The problem was that its a mac-pherson strut front suspension and only there is only one manufacturer that makes the shock for the IO. They are the OE supplier to Mitsubishi. Good news was that they made two versions, OE (30mm) and heavy duty (35mm) but both are %^$*# expensive. The heavy duty also had a higher spring base plate, which is a bonus, now I can fit bigger tyres.
My local spring manufacturer and myself did a lot of experimenting with which steel to use and opted for a 45mm lift with a slightly softer spring rate. This turned out to be a complete balls-up as the rear suspension collapsed in Ponta forcing me to drive back to joburg on the rubber spring stop.
We then went to a different grade steel (mostly used on the Hilux aftermarket susp such as Ironman) with the original spring rate at the back and 5% stiffer at the front, aswell as a 60mm lift. I thought that this would make the paj drive hard and uncomfortable but the new spring rate suited the heavy duty shocks better than the softer spring rate.
The next problem is that the front and rear shock has 200mm travel, now with the lift it has a massive 160mm up travel but only 40mm down. I am in the process of making a adapter/spacer that will "zero" the shocks giving a balanced up and down travel.
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Before
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