body lifts

[ranover]

i know this one has been done sometime in the past and i searched i want to lift the rangie and was reading a thread that said get some alloy blocks and drill a hole out for the bolt. i heard the plastic stuff is illeagal somewhere and my mate got done for it. also the brake lines need extending but is it nessacary to redo the whole brake line or just add a joiner to it. what else is needed

cheers dan

[walker]

Yep, I just bought a length of 2" diameter aluminium rod cut it to size and drilled holes through the centre.
You need to buy all new flexible brake lines. I think there are 5 all up, 2 on the front left, 2 on front right and 1 at rear. If you have a manual you will also need a longer clutch hose. Gearstick will be fine on maual, njot sure what has to be done if you have an auto. I had to lengthen my transfer case lever a bit. I have the a 77 Rangie with the old crap hand brake and this almost dissapears through the floor. I guess you could try to modify the lever but I have just left it as it usually doesn't work anyway.

And lastly make sure you loosen all the uni's on you steering from the wheel to the steering box before you lift it, otherwise you will pull the steering rod out of the bush at the base of the steering column.....I did!

[ranover]

cool cheers champ.

[Loanrangie]

It would be easy to reproduce the plate that mounts the handbrake to on early rangies so as to retain the original position. You can just lower the brake line mounts so that you dont need longer flexible hoses, a simple bracket on the rear hose and repositioning of the brackets where pipe joins to flexi hose on the fronts.

[ranover]

so alloy rod is fine to use. what about nylon i have been told nylon is illegal for some reason and alloy will punch through the body doesnt make sense to me as its bolted down not jumpin around.

dan

[6.5 rangie]

i got nylon from marks 4x4 adapters, you'd think they would know if it was illegal or not

[TRobbo]

My body lift is achieved without replacing brake lines etc by lowering the the brake line mounts. You will also need to undo and lengthen your rear seat belt retaining bolts.

[86MUD]

Ranover....this is how I did mine. (I just copied this from a previous thread that I wrote......

Lifting the body isn't that hard...just need time and patience. I ordered 50mm aluminium blocks from lrexpect.com.au the kit includes 10 spacers, bolts and rubbers.

To lift the body - undo all 10 mounts plus front and rear seat belt mounts. Also undo the top mounts on the radiator, undo the universal joints of the steering shaft between the firewall and the steering box, and undo the fuel filler pipe

You will need longer front brake hoses and clutch hose.

You can just carefully turn the T piece on the rear brakeline to get more length in the rear flexible hose.

Will need to fabricate new seat belt mounts from 25 x 3 mm flat steel plate. You will also need to fabricate new load space packers (on chassis behind rear wheels) and load packers under the front seats.

Just keep an eye on everything (especially under the bonnet) as you lift the body. I just used wheel stands under the sills - 2 on each side to evenly distribute the weight. I had wind up type wheel stands, but you may be able to use a jack.

Do not lift the body under a house like I did.....I was not able to get the car out once I had finished...I had to let the tyres down to get the car out from under my house!!! Now I have to raise the house!!

If you have a bull bar and rear bar, these will need to adjusted to match the lift..

The transfer case gear lever extension is also needed.

This was completed on a 1986 EFI Rangie in a day.

Cheers

Andrew

[Davidh]

If you don't like fabricating and want the whole kit, try Les Richmond Automotive.
The kit has everything.

[wilsby]

Hijack warning:
Anyone done this on a P38 yet?

I have identified 8 rubber mounts that would need to be lifted one way or the other, the steering column needs adjustment, and something done with the rubber seal between the top of the radiator and the body. Brake lines maybe. Anything else? I only plan to do a mild lift, max 1", so the extra space between bumpers and bodywork will only be a bonus when running into things.

The objective is to be able to run 32" TSL/SX's on wide rims without screwing to much with the suspension geometry. Arnott GenIII bellows are in, need to match with longer stroke shocks and maybe tweak bumpstops and EAS height sensor links. Street driveability and low COG are priorities. I have other trucks for the really wild stuff.

[Slunnie]

Do you really need to body lift a P38a to run those tyres, especially if you're running longer shocks and presuamably longer bumpstops to suit?

[wilsby]

Do you really need to body lift a P38a to run those tyres, especially if you're running longer shocks and presuamably longer bumpstops to suit?

Yes, they are too wide to fit within the fenders. 32" is not the issue, I currently have BFG 265/75-16 on stock alloys, and they fit (just).

But the other tires are wider, and I plan on running 15" BMW wheels with much less ET. I may also need to space them out a bit to clear the calipers. The shocks will actually make things worse, since they will allow more flex, moving the lifted tire even higher up.

I would like to trick the off road height up a bit, but keep highway height as stock as possible. One of many reasons for this is the variable spring rate of my new bellows. Significantly stiffer at highway setting, and softer in high. I also hope to be able to ditch the front anti roll bar, so it is fairly important that I run in the stiffer range on road.

I am normally not a friend of body lifts, but I think it can work this time. I'm thinking 1" bodylift and 1" bumpstops will be just right.

I have also considered fender trimming. I have a set of unmounted soft rubber factory flares that could be modified to hide trimmed fenders, but I'm not ready to chop the rear doors on my DD yet.