A guide to a partial & full body lift
Discussion
First off this is not a bolt by bolt guide, to do that would have taken me almost as long as the lift. Also if you don’t know how to take off the likes of the air boxes or exhaust yet, a body lift is probably not a job for you! This is more of a list of things that you have to remember to do really, with a few pointers thrown in along the way, enjoy 
I started out to & managed to do a partial body lift, just get at the out riggers. These turned out to be in pretty good shape. I end up with this:
Now with proper sized pics!
It only took a trolley jack & a few off cuts of 4x2 timbers to get it this high.
I had excellent access to the out riggers for painting & it would have been fine as it was. I was pleased to have left the engine in with it’s exhaust manifolds still attached, the rest of the drive train, the oil lines (with the oil in the engine so no messing about getting pressure back after) the air con lines all still fully gassed, the power steering all piped up still full of oil & all the electrics connected.
By doing the partial lift you get access to the obvious like this:
This is how it looked after my best attempts to clean it up from underneath with out lifting the body.
But you also get good access to areas like this that I didn’t know was so rusty, most worrying was the gearbox mounts, wouldn’t like it to rust through there...
But then having completed my partial lift I took a step back so to speak & established there was no gas left in the A/C so disconnecting its pipes wouldn’t matter too much. I figured the other bits above shouldn’t take too long, so decided to go the whole hog. Trouble was what with making a frame to hoist the body up into the garage roof, I ended up taking as long for the second seemingly simple stage of getting the body all the way off as it took for the initial partial lift.
I should point out the other reason I was originally only going for a partial lift was that I had previously had the exhaust manifolds out to treat the chassis next to them a while back so it’s all good there. I think this is a normal place for them to go where the powder coating gets burned off.
[
These last two pics are after the first treatment of Detox gel, after a couple more they were totally clean
Most people would want to get to this area so a partial lift would be less attractive to them.
So to do a partial lift I have removed or done the following The ones with * by them are expanded on below:
NB This is a 98 car so some things may be different on later models. Also be sure remove the battery first to avoid any nasty surprises…
1: Exhaust, from down pipes / manifolds back & heat shield above it, the pop rivets need drilling out to remove to remove the shield.
2. The front seats*
3. The hand brake*
4. Helmet holder (or sub in my case) There’s a bolt holding it from behind, it’s in the boot above the fuel tank.
5. The rear seat bases (probably need the bolts grinding off)
6. The bolts & seat belt bolts that go into the chassis + cut a little fibreglass away*
7. Centre console moved to get the cubby hole out of the way to get to the last two bolts under it. *
8. The air boxes & the lower F1 panel.
9. The radiator, if you take the big fan off it (on the aircon twin fan cars) it will come out ok. Then remove the two bolts that go into the front chassis that are now easily accessible.
10. All the coolant pipes (I’ll replace these with silicon). *
11. The throttle cable from the engine
12. Draining & then moving the fuel tank. Then removing the bolts behind the fuel tank* (It’s a lot quicker if you haven’t still got ¾ of a tank & only a small can to drain it out in to…)
13. The rear fuel pipes pump & wiring*
14. Bleed the breaks & clutch & disconnect all the pipes in the OS wheel arch. (Of course this assumes you can get your bleed nipples undone. Mine were fine thanks to a full service history from APM Andy – thanks Andy!)
15. Disconnect the steering UJs & remove the link shaft( I took the bolts out of the steering rack so I could move it enough to get the shaft out, may not be totally necessary, but I wanted to paint under it & replace the input seal)
16. Then its lifting. I went round the body with the trolley jack & a bit of 4x2 wood to spread the load over a wider area of the under body, lifting just a bit at the front back & each side to break the bond between the body & chassis. It should come up a bit fine, if it doesn’t check for any bolts you may have missed! Getting each side up more than about 10cm may require a bit of force or moving of the body, it catches on the seat belts mount bolts that are welded to the plates that stick up from the outriggers where you had cut the fibre glass. Then there shouldn’t be anything stopping you from getting it up as high as the first pics up the top.
