NST Spec Body Lift Kit (12 Viewers)

[MTKID]

Let’s get this party started…

I’m starting this thread to discuss the options, share some installation tips and see how to get this out to you guys that have been asking for it.

I installed a body lift on my 80 series, my 100 series and also my 200 series and feel it has it’s place along with other upgrades that makes fitting larger tires much easier.

In general, a body lift creates a larger gap above the tire when wanting to run a larger size tire. This only raises the weight of the body, not the frame and drivetrain, which keeps your center of gravity lower for any given size of tire you can fit. The body lift does not single-handedly improve clearance underneath, but the clearance afforded by a larger tire does. When used in conjunction with a well designed front bumper (or using plastic stock bumpers), it will improve your approach angle. Cutting crossmembers and creating custom bumpers can give you considerable improvements front and rear.

And because 37’s are a little easier with a body lift, you could have a nice improvement in off-road performance with such a tire. Larger tires offer a larger, more compliant sidewall, which can be a noticeable improvement in comfort, traction and can be felt as though you have a little more travel.

Lastly, like many “off-road” oriented parts, this is a kit intended for “off-road use only”. Install at your own discretion.

 

[MTKID]

1” specific info…

This is the smallest solution intended for up to 35” tires and will leave the smallest gap between aftermarket bumpers that are not designed for a body lift. Even though I recommend this 1” size for up to a 35” tire, a few have already been motivated enough to fit 37’s with this height of body lift. You just need to be careful of possible fender interference with such a wide variety of wheel offsets and other variables.

If you do the body lift at the same time or before the bumpers, you could trim only the necessary amount of plastic so the body lift doesn’t create a gap at all. If not, a small trim filler may be preferred and I can share some recommendations.

This 1” kit will come with the 8 spacers.
Two - 2 1/4” diameter for the front position (#1 on the factory service diagrams).
Two - 3 1/2” diameter for the front cab mount (#2 on the factory service diagrams). This diameter is chosen in this location to help reduce interference with a large tire.
Two - 3 3/4” diameter for the rear “cab” position (#3 on the factory service diagrams).
Two - 3” diameter for the rear position (#4 on the factory service diagram).

This will also include four machined aluminum - 1” radiator drop brackets with stainless hardware, a Bondhus 5mm ball-end allen wrench, a packet of anti-seize, recommended for the stainless hardware, the two spacers I will call the cargo overload spacers with double sided tape on them and the extended middle crossmember bolt.

Price for the 1” kits is $449 (free shipping)

The intention for this kit is to reuse some of the factory body mount bolts.

Position #1 will now use Toyota OEM part #52217-60070 (which can be reused from location #2)
Position #2 will use part #52217-60080 (which can be reused from location #3)
Position #4 will now use part #52217-60080 (one additional pair of these bolts will be provided for this location)

However, position #3 already has the longest bolt and will now use a provided non-factory pair of bolts, with factory nuts provided. You should remove the washer from the unused front factory bolts to place under the head of the provided longest bolt.

Edited for current pricing, pictures and included custom bolts.

 

[MTKID]

1.5” specific info…

If you are adamant about getting onto tires larger than 35’s, the 1.5” body lift kit makes the most sense to me. This height gives a little more clearance above the tire and requires a little less cutting or use of a big hammer to make clearance in the top of the inner fender wells.

This 1.5” kit will come with the 8 spacers.
Two - 2 1/4” diameter for the front position (#1 on the factory service diagrams).
Four - 3 1/2” diameter for the middle “cab” positions (#2 & #3 on the factory service diagrams).
Two - 3” diameter for the rear position (#4 on the factory service diagram).
This will include the four machined aluminum - 1.5” radiator drop brackets with stainless hardware, a Bondhus 5mm ball end allen wrench, a packet of anti-seize, highly recommended for the stainless hardware, the two spacers I call the cargo overload spacers with double sided tape on them and the extended middle crossmember bolt.

