Starting a budget build thread on this heap. Hopefully it will show all the broke-ass folk out there you can wheel on a budget! Don't worry, I'm sure it will snowball into Rockwells and 66" tractor tires someday
Here's where it started over a year ago. Bought it for $500, drug it out of the pasture it had been sitting in for 15 years after "it just stopped running". 159K miles. TBI 350 and the "good 700R4" if there is such a thing. 40 gallon tank, 3.73 gears. Had basically new Buckshots in the 31" variety with studs. I've since pulled all the studs and put them on my 95 Isuzu, the air is still on the inside
Starcraft conversion Suburban (more on that later).
Sold the wheels for $200 bucks as they are cool but were missing the caps. I think Rally caps would have bolted on but the thought of me busting these odd rims made me cry so I figured I'd re-home them. Had to gut the rear ambulance door panels to free up the latches (mouse piss froze them). Threw all the "conversion" shit away, still has no inners. They put some pink fiberglass insulation in there. Doors rusty enough I broke out the spray foam.
Used that $200 bucks to replace the fuel pump (sawed through the floor to replace, only the pump, not the assembly) and a new starter. My theory? Fuel pump went out and they burnt up the starter when trying to get it started. Put some almost as ancient 33" Swamper TRXuS tires that weren't cracked up like Feinstein's face on some shitty modular rims. Bought them on another set of wheels 10 years ago for $400. Then I evicted more mouse nest.
Then... I got busy and parked it. For 8 months.
Then the wife's trans went out of her minivan. We have 4 kids so I aired up the 15yo tires and put it in service.
Blew rusty steel brake line. Swagelok stainless compression and some tube fixed that.
Rear wheel cylinders froze. $22 bucks replaced them both, rear shoes look like they are new. Might fix it right someday.
All the power windows were fucked so I swapped doors with a scrapped 1T 3+3, gained working front windows (kinda, got to help them up and they go off the track sometimes
). Hence the wide mirrors as seen in later photos. Doors were also off a Starcraft conversion truck so the silly "fancy" trim even matches a little. #WINNING
Auto hubs wouldn't respond to thorough cleaning. Hate them anyway. Internals look damn near perfect, lubed them up. Would engage and disengage erratically. $90 set of MM hubs from NAPA later... Took it up the pond dam. She wheels!
About this time the engine started missing. Tossed about $100 worth of plugs, wires, cap, rotor at it (definitely needed it, mice had chewed on the wires some. Up until now it ran perfectly. Still didn't fix the issue. Ended up pulling the valve covers as I started getting some valvetrain noise. Carried 60psi oil pressure according to the factory gauge, but the top end was definitely oiling poorly. Want to know how I fixed it? Drained the oil (oh, I still hadn't changed the probably 15yo oil, haha), filled it with 50/50 ATF/diesel and let it idle for an hour. Better, but still had lifters not pumping up. Bummer.
Then changed that mix and installed a cheap filter and some random 5W20 my FIL had. Quieter, but pulling valve covers still showed 2 cylinders not pumping oil to the valvetrain AT ALL, 3 cylinders very slightly, and the last 3 meh.
Pull the lifters and install new, you say? Nah, came up with a fix. Got it hot idling the next day. Then I tightened the adjusters until they bottomed out, backed them clear off, repeat. Did this several times per rocker. All of them started pumping oil and the engine got quiet. Cycled them in this way a few more times until they were pumping like they should, adjusted the lash by feel/ear, and slammed the valve covers back down. Done. Haven't touched them since.
Rad and water pump went to leaking. Swapped the 4 core out of the 3+3 (big block) and modified the shroud to fit it. New water pump and hoses. There goes another $100
Got to driving it off and on this summer. Charged the AC. IT WORKS! But the fucking air door won't seal so no ice cold air for me. Good old wing windows! Gonna have to work on the HVAC system sometime. Probably going to just buy a shutoff valve setup for the heater core hoses sometime.
Discovered RR spring has a broken leaf. Oh well, wanted to lift it anyway.
Found this hanging under the bumper (mount broke) and the control on the inside. Cool, but inop and so out of date it would probably only pick up the automatic doors as Wal-Mart.