That lot took me three 10 or 12 hour days to do (although I was wiped out after!) but most of one of them was things I needed to do anyway – the rad, coolant & fuel pipes. So it’s only two days to be able to get at the outriggers properly, I’d already wasted two days trying in vain to clean up one of the out riggers with the body in place. I cleaned the other up to a better standard in 2 hours flat with the body up.
I should point out I have rebuild a few other cars over the years, so if you’ve never done anything like it before you’d be best at least doubling my timings.
Bits in more deatail:
2: To get the seat bolts out I used the wire brush on the grinder to clean the threads then used different things behind the washers to lever them down to keep the bolt under tension which kept the head located in the runner inside the car. If you grind them off you may have trouble getting some of the ones on the passenger seat back in as I found the runner didn’t move far enough to get the bolts out, once I’d take the seat out of the car.
3: This should be one of the first jobs, you remove the hand break by getting under the car & (having removed the heat shield) taking out the pin holding the cable to it. Then pull the leather up to get to the two bolts holding it in from the top & pull it out. I damaged the leather slightly leaving it in to start with & the body won’t come up with it still there anyway.
6: Body bolts:
This where you have to cut, the body has been lifted off in this pic. There are three bolt heads on the inertia reel mounts arrowed here, behind the rear quarter panel. You don’t need to worry about the centre ones, just the ones that have the nuts sticking out through the outriggers. This applies to the roll bar mounts at the front too.
7: Then it’s just the centre console: This is one piece that runs from the helmet holder in the back, forward & out to each of the air vents. If you remove the instrument cowl (two wing nuts from underneath), take all the bolts & screws out of it as shown here:
It can be moved back enough to get the cubby most of the way out to get at the bolts that go down into the top of the chassis under it.
There’s no need to disconnect any wires anywhere.
10: The ones for the heater that disappear into the inner wing on the NS come out in the passenger footwell behind the sound proofing where the ECU most likely was. I had to cut the rubber pipe to get them off as they’d rusted on, you can see the two pipes here:
12: Clamp the fat pipe that feeds the pump, disconnect it from the pump & drain the tank, stopping the flow of fuel with the clamp to empty the container if necessary. The fuel tank then needs its clamps all undoing & moving out of the way to get to the bolt heads that are hidden under it. If you are careful the carpet can be peeled away from under the tank to get at the bolt heads in the tank straps. I didn’t remove the tank, just loosened the filler pipe & rotated it about that point. More easily seen along with chassis bolts here:
13: I found I had to take the fuel filter & carbon canister (big back thing next to the filter) out to get to the connection between the hard fuel pipe & the flexible. The bolts that hold the filter & canister come out behind the rear seat backs, you can get to these after removing the helmet holder. Access will be easier still if you have already removed the rear seat belt reels. The wiring to the carbon canister, the fuel pump & the speed sensor all need their tie wraps cutting & removing from the chassis, to be left to hang from the body. I removed the fuel pump also at this point, but you don’t have to.
If you want to go all the way up you need to:
1: Unscrew the gear knob & pull the boot up over the shaft (insert childish sniggers)
2: Disconnect the fuel pipes from the engine.
3: Empty & disconnect the A/C pipes.
4: Drain & disconnect the power steering rubber hoses.
5: Drain & disconnect the oil pipes.
6: Disconnect the engine electrics. I pulled them out from the car rather than taking them off the engine, it’s only the ECU connector, one other big connector, an earth strap & the sensor for the air pressure(?) from the air box.
7: Disconnect the reverse switch wiring from the gearbox & the earth strap that connects where the battery one does to the chassis.
8: Remove the engine, or as in my case just the NS exhaust manifold, with the usual undoing of all the engine / box mounts, moving of engine out of the way to squeeze the manifold up & out passed the chassis, making a right mess of my nice heat wrap
Anyone know what can be used as a gasket? Exhaust paste clearly didn’t work too well, maybe RTV silicon?
9: Then lift!
