Bodylift

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Has anybody done a bodylift? If so do, they sell a kit

jesse

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I am interested in an answer on this too.
Have you found out anything?

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hi,
this year we saw on Bug Show Belgium a body lifted thing,
the owner sellig also this parts, he¦s in Belgium, but maybe he can help you
pics of this thing you find on our homepage by this link :

http://members.fortunecity.de/flame181/event/spa02/spa4.html


and here the thing owners link:

www.pat.be

181 aircooled greetz from cologne germany

Soeren

http://www.flame181.de

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Here a good site to check out
www.thingtech.com No bodylift stuff but some good info on what he has done to his Thing

Jesse

[ChrisM181]

Have you re-cambered your rear suspension? Have you cut and twisted your front beam? Do you want actual offroad performance? or do you just want it to look cool? If you want better ground clearance and better offroad performance doing those two things are the best way to do this!
Doing a body lift will not change the travel of your suspension, it will just give you more ground clearance, I would suggest doing the re-cambering and the cut and twist first, and If you still want more clearance, then do a body lift.
I personally do not like body lifts at all! When people do body lifts and leave their suspension at stock height they have wasted time and money in my opinion. I have seen people with body lifts driving around with the ass end practically dragging on the ground, foolish! It is a hell of a lot easier to re-camber your suspension than to do a damn body lift! There is a lot of work involved in doing a body lift, and I think it looks like crap! It changes so much stuff, I would also be concerned with the air flow in the engine compartment, when you lift the body it changes the relationship of engine tin and air vents etc. A couple of guys with body lifted things I have seen did not even have any tin in the compartment and you could see the crank pulley from under the bumper! It looked like shit!
I have a 73 Thing, I re-cambered my rear suspension I am going to cut and twist my beam, and am going to put the So-Cal fiberglass pre runner fenders on it, I am going to run 9.50-15 hi-flotation farm implement tires on the back for the sand dunes, I am either going to leave all of the extra fender width or cut some off to fit these, but I am not going to do a body lift!
I highly suggest the cut and twist on the beam, It really makes a world of difference in offroad situations, but the ride is a little rougher on the road, but believe it or not the bigger the bumps the smoother the ride!

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After looking around at other things I'am not going to do a bodylift. Just going to re-camber and the cut and twist. I have seen some strange things that are some homemade hack jobs kind of makes me sick to see. What size engine or you running? I plan building a 1835 or 1776 a lot of people have said to go with a 2110 but what about cooling. I plan going on and off road. Thanks for the info

[ChrisM181]

testing

[ChrisM181]

jbsurf1, I am building a 2165cc. 78mm stroke and 94mm pistons. I do not think there will be a cooling problem, running duel carbs will help cooling. I was running a 1776 but I wanted to get wild, so I was going to go with a 2110cc but I then decided to go with a 78mm crank instead of the 76mm crank, might as well get a little more torque while I am at it. A 1776 is a real nice engine, but if you are thinking about a 1835, I would suggest going with a 1915 instead, the 94mm jugs somehow have thicker walls than the 92mm jugs. 94mm cylinders are the best jugs available nowadays, and any engine builder will tell you that.
If you are going to buy a new crank might as well go with a stroker! Do you know a good machinist? Are you going to build it yourself or having it built?

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Going to build it on myself. This way I know what's in it. Really look for some that runs strong and shock people at stop lights.

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Jesse there seems to be a lot of confusion concerning the body lift. It is a common misunderstanding that a body lift is going to raise the cars ride height. It will not. The purpose of a body lift is to gain FENDER clearance. A suspension lift will result in GROUND clearance. If you plan to extend the width of your beam or rear trailing arms then perhaps you can benefit from a body lift. With the fenders riding directly over the tires you will really need the extra clearance. BUT please note that this will not lift the car higher off the ground where you need it to be for off-road use.
You will encounter steering column relocation problems. You will set down in the seats not being able to use mirrors without relocation, if you are exrtemely tall its a good thing(no pun intended) but otherwise you`ll have to raise your elbow way up to put it out the window etc. etc.
Anyway just wanted to point out to you the difference between ground clearance and fender clearance. Regards Grey

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Thanks, not going to do a bodylift just going to do a suspension lift. Thanks for the info.

Jesse

[ChrisM181]

Thingman, you are right it really does not give you any more ground clerance, It gives the optical illusion of more ground clearance, so that goes to show how lame it is to do a body lift on a Thing. I find it funny that all of these people with lifted 4*4s think they have a real high riding "offroader" but there diffs are still dragging on the ground, these people really think they have a lot of ground clearance, because they run tires that would fit with out a lift. I laugh everytime I fly by them in my little sandrail when they are stuck in the sand!

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The only real trouble with readjusting the spring plates is that it's pushing the limits of the CV Joints. When I bought my Thing the front end was raised, but the back was stock height-talk about funny looking! I raised the back and soon had trouble with the CV bolts working loose over about a months time. This was cured by drilling and wiring the bolts together. No problems since. The raised front end has been worry free, except for a bad landing off a blow out (playing in the dunes), broke the lower set of trosion leaves. But even with the lower trailing arm sticking out (really messes up the camber)it made it back to camp. A new-used set of leaves from a local VW shop and I was on the dunes again in less than 3 hours.
Peace,
Frank
Eugene, Oregon

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hai everybody I'm new here and I would like to ask about make a good lift of my thing any body can show me a picture about it. thank

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What im doing is cutting out the engine/tranny/steering/frame out of thing and bolting it to the frame of a bobbed CJ7.
This way im going to get nutso ground clearance, enormous off road flex and performace, and the body clearance to stuff a 33 inch tire easliy. On top if this I get 4x4 live axles, and around 3 times more torque and more than double the horsepower of a built aircooled engine.

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Well, if anyone is still interested "Up Yer Bug" in so cal still builds a 4" body lift kit for the THING.

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Do you have a web page or a phone number.
Thanks

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Maybe the kid wants a body lift, nothing wrong with that. Look up this manufacturer, up-your-bug, located in Oceanside Ca. They have body lifts for all types of vws, my 3 inch thing kit cost me $420 and was very high quality. It's not that hard to put in, but you will have to add universal joints to the steering shaft and raise your seats (or you will be ride'n low like Bud Bundy).