New way to put an Elise on a lift

[tesprit]

What is a guy to do on a snowy spring day when you have the day off from work? Well, I finally figured out a decent way to get my Elise on the 4 arm lift in my garage. As many of you know, when trying to place the Elise on a lift, there is no good place to put the rear arms and using the accessable forward lifting points from Lotus will result in a "qball" episode. The local dealer service tech showed me how to access the frame with the undertray and diffuser in place and place a sawed up 4X4 piece of lumber in between the lift arm pad and the frame of the car. This is what they use everyday to lift the Elises in their shop. I liked the idea of using this piece of the frame, but I wanted something better than a 4X4 to place in there and I wanted to beef up the extruded aluminum frame leg so there would be no chance of damage from any lifting forces. I eventually came up with the following idea of making a permanent lift point for my car. I made the parts in the next photo using my milling machine and lathe and some left over 3/8" aluminum plate and 1 1/8" round stock.



This photo shows the parts for one lift point extension loosely assembled off the car.



No new holes are drilled when installing these parts onto the frame and only the original locating hole in the frame is used, so the frame extensions could be removed at any time and there would be no trace of them ever having been there. This photo shows the upper sandwhich plate being slipped into the end of the frame leg.

[FalconerHK]

I'm just jealous you had the free time and energy to make those (looks great btw).

If I had a day off without kids or wife pulling me ten different directions I'd probably freak out... again! again!

[tvacc]

You should have them made up and sell them.

[tesprit]

After this plate is inserted into the frame, the lower plate with the extension pin is placed under the frame and the single mounting bolt is inserted through the upper plate, the frame, and the lower plate and the the washers and nut are assembled and tighened up. The assembled extension looks like this.



With the under tray in place and the car on the lift using the new frame extensions in the back along with the forward stock jacking points the car looks like this.



and this.



I'm sure you are all asking how much do these extensions weigh, so I put all the hardware and parts for both sides of the frame on my postal scale and they totalled 3 lbs. 15 oz. These new lifting points allow me to lift my Elise easily without removing the undertray first and really make the car stable once it is on the lift. They do not need to be removed when the car is being driven and they will not foul any suspension or other moving parts. Now I can head back out to the garage to finish cleaning the underside of my Elise and wait for this snow storm to quit!

[tesprit]

Originally Posted by RegGuy

Someone has to say it. You have a lift in your garage!? My wife's head would explode.

Yes, she couldn't believe the day the semi backed up to our garage with my new lift. That was 15 years ago and she actually appreciates it now after all the work I have been able to do on our cars over the years. By now it has paid for itself at least 3-4 times over.

Here are a couple more photos of the extensions at work.

[tesprit]

Originally Posted by tvacc

You should have them made up and sell them.

I thought of that too Tony, but how many Elise owners have a lift or access to one that they would actually need these? I took down all the dimensions of the parts just in case someone was interested and I would be happy to share them. The only other thought I had for a use for these extensions would be in conjunction with a jackstand to help stablize the car when using the other jacking points with a floor jack to jack up the car in the driveway.

[Ian]

Originally Posted by FalconerHK

I'm just jealous you had the free time and energy to make those (looks great btw).

That's pretty funny. The first thing I thought when I saw those pictures was "He must not have kids."

[tesprit]

Originally Posted by Ian

That's pretty funny. The first thing I thought when I saw those pictures was "He must not have kids."

How true! You are right (no kids), but I had all sorts of things scheduled for today and the snowstorm here has kept me home all day. Tomorrow it's back to work for my 10 or 12 hour shift (depends on how busy we are) and I'll have to catch up on all the things I couldn't do today this weekend.

[esthi]

Originally Posted by tesprit

I thought of that too Tony, but how many Elise owners have a lift or access to one that they would actually need these? I took down all the dimensions of the parts just in case someone was interested and I would be happy to share them. The only other thought I had for a use for these extensions would be in conjunction with a jackstand to help stablize the car when using the other jacking points with a floor jack to jack up the car in the driveway.

I'm interested! Can you email the dimensions to me? What an ingenious solution. You should patent it and license to sector 111.

