Body lift

50mm Body Lift on a Surf
Article: Dan Birch Photos: Leeroy

Want to fit some bigger rubber under the guards ? or just give yourself a bit more ground clearence ?! then a bodylift is the way to go. A 50mm bodylift is legal to be done yourself (check state laws) but anything more you may need an engineers certificate for.

Parts Req'd

10x 50mm Tall (minimum 40mm wide) blocks of polyurethene or anything of that matter (Anywhere from $30 - $80)
12mm Spanner
14mm Spanner
Philips head screwdriver
4x 50mm radiator Drop brakets
Jack
Gear shifter extended (Manual)
4 x 6.5” Bolts
4 x 5.5”Bolts
2 x 5” Bolts

It is recomended to spray all 10x bolts with RP7 (or ezuivelent) for a week before the job, just to help it ease up.

Step 1:Park on a flat surface Make sure the truck is parked on a flat surface, you don't want anything to be able to slide about. Make sure all bolts have been sprayed with RP7 before hand. NOTE: Can under front wheel.
Step 2: Unscrew Front Bumper Bar and Nudge Bar Unscrew the front bumber bar and nudgebar, first the nudge bar, then the bumber, As far as i can remeber there are two small (10mm) bolts in the wheel arches behind the plastic, and two or four where the main unit attached above the nudge bar. Make sure you have it secured as it may fall once you take the last bolt out and it's not that light ! ALSO : Remove lower radiator shroud for lift, can be replaced if a 50mm radiator braket is used.	Nudge Bar Off Front Bumber off.
1) Find the 6 body mounts, there are two in the rear (boot) which can be accesed by removing the rear carpet cover. 2) once carpet is up you can see the plastic covers, remove these. 3) The rear bolt. 4) Side mounts are under carpets to, and will need the plastic panneling reomving(philips screw driver) 5) the mounts can be found under the carpet, one by the seatbelt in the middle, one in the front footwell, and the other just before the rear seat (6 in all) NOTE: It is recomended to unscrew the panelling around the gearshifter (Manual Only) and remove the CV cover, this will all help when lengthening the stick to. You may want to reomve seats as Leeroy did here, makes working inside the cab a bit easier.	1)Rear Mounts under carpet 2) Plastic covers 3) Rear Bolt 4)Side Mounts 5) Seat removed - access to front mounts under carpet The gear shifter console removed. Once all mounts have been found you can start un-bolting !
Step 3:Unbolting Body from Chassis. Once you have found body bolts, and your ready to go, start unbolting them, you may need someone to hold a spanner on top while you go round unscrewing the underneath sections	Front Body Mount. The inner part of the bolts have a safety device on them, this can be kept there, and will stop the bolts spinning. your new bolts will go through these.
Step 4: Lifting the Body Using a Jack ( I used my normal jack on bricks to get to the body- or do as shown here) start SLOWLY Jacking the body up, keeping your eyes on cables/hoses etc as your doing this. Only jack to the height where you can just fit a block in. Slide it in, and place the correct bolt fitting through. Complete this will all body points. Only do one side at a time (makes life easier) Keep the rubber parts that are there (you can see in the middle image here) When there all in place you can start tightening them up.	LIFT SLOWLY ! The front block in place Side block with bolt through. SIDEWAYS ! - Rear block.
Step 5: Front bumber Mounts & Radiator If you are keeping your front bumer, you will need to make up some brakets, i used two 50mm steel legnths and drilled two holse 50mm apart. Attached the bumber and bolted them to it. If you have a bull bar this will have to be modified to fit. Your nudgebar will go back on but be a bit lower, you can have it Modified but have left mine off for now.	The Front bumber mounts. Mounts attaced holding bumber. The Radiator Drop brakets One of the bolts should be counter sunk, and wleded to the braket, this will mean it will sit flush against the body where it was originally mounted. Radiator sitting flush on new brakets. Holding the radiator in place to attach the brakets. The radiator in it's new lowered position
Step 6: The gear stick modification The gear stick need to be cut on the vertical part. then a 50mm rod inserted and welded in place, as shown in this image. to reomve the stick you can do as shown in the picture here, or you can insert two screw drivers into the top of the stick (where it goes into the gearbox) and turn, this will unlock it.	The newly welded gearstick. Gearstick in place
Step 6: The finished lift Go around and check all bolts are tight, inspect them for the next few weeks whenever you get a chance, just to be sure. You can see the height gained using that can, which will need to be emptyied by now to reward yourself !	Drivers side wheel arch (front) NOTE: you can see the brake lines, enough give there to lift a lot more higher. Rear Wheel arch with new lift - this space can be filled with some rubber, so done so in the front, around the engine.