hawaiibake

Finally decided to lift the 4runner. I put cornfed's 3" lift up front with the dif drop. It was such a PITA i had to bring the struts in to my mechanic to get the nuts off the stud of the shock. He had to use a nut splitter. I did all the coil compression by hand with a ratchet, I don't recommend that.

I went with the LC coils in the rear. Mine were 7.5 wraps, and were pretty easy to install. Had to cut the top studs off the old shocks to get them out. There was a lot of binding on the links once the suspension droops down too far. I had to use the coil spring compressor to get both sides in. I left the panhard stock for now, but I see how that could be the limiting factor in the flex. I ended up using front LC gas shocks. They are firm, but that is good, as the rig is sitting pretty tall right now.

I installed the 2" body lift about a month ago. I have a set of 315 BFG's that I am waiting to put on because I haven't figured out what to mount them on. I haven't been able to find a deal on used rims here yet. I could use the stockies but would need a spacer to clear the UCA. Whatever I end up doing I really want to widen the stance as much as I can for stability.
Here are some pics, please excuse the rust!!

swapped89

good job, looks like your gonna need some bigger rubbers

hawaiibake

got the rubber, need the rims

emptypockets

Looks especially tall with the little rubber, but nice looking rig. Can't wait to see it with the 315's!

stave

i'll be doing the same thing to mine. i was wondering if it was hard putting the body lift into it?

hawaiibake

Body lift wasn't too bad. Biggest problem I had was that the 1996 4runners didn't have the centre body mounts, so i had to fab some up. I couldn't find any rubber bushings to go between the mount and the body lift puck, but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference. There is a LOT of rust on this truck and that seems to be the determining factor for how difficult anything is working on it.
I would say 2" is perfect. It actually looked really good before i put the suspension lift on with the stock tires, but Bigger is better right??

Atomic

Truck looks great, it'll look even better with those 315's!


Do you have any picture of the truck with just the BL on?

JuJew

How do you like the body lift? Any difference in ride quality?

Snapped any mounts on the trails?

hawaiibake

Lol! No i haven't snapped any mounts. I welded the crap out of them after I took those pics. This is my Wife's vehicle, so it will mostly be logging roads and the occasional rock piles. The only pic I have of the body lift is one after I had just done one side. I was actually surprised at the difference the 2" made. Lots of people commented on how good it looked with just the body lift. It looks obscene now My wife loves big trucks... She is pestering my to get the big rubber on as fast as possible.

hawaiibake

Picked up some rims today for $200. Pretty fancy for me but they were cheaper than buying new steel ones. Just have to swap the rubber off these and mount the 315's. Going to do that first thing sunday morning and get them mounted.

I bought some 1/4" spacers for the front, and i am going to grind the UCA's down a little just to make sure everything clears ok.

tigertowncruiser

I would get the spacers instead of those wheels . Will look much better and will be ok with quality spacers.

stagger_lee

I would run the stockers and get em powder coated black. Truck looks great, but those new rims are no bueno.

hawaiibake

found out my insurance company won't cover vehicles with wheel spacers. i was talking to this guy and he got in a crash with his truck and ICBC wouldn't cover any of the damages bc he had the spacers on. That is a deal breaker for me... I just want to get the rubber on there and see how it feels. That way I can keep my eye out for some sweet rims when they come along.

my factory wheels are probably in the worse shape i have ever seen a pair, so I can't imagine trying refurbish those.

I will post pics once they are on in all of their blingy glory

nosfanatic2006

iTrader: (1)

Sweet truck! Gonna be 10x sweeter with new tires

superduper

hawaiibake, when you mention that the insurance would not cover you because you had spacers, are you talking about the cornfed spacers or spacers you would use to widen the stance such as those you put behind the rims?

Matt16

What!? I've never heard of this ICBC rule. Can anyone confirm? Was it the wheel spacers, or just the guy telling the story blaming it on the wheel spacers when he had a bunch of other unsafe mods or he was drinking and driving?

stave

is this where you put that other support in?

hawaiibake

From what I understand, it is the wheel spacers. I am going to look into it some more, because the wheels don't stick out far enough for how tall the runner is.

STAVE: That is where the missing body mount goes. I made mine out of some scrap 4" box steel I bought as scrap. It was the first thing I had ever really fabricated and it was pretty simple using a grinder and a cut off wheel. I would get a real bushing to go between the body mount and lift block though. Mine is kind of ghetto.

hawaiibake

Well, go the tires and rims on and they look pretty good. i thought the chrome would be a little much but it looks sweet. Definitly the coolest freaking vehicle I have ever owned.

Had some issues with the UCA's. I ground them down a fair bit, but I am afraid of taking off too much. I have no idea how thick the metal is there. My wheels have 4 7/8" backspacing, so I bought 1/4" spacers. Problem is the old wheels are lug-centric and new ones are not. so the studs are kind of shorter than I would like, and too short I think with the spacers on. The tires rub a little when the truck is leaning into a corner. It won't really hurt the tire, but it is kind of annoying. Not sure what the solution is yet... Had to pound over the pinchwelds, remove the front mudflaps completely and trim the rears to get the tires to stuff in there.

Gotta love that rust from living most of it's life in Ontario

Godzilla

Yup, Ontario will make short work of your vehicle. I got out with mine before any serious effects. Check out craigslist for rims. There are always plenty of toyota rims when I check (vancouver craigslist).
Truck is lookin huge though!