As minitruckers we take pride in our rides and customizing them to match our personal tastes or interests. However, what happens when your truck goes under the knife for the 'bag job and body drop? How about body modifications or a sick paintjob. Don't forget about the interior or stereo work. It all comes down to either, you find a ride for weeks on end, or you find a daily driver that will get you around while your pride and joy undergoes it's modifications. But we are minitruckers and for some reason it runs in our blood that we drive a customized ride, even if it is our daily-driver. So, what can we do without shelling out thousands of dollars on a clean daily-driver? Instead of fabricating a custom suspension for your truck, a static drop is a simple and easy way to get a truck closer to earth without spending a ton of money.
With this in mind, DJM Suspension developed a complete line of hi-tech and properly engineered suspension components to give your mini the mild drop you desire. We wanted to see what these products were all about, so we headed over to Devious Customs in Riverside, California, to witness the install of a 3-inch DJM drop kit on a '07 Toyota Tacoma. For more information on this or other kits available, contact the companies listed in the Source box.
1. After the truck was placed securely on the lift, Cody removed the front wheels. This allowed him to remove the brakes caliper, tie rod, and swaybar. | 
2. Next, Cody removed the tie rod followed by the spindle itself. Our Toyota has a two-piece spindle so in order to separate the lower ball joint form the spindle we had to remove the two bolts securing the upper part of the spindle to the lower. | 
3. Once the spindle was out of the way, we removed the upper control arm. It was set aside because the factory ball joints will need to be installed into the new arms. |
4. To take out the lower control arm (LCA) Cody removed the bolt holding the strut to the LCA along with the cam bolts. | 
5. Before installing the new arms, we needed to remove the rubber boot covering the ball joint and the retaining clip. Then we could press the ball joints out of the factory arms and press them into the new arms. This is accomplished using a shop press. | 
(6 and 7) With the ball joints in the new control arms, we reused the retaining clip that keeps the ball joint from working itself out over time. Then the rubber boot was filled with grease and installed along with the retaining spring that holds it to the ball joint. |