Wife likes it for some ungodly reason, she wanted to fix it as a driver. After I lost the 4th body mount bushing due to excessive rust I nixed that plan. Started thinking about making it into a family wheeler. Hadda spray foam tons of holes, still leaks gravel dust like a sieve. Shoddy conversion shit either falling apart or in the way of fixing all the broken shit. For some HVAC system cleaning I wacked the front off the wooden center console that used to surround the T-case shifter and tossed it all (when it was new it also had a roll up door over this area
) You can still see the outline of where they sealed it to the lower dash in the dust. Ashtray is mint, also has some screws the conversion company left in it when they were 'converting' it. I bet that rattled forever and drove the original owner nuts. I also took all the stupid wood surround that was directly screwed to the gauge trim and the trim above the glovebox between the vents. Other than the screw holes the faux woodgrain is fuckin' mint!
Lid with handle in the rear of the center console is a cooler, just a stainless tub with open cell styrofoam surrounding it. Tub pulls out for cleaning. Radio hole is open cuz it was mounted in the roof stack pictured below:
You can just see it behind the rear cubby hole. Behind that is another hole with a roll-top type door that used to house the worlds smallest TV back in the day. 2 other entertainment center compartments beside.
Oh, I also swapped the front seats for the ones from the 3+3 as the original ones were power of unknown manufacturer and the drivers seat didn't work and the "leather" was in poor shape. The 3+3 seats were more comfortable and were manual so one less headache.
So here's how it sits now. Ugly AF but I've got... calculating... about $1000 buck in it as it sits, counting the tires as $300 as these wheels didn't come with them. Maybe another $2-300 if you had to buy the parts off the 3+3 I had laying around. So $1300 max.
Plan moving forward:
Bought a $75 mini-spool for the rear of eBay. Missed out on a NIB ARB that I could have had for $500 shipped that I would have put in the front. Oh well, probably gonna get a Spartan or something. Total of $330 if I go lunchbox
Rough Country 4" lift with 56" rear springs. Front springs are already 1-2" negative arch, rear has a broken leaf or I'd be tempted to block it. $860 with free shipping.
Junkyard 30sp rear axle spares (interwebs says they are the same 88-00, we shall see) $36x2 bucks each at U-Pull-It.
Either these 33s or a set of bastard 35's from my Toyota. I've bought all these partial sets of tires (2's or 3's, I have 11) for under $900, the wheels I had, but those are probably $125 for a set of 5 (4 plus spare). So, another $550 if I upgrade tires?
So, when I stop here I'm at... calculating... back out the 33s... calculating... $2512 total if I get to this point. $2262 if I keep the 33s. I have another option which are some KM2 33x10.5s that I got at a swap meet a couple years ago for $100 on 6 bolt wheels. If I went that route it would be $2062
So, here's where I'm at. As you can see by the last pic I think I'm gonna shit-can the stock rear bumper and receiver hitch and build one that's integrated and higher cuz the receiver drags on EVERYTHING the way it sits. Probably integrate a swing-away carrier when I do.
YES, I'm aware of the shittiness of the 10b front/10b rear. Yes, I'm sure that I'm gonna break them coming down Donner pass and kill a busload of nuns and puppies. Yes, spending any money on them is a waste and I should just run SD axles and an Atlas.
Don't miss the point of this thread, its a cheap starter wheeler that anyone can build and work on.
Why am I wasting time and effort on this derelict?
I'm cheap.
It will fit the whole family.
Drivetrain dead reliable for driving to trail.
IF I'm not too stupid the spare 10b axles will get me home no matter what else breaks. Anyone who's seen my toyota stuff knows that with V8 power that may be hard to do
I'm way too busy right now to really begin on my 4runner, WAY too busy to build my roller FJ40 or Scout. Family has outgrown the '83 Toyota pickup and I'm breaking the rusty frame on the regular now, its not long for the world. 90 Sub is good enough to be an easy build with these requirements (everything it needs can be done in an evening or two fairly quickly). 'Should' be able to be driven some distance to-from the trails 2-4 hours away, swap mini-spool into the rear in about 45 minutes, wheel, swap to spiders, drive home.
