Piston Slap: The Barber Shop Coil Spring Swap?

Loooongtime TTAC Commentator Nate writes:

My barber is another Yankee-to-West Coast transplant and he brought a low-mileage 2003 Mercury Grand Marquis. It’s very nice but every now and then the air suspension decides to get wonky and the car settles down as he’s driving along. As a barber he doesn’t have much $ to throw at it, and he asked me if I knew what to do.

I think this is a Panther chassis so any old cop car or taxi’s coil springs and shocks should be a fairly easy air suspension-to-coil springs retrofit but I’m physically not up to the job. How do I find one of the myriad hole-in-the-wall shops that fixes up old cop cars for the movies and TV?

I’m sure they’d have the parts and knowledge on hand and be affordable to boot. Once this is fixed he’ll consider replacing the weepy AC evaporator deep inside the dashboard (shudder).

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  • MaintenanceCosts Depends on the record of the company developing them. If it’s got a record of prioritizing safety over years of development, I’ll be fine with it, and I’ll expect it to be less risky than typical idiot human drivers. If it’s a “move fast and break sh!t” outfit like Tesla or Uber, no way.
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X No thanks. You'll never convince me that anybody needs this.
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X I'd rather do the driving.
  • SCE to AUX EVs are a financial gamble for any mfr, but half-hearted commitment will guarantee losses.BTW, if there were actual, imminent government EV mandates, no mfr could make a statement about "listening to their customers".
  • Zachary How much is the 1984 oldmobile (281)8613817