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PART 6

LIFTIN’ IT

A bodylift is a good way to not only get some bigger rubber under your guards, but also pull your bodywork up out of harms way.

Now supposedly, and I use this term loosely from past experience, the X90 shouldn’t be too much of a drama as it’s a Vit. However, we decided on a 3” lift which in itself, has its own hassles.

The Calmini kit is 99% complete, everything you need except for a means to extend the steering setup. Apparently due to the huge amount of variables regarding what’s engineerable in what country, this is left to the discretion of the purchaser... smart move.
But Calmini had the nous to sort most of the fiddley bits, like brackets to lift your bumpers, extension and breather setup for your fuel filler, brake line and even an extension for your transfer case shifter. Saves time and chasing around, excellent.
The instructions are comprehensive and after a quick rundown to confirm which bit goes where, Luffy got stuck into it.

One of the most important things to remember when lifting any vehicle, apart from safety of course, is to go over *everything* that’s attached to both the body and chassis before you start lifting... and then check it all again. Many a bodylift has gone belly-up to the tune of snapping and popping wiring, pipes, steering knuckles, lines and tubes... leaving the lifter with a hefty repair bill and a 4WD sitting in pool of various fluids with little chunks of rubber and metal in it. Best bet is to make sure you have at least one person doing the rounds with each pump of the jack, watching what’s going on underneath. This is especially crucial with steering components as it’s one of the “Three S” requirements for a safe vehicle; Start, Steer and Stop. Get one of these wrong, and you’re up for the fourth S... ‘Stuffed’.

The boys took their time removing the bumpers and unbolting everything, with Luffy removing the passenger seat and console to allow adjustment of the transfer case lever and watch for any fouling during the lifting process. The lift wasn’t done on the hoist as it’s only a small vehicle and wasn’t a complicated process with a Suzuki. Besides, I didn’t feel like standing on half a dozen milk crates to shoot it.

The X90, like all the same model Vitaras, uses captive bolts, meaning you can’t just slide out a bolt, pop in a block and then drop the bolt back in again. You literally mount them both top and bottom, which is why the Calmini system consists of a top allow block that is screwed into box-section steel with the original rubber block on top. Okay in the US, but very engineer-unfriendly here. They had to be replaced.

Liam over at BBMotorsport came to the rescue (as he has done a few times with my adventures into Zook building) with six solid body blocks and captive bolts to fit a Vitara. These were swapped out with the temporarily installed Calmini bits and all was good! Apart from that slight brush with the RTA, the rest of the kit was fine.

The steering column also needed to be extended and there are so many... umm... different ways of doing it ‘the easy way’ that we decided to leave it to the professionals. Oscar was handed over to the guys at SUZITech and an extension block was made and welded in (making it foolproof) that matched the factory original and is totally legal. It would take someone in the know to pick that anything was different from the norm, it’s that good!

Ok... we’ve got the lift but we still need to give those lovely soft sill panels a bit of protection... ah, there were some sill bars in that Calmini package.
Luffy! Grab the oxy will ya!