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with "Nitro"MaxDIY
2"Bodylift
WHY?
The main
reason for putting a Body lift on my Zook was because with the Weber on the
Super Charger, the hood wouldn't close anymore. I bought a 1"
Body lift kit from Calmini on Ebay England, but when it arrived it consisted
of four 1" high Aluminum pucks and some nuts, rings and bolts ? The
seller had not taken out anything, package was undamaged and in the
instructions it said that you had to put the 4 pucks on the 4 corners of the
vehicle.......what about the rest of the supports? Just leave them floating
in the air ?? I decided to make my own Body Lift Kit in 2", why not go up
1" when the idea has already been conceived ;-)
Of course
there are loads of companies, offering loads of different types of
Body Lift Kits for the Samurai, but what more fun can it be to try and find
out what works and what not. I looked at most articles on the Internet about
body lift kits and picked up the things I liked about them, making a list of
things to keep in mind. Of course I talked to the guys @ Suzi's Place
in Buren and OffRoadCentre in Utrecht and had a look under some
Samurai's to see what went where and how it was positioned.
I did not want
to cut large holes in my floor to reach the top of the bolts so I could
grind their heads off and hammer the rest out with a screwdriver, like I
read somewhere, as you do have to patch up all those holes again !
ADVICE:
First some
advice I read in other articles which proved to be very valuable:
- Do not start
this job on a Saturday afternoon, start on a Friday morning, so there's plenty
of time to go get the parts that you forgot or need to change/buy because
you broke them
- Have an
extra vehicle ready to take you to the hardware store time and time again (
which hopefully is nearby, mine was just 1 kilometer away ).
- Have
some-one with you in the garage ! Doesn't have to be some-one with insight
in Samurai's, just some-one who knows how to operate a Hydraulic Jack and
knows the difference between a screwdriver and a 13 mm socket, so you don't
have to get from under the car a million times.
-Be sure the
car's wheels are secured with pieces of wood or stones. I lifted the body
and heard a loud "clunk" and the car moved. Appeared the body had
pushed the gearlever out of 1st gear !!!
- And one I
never read anywhere before but experienced myself: 1 or 2 days before you
start this job, get a jet wash and hose the underside of your car ! You'll be
chewing sand for days after if you don't and will be working on a very sandy
floor during the job !
You'll have to
convert the Metric sizes to available sizes your side of the ocean. I
also had to make more lift blocks because I own a LWB.
HOW
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I took some 5x5 centimeter ( 2 x 2" ) square pipe with 3 mm
wall thickness and cut 6 pieces of 10 centimeter and 10 pieces of 5
centimeter. I drilled 4 of the 5 centimeter pieces with a 12 mm drill (
all the way through ) and put a 8 cm Stainless Steel M10x1.25 bolt
through it for all four corners ( that's 1.25,
so not Metric like I bought at first, which are in the pics on the left ),
the original M10x1.25 nuts are welded to the body support and can be used
again this way .
Then I drilled a 12 mm hole through the 6 longer pieces ( of 10
centimeter ) and enlarged one of these holes to 24 mm, so I could fit
the slimmest socket through it ( MannesMan has a very slim 17 mm socket
for the 10 mm bolt head ).
After a test fit I shortened 2 of these long pieces by 2 centimeter on
one side, so I could fit them on the support near the rocker panel. The
other 6 pieces of 5 cm length I left just like that, they are just to
carry the body where it rests on the chassis, I've glued them between
chassis and body with window kit.
I also cut 6 pieces of flat metal, 4 centimeter wide ( so it fits
nicely inside the 5 cm square pipe ) 8 centimeter long and drilled a
10mm hole in it. On one side of that hole I welded a M10 nut. |
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I loosened all the original bolts and
nuts from the body, 2 behind the grill, 2 behind the seats on the
outside, 2 behind the seats near the handbrake, 2 in the rear bumper,
and if you have an LWB like me: 2 more in the bed near the
inner rear fenders ( check your Haynes manual to find them ) |
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Cut the plastic pins that are in the steering column
( barely visible in this picture, but they are the little white dots
), so the column could slide a little. In one article I read they
advised to heat the steering column to melt the factory Loctite, I
didn't and it slid anyway, probably Monday morning Loctite on mine .
Leave it like that and certainly do NOT put a screw back in to secure
the column again, unless you want the steering column in your chest in
case of a collision, the pins are meant to break and let the column
slide in such an emergency !
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I loosened the clamp for the
brake lines on the inside of the right hand front fender, the
fuel filler hose and breather hose in the back, raised the body one
side at the time with a large jack and some large pieces of wood
against the bottom of the body and a small jack between chassis and
body for the extra support. I noticed the rear bodywork getting
caught in the rear bumper so I took that off as well. Check your fuel-,
water- and brake lines while lifting the body.
