with some basic wiring to the valve block and compressor. Real RatRod/LoTech style shit. That's kind of my thing. After working on Benz's all day!

Sounds like a good idea. I would think that the MB compressor would be a quality build vs an el-cheapo from ebay.

Like you said, the main reason I would want to do this is ,
A: I'm at the end of my budget.

B: It would be nice to have something to use to clear bad spots in the road, speed bumps etc, or just let it down a little to run at the track.