80s lift - Panhards or lower arms and radius arms?

[pridhac]

Folks,

I want to lift my 80 by six inches. I would like to run 35s or 36s.

I'm told that a 4" spring lift and 2" body lift is the best compromise to clear these size tyres with the least detriment to on-road handling. So question 1 is, is a body lift on an 80 easily achieved, and is this wise, or are there known issues?

Question 2 is, do I just need springs, shocks, brake lines, caster plates and adjustable panhard rods, or do I need to go to the considerable additonal expense of dropped radius arms and adjustable lower arms too?

I'm sure lots of you have pondered these questions, and have much expereience with similar issues. I look forward to hearing your views :-)

Cheers,

Chris

[g35me]

I first ran 35's on a 4 inch lift and it worked ok. I would hit on the flares full articulation. So then I added a 2 inch body lift and everything is perfect now. No problems at all and drives great.

The body lift was easily done although a couple of the body bolts were rusted into place and needed cutting to get them off. I also needed to extend my steering column shaft despite what some others have said. And also bend the Hi-Low shifter as cutting a notch in the floorpan was not enough to get it to engage. I didnt have to lower my radiator as I was at the time running twin thermos but you may want to consider dropping it.

Dont forget to lower your brake proportioning valve by the height of the body lift as well.

As for the suspension lift, I used new springs, shocks, adjustable pan hards, extended brake lines and caster correction bushes. Everything bar the bushes you could fit yourself. If you were going with caster plates you could fit them too. I would also like to put on a drop pitman arm as the angles I think are to dramatic and I have twisted a couple of sector shafts.