[qball]

You could market them to Goodyear!

[ZAMMY1]

SPECTACULAR!
i'm in the 'getting the welder ready' mode, parts are laid out waiting for the mig welding to start.
mine will pick up the rear wheels. i will back into the 2' SQUARE tubing frame which looks like a ladder. it attaches to my carlift arms. the OTHER two arms will catch the front of the frame rails.

doesn't everyone have a carlift, milling machine and lathe?

congratulations on a beautiful solution to a PIA problem.
i'd like a dimension sketch as i still may duplicate your solution for away-from-home needs.
also, thank heaven for hockey pucks.

[LARRY]

Originally Posted by RegGuy

Someone has to say it. You have a lift in your garage!? My wife's head would explode.

[tvacc]

Originally Posted by tesprit

I thought of that too Tony, but how many Elise owners have a lift or access to one that they would actually need these? I took down all the dimensions of the parts just in case someone was interested and I would be happy to share them. The only other thought I had for a use for these extensions would be in conjunction with a jackstand to help stablize the car when using the other jacking points with a floor jack to jack up the car in the driveway.

Well..I think every owner should carry a set in the car in case you need some work done and there is not a lotus dealer around.

Send me the deminisons...is there someone that could put these on CAD file and we could have them made?

There is http://www.emachineshop.com/

This would be a breeze for them to make. They have an online cad program. Anyone of of us could order at set. I have never used them, but i have talked to those that have.

[Chococar]

Gee -- why not use air cylinders instead of solid aluminum rods?

[tvacc]

Originally Posted by Chococar

Gee -- why not use air cylinders instead of solid aluminum rods?

Hell of an idea. But have you seen the cost of air cylinders...?

I have seen then in catalogs..but cant find a price right this minute on the web.

[Bman]

that really would be slick..

[tesprit]

OK, for you farbricators out there, I will try to get a properly dimensioned drawing of the parts made up in the next few days and post it to this thread. Here are a few of the critical dimensions. The width dimensions on the plates are 3.520" for the upper and 3.800" for the lower. The plates are 0.375" thick. The pins are 1.125" dia. and 4.300" long. The flat head allen screw is SAE 1/2 X 1.5" long NC and the through bolt is M14 X 40mm long. Most of the rest of the cuts were made to clear the specifics of the frame on my car and the slots and recess on the one pair of plates were custom machined to clear the clutch hose bracket that is riveted to the LH frame. I doubt Lotus drilled and attached these brackets in the same place every time so it would be best if you just fitted the plates to your car as you make them. The same goes for the diagonal end of the plate that follows the cut off end of the frame. I just held the plates in the right place and scribed a line on them following the contour of the frame end. Once again, I doubt this shape is consistant from one car to the next. Once I get a drawing made, maybe you could transfer the dimensions to some cardboard and do some test fitting on your car to make sure they fit before making anything out of metal.

If enough of you are interested in purchasing these extensions as a kit, I can check with a local machine shop that does small runs and find out what they would charge to copy the parts. I just don't know if the parts I made to fit my car as described above will fit everyone elses.

[tvacc]

As long as they dont kill us...I am in.

I would also look at the machine shop online that I posted above.

I know some guys that had parts made and they were cheap.

[SweetDaddyD]

Not only a lift, at least a partial machine shop as well! Awesome!! Nice project too, looks great and very practical. Hope the snow storm goes easy on you!

[TimMullen]

Sorry, I'm an engineer, so I'm always looking at ways to "improve" things - even the already good things...

My only concern (and it is a very small one) is that the cylinder appears to stick down slightly below the under-tray (as necessary to use it as a lift point) which would make it a slight "target" for hanging up on things.

Is it possible instead, to have a threaded receptacle in place of the cylinder, so that you could screw the cylinder into the receptacle when needed? Then you would just need to keep the thread in cylinders in the tool kit with the lug wrench.

But other than than, it's a great idea, even for those of us that don't have a lift. Using it with a jack stand to hold up the car to get the under tray off and place the jack stand in it's normal place would be a good thing.

By the way, I'm interested in this if you decide to market it...