Almost finished my Body Lift

[Terranosaurus]

Well I started my body lift today, I've had the spacers for a while but got some bolts earlier this week unfortunately I may need some different ones.

Mines a 95N, SWB 2.4 Petrol manual and whilst I should have reread the download on this before I bought the bolts it wouldn't have helped as I'd still have ended up with the wrong bolts just different wrong bolts.


There are 4 body to chassis fixings per side.

From the front

1 M10 x 1.25 x 100mm bolt head up nut down, both ends are accessible.

2 M10 x 1.25 x 100mm bolt head down, the nut is semi captive being held in a plastic holder under the footwell carpet.

3 M12 x 1.25 x 100mm bolt head down to captive nut which is inaccessible under the rear passenger footwell, its in a void.

4 M12 x 1.25 x 100mm bolt head down to captive nut which is inaccessible in a box section under the boot floor.


So far I have removed

1 both front bolts, with a lot of swearing and swinging on a 2 foot breaker bar.

2 More of the same and I had to lift the carpets (more on that later) destroy the plastic retainer.

3 Even more of the same, though I was really careful to work the bolt back and forth so as to help free it up as I went

4 I did these first and they were the most trouble. The offside one has sheared - OOOOOPS - the near side one appears to have sheared the captive nut off the body so now I can't get it undone. The plan at the moment is to use a core drill to put a whole in the side of th box section so I can get a spanner in to hold the nut and then undo that side. On the offside I'm going to lift the body up and then attempt to bend the shaft of the bolt so I can hammer it round all being well this will also loosen the captive nut and I can treat as the nearside.


The bolts I'm fitting.

As it was months ago that I read the workshop download I forgot th bolts are metric fine and bought ordinary metric bolts, however the download says the 98 truck at least use M12s throughout and I definitely have a mix of M10 and M12 so heres the plan.

1 use the ordinary M10 x 160 bolts as I can replace everything with these.

2 as 1

3 Try to source some M12 x 1.25 x 160 bolts, which might not be easy even though fittings etc are my business.

4 I think I'll end up removing both captive nuts in the end so I may as well fit the M12 x 160 bolts I've got complete with new nuts. In which case I'll probably get the core drill out again and get access to remove the other M12 nuts (3) so that I don't have to buy any more new bolts and they can all be the same.


Removing the rear bumper

This turned out to be easier than I thought.

There are 4 bolts through the chassis rails, outboard where the recover points are these were fairly easy.

There are four bolts holding a steel panel that supports the mud flap assembly to the chassis rail in the back of the wheel arch, these ned removing. Remove the tail lights, using the 4 obvious screws on the outside and then is connect the wiring, detach a couple of multiplugs attached in the nearside corner of the bump and deal with the number plate ad number plate lights too (mine doesn't have one I fitted a mistral number plate holder a while ago).

The bumper should then pull off, with a little bending of the mudflps etc.


Rot
Or should that be more rot - those of you that have seen the pictures of the hole I had in my sill will no that the tin worm has got a hold of my truck, hence the seized bolts. Removing the bumper revealed more.Behind the rear wheels behind the bumper there is a downward facing air vent, which if you go wading will allow water in but unfortunately it won't drain out, or at least the last 5" or so depth won't, at least not until its rotted through the bodywork for you. These air vents will be sealed up with plastic sheet and silicon once the metal work has been repaired.


Carpet

I've decided I'm going to take my carpets out for the time being, possibly permanently, we'll see. They are very wet underneath though they appear dry from above. This should give them opportunity to dry fully and me opportunity to seal every last hole. I'll see how much noisierit is, if not too bad I'll leave em out for good, it's not our everyday transport as w have an Impreza for that and I use a van for work.



Why is it with these jobs that nothing goes smoothly and you always find there twice as many jobs to do as you had planned.

 

[jace]

theres a company by me spa fasteners on heathecote industrial estate if u need ill ring them c if they can get bolts and what price there pretty good one lads got tiny little screw thing for wishbone on rc car think 5 were 3p or somethoing!

 

[Terranosaurus]

Thanks, I'll see what tomorrow brigs and maybe take you up, but to be honest if they're about I should be able to source them through my normal suppliers, which would also men I get them at a good prie and delivered with my order - but thanks for the offer. Have already tried one national chain for them.

 

[jace]

no worries just thought if you found em out and rang them direct theyd give you a better price than me but if they needed collecting or payin for there ten mins from me they used to be called mb fastners somewhere along line your bound to have come into contact with them lol!

 

[Deleted Member S]

I take my hat off to you Hummingbird :smile: It's something I would love to do (2" body lift) but have been to scared to do it incase I ran into the probs you are having & our T2 is our only vehicle & could get stuck very easy without transport I don't know if it makes you feel any better but i'm sure the bolts on mine will be in the same state as yours going off the rear bumper/mud flap braket bolts which snapped so easy when tring to refit the bumper after it disloged off it's mounting & the rear seat base lock bolt just sheared with the smallest preasure on it :roll: :roll: :twisted:

 

[Paul]

hummingbird... You my mate are my HERO of the moment!! :lol:

Going to try this when I get the time to get the spacers made!
going to follow this to see what I end up having to get, may I ask where you got the spacers made & what they cost? please p.m. me if you don't want it made public.

Paul

 

[Terranosaurus]

I got the spacers knocked up my an engineering firm but I'm working on a better supply, possibly in nylon, which should be both cheaper and lighter. I had them done in ally, as straight cylinders, it was cheaper to have straight cylinders in ally than have cotton bobbin style ones machined up in steel (see the download for drawing of cotton bobbin) and the weight, IIRC from my calcs the ally ones are a tad lighter, if you're doing you're own machining cotton bodied ones in Ally would be even better.

