Ok, so I'm planning on doing the budget body lift using steel tubing as outlined on this page:

http://www.zuwharrie.com/content/view/11/27/

The only difference is that is a 3" body lift and I plan on doing a 2" body lift. My question is about the bolts. It says this is what I need:

Six 2" long and two 2 1/2" long 1/2" bolts, 8 washers, 8 fender washers, and 8 nuts with lock washers -OR- you can use 8 Ny-locks -- all grade-8.

Since my spacers are 2x3 instead of 3x3, do I just get six 1" long and two 1.5" long bolts? This seems to make sense to me as the spacer is 1" smaller, I was just double checking...I only want to do this once. Thanks

You can't do a 2" body lift this way. To do a 2" body lift, you need to buy a kit from RRO, Sky or BDS.

The way that body lift works is you bolt the 3" blocks to the frame, and the top of the block becomes the new mounting point for the body, the body has studs, not removable bolts. 2" blocks do not give enough room to support the length of the studs.

The 2" kits you buy include UHMW blocks, and 2" long sleave nuts, it's basically a steel sleave with a nut welded to the end and it's threaded all the way through.

I know the body has non-removable studs in it. Can't you just bolt the 2" blocks onto the frame with a separate bolt and then attach the body to the block using the factory stud? I'm pretty sure there are other people out there running this setup.

Can't you just bolt the 2" blocks onto the frame with a separate bolt and then attach the body to the block using the factory stud?

Yes you can, I installed the first body lift on a Sidekick (lil Suzy) back in about 95 and that is the design I used.

Here is a link to a how to article I wrote at the time.

http://home.golden.net/~haida/suzuki/tech/tips/lift.html

Dave

The problem you run into is that the body stud is usually too long for just a 2" block, not allowing any room for the bolt head attaching the block to the frame...

And it's not possible to grind the stud down enough to get a bolt in there?

When I installed mine I was able to pull the bolts attaching to the frame mounts down into the rubber pad recess actually bending the square tube, which created just enough room for the body studs. I agree that it is easier with a 3 inch tube. However lil Suzy has had that 2 inch lift on her for over 12 years now and no problems so far. another solution is to just weld the tubing to the frame mounts then  you don't have a bolt to get in the way. Dave

Thanks for the very helpful responses guys, especially you, sidekicksrock. I'll post pics when I've got it all together!

2" was easy. shorten the studs about  1/2 inch .  i've done three sammis that way

So today my buddy Zach and I attempted to get er done. While he was driving over from his place I removed all the body bolts on the drivers side and loosened them all on the passenger side. Then when he arrived we unhooked the brake clips and started jacking up the body. I bolted in all the blocks except the front one because we had the wrong bolts for that. Then it came time to lower the body. With some guidance, the body studs fit in the holes in the top of the blocks BUT we noticed a problem. The holes were drilled to fit the 3/8" part of the studs, and not the larger, non-threaded part above the threads. Therefore the body wouldn't sit right on top of the blocks because the holes were too small. Since I don't have a big drill at my house I ended up having to take all the blocks out again and putting the truck all back together and pretty much wasting my whole day because nobody mentioned this in their instructions. I just thought I'd mention this for anybody else who decides to do the budget body lift: drill the top holes bigger than 3/8, you probably want more like 1/2" so you can get the non-threaded part in there too!

Hey man that sucks...but how are you gonna learn without makin mistakes?  Thats how I know most of the stuff I know now...lol

mine i put the rubber between the spacer and body then bolted spacer to frame

actually now that i think of it there should be a bushing in between the spacer and the body...shit i never put mine in 

it cuts down the vibrations

Even with the rubber bushing in between the body and the frame, the un-threaded part still wanted to go into the hole but couldn't because the hole was too small. I took care of that problem tonight though, I drilled the holes out to 5/8" so now I should have no issues with that. I'm going to give it another shot on Saturday. Will post pics if I get'er done!