Room inside? Huh? How does a body lift give you more room inside? Anyway, the tire clearance was the idea. So I could run some better tires for offroading without removing the fenders and putting on baja fenders which would lead to the sawsall and dremel and a hacked up body. I'd prefer to just go the baja route but I'm resisting the temptation to cut into the car.
It is a lot of trouble, that's for sure. I called a place called "We Do Trucks" and they wanted $900 to install a 3" body lift or $2500 to install a 4" suspension lift. I was too cheap to even pay them to do the body lift. :-)
some folks just don't get sarcasm... you missed it twice, David... try harder
nope.
a bodylift on a bug does gain you interior height... a "bodylift" on a bug is just a spacer between the pan and body...
saving 9 bills is pretty good motivation to DIY.... i can't say i trust many shops to work on anything i own, so have always done it myself... at least then you know how it was done...
We>Do Trucks" and they wanted $900 to install a 3" body lift or $2500 to
Yeah, in doing this lift I've come upon several items that made me stop and wonder how the shop that cranks these things out every day would have handled it. Like one of the AC hoses that contacted a lower pulley... The kit comes with a bracket that you can attach to a stud coming out of the engine block to help hold that hose out of the way. The bracket was a pain in the ass to install, but I did it anyway. Even though I was able to tug at the hard-line part of the AC hose and make it so that the hose was no longer touching the pulley... Enough bouncing around over time, though, and I could see that hose coming back into contact with the pulley unless you install the retaining bracket. I tell you what, though, the instructions that came with this body lift kit absolutely suck. They will have a section "under the hood" that you'll be in the middle of and all of a sudden they talk about a part that is down under the frame. Or they will tell you to take stuff of that has nothing at all to do with the lift like the cover over the fuel injection unit. I took it off like they said and then later when I was putting everything back, I put it back on... thinking... why the hell did I ever take that off to begin with? And the air intake hose. Huh? Why did they want me to take that off and put it back on later? Or the four nuts that were supposed to be included with the kit to attach the front bumper relocation brackets (notice the front bumper is not on in the picture I linked to above)... Those four nuts did not exist in the kit I got. Gotta run into town to the hardware store with the bracket to get some so that I can mount the bumper back. Just a bunch of crap like that. There are several very small changes that could be made to the kit to make it twice as easy to install. And Ford... Don't get me started on the idiotic engineering that used to save twenty cents here and there... Don't get me wrong... I know it all works stock but they sure as hell didn't put any thought into someone going in and changing anything later. OK, enough ranting for now. Time to feed the dogs and get another beer. :-)
just don't give the dogs the beer....
A body lift on a Baja raises the body off the pan by 3". This will increase headroom the same amount.
You could get by with larger tires by adjusting the rear torsions and either a cut and turn or adjusters on the front. Pick up a spare front beam, modify it, you can always swap back to stock.
Les
No, a body lift involves removing the body from the pan and installing a lift kit between them. The lift kit is made from 3" tall tubing, some use a cast piece for the front.
I've been thinking about that myself. I have a bus transaxle to put in my car, but it's gonna take about $400 or more in parts to make it fit. Custom trailing arms might avoid some of the parts.
Les
But that isn't raising effective clearance, just giving the driver more headroom inside cause the roof is higher. Yeah, there's room for bigger tires, but it really isn't dropping the suspension.
Remember the monster garage "sour kraught" episode? Don't raise the body, drop the suspension at both ends.
and more folks don't get my sarcasm of the sarcasm.. haha
Exactly why I said I wouldn't do a body lift on a VW. I want ground clearance on my car. I've raised it close to 8" so far.
Cut and turned front beam 3/8" Rear torsions turned 2 inner splines
15" x 6" front rims 15" x 8" rear rims 31/10.50-15 tires all aroundI now have approx. 14" at the pan near the center of the doors. I don't know if it's enough yet or not, I'm chasing a major oil leak before I can take it back out.
Les
A body lift would give clearance for taller tires which means more ground clearance. I've done the re-indexing of the torsion bars and all that stuff before. I'm not messing with the VW right now. I had about 12" ground clearance on my old baja. I wish I could put up my old "bug adventures" page and you'd see some of the stuff I put my '63 through and it would probably inspire you to push your own VW a little harder. Or a LOT harder. heh heh
I push it pretty hard already, the trails I take it on have stopped several 4x4's in the past couple of weeks. A Jeep got buried to the bottom of the doors a couple of weeks ago, and a Bronco lost their transmission trying to get the Jeep out.
Another Jeep last week, same hole, busted a front axle when he buried it.
An Isuzu Trooper lost his front differential climbing over a tree that's down across one trail. I made it across it, had to use my ATV winch, but I made it without any damage.
Les Les
Oh, OK. Then you've done much more extreme stuff than I've ever thought of. heh heh
Sand and hills are boring. I've been running the local 4x4 trails. Creek crossings that'll have you pushing water with the headlights, crawling up ravines, deep mud holes, rocky trails, you name it...
Les
stop hiding it then....
Umm... you missed it, try harder ;)
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