Koni shocks and Eibach pro kit springs are the go-to combo for these cars if you don't want coilovers.
 
Sadly bushings there are limited options these days. TRD bushes are no longer available and even Cusco bushes aren't easily obtainable and not much better than stock unless you go with their bone jarring pillowball bushes (not street friendly at all).
Toyota Genuine don't make all bushings replaceable, they prefer you buy the whole control arm etc.
 
Prothane bushes are the cheapest and easiest option, they are noticeably firmer than stock but as long as you lube them up properly, they work great.
 
Dropping the engine isn't so hard on these once you know what needs to be unplugged etc.
Timing belt, tensioner, water pump, cam seals, valve cover gaskets, front and rear mains and crank keyway are pretty much the bare minimum. If you have any slight sign of a sump leak though I recommend taking that off and resealing it and doing the oil pump gasket at the same time too.

can do water pump, timing belt/tensioner, oil pump, cam seals, head gasket and new rings and bearings with-out having to drop the engine.  rear main is the only one you cant get to with-out splitting from the gearbox.

I've been meaning to update this. Nothing super exciting, but making progress.
 
Shortly after the car had been serviced, noticed a pretty awful bearing sound coming from the engine. So the car sounded like **** for months while I tried to get the right pulley.
 

 
Finally got all my parts.
 

 
RDA750, RDA751. Just plain face. I couldn't justify double the cost for slotted/drilled. The fronts were covered with the newer anti-rust gun barrel stuff while the rears weren't. My mechanic sprayed the rear hats for free, which was nice.
 
Pads are Project Mu HC800 (Fronts) and NS400 (Rears). Didn't intend for mismatched pads, but the supplier didn't have stock of the NS400 fronts and upgraded me.
 
Brakes definitely feel better with new fluid, rotors and pads. Probably not the huge upgrade I would have liked, but those big brake kits are super expensive, and trying to find parts for the GT4 upgrade seemed like a huge pain.
 
Also got the trans flushed. Not sure that there's a huge improvement, but glad it's done.
 
After all that and having the alternator tensioner pulley replaced, the sound was still there . . .Turned out that it was actually the air-con.  The air-con never worked, and was completely empty of freon so time for it to all go. Had pretty much everything removed, except for the evap unit in the dash.
 
Other than that, just some strut bars. Really didn't need them, but they look cool.
 

 
 
Also got some custom rocker covers super cheap on sale. Probably wont have them put on until the engine is cleaned up a bit.
 

 
 
Nothing else much planned any time soon. Assuming good weather (and no more problems), I'll probably be taking it to All Japan Day in February.
 
Going to be studying soon and back to being super poor, so suspension might get a look at when my Austudy funds build up.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Made a friend in the car park.
 

Rebuilding the calipers is a great idea. Probably cost you about $50each for the rear calipers. I just got mine from a brake specalist here in australia. Paid cash/got it a bit cheaper. Only had to wait 3 days for them to come in.

Your car looks excellent, everything about it is so clean.  
Love your work! Keep it up!

dunno.. just give it to me, i'll look after it... :)