2007 FJ Cruiser - Lifted and locked - 410Fortune wifes rig build thread | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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2007 FJ Cruiser - Lifted and locked - 410Fortune wifes rig build thread

410Fortune

Truck Season!!
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Elite Explorer
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City, State
NORTH IDAHO, 7B
Year, Model & Trim Level
B2 "Slightly" Modified
Callsign
FOURTEN
OKay so my GF/future wife Julee (love her) has a 2007 FJ cruiser 4x4, 4.0L Auto
The truck has been dubbed (by me) as her "Fun Julee"

She loves this truck, she loves fourwheeling, she loves Toyota so it was a perfect fit...

Last weekend (yesterday) I/we installed a lift kit on her truck.
The kit is sold by Toytec, which basically is a set of 3" Old Man Emu lift coils (884, softer coil) with a custom machined aluminum spacer that mounts on top of the strut to gain a true 3" of lift in the front.

The Toytec kit also goes one step further and replaces the factory rear coils with some custom medium duty coils. Many OME lift owners on these vehicles complained the OME coils were too soft and saged a bit, so Toytec had some custom coils made, again for a true 3" of lift

I also picked up a 1" front differential drop kit, to help with the new CV angles. I have not installed this kit yet, we will likely wait a bit until we go with even more lift in the front.

On to the pictures:

truck in the garage before lift:
beforefront.jpg


front to fender masures 34-1/4":
34quarterinches.jpg


Toytec lift kit, including OME 884 coils, aluminum strut spacer, diff drop kit, and new rear coils:
toytec1.jpg

toytecspacer.jpg

toytecdiffdrop.jpg


tire off:
ftireoff.jpg


disconnect the front sway bar:
fswayoff.jpg


front lower ball joint (knuckle from lower control arm):
fballjointoff.jpg


Factory Strut removed:
factorystrut.jpg

fstrutout.jpg


factory coil compared to OME 884 lift coil:
springcompare.jpg


New OME lift coil installed on Harbor Freight strut compressor:
hfcompress.jpg

compressome.jpg

(slow going here)

front put back together with strut and Toytec spacer:
fomeinstall.jpg


Front done, measured 37.5" to fender before settling:
frontdone.jpg

37halfinches.jpg


The front took us about 5 hours total, the springs are a ***** to compress and the hooks on the HF spring compressor are large so with the tight winds of the OME coil it was hard to get the strut back out of the compressor.
The first side took us twice as long as the second.....
The next day we tackled the rear, the total install on the rear was about 1 hour

Rear tire off:
rtireoff.jpg


remove rear sway bar:
rswayoff.jpg


remove rear shock:
rshockoff.jpg


we also unbolted the trac bar to help get the new coils in.
Here are the factory rear coils compared to the Toytec rear coils:
rspringcompare.jpg


rear springs installed with factory rubber bump stop:
rspringin.jpg


rear done
reardone.jpg


The truck out of the garage:
donefront.jpg

doneoverall.jpg

donerear.jpg

doneside.jpg


We will be getting new longer rear shocks shortly, the factory units will limit rear travel.
I will also be making some sway bar disconnects.

The truck goes in for alignment Friday after the new coils have been allowed to settle

Julee is shopping for tires and wheels...Looking at Pro Comp Xtreme MT 33x12.50x17 and 17x9" black chrome rims :)

This lift kit rides AWESOME, seriously in JUlee's own words "It took the car out of my truck".

I too am very impressed with this truck and this lift...I wish Gen II Explorer's rode on struts instead of t bars!!!
 
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I saw a lift kit install on Extreme4x4 where the cut a factory crossmember to allow the driveshaft room after the diff was lowered :eek: I'd be interested to see how the front diff drop kit goes in. Looks good, watch for ripped firewalls!

Its a shame the Explorer never saw aftermarket support like what is available for this.
 






Nice, Jamie! Did Julee help? Pic? :D

Any plans for front and rear bumpers, etc?
 






plans for bumpers, winch, lockers, tires, roll protection some more skid plating and the list will go on and on.

