ICON
Since owning my first 4Runner, a lift kit has always been on my list of things to do. I spent many hours on the forums deciding what route I should take for a lift kit. First thing I considered was the spacer kit but quickly ditched that plan because it's not ideal for off-road and is best for Mall crawlers. I then decided on one of Toytec's Bilstein kits. They're good for daily driving and off-road use, they have a good reputation, and it's not close to a million dollars. Then I kept finding people on the forums who upgraded from the Bilsteins to 2.5 coilovers. I didn't want to upgrade my suspension twice causing me to spend a lot of money. I also want to be extremely confident in what I have and know that I'm not going to have problems on the trail such as breaking something. I like being prepared for the unexpected. I began looking into the different brands and saw nothing but good things said about ICON. They have exceptional customer service and are not far from where I live. One ICON owner told me that he was going down a trail quite fast, came upon a large rut which he did not have time to slow down for, so he clinched the steering wheel and waited for impact but the ICON soaked it right up and he knew his money was well spent. I also saw that ICON had good Black Friday sales in the past and was hoping for one in 2015. After waiting for
Black Friday to come around, Total Automotive Performance announced their ICON sale. 20% off with FREE shipping and No Tax, plus a free spanner wrench. :usa2: With all that, the total came out to only $200 more than the Toytec Bilstein kit.
eBay Uniball UCA's
Because I settled on the extended travel coil-overs aftermarket UCA's were a must. I also wanted 3 inches of lift which requires new UCA's. I read a lot in the
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-gen-t4rs/182584-ebay-uniball-control-arms.html thread. There weren't any reports of catastrophic failures and they are made out of the same metal as Total Chaos but they do require some modifications to prevent problems.
Paint
Before doing the install I wanted to put some fresh black paint on everything. I removed the X-REAS and all of the hoses and spent a few days cleaning, sanding, and wire brushing. There was light rust but it wasn't bad at all. I sprayed everything with Rust-Oleum primer first, then did about 3 coats of Rust-Oleum Premium black semi-gloss paint.