Price for the 1.5” kits is $549 including flat rate shipping

Position #1 will now use Toyota OEM part #52217-60070 (which can be reused from location #2)
Position #2 will use part #52217-60080 (which can be reused from location #3) or one pair of the custom bolts provided.
Position #3 will need to use the 230mm long bolts I provide with OEM nuts. You can remove the washers from your front most unused bolts and place them on here or use the washers provided. Two pair of these bolts are provided in case your body mount bushings are new and taller than most. Use the shortest bolt that still provides full thread engagement.
Position #4 can use part #52217-60080 (one additional pair of these bolts will be provided for this location)

My personal vehicle (08’ LX) is running a tapered body lift about 1 5/8” to 1 3/4” height around the steering shaft and I do not have an extension. My steering has been rock solid for a couple years of very spirited street driving and moderate trails. I do have a cap that pulled down a little when I did my body lift. It is likely intended to keep debris out of the upper VGRS steering mechanism. So I simply placed electrical tape over the small gap.

With this in mind, I very carefully and slowly raised Jason’s vehicle (also an 08’ LX) that we installed the 1.5” kit on last week. I had two solutions sitting on the shelf if needed. However, the cap never started to pull down, and I was able to insert the spacer, and lower the driver’s side successfully. I am confident both his and mine are safe to drive and we did not need to insert any aftermarket part or steering linkage from another vehicle. Likewise, others have now done the same with no issues.

I understand this is very subjective and others may choose to take another route. Also, when you lift the body to slide the spacer in, you must lift it higher than it will sit, because the upper rubber bushing doesn’t have the weight of the body on it, and it sits down inside the body mount. In addition, Jason’s vehicle has about 150k miles on it, and a brand new upper body mount bushing will be a little bit taller, requiring you to lift the body a little higher.

My recommendation is to mark both the upper and lower portion of the steering shaft where they connect, make sure the steering wheel is not turned, remove the intermediate steering shaft bolt that is visible through the wheel well, possibly squirt some penetrant on that junction, and slowly raise the body while watching what is happening. Doing this slowly should allow the spacer to be inserted without the need for additional hardware, but I will leave this decision up to each person to decide. I’ll list the two parts we have as alternatives in a later post.

 

[MTKID]

I’ll start to share some general tools, tips and photos from Jason’s 08’ LX that we installed the 1.5” kit on last week. He has approximately 150k miles, so the rubber body mounts may be just a hair under full new height.

All the top and bottom of the 8 primary body mount bolts use 17mm sockets. I would recommend applying penetrant oil like Kroil or PB Blaster for a couple days prior to starting your install.

In general, you will be removing one side of the vehicle’s bolts, lifting and inserting the spacers on one side at a time. I think it is best to merely break the other side free and back the bolt off by a few turns to make lifting a little easier.

There is one bolt and one wiring clip that I have loosened. One is in front of the passenger front tire on the outside of the frame rail. This is a bracket holding two small hoses.

We were able to reattach this bracket after we were done.

Also, before lifting, if you still have the factory front and rear bumpers, you will want to remove them. There are a lot of clips, but it is fairly logical to do this. It may be possible to only remove the lower attachments for the rear bumper under the cross member but it is likely easier to just remove it so you can trim it more easily.

The other wiring that seemed to get tight when doing a 1.5” body lift is on the inside of the passenger side frame rail near the back of the vehicle. It appears to have some of the wiring that goes to the trailer harness. There are two attachments to the frame, but only the lower one needed removed. I merely zip-tied it to the top wiring when complete.

And at some point before lifting you will also loosen the radiator and let it rest in the engine compartment. You can install the radiator drop brackets to the radiator at this time too. There isn’t an abundance of room but there is just enough to move the radiator back, and slide the bracket in with the bolt and a little anti-seize on the bolt.

Starting at the front I stacked two of my extensions together totaling about 21” or 22” to the end of the socket. It could be helpful to have a wobble at the end of these extensions too since you’re not perfectly lined up above these bolts.

I use a long extendable magnet to remove these bolts.

 

[MTKID]

Here are the images for the passenger side position #2. Start by removing the under dash panel. There are four clips you can release by hand, lowering the front edge, then you will have to carefully remove two wire clips, and pull the panel toward you.

Then remove the door sill trim. I started at the front. Be careful when lifting under the metal decorative plate, that material is quite thin and will bend/crease easily and you can’t get it perfectly flat ever again.

When you get toward the back, there is a wire for powering the illuminated logo. Be careful not to lift too far before releasing this wire.

Then you can remove the next footwell trim. There is a simple push-on clip that may be able to be removed by hand.

And there are two clips at the back edge. The lower one typically stays in the body but the top one you can carefully pull straight out.

Once that triangular trim is removed you can pull the carpet back and remove the styrofoam from underneath. If you need to release any clips at the edge of the carpet nearest the door, use a flat screwdriver or pry tool behind the clip.

