UPDATE:
So my friends and I got together today and performed the lowering surgery. In the kit, the directions were less than helpful and seemed to be in a bizarre order.
The first line of the directions reads something like "follow the steps in your repair manual to perform the front coil swaps". So I went and got a Haynes manual and started reading up. I also checked this forum a lot and decided to go ahead and order new upper control arms with the ball joint installed - before we started. GREAT MOVE!
So on the front - we removed the wheels, set it on jack stands, unbolted the caliper and set it out of the way (without disconnecting the lines so no need to bleed the brakes afterward). We removed the shock, used a coil compressor and undid the swaybar (but didnt remove it). We broke the old balljoint loose and removed the upper control arm. Then we swapped the coils and reattached the sway bar, new upper control arm, balljoint to the spindle, and shock. Not too bad - took about 2 hours total.
The rear drop was not so great. We jacked up the truck - supported the axle with jack stands as well as the frame near the front of the bed. Loosened up the ubolts on one side then the leaf springs. (make sure the axel isn't jacked up a lot, since you'll need to jack up the truck a lot to relieve stress on the leafs.) Undo the front shackle first - just seemed easier. Then remove the old rear shackle and install the new shackle in its place. (directions didnt do this until after everything else was done - was easier to do it now while things were out of the way). This was also the time we chose to install the bump stops. The leafs were reinstalled in the front after the leafs were removed and repositioned under the rear axle. Then we placed the "bucket piece" on the leafs and reinstalled them to the rear shackles. Then we installed the ubolts with the new leaf plate and tightened it all up.
The new lower shock mounts were odd too. Pictures would've really helped. I was too engrossed in finishing the project to stop for pictures, but I will take pics tomorrow to show the final results and how the pieces are supposed to look.
Gotta say - love the new stance.
The kit itself was awesome. The pieces were put together well, everything seems incredibly sturdy. Overall, very pleased with the kit.
