That’s Cool. Where is the rest of the Kit? I would like to check it out.
I thought the “4 inch lift” that most people make was just a tad bigger then I wanted and thought 3 inch would have been the Ideal ride height. I think what most classic Gem car people want is their cars 2000+ cars to sit at the height of the Newer Gems 2013+ where they are not riding super tall like a lifted Gem but they are NOT low riding like the early cars.
I thought a single lift kit that had 2 sets of Holes would have been a great compromise. Example make it so the customer can choose between a 3 inch and 4 inch lift just by selecting what mount hole.
So while we are on the topic of lift kits I would like to talk about What I know about them. And my History with them. Here is a b4 & after of my 4 inch lift.
As far as I know “Uncle Rodney” (old houseboater) was the first to produce a 4inch lift kit to be sold to the public. I bought one. It was $400 and all the parts were mostly made by hand. It came with all the hardware and worked & fit great. I have a you tube video installing that kit from over 7 years ago. Rodney sold a hand full of them and then just stopped.
Meanwhile the demand for them kept going and people either made their own or “knew a guy”
Fast forward a few years I fell out of love with the classics and turnd my attention to the newer Gems and I hear people are making and selling their own kit and out of the blue someone is saying “they patterned” the lift!!! And was sending the various People that were making and selling lift kits (cease, and assist letters)
Then I saw on Facebook there was a guy that was flying around the country, installing lift kits for people.
I hadn’t paid it too much attention to the details but thought it was an interesting side business or hustle, installing Gem Car lift kits. Let me know what you think or have heard. I hope I haven’t sidetracked this guys thread if so, let’s start a new one.
Looking at the shock offset adapters it looks like a good place to incorporate a bell-crank design with a large rubber bushing against the frame so to add a .5-1" of rubber to smooth out the little bumps.
Owning a 2002 spine crusher it’s always been on my mind how to smooth out those bumps. Even my 2008 gets jarred a bit when the rear end goes over a raised crack across the road.
Do you have CAD/DXF files for the hole sizes and positions? I did some laser cutter mods a while back and found/used Send-Cut-Send and was blown away by their pricing. Also, would this be unique for those shocks or would the shocks be a good investment with the lift kit? ie does it ride lots better with these new shocks?
I see what you’re talking about. It would seem to me that those mounts would need to be isolated and by only having one bolt through them they could flop around per say
Lol, yeah could be extra swing in the swing arms…
But no, this is work in progress, like I said above, I still need to add extra bolts once I get everything lined up.
As a reference this what the R4F kit looks like.
I’d say those pics show more about a improper/sloppy install practices rather than a bad kit. Overly long bolts installed into short locations and short bolts not catching the Nyloc in a nut? I wonder how many extra parts he had left over?
The real problems with the kit lie elsewhere.
But it is also classic that Dustin shows nothing about his own kits.
I don’t disagree. But i feel that a properly designed kit could eliminate a number of issues. Less different parts, more attention to designing parts that can only be installed one way. IKEA level assembly instructions. Etc.
Now it is true that the more you id10t proof something, the more apt ypu are to discover someone birthed an even less capable id10t and they just bought your product. But, Darwin needs to win some too.
ya, where the heck are the spacers to keep the bolt from pulling the side plates in and crushing the “U” bracket? Any grease monkey would know that shock bushing inserts aren’t there just to make it a PIA to get the bolts through.