 

[MTKID]

#2 position continuation…

The styrofoam is simply pushed onto two studs. It should pull straight up off of those studs easily.

The black plastic cap is then removed to expose the body mount bolt.

The initial steps are all the same on the driver’s side, however the under dash panel is secured with a couple Philips screws

Then three wire harnesses are in this under dash panel.

 

[MTKID]

Moving back to the #3 position, you will have one additional bolt to remove that I call the middle crossmember bolt. This is located under the carpet near the back of the second row.

Start by removing the plastic trim from this seat bracket.

Then pull up the rear cargo area carpet (overlapping with velcro). And raise the carpet under the second row to expose this access.

This smaller bolt uses a 14mm

Now you can move to the primary #3 position bolts…

Small 10mm screw

Pull up the door trim

 

[MTKID]

Moving back to #4 position. Lift up the tailgate gap cover and begin to pop the cover up from one side to the other.

The carpet can be released from these clips

There is a small Philips head bolt behind these cargo net hooks. Only rotate them clockwise to release.

 

[MTKID]

Additional notes…
I used two ways to lift the body. I don’t have a photograph, but I used a floor jack and lifted under the pinch seam and also lifted with the bottle Jack inside the fender wells, using a small piece of scrap metal to spread out the pressure from the bottle jack.

You can take this opportunity to do a body mount chop if you’re trying to get onto 37’s or possibly even an aggressive smaller tire or a variety of wheel offsets. This should be done with the body mount removed to prevent burning the rubber bushing. We placed all the other spacers and then cut and patched this location.

The below photos are an updated collection of photos showing our second, more aggressive cuts after the first was not enough. This cut follows a line with the back of the small hole normally visible on the top and requires a bit of blending the cup area you cut into after welding it.

Body mount bolts get torqued to 40lb/ft.

 

[AnyMal]

Son of a bitch, im , maybe, in!

 

[YellowJacket]

 

[clrussell]

Great info. Thank you for this.

 

[CanadianRockyCruiser]

I appreciate all of the work you've put into this @MTKID . I'll have to buy my wife new 1" high-heels, so she doesn't notice the lift.

 

[dubyahard]

Also, before lifting, if you still have the factory front and rear bumpers, you will want to remove them. There are a lot of clips, but it is fairly logical to do this. It may be possible to only remove the lower attachments for the rear bumper under the cross member but it is likely easier to just remove it so you can trim it more easily.

Are you able to reinstall the factory bumpers? Do they have to be trimmed or new holes made or what? Thanks.

 

[MTKID]

Are you able to reinstall the factory bumpers? Do they have to be trimmed or new holes made or what? Thanks.

Great question. I will explain what needs to be done as soon as I have a moment. Also, @TeCKis300 may chime in, since he recently did this. But yes, you will reinstall your factory bumpers after some work gets done.

 

[TeCKis300]

Glad @MTKID is stepping in to fill a void for 200-series. I've always thought I would eventually do a BL when going more aggressive, but now that I've crossed that bridge, some of my opinions have changed. IMO, BL should be one of the earlier mods. Along with suspension lift, but perhaps even ahead of sliders which often get quoted as a must do early mod. Note that my posts are in the context of a .75" body lift as I was super critical of keeping CG low, but perhaps I didn't need to and 1" would be great.

Pros
- Lifts stock front and rear bumper shells! More approach and departure clearance. Factory body integrated steps would also get a lift
- Almost imperceptible center of gravity (CG) change
- Establishes body lines for armor and the opportunity to shim these up higher for clearance.
- Perhaps makes some vehicle mods easier to work on going forward (suspension, alternator, LRA)
- All stock bumpers go back in place. For the untrained eye, perhaps impossible to tell there is a BL, other than the vehicle is definitely more lifted.
- More clearance for bigger tires!

Cons
- Almost zero to speak of. Suspension dynamics unchanged (which is the best kind of lift!!).

In regards to overall tuning, I can't emphasis how good this mod is and should be used to complement suspension lifts. Even if only for aesthetics. I've been a proponent of keeping suspension lifts low because of how it fundamentally changes driving dynamics. Beyond 2.5", the compromise in toe steer, roll center, anti-dive, blah blah, makes for a sloppy driving cruiser. Because of how the BL also contributes to raising front/rear bumpers and steps, there is real functional value. Rear bumper especially as departure is the first thing that's challenged in more extreme off-roading. Yes, the chassis clearance itself doesn't change but that's not usually the first limitation, and there's the solid axle thing in the rear that no lift, other than tires, creates clearance for.

