Lift Install

Once the new strut was in and torqued, I put the wheel on and set her back on the ground. I knew I was going to be happy when the drivers side on the ground was higher than the passenger side on a jack stand. Once I had both struts in, I backed it out of the garage to get a good look. Not going to lie....I though about driving it like this for a while just for laughs. 

The rear was a different animal. Its my fault honestly. I've worked on Fords my whole life, with the exception of the 370z, and I don't have a metric deep socket set. Turns out, you need a metric deep socket set for the rear. After removing the spare tire, sway bar links, and the bottom shock mount I spent forever struggling with the shock top mount bots. They are in a very small area to begin with and not having a deep socket...needless to say it was a slow and painful process. Once the shocks were out I yanked out the old and tired springs then began installing the new components. The passenger side spring went in fairly easy because the Panhard bar orientation allows that side to move more. The drivers side however wanted to fight me. Once again, bottle jack to the rescue to jack down the axle for the new spring install. Even with the help of the jack I couldn't get the spring to fit with the trim packer installed, so I ditched it. After the springs were in I installed the new shocks, slowly and painfully, and torqued them down until the upper bushings looked squished then bolted up all the loose ends.

Time will tell how the ride quality is. One thing for sure, it looks a hell of a lot better. Prior to the lift install I measured from the ground to the center of the fender. Stock height was 34.25" all around. After the lift install its sitting at 37.5" in the front and 38" in the rear. I'm glad I didn't install the trim packer in the rear, I think the rake would have been too much. It doesn't look near as bad as I thought it would with the small tires either. 

All that's left to do now is find someone to weld on the Panhard correction and do a wheel alignment after everything settles....and buy a damn deep well metric set.