Okay, so after looking long and hard (that's what she said) I have come to the conclusion that air bag suspension kits are too dang expensive. for my c230 kompressor the kit is somewhere around $2,500 which is just too much considering that is approaching the worth of the car as a whole. Unfortunately, said c230 is starting to show it's age and the stock suspension is starting to feel a little worn out. as far as I can tell the struts are still in okay shape, but the springs themselves are whats making the ride so uncomfortable. so i decided on a little bit of a change. and while coilovers seem to be a great low budget replacement, and to address the "Why in the everloving HELL would you want to do THAT" comments ahead of time, I would like to find a way to put my car on air ride suspension, mostly due to poor road conditions where i live exaggerating how worn the current springs are, i would very much like the smooth ride of air bags, and the aesthetic value would be nice. I don't do much hard cornering so weight transfer and body roll is not much of a concern for me. that said i have had to approach the situation with a budget in mind, because while i love my car and plan to keep it for many more years to come, 2,500 for a suspension kit is just too much. however, i have come across this product: https://www.ebay.com/itm/251900896289 (used as example not reflective of final purchase) which would make it seem that i could remove the stock springs from the struts and simply replace them with these bags or similar bags and then simply replace the rear springs with similar, non sleeve bags and some brackets while leaving the rear shocks untouched. then I should be able to add some fittings, line, a small compressor and tank and actuators for around $700 total, which is pretty close to the cost of a set of coilovers. However that is still a substantial investment, and so before i do something really stupid and get started on a fools errand, i would like to know if anyone has ever done anything similar to this, or has any experience in this field (I am a novice after all). Thanks!

 

UPDATE: it appears after further research that i may not need extra brackets for the rear bags, i may be able to do some simple modifications to the spring brackets by drilling a couple of bolt holes, making the price even lower.

 

 

The kits I found were online, but they were all exorbitantly high in price. If you can find a decent custom shop and supply the parts, the setup I designed here would only run about $750-800 in parts. I can send a parts list if you want to see if anyone in your area will do it. Just post pics so i can see how it turns out plz.