 

[tbisaacs]

- Perhaps makes some vehicle mods easier to work on going forward (suspension, alternator, LRA)

And starter!

 

[TeCKis300]

Are you able to reinstall the factory bumpers? Do they have to be trimmed or new holes made or what? Thanks.

Yes! At least for the 1" BL, it should be able to drop back in with all tie points setup as factory. The 1.5" is probably doable too for the front but rear would be tight or require more cutting.

For those on factory Tupperware, I would highly recommend removing both front and rear bumpers to install the BL. Better access and less frustration installing the BL, but you'll need to modify some key things to take advantage of butt and face lift.

Front:​

The bumper shell will go upwards with the rest of the body as the upper part is mounted and supported by the front sheetmetal. What needs to be modified is the lower brackets and crash bar foam that are tied to the frame that stays in place relative the body lift. Note that the factory design has compliance in the bumper shell and brackets to accommodate body to frame movement.

There are 4x brackets total (2 each side) riveted to the back of the aluminum crash bar. Secured by 2 rivets each. Take off the crash bar, drill out the rivets, and relocate the brackets 1" up (or whatever your BL lift size is) . Conveniently, the rivets are 1" apart. So locate the lower hole of the bracket up, and drill a new hole to secure. If you have rivets, do that. Just as easy to install back with M6x20mm bolts.

Trim the crash foam. This takes a bit more creativity, but you'll need to essentially cut out the underside foam where the bumper shell is lifted by 1". The lower horizontal foam surface gets trimmed 1". As it transitions to the vertical faces, something less than 1" (maybe .5"). I found a multi-tool with a wide and long blade makes quick work of this. Don't mind that my bumper foam is shorter as I have a custom winch install but the principle is the same

 

[TeCKis300]

Rear Bumper​

The rear bumper is trickier.

The upper part ties into the bodywork that moves up with the BL, but is also supported and floating on the frame that hasn't moved. So spacers need to be added to the step portion of the bumper.

The lower part of the rear bumper does tie into frame on a long bracket. This bracket just needs to be tweaked upwards.

Adding step supports​

@nwfl4runner gets credit as I borrowed the idea of using starboard, aka cutting board, aka HPDE. Cheap and easily cut with a jigsaw.

Amazon.com

There is in internal plastic bracket on the bumper cover underneath the exterior step façade. It can be separated from the bumper skin by undoing the proximity sensors and a series of snaps. Goal is to remove this, and screw in some spacers to this bracket so that is floats at the right height of the new BL.

Note the witness marks on the frame and plastic bracket and foam tape. The idea is to add blocks to these key areas as support to standoff this internal plastic bracket. HPDE cannot be easily glued or bonded. VHB might do, but I found it more straightforward to mechanically screw these blocks to the internal plastic bracket. I used small tapered brass screws to avoid rust.

Here's the pattern I used and works well. The plastic bracket is upside down here. I used 2-4 screw for each block. Sorry I didn't grab a picture but relative to this picture, the screws come from underneath through the plastic bracket into the blocks.

There is also this ledge on the frame that needs a support. For this, I bolted HPDE to the frame. There's two large existing holes . With some larger screws and fender washers, these can be located and secured to the frame.

I added foam tape back to the areas where stock had it, but applied to tape to the frame as it sticks better to metal (than HPDE).

Under Bracket​

This long underneath bracket has 2 attachment points to the frame and 4 attachment points to the bumper skin. One halfway to each side and two near the hitch. This bracket needs to be tweaked to move the bumper skin attachment points by the height of the BL. There's enough room for the side points, but the hitch point may not have height for a full 1".

Start by measuring the height of the points where they are relative to the frame. Goal is to bend it up by the amount needed until you get to the measured difference. To allow the play necessary to bend the metal bracket flatter, you'll want to slot/oval out the frame attachment holes of the bracket inward.

Rear Bumper Cover​

Cut the thin center bridge of the bumper cover for clearance. I used tie wraps to secure these tow points to the supporting bracket when installing.

The plastic black hitch cover will also need a couple tabs cut but otherwise should clean up the look nicely. I no longer use the color matched hitch cover to YMMV getting that back on.

 

[Heckraiser]

In for 1" kit whenever these are ready to ship. Let me know how to pay