Now the REALLY intense fabrication started...
When I bought the front ShockWave air bag kit, it was the correct application for a G body. So upon receiving it, I opened up the box and proceeded to read through the instructions. I'm paraphrasing a bit here, but essentially, it was something like "it is the users responsibility to ensure that the airspring doesn't rub on any part of the frame, the opening will need to be trimmed back and a section of the outside of the frame will need to be removed."
WHAT????
First of all, you're compromising the structural rigidity of the frame, and second, it's going to look terrible!
So, unable to live with leaving the frame as they suggested, I took matters into my own hands, and came up with a solution. This is what I did:
After trimming away the interfering section of frame, I calculated the maximum width of the bag in its compressed state. This was around 7". I took an 8" grinding disk into a metal fabrication shop, and had them run a couple 1/8" plates through their slip roller until they matched the 8" diameter I needed. This would give me a 1/2" of clearance around the side of the bag.
The frame was then positioned so that the new piece was straight and level when tacked onto the side, and gave me a baseline for repeatability when it came to duplicate it on the other side.
The swaybar was then mocked up and centered to check for clearance.
As you can see in this pic, the clearance just wasn't enough for my liking.
However, after pie cutting a small section out of the stock frame and adjusting the new piece, I was able to get the clearance I wanted to see.
I did however have lots of clearance to the outside edge of the 'bag.
After determining the proper location of the outside piece, a template of the "floor" (actually the "roof" 'cause it's upside down) was made, transferred to steel, cut out and tacked into place. The 2 small "scabs" on the outside were to hold everything square and in place during fitment and welding.
Then it was fully burned in.