The body bottom of the body is narrower than the top of the chassis next to the exhaust manifolds so you have to tilt the body a bit as you lift it up so it can make it passed this tight spot. Other than that it should just come straight up, just take it slowly checking for any wires you may have missed (the earth strap in my case!).
As I was hoisting up into the roof I didn’t need to worry about making the body lighter for hand lifting by taking bits like the bonnet doors or fuel tank out. As has been mentioned previously on here taking the engine out helps if you are lifting by hand as you don’t have to lift the body as high to clear it. Getting the manifold off is very tricky with the engine in the car, I suspect it may well be easier to just lift the engine out, but I don’t have a hoist handy so have just left it on place for now.
I started out to & managed to do a partial body lift, just get at the out riggers. These turned out to be in pretty good shape. I end up with this:
Now with proper sized pics!
It only took a trolley jack & a few off cuts of 4x2 timbers to get it this high.
I had excellent access to the out riggers for painting & it would have been fine as it was. I was pleased to have left the engine in with it’s exhaust manifolds still attached, the rest of the drive train, the oil lines (with the oil in the engine so no messing about getting pressure back after) the air con lines all still fully gassed, the power steering all piped up still full of oil & all the electrics connected.
By doing the partial lift you get access to the obvious like this:
This is how it looked after my best attempts to clean it up from underneath with out lifting the body.
But you also get good access to areas like this that I didn’t know was so rusty, most worrying was the gearbox mounts, wouldn’t like it to rust through there...
But then having completed my partial lift I took a step back so to speak & established there was no gas left in the A/C so disconnecting its pipes wouldn’t matter too much. I figured the other bits above shouldn’t take too long, so decided to go the whole hog. Trouble was what with making a frame to hoist the body up into the garage roof, I ended up taking as long for the second seemingly simple stage of getting the body all the way off as it took for the initial partial lift.
I should point out the other reason I was originally only going for a partial lift was that I had previously had the exhaust manifolds out to treat the chassis next to them a while back so it’s all good there. I think this is a normal place for them to go where the powder coating gets burned off.
[
These last two pics are after the first treatment of Detox gel, after a couple more they were totally clean
Most people would want to get to this area so a partial lift would be less attractive to them.
So to do a partial lift I have removed or done the following The ones with * by them are expanded on below:
NB This is a 98 car so some things may be different on later models. Also be sure remove the battery first to avoid any nasty surprises…
1: Exhaust, from down pipes / manifolds back & heat shield above it, the pop rivets need drilling out to remove to remove the shield.
2. The front seats*
3. The hand brake*
4. Helmet holder (or sub in my case) There’s a bolt holding it from behind, it’s in the boot above the fuel tank.
5. The rear seat bases (probably need the bolts grinding off)
6. The bolts & seat belt bolts that go into the chassis + cut a little fibreglass away*
7. Centre console moved to get the cubby hole out of the way to get to the last two bolts under it. *
8. The air boxes & the lower F1 panel.
9. The radiator, if you take the big fan off it (on the aircon twin fan cars) it will come out ok. Then remove the two bolts that go into the front chassis that are now easily accessible.
10. All the coolant pipes (I’ll replace these with silicon). *
11. The throttle cable from the engine
12. Draining & then moving the fuel tank. Then removing the bolts behind the fuel tank* (It’s a lot quicker if you haven’t still got ¾ of a tank & only a small can to drain it out in to…)
13. The rear fuel pipes pump & wiring*
14. Bleed the breaks & clutch & disconnect all the pipes in the OS wheel arch. (Of course this assumes you can get your bleed nipples undone. Mine were fine thanks to a full service history from APM Andy – thanks Andy!)
15. Disconnect the steering UJs & remove the link shaft( I took the bolts out of the steering rack so I could move it enough to get the shaft out, may not be totally necessary, but I wanted to paint under it & replace the input seal)
16. Then its lifting. I went round the body with the trolley jack & a bit of 4x2 wood to spread the load over a wider area of the under body, lifting just a bit at the front back & each side to break the bond between the body & chassis. It should come up a bit fine, if it doesn’t check for any bolts you may have missed! Getting each side up more than about 10cm may require a bit of force or moving of the body, it catches on the seat belts mount bolts that are welded to the plates that stick up from the outriggers where you had cut the fibre glass. Then there shouldn’t be anything stopping you from getting it up as high as the first pics up the top.