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I took
some pictures of the way I cut the original body bolts on the inner
support under the drivers seat.
This is
what it looks like when you lift the car and take the bottom rubber
off, the rubber with metal tube slide off after some prying
What's
left is the long "pin" or body bolt with thread only on the lower part
I cut it
of ( couldn't reach with the grinder so used a saw ) just above the
thread and cut M10 Metric on the pin that was left ( bad pics, but I'm
a wrenchman, not a photographer ;-) )
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I cut the bolts just
above where the original thread is ( they only have thread on the
lower part, up to about 3 cm from the top ) and cut M10 Metric thread on the
part of the bolt that was left. Slid one of the 10cm
blocks over it, put a chassis ring, a lock ring and an M10 nut on the
thread and tightened it with the MannesMan socket through the 24 mm
hole on the underside of the block. It fits through the hole in the
body support as you can see.
Then I put the 8 cm flat piece of
metal with the nut welded on it in the 5x5 ( on the bottom ) and bolted a 8 cm long
Stainless M10 bolt - again with chassis- and lock ring - through the
original chassis points together with the original rubbers that go between
chassis and body. Good thing is, that even if you don't lift the body
that high, you can slip the socket through the hole in the
body support.
On the left one of the blocks installed
Top is the original bolt cut to the length I needed,
cut with M10 thread all the way up to the bottom of the car, with
Stainless M10 nut and rings, bottom is new Stainless M10 bolt and nut.
Original rubbers were good so I used them again, you might consider
buying new ones if yours are worn.
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Slid the 10 centimeter block over the threaded pin,
put a Stainless chassis ring, lock ring and nut on it and tightened it
through the body support and 24 mm hole.
After that I put the original rubbers back on and
tightened it like I did in the pictures above this section. |
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For the
2 side blocks, next to the rocker panels (outside next to the chairs)
I had to make some changes to my design, because I couldn't get the
handle that holds the cutting plate to turn around because of the
rocker panel.
I
forgot to take pics but will try to explain:
I took
the grinder and - over "the long side" - cut a slot the
width of the pin out from
the side to the 12 mm hole, so I could slide the block over the pin, I
couldn't cut thread on the pin, so I cut the pin on the threaded part
leaving just enough thread for the original 10x1.25 nut, put some rings
and a big M14 nut over it as spacer and tightened it that way. Because
this is just a little longer that the pins I cut above the original
thread I had to grind of some of the height of the nut that I welded
to the flat piece of metal to tighten the bottom part, there was just
that little space left. |
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Do not forget to re-attach the fuel filler- and
breather hose and drill new holes for the brake line clamp just a
couple of centimeters below where it used to be. |
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The gap between chassis and inner fender, not
disturbing me at all
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Was it
worth it ?
Because
of the different design and the fact that I had to do it all on my own,
getting from under the car a million times to adjust the jack, get
that screwdriver that's rolled just out of reach, dropping a nut
somewhere you can't find it anymore and go to the hardware store 3
times for different bolts in the freezing cold it took me a total of
about 8 hours ( one hour just to find that the LWB does have 2 extra
bolts contrary to what they told me when I informed on this and the
previous owner had covered them with new sheet metal during a
rust repair, so I had to cut a hole in the bed after "careful "measurements"
).
Yes,
it's worth it, the hood closes because of the engine now being 5 cm
lower
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SHOPPING
LIST:
5x5
centimeter square tube ( again for the LWB, I'll get
some-one to count the amount of blocks needed for a SWB )
- 4
pieces of 10 centimeter with 12mm and 24 mm hole opposite each other
- 2
pieces of 8 centimeter with 12mm and 24 mm hole opposite each other
-10
pieces of 5 centimeter, no holes
Flat
metal:
6 pieces
of 4 centimeter wide with 10mm hole and M10 nut welded on
Bolts
and Nuts:
-6 M10 x
1.25 bolts, 8 centimeters long
-6 M10
bolts, 8 centimeters long
- enough
chassis- and lock rings for those bolts and to use as spacers
Tools:
-
Grinder
-
Metalsaw
- M10
cutting tool
-
Slimmest 17 socket you can find ( MannesMan )
-
Hydraulic Jack
- Small
standard Jack
- Blocks
of wood
- Normal
wrenches, screwdrivers and sockets you use
ALWAYS
GOOD TO HAVE:
- Coffee
- Cigars
-
Some-one to help you
- Radio
-
Sunshine
If you
have any questions remaining or need more detailed pics, feel free to mail me on: nitromax@izook.com
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