Install myself or pay - Bilstein 5100s

My awesome wife gave me a pair of front Bilsteins as a birthday present. I'm not sure whether to pay someone to install them correctly or save a few bucks and do it myself. I live in Atlanta and I'm getting quotes from $240-$400, without alignment, which makes eliminating the factory rake an extremely expensive endeavor (I've seen elsewhere people were getting quotes for $120-$150).

I'm a little tempted to do the install myself using the non-spring compressor method; most of the feedback I've read says that the install is fairly easy and takes about 2-3 hours for each side. However, I'm a relative novice when it comes to mods. While I've installed minor mods (i.e., side mirrors, CAIs and CBs), I've never attempted anything of this magnitude nor have I ever worked with the suspension/undercarriage...so I'm frankly a tad nervous to screw something up. I've read a walkthrough on Toyota120 and watched a couple of YouTube vids, but still not sure that will tell me how easy/hard something is.

Anyone do this before as a novice and can recommend some online guides?

 

i did this as a novice and it wasn't quite as bad as you think. as long as you study up and know what parts you're taking off it what order and how to put them back together, you'll be fine. I would buy a set of spring compressors, most can be had for under $50. it made the job easier and saved me some time when i did it.

 

^ like mentioned above, it's not that hard to do if you study up on it and you can find a ton of DIY threads on the topic. If you don't want to mess around with the whole spring compressor and stuff, once you get the spring/shock assembly out, just pay your local shops to have them swap out the shocks which shouldnt be no more then $50/pair then put things back in and visit an alignment shop. That's what I was quoted on average.

 

I'm in the same boat and contemplating doing it myself. My shocks are not here but let us know which way you went and any potential issues

 

So you have front struts? Am I reading that correct? You still need to put the springs in etc etc right?

I work in a shop all day long. Here is the deal. It should not take a shop more than 3 hours total to pull the struts and swap them out. That's fair! Anything after that is BS and they are after you cash.

I had loaded struts amd we had them in less than an hour. We cheated and used a long cheater bar and pulled the control arm down and put them in. It was crazy easy but you have to have at least two people for it that way.

Pics would help

Blue

 

I got a quote of 260 for front and 66 for rear. It's a tires plus that I go to. I have lifetime alignment with them so for sake of one stop shop I will probavl have them do it