Adapt a Drivers Side Air Bag to an old Fox (paul78zephyr??)

[zak]

As I continue to consider keeping my 85 LTD LX as a driver (the recent '03/'04 Mustang Mach I struts, and Dunlop SP5000's make it ride like a new car), I was thinking about possibly adapting a drivers side steering column, air bag, brain, harness and crash sensors from a 1990 to 1993 Mustang to it.. I was curious whether anyone had any opinions on how hard this would be to accomplish - not sure how well the trim would fit between a 90+ column and my old LTD LX instrument bezel. Also, the steel bumpers might tend to set off the airbag under lower speed impacts than the designers intended, as the deceleration rates measured by the4 sensors might be higher.

paul78zephyr, I put your handle in the title because I recall from Ford-fox.org that you were very skilled at electrical upgrades.

Any thoughts from anyone welcome - zak

[paul78zephyr]

Zak,
I'm flattered by your reference. I've done some major rewiring to my Zephyr including adding many power accessories but I would have to say that adding an airbag to an older car that was not originally designed for one is one VERY bad idea. An airbag system is a very complex system that is integrated into a car's design from the beginning. Millions of dollars are spent by the manufacturers to have people with PhDs doing computer modelling, crash simulations, etc. The airbag itself is basically an explosive device that must perform in a few milliseconds. Trying to fool around with this is a recipe for DISASTER and could actually KILL you instead of saving you. In my opinion: FORGET IT!!!!

Paul

[LTDScott]

Zak,
I'm flattered by your reference. I've done some major rewiring to my Zephyr including adding many power accessories but I would have to say that adding an airbag to an older car that was not originally designed for one is one VERY bad idea. An airbag system is a very complex system that is integrated into a car's design from the beginning. Millions of dollars are spent by the manufacturers to have people with PhDs doing computer modelling, crash simulations, etc. The airbag itself is basically an explosive device that must perform in a few milliseconds. Trying to fool around with this is a recipe for DISASTER and could actually KILL you instead of saving you. In my opinion: FORGET IT!!!!

Paul

DITTO!

[Zephyr 351C]

I hate airbags. Theres just something about driving around with a cannon pointed at my face that irks the hell outta me. What really sucks at the moment is the hot rod is broken (trans is dying), and I'm driving my 94 Chevy Caprice.

[zak]

Not to belabor the point, but retrofiting of air bags as a business opportunity has not gone un-noticed by the automotive aftermaket, see this article:
http://ca.autos.yahoo.com/maintain/restraint_systems2.html

note these Breed SRS40 ones are no longer avilable.

In the case of a mid-80's Fox car, the major crumple zones (forwarxd of the strut towers, rearward of the rad support) are in all ways idnetical to a 1990 Mustang. However, the LTD LX uses steel bumpers while the 1990 Mustang used a ploymer wrapped front beam of some kind. The 90-93 Mustang application uses three crash sesnors located on the radiator support on the left, cetner and right positions.

One concern is that the higher decleration rates of a steel bumper-ed car compared to one with a softer bumper - which is one of the very few engineering reasons why this approach might not work/

Anyone have an opinion on how well a 90-93 'stang steering column would fit an LTD-LX 1985 ? - zak

[jdelong50]

i would not personally try that conversion. to many things to go wrong one small mistake and boom you get hit in the face. not saying you can't do it but just my .02

[PvtJoker]

Airbags suck, I was driving a lincoln once that was equiped with an airbag, I drove off a 1 foot drop where a concrete road became gravel, and there was a hellatious drop there, the damn airbag brused my face, and actually caused me to ditch the car and total it, when normaly I would have been able to have it under control.