Alright, finally getting around to writing my review of this kit.
tl;dr I am very pleased.
My Vehicle
2019 LC200 - stock with 275/65R18 KO2's
Initial Impressions
Placed my order for the NST 1" Body Lift Kit on 12/12/24, it was shipped the next day, and I received my order on 12/19/24. The kit was well-packed and included all parts necessary to perform the work.
Installation
As my vehicle was stock going into the installation and I plan to retain the factory tupperware for a while, the first step was to remove both the front and rear bumpers. As this was my first install, I wanted to go slowly and ensure reuse of all clips and retainers. These hopes were quickly squashed when I attempted to remove the front fender liners as I destroyed the clips trying to remove them. Definitely recommend considering these clips as disposable and keeping some on hand as extras (P/N 90467-12069). After removing the fender liners I loosened the bolt on the steering intermediate shaft. After this I proceeded with the rest of the bumper removal, which went smoothy. I do recommend caution when removing the front camera connector. I managed to break off one of the camera housing retaining clips and will have to fix and/or order another at some point. Everything else came off relatively easily and I set the bumper covers to the side. The next step was to unbolt the radiator and let it sit in the engine bay; unlike the rest of the radiator work this was very easy -- more to come later.
Once the bumpers were removed and the radiator was unbolted I could move on to accessing the body mount bolts. The instructions in the thread were spot on and allowed me to easily remove the interior trim panels to access the body mount bolts. I don't recall having any difficulties here, but as noted make sure to take your time to avoid damaging anything. I broke all of the bolts loose on the passenger side as I planned to lift the drivers side first. I then removed the bolts from the drivers side in preparation for the lift.
I positioned my floor jack just aft of the b-pillar and jacked up the drivers side using the pinch weld right next to the factory sliders which seemed to work well and lifted the body pretty evenly. I inserted each spacer, followed by the bolt which I then hand-tightened until each was in place. I tightened them all down after this and then broke them loose so that I could do the same on the passenger side. Everything on the passenger side went easily and I proceed to install the radiator relocation brackets.
The radiator relocation brackets were a pain. There isn't a ton of space and you have to get creative. What I found worked for me was to install the bracket to the radiator first and hand tighten. Once the brackets are affixed to the radiator, it's actually easier to swing the bracket into place as you shift the radiator around to get each bolt into the frame mounting holes. After much cursing and finagling, I was finally able to get everything in place and secured.
The rest of the instructions in this thread for modification of the front and rear bumper were spot on. Just take your time, measure twice, and cut once where needed. I verified that I had enough play in the steering intermediate shaft and finally torqued everything down to spec.
Support
I had multiple questions that came up during installation, mostly due to the fact that I have never done a body lift before and aside from watching some YouTube videos, I was pretty green. Additionally, I was doing the install on a newer LC rather than a LX so some of the steps were very slightly different. Throughout the process,
@MTKID provided outstanding support which was far beyond what I would consider normal for a typical vendor. It's clear that he is passionate about this community and ensuring that everyone's install goes smoothly. If anyone is on the fence about doing this mod due to experience or lack of support, don't be, you'll definitely be taken care of.
Overall Impressions
I would 100% recommend this kit to anyone that is interested in fitting larger tires at some point in the future. I plan to pair this body lift with a small suspension lift, and some larger tires in an effort to retain factory driveability. We'll see if those plans hold for the future, because I fully expect scope-creep in my plans for this vehicle, but for now I am very happy with everything.
Thanks again
@MTKID!
Here are a couple of photos -- bigger tires are going on next!
This photo is looking down from the front/top over the radiator support at the passenger side radiator drop bracket. The top brackets both have a small tab that sticks out and forward, sitting into a small pocket that should prevent the radiator from ever racking left to right over even rough terrain. Can’t speak of what could happen in a massive accident, but in normal driving this should hold the radiator in the middle properly. The short bolts that are epoxied into the top of this bracket (and the top holes of the bottom brackets) are intended to face forward through the radiator support, and the long ones can be placed into the bracket facing rearward during installation (not easy because of how tight everything is).
