Raising Car an inch or 2

[CORDERS]

Hi Again Everyone.

Today for the first time I persuaded her indoors to accompany me for a ride out in the car. Where we live there are a number of speed bumps In order for our local posh kids in their parent bought little GTIs and supermini’s  to stick to the 20mph hour. Now not to put too fine a point on it both myself and she who must be obeyed are not the skeletal types in fact a few extra pounds in fact stones have been present for years.

Problem is that car bottoms out on each speed bumps and I’m scared of ripping out the underside of the car. The crunch is sickening even when I try to crawl over the humps at an angle barely moving. Moving house apparently is not an option for the Mrs. 
Problem  no 2 is sadly unlike you guys who have built these cars from scratch and are very hands on I am certainly not very mechanically minded. I obviously need to somehow raise the whole car a little to stop it getting wrecked on these car killing humps.

initally I thought ok maybe bigger wheels and tires? Probably not so shock absorbers maybe the answer? Does anyone have any idea what I should get to fit the car although it will be a case of me being advised what to get and asking my local garage to fit them. I have taken pictures of the front but until I get get her on a ramp (the car not the Mrs) I can’t get pictures of the rear. PLEASE DONT SUGGEST SELLING THE RH AND BUYING A MONSTER TRUCK!!! 

ANY advice would be appreciated guys. I got away with suggesting that we may have to get an extension for the passenger harness by the skin of my teeth but suggesting us both losing 5 stone is a non starter I think  

[alanrichey]

I've just written an article on this very subject in the latest magazine.   If you opted for a PDF delievery you should have received it, otherwise the hard copy should be arrving soon.   {Checking my records I see you didn't reply when I asked you the question, so it has defaulted to hard copy).

Al

Edited May 6 by alanrichey

[Foz]

First question - is it just the front end that you want to raise ?  Can you tell which part of the car is catching the ground ?    OK, that's 2 questions

It doesn't look like your front has adjustable coil-overs so the easiest option is probably a spacer block between the bottom of the damper and the bottom wishbone.

How to raise the rear will depend on what you've got at the back ..........  of your car !

I'm busy all this week but could probably nip over and have a look at you next week if that's any use ?

Steve

[CORDERS]

Hi Steve That would be great in the meantime I’ll try to het it on a lift and get some pictures of the back too.

Sorry Al I can’t seem to open PDFs from my iPad to print off so Yeah the old hard copy would be great. I apologise for not getting back to you on that mate.

i look forward to seeing the article

[Foz]

OK, I'll send you a pm over the weekend (when I know what I'm doing next week) with my mobile No. and we can arrange something.

[CORDERS]

Cheers Steve 

[Jonty Wild]

Higher profile tires must work, assuming sufficient wheel arch clearance is available, but I would love to hear from people who have done this and especially what that has done to handling. Obviously if you do this you need a GPS operated speedometer or its accuracy will be compromised (larger rolling diameter) whether that takes it beyond 10% can be calculated relatively easily.

I have no intention of doing this (yet) but the 'B' roads in Lincolnshire are getting evermore bumpy and don't talk to me about the potholes, especially at the road edges!

[Foz]

PM sent

[Jonty Wild]

On 4/16/2025 at 5:13 PM, Derek said:

I changed from a 2ltr pinto to a 2ltr Vauxhall red top

I just filled in section 7 of the V5 with the new engine number and the different cylinder capacity. (1996cc to 1998cc)

The V5 came back changed to the new details. Nothing else required.

That is very, very interesting thank you.

[colinmoore]

Looking at the green springs fitted, it may be that the suspension fitted are the original zeemriders, that were supplied with the kit. These are generally thought of as being a little substandard, and you may benefit by fitting a better spring/damper unit. I have fitted Gaz units to my 2B from dampertech, not sure if Dave is still there, but he was the expert on spring rates etc for these cars. Also is your car fitted with a lowered sump, if you are running a Pinto engine, this would be a must to avoid scraping the road on compression.

[Foz]

Just an update for anybody following this -

The front coil-overs are adjustable, there is a rubber boot covering the nuts and hiding the adjustment.

Rear is separate spring and damper (as Sierra) but top mount looks like it can be "adjusted".

The plan is to get it over the pit in the next few days and see if we can lift it by about 1" front and rear which should solve the problem.

It does have a shortened sump so no damage there (yet).

Watch this space for success (or fail) report

[Jonty Wild]

I will be interested to know how you get on.

 

Just a thought but surely you don't want the front to be too much higher that the back for aerodynamic and stability reasons? As much as they are aerodynamic!

Edited May 11 by Jonty Wild
Additional info

[alanrichey]

Good point.   As I recall when I lifted my front end I did the rear as well so it was slightly higher then the front.

[Jez Morton]

The best thing you can do is put the zimmer ride shocks in the bin. I had an issue where the car started to ground out. The first issue was the springs had dropped, lost their tension? The second I found when I replaced the springs, the dampers had very little compression resistance and lots of rebound resistance. This meant that when you drove a rough road the ride height would drop.

[CORDERS]