Request for advice: Lifting a Jimny Body

Thanks for detailing this Julian. I’m in a similar situation (except without the luxury of a 2-post lift!). I need to raise the body slightly to access some awkward rust patches.

So far I’ve removed all 8 body mount nuts, removed the fuel tank, dropped the transfer case (needed taking out anyway), and I’m about to loosen the brake pipes.

Is there anything else you’d recommend? I.e. coolant pipes or steering columns? I’m paranoid I’ve forgotten something!

Glad to share, but even though I am a grey haired engineer, I was lead by my young body shop mechanic who was brilliant. He did the fiddly bits but a few pointers. Steering column yes we loosened it and greased any part that looked like it could slide. We did not loosen any pipes or hoses... BUT... we were mega mega cautious when lifting the body. Literally a few cm at a time and we both went all over the vehicle looking for anything we had forgotten.

Before we started this we had stripped off the front and rear bumpers, the side chassis strips under the doors, and all the wheel arch plastic inserts.

I believe the use of the 2 post lift was a very important element in our success. We could evenly distribute forces to the vehicle body and gently (!) apply some serious lifting force.

I have spent 6 months of weekends bringing the Jimny up to like new and would gladly share anything I have learnt!!!

Just a follow up on my earlier post - Maybe my young mechanic loosened pipes or hoses without me seeing, I just dont recall him doing it, but the lift we used was such we could raise the body in steps of 1 -2 cm at a time. I was honestly paranoid something would break, but it was so well done that all worked fine.

I have seen quite a few places in the UK where you can hire a lift at reasonable prices - the key being a lift that can move in small increments and does not move up before lowering as that will seriously break something. I am working on a budget with this renovation, but I have never regretted the money spent on being able to lift the vehicle in a controlled fashion. Maybe I just dont know how to use jacks, stands and wheel ramps properly!

Thanks again for the advice! I’ve managed to remove all 8 body mount nuts, a quick test with the jack revealed movement!

Sorry for more questions…Did you do anything with the handbrake cables? Also how high do you jack the body from the chassis in the end?

Apologies for the late reply, I have only just seen your question. re the handbrake to be honest I dont recall us touching that at all. As for amount of lift it was around 4cm.

Please add your comments and experiences to this post ..... the more information we can put in here the better!

I return to the UK in a few days and face my first MOT... should be fun!!

Hi major, I don't remember having to do anything with the handbrake when I did mine. I think everything has been mentioned in here already.

If you have to do it with Jack's I would recommend getting a few and trying to lift it quite level. Doing front then back for my body lift I found it got misaligned much easier than it was for me to realign it