That lot took me three 10 or 12 hour days to do (although I was wiped out after!) but most of one of them was things I needed to do anyway – the rad, coolant & fuel pipes. So it’s only two days to be able to get at the outriggers properly, I’d already wasted two days trying in vain to clean up one of the out riggers with the body in place. I cleaned the other up to a better standard in 2 hours flat with the body up.
I should point out I have rebuild a few other cars over the years, so if you’ve never done anything like it before you’d be best at least doubling my timings.
Bits in more deatail:
2: To get the seat bolts out I used the wire brush on the grinder to clean the threads then used different things behind the washers to lever them down to keep the bolt under tension which kept the head located in the runner inside the car. If you grind them off you may have trouble getting some of the ones on the passenger seat back in as I found the runner didn’t move far enough to get the bolts out, once I’d take the seat out of the car.
3: This should be one of the first jobs, you remove the hand break by getting under the car & (having removed the heat shield) taking out the pin holding the cable to it. Then pull the leather up to get to the two bolts holding it in from the top & pull it out. I damaged the leather slightly leaving it in to start with & the body won’t come up with it still there anyway.
6: Body bolts:
This where you have to cut, the body has been lifted off in this pic. There are three bolt heads on the inertia reel mounts arrowed here, behind the rear quarter panel. You don’t need to worry about the centre ones, just the ones that have the nuts sticking out through the outriggers. This applies to the roll bar mounts at the front too.
7: Then it’s just the centre console: This is one piece that runs from the helmet holder in the back, forward & out to each of the air vents. If you remove the instrument cowl (two wing nuts from underneath), take all the bolts & screws out of it as shown here:
It can be moved back enough to get the cubby most of the way out to get at the bolts that go down into the top of the chassis under it.
There’s no need to disconnect any wires anywhere.
10: The ones for the heater that disappear into the inner wing on the NS come out in the passenger footwell behind the sound proofing where the ECU most likely was. I had to cut the rubber pipe to get them off as they’d rusted on, you can see the two pipes here:
12: Clamp the fat pipe that feeds the pump, disconnect it from the pump & drain the tank, stopping the flow of fuel with the clamp to empty the container if necessary. The fuel tank then needs its clamps all undoing & moving out of the way to get to the bolt heads that are hidden under it. If you are careful the carpet can be peeled away from under the tank to get at the bolt heads in the tank straps. I didn’t remove the tank, just loosened the filler pipe & rotated it about that point. More easily seen along with chassis bolts here:
13: I found I had to take the fuel filter & carbon canister (big back thing next to the filter) out to get to the connection between the hard fuel pipe & the flexible. The bolts that hold the filter & canister come out behind the rear seat backs, you can get to these after removing the helmet holder. Access will be easier still if you have already removed the rear seat belt reels. The wiring to the carbon canister, the fuel pump & the speed sensor all need their tie wraps cutting & removing from the chassis, to be left to hang from the body. I removed the fuel pump also at this point, but you don’t have to.
If you want to go all the way up you need to:
1: Unscrew the gear knob & pull the boot up over the shaft (insert childish sniggers)
2: Disconnect the fuel pipes from the engine.
3: Empty & disconnect the A/C pipes.
4: Drain & disconnect the power steering rubber hoses.
5: Drain & disconnect the oil pipes.
6: Disconnect the engine electrics. I pulled them out from the car rather than taking them off the engine, it’s only the ECU connector, one other big connector, an earth strap & the sensor for the air pressure(?) from the air box.
7: Disconnect the reverse switch wiring from the gearbox & the earth strap that connects where the battery one does to the chassis.
