Tess Is Lifted!!!!

[4runnerchevy]

Looks good ! There are some big voids between the tire and fender though!

[YotaFun]

On break now in the truck.
I don't get off till 9.

I will show you the link on Sonorans site later on the links.

Trust me I am itching to get home and tell you all the saga the Katy, J and I went through.

There was a lot of cursing and the usual blood sweat and tears.

~Avy


P.S. I am undecided on tires, I don't think I can afford the shaved a-arms till after NE takeover and I do want 285, but might have to settle for 255...

[Lee]

you dont need to have shave a arms for 285s... i had 305s and didnt shave mine.

[YotaFun]

Where you still on stock rims?

[JWBehm]

Its really close, I had to sand them down a tiny bit on my 99 4Runner with a 2.5" lift but i could fit 285s with stock rims. I would just get a .25" spacer from pep boys and longer studs if you have a problem.

[callmej75]

I think if he goes any wider with spacers, he will be in ticket heaven where he lives. Time for the flares!

[kmcc78240]

Looks great.

[YotaFun]

So I am showered and relaxed.
Let the saga begin.

As most of you may know I have had my lift in my possession since the beginning of October 2007.
I originally didn't think about getting the lift coated.
I was more waiting to collect the tire and rim package before I put it on.

However, when I went to See Katy and J for there wedding, and he did my Toyota emblem for my Satoshi mod in this very cool wrinkle red, and after seeing that and J throwing out the idea of doing the lift that way, I was sold!

So finally, this past weekend, I requested off from work, talked to J and made arrangements for going down, and then loaded the truck with my tool box, jack stands, various fluids and grease, and a change of cloths and the lift and prepared for my 6 hour trek to VA.

Day 1: Friday
Its 430 in the morning, I slept about 4 hours the night before cause I was so excited about this weekend.
I showered and loaded a cooler, kissed my mom goodbye and got in the truck.
Started her up and finally left the house around 530.
I had already gassed up the night before so I headed straight to the highway.
Cops where everywhere Friday so I had to take my time, however there was one point in the trip that through my playlist shuffle, East Bound and down came on and I found myself speeding up lol!
Also, half trip when I refueled, I decided to put plus in, as some of you may have known I have been getting some bad gas mileage at a steady 15mpg city and highway, well, with the plus, I jumped back up to 20mpg highway, anyone know why?
I thought on the 3.4l it really didn't matter what octane I was putting in?

Anyway, lets get to the good stuff.
I arrived at J's around 1130, got in and just sat down for a bit, 6 hours is a long drive, and that last hour felt like it took forever!
He showed me around and pointed out his new 55 gallon saltwater tank, that is freakin awesome, a work in progress, but its farther then I could ever go and heck, clown fish rule!
So then we go get the lift out of the truck to start stripping the coils, J explained to me the coating on the springs is really really hard to strip off, and I learned this quickly:

That was a tundra coils, those where the hardest coils, Katy can attest to this as you will see later

The LC Coils where easier, a lot easier!




Then we get the the lower links striped as well as teh pan hard bar and blasted as well:



J explaining how he is going to hang the pan hard bar:



Then it was time to go pick up Katy from work
She got to help us out the rest of the night:

I quickly learned that she really hates doing coils, and I think at the end of the weekend, Katy, J, and I are all in agreement COILS STINK!
See, she looks really mad here lol:


I told them, if I was a girl, and they couldn't have kids, I would bare kids for them, cause I can not thank them enough.

So finally after the rear components were completely clean and blasted, J started to coat them and I gotta say I LOVE that wrinkle red.







Since it was around 10PM now, we decided to call it a night, had some pizza and I for the first time finally saw "A house of a 1000 corpses"

I slept on the sofa, it was great, and again, thank you Katy and J!

Day 2: Saturday
Started off at 9-930, had breakfast, eggs, bacon and potatoes with toast, greatest breakfast I have had in a looong time, even though J kept critiquing Katy lol.

So we pulled the truck into a lot across the street, and while Katy continued to work on stripping the tundra coils, me and J started to get the rear broken down.


Oh and did I mention I HATE RUST!!!





We don't have to many pics of installing the rear components cause we were all tied up.
but here is the finish product:




Then we pull the truck around to get started on tearing down the front when the rain starts:



Now remember how I said we hated coils? Well:
We had got compressors from J's neighbor, and if I had known they where cheapo compressors I would have just gone to Advanced down the street and got good ones.
Needless to say we got the old setup apart after Grinding:

Banging in the new studs barely:

And welding on cause we stripped it:


After that, we went upstairs, had some chicken and corn on the cob, watch the sequel to Friday nights movie and where I feel asleep early.

Day Three: Sunday
Woke up a little later today, thinking it would be a little easier, HA, I should have knocked on wood.

We had left the compressors on one of the springs that ended up bending a wee bit.
And my mom and step dad ended up coming over to see what was going on and saving us by taking me to go get the good spring compressors.
Katy was thee girl of the hour actually getting one of the bent compressors off on her own, and trust me, J and I weren't having any luck (will be up loading a vid later to prove Katy in fact was wrenching this weekend, despite J and I trying to be all manly and doing most of the work, she was always itching to get dirty )

So we got the coils assembled:






And then put them in:

[YotaFun]

And then we tired to get started on the diff drop but it started to rain again:



So We just put the tires back on and I will do the diff drop before I hit the trials at Takeover:

Yes, We did it all:


I don't have the energy right now to go nit picking at all the trials and such, tomorrow I will get to that tomorrow.

Again I could not thank Katy and J enough for 1) housing me 2) coating my lift 3)helping me put it one and 4) keeping me grounded.

Again more will come tomorrow

P.S. I can not run spacers here in PA, they are illegal.
Plus like J said I can't go any wider or I will get another ticket, I am already putting my stock flares back on...

[callmej75]

You HAD to get a close up of my bald spot DIDN'T YOU!

Oh....and the diff drop pic is only showing up 1/4 way for me...anyone else?