Feel free to tell me how I'm doing it wrong below
Here's where it started over a year ago. Bought it for $500, drug it out of the pasture it had been sitting in for 15 years after "it just stopped running". 159K miles. TBI 350 and the "good 700R4" if there is such a thing. 40 gallon tank, 3.73 gears. Had basically new Buckshots in the 31" variety with studs. I've since pulled all the studs and put them on my 95 Isuzu, the air is still on the inside
Starcraft conversion Suburban (more on that later). Sold the wheels for $200 bucks as they are cool but were missing the caps. I think Rally caps would have bolted on but the thought of me busting these odd rims made me cry so I figured I'd re-home them. Had to gut the rear ambulance door panels to free up the latches (mouse piss froze them). Threw all the "conversion" shit away, still has no inners. They put some pink fiberglass insulation in there. Doors rusty enough I broke out the spray foam.
Used that $200 bucks to replace the fuel pump (sawed through the floor to replace, only the pump, not the assembly) and a new starter. My theory? Fuel pump went out and they burnt up the starter when trying to get it started. Put some almost as ancient 33" Swamper TRXuS tires that weren't cracked up like Feinstein's face on some shitty modular rims. Bought them on another set of wheels 10 years ago for $400. Then I evicted more mouse nest.
Then... I got busy and parked it. For 8 months.
Then the wife's trans went out of her minivan. We have 4 kids so I aired up the 15yo tires and put it in service.
Blew rusty steel brake line. Swagelok stainless compression and some tube fixed that.
Rear wheel cylinders froze. $22 bucks replaced them both, rear shoes look like they are new. Might fix it right someday.
All the power windows were fucked so I swapped doors with a scrapped 1T 3+3, gained working front windows (kinda, got to help them up and they go off the track sometimes
). Hence the wide mirrors as seen in later photos. Doors were also off a Starcraft conversion truck so the silly "fancy" trim even matches a little. #WINNINGAuto hubs wouldn't respond to thorough cleaning. Hate them anyway. Internals look damn near perfect, lubed them up. Would engage and disengage erratically. $90 set of MM hubs from NAPA later... Took it up the pond dam. She wheels!
About this time the engine started missing. Tossed about $100 worth of plugs, wires, cap, rotor at it (definitely needed it, mice had chewed on the wires some. Up until now it ran perfectly. Still didn't fix the issue. Ended up pulling the valve covers as I started getting some valvetrain noise. Carried 60psi oil pressure according to the factory gauge, but the top end was definitely oiling poorly. Want to know how I fixed it? Drained the oil (oh, I still hadn't changed the probably 15yo oil, haha), filled it with 50/50 ATF/diesel and let it idle for an hour. Better, but still had lifters not pumping up. Bummer.
Then changed that mix and installed a cheap filter and some random 5W20 my FIL had. Quieter, but pulling valve covers still showed 2 cylinders not pumping oil to the valvetrain AT ALL, 3 cylinders very slightly, and the last 3 meh.
Pull the lifters and install new, you say? Nah, came up with a fix. Got it hot idling the next day. Then I tightened the adjusters until they bottomed out, backed them clear off, repeat. Did this several times per rocker. All of them started pumping oil and the engine got quiet. Cycled them in this way a few more times until they were pumping like they should, adjusted the lash by feel/ear, and slammed the valve covers back down. Done. Haven't touched them since.
Rad and water pump went to leaking. Swapped the 4 core out of the 3+3 (big block) and modified the shroud to fit it. New water pump and hoses. There goes another $100
Got to driving it off and on this summer. Charged the AC. IT WORKS! But the fucking air door won't seal so no ice cold air for me. Good old wing windows! Gonna have to work on the HVAC system sometime. Probably going to just buy a shutoff valve setup for the heater core hoses sometime.
Discovered RR spring has a broken leaf. Oh well, wanted to lift it anyway.
Found this hanging under the bumper (mount broke) and the control on the inside. Cool, but inop and so out of date it would probably only pick up the automatic doors as Wal-Mart.