8: Remove the engine, or as in my case just the NS exhaust manifold, with the usual undoing of all the engine / box mounts, moving of engine out of the way to squeeze the manifold up & out passed the chassis, making a right mess of my nice heat wrap
Anyone know what can be used as a gasket? Exhaust paste clearly didn’t work too well, maybe RTV silicon?
9: Then lift!
The body bottom of the body is narrower than the top of the chassis next to the exhaust manifolds so you have to tilt the body a bit as you lift it up so it can make it passed this tight spot. Other than that it should just come straight up, just take it slowly checking for any wires you may have missed (the earth strap in my case!).
As I was hoisting up into the roof I didn’t need to worry about making the body lighter for hand lifting by taking bits like the bonnet doors or fuel tank out. As has been mentioned previously on here taking the engine out helps if you are lifting by hand as you don’t have to lift the body as high to clear it. Getting the manifold off is very tricky with the engine in the car, I suspect it may well be easier to just lift the engine out, but I don’t have a hoist handy so have just left it on place for now.
Edited by Luckyone on Wednesday 12th January 10:50
Thanks very much everyone, glad you like it 
Do you think Sprint would be interested? May be a bit much of one make for them, they are welcome if they do want it, it’s been a good few years since this Cerb has been in there…
Your web site looks great BTW if you want to stick this up on there, feel free!
itiejim said:
Fantastic, thanks!
I hope to start mine next week, this will be invaluable.
Good luck James, keep me posted on the Galv front I hope to start mine next week, this will be invaluable.
tvrgit said:
That's brilliant, the kind of thing this site should be about. I've just done something similar for my S-Series, hope my Cerb doesn't need anything like this for a wee while yet!
Have you thought of doing it as an article for Sprint magazine?
Ta! It’s a shame there isn’t a frequently asked questions section to keep things like this & other good guides peeps have made. Have you thought of doing it as an article for Sprint magazine?
Do you think Sprint would be interested? May be a bit much of one make for them, they are welcome if they do want it, it’s been a good few years since this Cerb has been in there…
Your web site looks great BTW if you want to stick this up on there, feel free!
Luckyone said:
tvrgit said:
Have you thought of doing it as an article for Sprint magazine?
Ta! It’s a shame there isn’t a frequently asked questions section to keep things like this & other good guides peeps have made. Do you think Sprint would be interested? May be a bit much of one make for them, they are welcome if they do want it, it’s been a good few years since this Cerb has been in there…
Your web site looks great BTW if you want to stick this up on there, feel free!
As I say, I am writing an article for Sprint for a partial lift on the S-Series - they are all getting on for 2o to 25 years old now so it's becoming quite common among S owners (well amonmg their cars, I mean). I'm hoping Sprint will print it (Seeing as I'm the S-Series editor I'm likely to pass the first hurdle at least!)
Optimax Sniffer is the Cerbera Editor, so you could ask him.
jammy_basturd said:
Apologies for hijacking an offer, but would you mind if I posted it on my site too?
Please do, your site is great! I only just found it a week or two ago, with the very useful manual on it, after I'd completed my partial lift 
Still the section on removing the body in the manual isn't great, so I though I'd still do this.
Great guide, really well done with all the important bits highlighted!
How did you find lifting it how you did as it's how I was planning to do mine. Also did you use the bit of wood in the boot to lift the back?
How long did it take.
Shame it's ANOTHER yellow and purple car!!! I'm beginning to think it was the only colour combo they did!!!
How did you find lifting it how you did as it's how I was planning to do mine. Also did you use the bit of wood in the boot to lift the back?
How long did it take.
Shame it's ANOTHER yellow and purple car!!! I'm beginning to think it was the only colour combo they did!!!
ridds said:
Great guide, really well done with all the important bits highlighted!
How did you find lifting it how you did as it's how I was planning to do mine. Also did you use the bit of wood in the boot to lift the back?
How long did it take.
Shame it's ANOTHER yellow and purple car!!! I'm beginning to think it was the only colour combo they did!!!