Have been watching the inner fenders for the FJ cruiser cracking problem, her truck does have a slight buldge on the pass side, we will keep our eye on it...apparently the lift kit will help reduce the risk of further cracking!

Aside from being visability challenged the wheel base and track width of the FJ is awesome on the CO trails...even stock!

Big time future plans include Total Chaos, this OME lift is temporary :)
 






I was waiting to read, "Next it's getting 33s, because I happen to have some lying around". :p:

Looks great Jamie, and congrats Julee!
 






the ones I have laying around fit 15" wheels LOL hahahaha don't worry we'll use em on something!
 






Looking forward to seeing it wheel on Saturday!

Julee is shopping for tires and wheels...Looking at Pro Comp Xtreme MT 33x12.50x17 and 17x9" black chrome rims :)

ProComp has their buy 3 get one free deal going on right now. Of course they jacked the prices of the tires in the last month to accommodate it :rolleyes:

I too am very impressed with this truck and this lift...I wish Gen II Explorer's rode on struts instead of t bars!!!

I hear ya on that one!
 






Julee is looking for 5 rims and 5 tires, 4wheel parts even withthe buy 3 get 1 free is still a bit higher then the local competition......if you can believe that!

I have 4wheel parts, national wheel and tire, and our local boys at Performance wheel and tire all trying to beat each others price...we will see who comes through, so far its the local guys

we are looking forward to Saturday for sure, the Aspens are changing big time so it should be gorgeous!!
 






Oh baby the truck looks so sick!
She ended up with Dick Cepek DC1 rims, 16x8 with 4" offset.
33x12.5 Goodyear MTR's
5ea

The truck looks amazing...pics coming as soon as she gets home!
 






Oh baby the truck looks so sick!
She ended up with Dick Cepek DC1 rims, 16x8 with 4" offset.
33x12.5 Goodyear MTR's
5ea

The truck looks amazing...pics coming as soon as she gets home!

Out or curiosity, why'd she go with the MT/R's? Sick deal?
 






Cauz the MTRs pwns the rocks :)
 






So where are the pictures of the new meats?
 






Where are the pics? Anyways we should all seriously consider changing the name of ef, to the DC-1 forum.:D
 






Great wheel at a great price, I wouldnt mind having a set of the DC-1's on my Bii either....who cares if there's more then one set on your driveway of the same stuff hahaha Hey maybe MT will give us a sponsorship??? hehehehe

I took some pictures last night but they didnt come out, I am off to the tire store to grab the 5th wheel for the spare, I will get some pics of the truck when I get back...it looks great! It needs alignment, but its not too far off....

We went with teh MTR's because after pricing wheels and tires with the guys at Performance I pointed out to them that they were pricing me on the MT ATX, not the MTX like we wanted from day one...the MTX is out of stock...so after being there for 4 hours they found a set of MTR's and reduced the price on them dramatically, we were not even looking for MTR's because they are typically $20-30 more per tire....

Here's a teaser pic from my cell phone:
performance101007.jpg
 






:ttiwwp:

I hate to say it but I really like those trucks, that was my original direction before I got my mounty. I just couldn't justify the expense of the brand new vehicle. And the whole super unleaded thing kinda sucks....


Let's see some pictures!!! Looks sweet so far :thumbsup:
 






we run 85 in the truck, in Denver you can get away with this with no detonation. Julee drives for her business so she needs reliable, she traded in her 99 4runner for the FJ....it was a great move! It's trail ability is just a huge added bonus...the 4.0L still has plenty of gusto even with the 33's!!
 






Sweet looking truck :thumbsup: man those 33's really set that thing off.

you beat me by a few seconds on the post with the picture.

Here in the east with the mountains, humidity, and heat, I would have ended up running high test through the summer for towing, and I just couldn't get over that in my head.


BTW.. that is a great advertisement for Performance Wheel and Tire :D
 






newwheelspf.jpg


newwheelsp.jpg


newwheelsb.jpg


the 5th tire and wheel was not ready yet so no matching spare yet :)
 









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fjrearnewwheel.jpg


Sirius, GPS, and Kenwood install teaser pics, I really like working on the FJ :)

entertainnight.jpg

entertainday.jpg



sirius.jpg
 






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