Wife likes it for some ungodly reason, she wanted to fix it as a driver. After I lost the 4th body mount bushing due to excessive rust I nixed that plan. Started thinking about making it into a family wheeler. Hadda spray foam tons of holes, still leaks gravel dust like a sieve. Shoddy conversion shit either falling apart or in the way of fixing all the broken shit. For some HVAC system cleaning I wacked the front off the wooden center console that used to surround the T-case shifter and tossed it all (when it was new it also had a roll up door over this area
) You can still see the outline of where they sealed it to the lower dash in the dust. Ashtray is mint, also has some screws the conversion company left in it when they were 'converting' it. I bet that rattled forever and drove the original owner nuts. I also took all the stupid wood surround that was directly screwed to the gauge trim and the trim above the glovebox between the vents. Other than the screw holes the faux woodgrain is fuckin' mint!Lid with handle in the rear of the center console is a cooler, just a stainless tub with open cell styrofoam surrounding it. Tub pulls out for cleaning. Radio hole is open cuz it was mounted in the roof stack pictured below:
You can just see it behind the rear cubby hole. Behind that is another hole with a roll-top type door that used to house the worlds smallest TV back in the day. 2 other entertainment center compartments beside.
Oh, I also swapped the front seats for the ones from the 3+3 as the original ones were power of unknown manufacturer and the drivers seat didn't work and the "leather" was in poor shape. The 3+3 seats were more comfortable and were manual so one less headache.
So here's how it sits now. Ugly AF but I've got... calculating... about $1000 buck in it as it sits, counting the tires as $300 as these wheels didn't come with them. Maybe another $2-300 if you had to buy the parts off the 3+3 I had laying around. So $1300 max.
Plan moving forward:
Bought a $75 mini-spool for the rear of eBay. Missed out on a NIB ARB that I could have had for $500 shipped that I would have put in the front. Oh well, probably gonna get a Spartan or something. Total of $330 if I go lunchbox
Rough Country 4" lift with 56" rear springs. Front springs are already 1-2" negative arch, rear has a broken leaf or I'd be tempted to block it. $860 with free shipping.
Junkyard 30sp rear axle spares (interwebs says they are the same 88-00, we shall see) $36x2 bucks each at U-Pull-It.
Either these 33s or a set of bastard 35's from my Toyota. I've bought all these partial sets of tires (2's or 3's, I have 11) for under $900, the wheels I had, but those are probably $125 for a set of 5 (4 plus spare). So, another $550 if I upgrade tires?
So, when I stop here I'm at... calculating... back out the 33s... calculating... $2512 total if I get to this point. $2262 if I keep the 33s. I have another option which are some KM2 33x10.5s that I got at a swap meet a couple years ago for $100 on 6 bolt wheels. If I went that route it would be $2062
So, here's where I'm at. As you can see by the last pic I think I'm gonna shit-can the stock rear bumper and receiver hitch and build one that's integrated and higher cuz the receiver drags on EVERYTHING the way it sits. Probably integrate a swing-away carrier when I do.
YES, I'm aware of the shittiness of the 10b front/10b rear. Yes, I'm sure that I'm gonna break them coming down Donner pass and kill a busload of nuns and puppies. Yes, spending any money on them is a waste and I should just run SD axles and an Atlas.
Don't miss the point of this thread, its a cheap starter wheeler that anyone can build and work on.
Why am I wasting time and effort on this derelict?
I'm cheap.
It will fit the whole family.
Drivetrain dead reliable for driving to trail.
IF I'm not too stupid the spare 10b axles will get me home no matter what else breaks. Anyone who's seen my toyota stuff knows that with V8 power that may be hard to do
I'm way too busy right now to really begin on my 4runner, WAY too busy to build my roller FJ40 or Scout. Family has outgrown the '83 Toyota pickup and I'm breaking the rusty frame on the regular now, its not long for the world. 90 Sub is good enough to be an easy build with these requirements (everything it needs can be done in an evening or two fairly quickly). 'Should' be able to be driven some distance to-from the trails 2-4 hours away, swap mini-spool into the rear in about 45 minutes, wheel, swap to spiders, drive home.
Feel free to tell me how I'm doing it wrong below
stuff go boom