Fixed my gap... 2" ARB Body Lift Fix

[JWaldz]

First off I want to say, if you haven't joined a local offroad club you should. I couldn't ask for a better more supportive and dependable family of friends. They've helped me a lot. So, a big shout out to my good friend Josh from ARTTORA who has helped me with this and many other projects.

Anyways, I finally arranged for to fix the hideous almost 3" gap between the body and arb bumper caused from the bodylift. Since I went with 2" bl I wasn't able to just drill new holes in the bumper itself so we had to cut, grind, and weld. Pretty straight forward. Just cut behind the crush ripples on the bracket and be sure not to cut the 2 braces off. Grind off all all the excess powdercoat to get a good contact with the weld and measure how far you need to bring it up. Tack it in to place and begin welding. We opted to cut a couple small pieces of some scrap metal to fit in the slots on the upper and lower back part of the bracket where the new gap was created (behind the crush ripples). This increases rigidity.

I only took a couple pics cus the info is already out there. If you wanna follow the write-up I did here's the link.

I went out immediately afterwards to test the flex of the bumper and see how close it would be touching the limited flares. Sitting flat there is roughly a .25" gap under the fenders and roughly .50" all the rest of the way around.. Which I'm more than happy with. Flexed out (mostly) it seems to be just a hair under the flare so all is well! I'm happy.

Pics for fun...

 

[tmaxx13]

wow that looks 1000x times better, looks great i like it!!

 

[blcktpgsr]

Ahh..finally! I was wondering when you were gonna fix that...:trophy:looks good overall!

 

[YotaZach85]

Looks great! Now you just need to flip that hitch...

 

[JWaldz]

Looks great! Now you just need to flip that hitch...

I dunno if my hitch will allow for that. Might have to do some cutting if I did. I'm not that worried about it really, it'll prob come off soon anyways.

Thanks for the compliments guys. I gotta work on my daggum skid-row skid plate next. It's all bent to hell. Should have gusset it to begin with...

 

[brian2sun]

Haha, I just realized you have a different screenname on YT. I never put 2 & 2 together until now. I always thought your sig pic looked so familiar! The ARB mod looks sooo much better, good job!

 

[JWaldz]

Haha, I just realized you have a different screenname on YT. I never put 2 & 2 together until now. I always thought your sig pic looked so familiar! The ARB mod looks sooo much better, good job!

hahaha.. I tried to get JWaldz here but for some reason when I registered it and activated it it never let me post anything. I couldn't even send a message to the admin to ask what's up. So, here I am as ARKRWLR. Oh well. Thanks, I do agree. I'm a very happy camper right now! I keep going outside to look at it haha.

 

[fightman80]

You know....just the other day I was going to ask you if you were ever going to fix that gap.....well you've just answered my question!

Looks good man!

 

[the great him]

that thing loos so much better now, and you have increased ground clearance up there as well as approach angle! awesome!

 

[JWaldz]

You know....just the other day I was going to ask you if you were ever going to fix that gap.....well you've just answered my question!

Looks good man!

Yea, yea.. it took a while but it's DONE! lol

that thing loos so much better now, and you have increased ground clearance up there as well as approach angle! awesome!

Si senor.. Thanks! I'm ready to go test it out . Got an event coming up this weekend. I'll be sure to get tons of pics.

 

[BigFishAllDay]

Good work man, that makes such a huge difference, it looks MUCH better. That gap on the front end was ghastly.

I thought I saw you were trying to sell this thing, if that's still the case, this should help.

 

[YotaZach85]

I dunno if my hitch will allow for that. Might have to do some cutting if I did. I'm not that worried about it really, it'll prob come off soon anyways.

Thanks for the compliments guys. I gotta work on my daggum skid-row skid plate next. It's all bent to hell. Should have gusset it to begin with...

There would definitely be cutting involved but it would gain you at least 3" more clearance in the rear. I always slammed my hitch when wheeling, I was going to either flip it or build a bumper with a hitch built in but I never got around to it.

 

[cj80cruiser]

There would definitely be cutting involved but it would gain you at least 3" more clearance in the rear. I always slammed my hitch when wheeling, I was going to either flip it or build a bumper with a hitch built in but I never got around to it.

His receiver looks different than mine so not sure how far the bracket hangs down but yeah flipping the receiver upside down will give more clearance for sure and it'll mount back up in the factory holes. Really not a whole lot of work to get this done.

Here's mine....you'll have to use your imagination because I removed my rear bumper.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/75010-flipped-draw-tite-rear-bumper-platform.html

and a pic for a better view

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/86885-hitch-body-help.html#post779740

 

[JWaldz]

I mean, if I really wanted to I could cut it and flip it. But with as little as I tow and use it for recovery, I might as well just take it off. This way I can actually sale it for some kind of value.

Good work man, that makes such a huge difference, it looks MUCH better. That gap on the front end was ghastly.

I thought I saw you were trying to sell this thing, if that's still the case, this should help.

Thanks bud.. I was actually going to trade it for nicely built tacoma. But, it fell through. Oh well. Still good to see a value of my truck at some point.

 

[infamousRNR]

ARB body lift re-location

i understand the concept... wish there was a little more explanation on the actual place where you cut and weld back together 2" higher...

i installed a 1.5" body lift... gap is about 2" on the sides and a little more in the front...

went to the link for yoga tech and although there is some explanation, being the noob i am, i am very intimidated to do any sort of welding... would rather drill new holes...

my question and concern is that the bumper can't drill holes that high up... there is a limit..

can anyone chime in regarding this re-location of an ARB bumper?

 

[BrianSD_42]

[MENTION=102606]infamousRNR[/MENTION]


For one thing there should always be about a 1/2" gap between the body and the bumper since the body FLEXES and if it is too close it will surely hit on the trail.

I would suggest you just paint the part of the body that is visible in that gap BLACK so that it won't be visible from a few feet away. A red / white / silver / green body GAP is very visible but if you paint that little gap black it is hardly visible at all.

 

[infamousRNR]

thats really good advice.. but why about lifting the ARB without the need for welding... just want to drill new holes.. [MENTION=65101]BrianSD_42[/MENTION]

 

[BrandonF]

thats really good advice.. but why about lifting the ARB without the need for welding... just want to drill new holes.. [MENTION=65101]BrianSD_42[/MENTION]

I am also curious about this. I want to avoid body lifts but if I need to when I upsize my tires, it's nice to know that I can bring my arb up with just drilling. The max I'd do is a 1" BL anyways

 

[infamousRNR]

a 1" should be perfect for drilling new holes on the actual ARB bumper itself.... but make sure to measure 3-4 times.. cut once... it almost seems as if you will only be able to mount 2 locations with bolts instead of the original 3... 6 in total.... 3 on either side.. because you are adjusting the holes down... to raise the bumper up. body lifts are not my favorite either but given that i could fit 285's on my last 4runner and even larger 265's rubbed... i wanted to make sure i had some extra room this time.

 

[TCMach]

a 1" should be perfect for drilling new holes on the actual ARB bumper itself.... but make sure to measure 3-4 times.. cut once... it almost seems as if you will only be able to mount 2 locations with bolts instead of the original 3... 6 in total.... 3 on either side.. because you are adjusting the holes down... to raise the bumper up. body lifts are not my favorite either but given that i could fit 285's on my last 4runner and even larger 265's rubbed... i wanted to make sure i had some extra room this time.

I'm pretty sure you can do this. Let me do some digging...

here ya go, credit to [MENTION=47945]brian2sun[/MENTION] http://www.toyota-4runner.org/576894-post32.html