So my little brother will be driving in a few months. This kid has persevered through more hardships than I could have ever imagined going through at his age. He is a champion sailor, a straight A student, one hell of a baseball player, and although I've been a father figure to him for years, he is my Hero. I bought him a boat for his 16th birthday and somehow in my excitement about getting him a boat I completely forgot that he would need some kind of transportation as he will be getting his license that day as well. I have decided to give him my truck and get myself something new(er). My truck is a 2009 z71 Chevy half ton. He had talked about wanting a 4" lift and 35's. my truck is currently running a 2.5 inch leveling kit and 285/75/17 (33.8" tall) tires.



He isn't into the deep offsets and giant nigro rims. But I would like to have the stock rims powdercoated black because we saw a truck that had done this and he really liked it.

In summation: I need recommendations on what 4" lift kit to go with, and if anyone knows a good shop around the Birmingham area that does good powdercoating work please let me know.





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I would've given my left nut to have that truck when I turned 16.

I would have too, my first truck was a 1995 OJ Simpson edition white bronco that I bought for $800. I don't want him to seem spoiled, because he's not. This kid has been through the ringer in life already, and he deserves this. I wouldn't give it to him if he didn't.

So you're giving him a boat.....and a real nice truck. And he's 16. Why not leave it at that? Give it a year, then do the lift for his next birthday.

Lifted truck = broke truck


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^agree with that

You giving him a mud boat as well? Might as well make sure he has tools to fix all them

Zone offroad makes nice kits and they are affordable. It is the same kit as the 6.5" but it has a shorter strut/ strut spacer.

A boat and a truck is plenty. I also agree when you lift a truck you either have to spend big money to do it right or you'll cause problems down the road. Powder coat the rims so they will match the bumpers and trim and he will be thankful enough, no need to sugar coat it.

Give someone something for nothing they'll think that's what its worth. You a good brother and you've done plenty. When he can afford to lift it right and do the work, help him with the labor.

Dang, he only asked y'all about what lift to go with and a good shop!!
Do what you feel you need to for your little bro.
I have a 6" procomp. Not a bad lift, but you get what you pay for.

I didn't realize a small lift would mess with the reliability of the truck that much. I always put small old man emu lifts on fj40's and never had a lick of trouble. But I'm sure changing the geometry of the IFS would do more harm than lifting a straight axle vehicle. Thanks for the input fellas. It's not a matter of him wanting it, it's more so just the fact that I want to give it to him. Maybe I'll hold off on the lift and just have the wheels powdercoated for now. Any info on where to get a good powdercoat job done in the Birmingham area?

Thanks again
-BT

Sounds like either way, he should be pumped up to have such a brother.

I had a 01 z71 with a 4 inch rancho lift and 35's. Had to crank the bars all the way because of rub but had 10 inch wide wheels. Man that truck went trough ball joints... I would consider going closer to 6.


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Maxing your tbars will eat em

I replaced the factory ball joints with a set of moog ball joints about a year ago. They didn't need replacing, but I got the moogs for free and hated how the factory ball joints weren't greasable. Again, not wanting to mess up a perfectly good truck just to make it a little taller, so I'm probably just going to stick with the current lift setup. Thanks again for the help. I'll be sure to post a pic of his rig once I get the wheels done. What's a ball park estimate on what powdercoating those 4 rims should cost?

If you want an easy, inexpensive, do it yourself way to do the wheels. Get some cans of Plastidip and spray em. It's like a rubber coating and you can peel it off when or if you get tired of it.

http://www.plastidip.com/industrial_sol ... Plasti_Dip

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KYU719O/ref ... B0006SU3QW

Wheels are easy to do, wash them, make sure they're dry, stick playing cards between the rim and the tire and get to spraying. The more coats you put on the easier you can peel it off later because it's thicker and sticks to itself better.

I did more than just my wheels, cost me $90 to do everything you see below.

After a year, I peeled it off by hand and found a good pressure washer works great to get it started. Cleaned off the entire truck in about an hour.

Damn that looks awesome will. That really might be what I do. did you use the rustoleum flexidip?

Never mind I see the links now. They weren't showing up on Tapatalk. Thanks man

I have not tried the Rustoleum version, Plastidip is the original on e and thats what I used.

That's what I'm doing on the hummer. Going to plasti dip to make sure I like the color. If I do then I'll probably get them powdercoated. Was going to put on another set of wheels but my tires sling shit all over the side already so I think I'm going to keep them stock.

I've got a 4 inch with 35s and no issues... I've had quite a few lifted pickups and 6 inch is the biggest I'd do.... Any bigger and u started having issues at least on half tons, and ud need to regear


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Quackstacker that's a damn fine lookin truck. After talking with wade660 who has gone out of his way to help me out I've decided to go a little different route with the lift. Thank y'all for all the help and I'll be sure to post a pic with Cyrus' boat hooked up to it when I get it all done. I'm so damn excited to give it to him I can't hardly wait!