I went for 60mm on the basis that the download reckons we can get away with that without further problems with the steering etc, time will tell if its right on a 95 model. Also I needed 60mm to get my auxiliary petrol tank up behind the chassis rail which is the primary reason for doing the lift, the other reason is ultimately to fit some bigger tyres, I fancy some 35s and with this lift they should go on though I may need to trim the arches a bit or even fit some defender style extensions if they're too wide. My arches are rotten anyway so that wouldn't be such a bad thing. But will have to save some pennies to do that as my MTs have still got plenty of wear left in them.

 

[Paul]

Looking at 60mm for the same reason, looked at the download & want bigger/widder - tyres/wheels, not going to get them made cotton bobbin style cos of the cost (yes I know I'm a tight git) :lol:
we have MT'S on ours do you get alot of road noise from them?

 

[Terranosaurus]

Right got the physical bit of the lift done, truck is now 60mm higher, combine that with the suspension lift and the biggr tyres and the roof will be something like 5 inches higher from the floor but most importantly my petrol tank will now fit up behind the chassis rail, just need to remake the straps (my petrol tank is none standard, the rest of you don't need to worry about yours).

Turns out that whilst Nissan put M10 bolts in the fron 2 holes (1+2) they drilled everything for M12 so I fitted the M12s I had. The spacers are now in place but I still need some M12 metric fine x 160 for the rear most holes (3+4).

For now at least I haven't made new brackets for the bumpers, thougth I have taken the measurements to make them, what I've done is stripped the metal reinforcing out of the bumpers and put them on using large cable ties. The rear mud flap support brackets I have reused but put the bolt through the bottom hole of the bracket and the top hole in the chassis, more like 50mm difference but near enough to do the job.

It appears that I'll have to take the angle grinder to the rear bumper reinforcement as well as making up adapter brackets as where it used to be inside the chassis rails it now sits on top of it but needs to be a bit lower , but thats only if I refit the reinforcements, I'm tempted not to.

All this means I've lost my std fog lights as these bolt to the reinforcement at the front but have retained the front indicators and rear light clusters as these are attached to the plastic bumper.

My radiator needs replacing and I'm going to see if I can relieve the strain on the pipes a bit when I do that, likewise the airbox/intake assembly is under a bit of strain, but will deal with that when I do the rad. All brake and fuel lines were fine, I pulled a loop of wire through for the lambda before I started. Must admit I forgot about the steering column I'll have to see if theres any tension on that tomorrow. Both gearbox and transfer operate normally.

Also had to remove my bull bar and hence my front spot lights, not sure what I'm going to do about that, might make up some sort of adapter for where they attach to the chassis or may have to for go them, which would be a shame cos the Hella's are great, but then I've got a lamp pod to fit on the bonnet with 4 Cibie Oscart Le-mans lights to go in it, but I need to assemble that and wire it up.

Photos tomorrow, it's still in the garage, mother in laws MX5 is in the way so I can't get it out, well not without driving straight over the MX5, which does look like a possibility when you look at them nose to nose.

 

[Deleted Member S]

All I can say is Wow Hummingbird :smile: I hope to see it in the flesh/metal if you manage to get it done before next weekend

 

[Terranosaurus]

All I can say is Wow Hummingbird :smile: I hope to see it in the flesh/metal if you manage to get it done before next weekend

I'd better find those bolts hadn't I, don't think I'd be very popular if I suggested we took HER Subaru instead. Come hell or high water I will have it done, really it only needs 4 bolts puting in now, the difficulty is getting the bolts.

 

[Deleted Member]

You sound very busy HB,hope to see the finished project at the weekend,Haven't even touched mine yet!!

 

[Guest]

Glad its going well for you, does this mean you maybe on for Stanage then :lol:

 

[Deleted Member S]

All I can say is Wow Hummingbird :smile: I hope to see it in the flesh/metal if you manage to get it done before next weekend

I'd better find those bolts hadn't I, don't think I'd be very popular if I suggested we took HER Subaru instead. Come hell or high water I will have it done, really it only needs 4 bolts puting in now, the difficulty is getting the bolts.

Well if you do use the scooby can you tie a rope on the back & onto the front of mine so I can keep up -rotfl- -rotfl- -rotfl-
You are giving me food for thought but when I mention it to my wife I keep getting funny looks :roll: :roll: :roll: Perhaps she may change her mind when she see's yours

 

[Terranosaurus]

Glad its going well for you, does this mean you maybe on for Stanage then :lol:

I always was, just set a weekend for it, as long as I'm free I'll be there.

 

[Guest]

Glad its going well for you, does this mean you maybe on for Stanage then :lol:

I always was, just set a weekend for it, as long as I'm free I'll be there.

Possibly the 13th October, depending on group sizes, vehicles and experiance. I am doing two route cards, 1 with Stanage 1 without.

 

[Terranosaurus]

There's a piccy HERE

They weren't taken deliberately but if you look at the 2 photos before that one in the album, you see a before suspension lift, after suspension lift and after body lift. Now if I was clever I'd have done that deliberately and shot it in exactly the same place.

 

[Deleted Member S]

Hummingbird I like it :smile: :smile: 8) 8) Am I right in thinking you lifted the rear end by fitting standard LWB springs :?

 

[Guest]

Looking good Simon, looking good 8)

 

[Paul]

Thanks simon.... 8O

Now I've seen that I know it as to be done to ours. :lol:

Paul.