1" body lift installed!
So I just finished installing my 1" body lift and thought I would share some pointers so that others can do this easier.
I cut my body pucks from a 1" thick plate of UHMW polyethylene (you can use any sort of high density polyethylene) from TAP plastics (
http://www.tapplastics.com/product/plastics/cut_to_size_plastic). I used a waterjet machine to cut them out but a simple hole saw will work just fine. I believe that I cut them to a 2.605 diameter with a 12mm hole for the bolt.
As stated earlier, you will need to remove or partially remove your rear drawer system if you have one (this took me the longest). I did not have to take my sliders off though.
You will need 4 M10 - 1.25 x 170mm bolts and 2 M10 - 1.25 x 140mm bolts. (assuming none of your other bolts are corroded beyond use). You can also reuse all of the nuts and washers. I sourced my bolts from fastenal.
Before you jack up the vehicle you will need to remove the "offending bolt" (see posts #74 and 86 for details). It must be removed from inside the cab, the nuts on the frame are captured. This is located where the rear carpet and 2nd row carpet meet and there is a Velcro seam. This bolt appears to serve no purpose and is just hanging out between the lower panel of the body and the upper floor pan (about 1/2" away from anything on the body). It appears to be letting any sort of water and dirt in as it is not plugged. This is very disconcerting to me so I will be plugging it with a 1 3/4" body plug.
I was able to press on and off the factory washers so that they would be used in their appropriate holes (some are different sizes and the factory washers keep the bolts from turning while you are torquing down the nuts, except for the #1 bolt). For the bolts that I bought, I TIG welded the appropriate washers on (pic #1).
Since I did not remove my sliders, I jacked from an area that was open and free of lines just inside of the pinch weld area. I just a floor jack but I believe that a bottle jack would be better to help keep the body aligned while jacking. Make sure you use plenty of wood to distribute the weight of the cab so you don't punch through the floor. Also, before you lift, loosen all of the body bolts. Only remove the nuts on the side that you will be jacking up (this helps to keep the body in line). Once up, just pull the bolts out and replace them with the appropriate bolts and washers.
As for the body bolt #s refer to post #29. For the #1 and 2 bolts, I used the 170mm bolts and their appropriate factory washers. I then used the factory #1 bolt in the #3 bolt position and the factory #2 bolt in the #4 bolt position. For bolt #5, I used the 140mm bolt. I torqued all of them down to 40 ft-lbs.
As for the #6 position, I made a holder that the puck presses into which will then be welded to the frame underneath the existing body puck (pic #2).
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! Make sure you trim your fan shroud or lower the shroud/ radiator. Your fan will be touching once you are done. You will only need to cut the very bottom if you decide to go this route. I cut it with an air powered cut off tool, however, I believe that a small body sawzall or a jig saw might be better do to the confined area. Once satisfied, I then finished the cut edge and the corners with a rasp file.
I will post pictures of the welded holder, the sealed body hole, and the cut fan shroud once I get a chance to take some pics. Let me know if you have any questions or I am missing anything.
