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A while ago I got a 2" body lift kit from C r o s s b r e d Performance. Before I put it in I wanted to beef it up a little by boxing the open ended blocks & tieing the rear trailing arms together, also the front control arms.

So far:


The trailing arm blocks are on the left, they're also welded to the moustache bar blocks for extra stability. I put them on the car then tacked in the connecting 1"x1" RHS, then removed them & fully welded them. Some of the welds are a little rough but its strong.

I also replaced the bolts on the rear strut blocks with longer bolts to fit 1" spacers. A bit of a bugger as the longer bolts wouldn't go in so I had to make up some using HT threaded rod & HT nuts. The end result isn't neat but its strong & functional

The 28 plates I'll use to box in the blocks are along the front & took ages to cut

I also noticed a funny little triangular support on each side of the moustache bar:


It looks like their purpose is to stabilise the bar. Trouble is there's nothing in the lift kit for this. Would I need to fab up something or can I just leave this off? Its only thin pressed sheet metal with I think M6 bolts. The bar itself is held in place with substantial HT bolts so I'm not really sure why these plates are needed
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Bit more welding done today. Make that a lot! Now I know why lift kits arent sold like this...its a lotta work!!

No...thats not a mouse


Crossmember & control arm blocks


Rear trailing arm/moustache bar blocks

Can't wait to see it in, I'm sure you can't either

Niiiiice. Need mine done when you get those finished

Yep cant wait big time!

Dont worry mate, already cut out some connecting blocks for you That was a great idea of yours to connect the moustache bar blocks

I had an "oops" moment the other day...went to connect the control arm blocks together only to realise they wouldnt drop without disconnecting the front bolt. Looked like a camber bolt then realised the control arm bolts I'd removed were part of the wheel alignment! Oh crap!! I had to use the clean marks left on the chassis to align them (approximately lol). Should be OK for a little while...

are there crush tubes inside those blocks?? Hard to tell from the photos.

Yep, you can see them in the 1st post.

bit obvious now you pointed that out It should be a bloody strong kit with crush tubes and boxed in ends.

With that brace on the moustache bar you have a couple of options.

First is run a lift block under the 2 bolts on the sill. Scorpion kits were done this way.

Second is to leave the plate where it us, and sandwich it between the lift kit block and the top of the moustache bar. Mine has been like this for baout 8 years. The advantage is you dont have blocks hanging down from you sills.

The best option would be to cut and shut the triangle pieces to include a 2" step in them. I had planned to do this but never got around to it.

That plate for the mustache bar would be good to retain. One of my mustache bolts is bent and i suspect if i had that plate it would not be so noticeable.

However if you've connected that mustache lift block with the blocks for the trailing arm then i think that bracing plate would be made redundant, but probably still good to have if you feel like making the blocks for it.

I think the kit's looking pretty impressive Matt. Should address any problems with captive nuts been torn out.

NachaLuva wrote:No...thats not a mouse

Sure looks like a siamese mouse

Oh and good work on the lift kit

vincentvega wrote: The best option would be to cut and shut the triangle pieces to include a 2" step in them. I had planned to do this but never got around to it.

I've been thinking bout this quite a bit. I reckon this is what I'll do, but instead of putting in a step, I'll bend it at the top & add a section at the bottom to make up the length. I like things to look neat

Venom wrote:Should address any problems with captive nuts been torn out.

I reckon if if that happens now I should just take up knitting!!

RSR 555 wrote:Sure looks like a siamese mouse

Oh and good work on the lift kit

Curiosity killed the cat lol

Thanks. Not real happy with some of the welds...not pretty but they're strong. Its been over 10 yrs since I've done any welding, so I practised by making a welding trolley. Some of the welds on the end plates are nice but I had to go over some of the others then grind em back so they didnt look too s**t

Finding a radiator hose extension isnt as easy as I thought it would be. One quote was $45 ea

I ended up just getting a 110mm section of 304 stainless which gives 30mm in each hose:




Do you think this will be enough? With quality hose clamps done up tight I cant see them sliding off even under pressure. Or do I need hosetail ribs on each end?

You could put double clamps on them for extra piece of mind. I don't see anything wrong with using that stainless pipe though.

Cheers Jake

That looks the goods!

Mine is just a piece of regular mild steel and a clamp for each hose - no leaks.

If you're really worried about weeping there are clamps you can get that are better than the regular hose clamps - they apply more pressure on the area that the band is on simply through a better design. I'm sure they're stainless steel too. They do cost a bit more.

How long until you've got the lift in now?

Cheers

Bennie

Hey I just lifted mine, needed some hose extensions too. Just fished around Auto-one's hose section and it cost about $16-20 per long hose. Took some hunting but found the hoses all in there.

Lift kit installed!

Many thanks to Venom for his help

The (almost) completed lift kit:


The little blocks at the top are for the control arms. These havent been painted yet as they had to be tied together (tack welded) with the whole kit installed, then removed & fully welded (then jig made), then painted & reinstalled.

Before the lift:


After the lift:


Clearance


More pics later...

Awesome looks great

wow thats high now! need some tyres to fill out the guards

thunder039 wrote:wow thats high now! need some tyres to fill out the guards

Yeah I know lol