Thanks very much, glad you don’t think I’ve missed anything, it’s good to have some one who knows check it over for me. Also thanks for your tip on the tilting the body to get it up How did you find lifting it how you did as it's how I was planning to do mine. Also did you use the bit of wood in the boot to lift the back?
How long did it take.
Shame it's ANOTHER yellow and purple car!!! I'm beginning to think it was the only colour combo they did!!!
Sorry for copying you colour combo
I didn’t include my lifting method as it not really totally safe
I looked at a block & tackle as that’s what itiemjim is planning to lift his with, but they quite pricey & I’d need one for the front & one for the back, so I didn’t go for that. Also I’m not sure the steel I used across the roof could support the body from just one point in the centre of its span – where I’d have to attach the block & tackle if I used them. Instead I found these http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/... These straps can’t be used to winch very far, but can be released & re-set to any length very quickly. So I used the jack with progressively longer steel tube off cuts to lift it bit by bit (the not so safe bit!). I’m sure you spied in the last pic of the guide, the straps looped round the front wings / arches. They have a hook one end & a loop the other so easily attach back to them selves. This also meant the load was spread much better on the steel beam. It’s been a long time since I left the education system, but I’m pretty sure looping them back on them selves doubles their load carrying capacity too. So now it’s up I’m hoping it will say there!
The rear is looped under the car:
I’d forgotten about the method of sticking wood across the inside of the boot, but remembered it after my first attempt of just looping the straps though with out the wood. Unfortunately my supports were in place to line up with the rear arches by then & didn’t line up with the boot. The problem was that the straps pulled in on the arches too much & as one was slightly damaged from this little excursion:
from the Oulton Park TVRCC track day back in 2004, there was a nasty cracking noise as I started to release the jack & the straps took up the strain. Adding the bit of wood you can see spreads the load enough to stop any nasty noises. Although I imagine if the body isn’t damaged in anyway it may be ok with out the wood. The length of the wood was determined by the proximity of the walls of the garage each side!
As I said the partial lift took about three 10 or 12 hour days. But my other half had gone away with our 9 month boy for the week so I had non stop free time to work & easily measurable time. The full lift for me consisted of lots of popping out to the garage during nap time! I suspect you know how long the extra items listed for the full lift would take you, so it then just depends if you have anything already in the roof to strap on to already. Just knocking the supports up & going to get the straps took me the best part of a day. So the full lift seemed to take as long as the partial lift but I didn’t keep a check of the actual hours I worked on it.
Edited by Luckyone on Sunday 12th September 13:09
itiejim said:
This could really do with being on one of the Cerbera sites with full size photos...
Sorry James, they have been bugging me to! On the PC at work I can only get them to either be totally full size; so stupidly huge you can only see a bit of the pic on the screen, or the thumb nails I used instead. However I’ve just found that if I posted from my PC at home I can make them look like the ones above of the rear strap. I can easily change the links tomorrow when I’m at home so they all look like that. The only trouble is that if you click on them they don’t get any bigger. So if you wanted to zoom into any part of the pic you wouldn’t then be able to.
Thought I just bump this as it goes with my other thread & there seem to be few people looking at working there chassis, if you are going the trouble of stripping all the bits you can see you may as well lift the body a bit & paint it all, as you can see it the bits you can’t get to with the body on that need it the most...
Another good option for lifting the body is a diy scaffold frame. I adapted some cup lock scaffold, and using the four threaded corners and timber placed under the wheel arches, i managed to lift it on my own by turning each corner up a few inches at a time till it was high enough to push the chassis out from underneath the body. I also made some timber/metal box section to lower the body down onto where it remained for most of the winter [under a breathable cover] whilst i sorted the chassis out in the garage.
Im sure you could do something similar with four acrow props for raising the corners and some steel tube.
Just another idea that might help someone. [p.s ignore the times on the pics, bodyoff jobs i can do, digital cameras a big no.no!]
Im sure you could do something similar with four acrow props for raising the corners and some steel tube.
Just another idea that might help someone. [p.s ignore the times on the pics, bodyoff jobs i can do, digital cameras a big no.no!]
Gassing Station | Cerbera | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff