Build The $50 79 Chevy Luv

JDM crawler

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Nov 26, 2024
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Just at a year ago I bought my 1979 Chevy luv off marketplace for $100.. the reason the ***le says $50 is once I scrapped what I wasn’t using I got $50 back! I pulled it out of a guys driveways and the front wheels were locked up and the floor was rusted out and covered in mud, leaves and moss. It had been sitting for years and didn’t have a motor. I had been looking for a Toyota pickup to do this sorta build on and I didn’t even know what a Chevy Luv was but when I seen it on marketplace and after a bit of research plus the cost, the decision was easy and I drove the hour and a half to get it.
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After I got it home and used my 80series to drag it into the driveway I gave it a quick wash and started clean out out all the garbage.
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This is my Hdj80 or most know it by FJ80 but it’s a JDM import with a Toyota Turbo diesel.

Now initial plans for the luv was to leave the patina but make the tube work and everything else clean as possible. To run super duty axles and 42s and a full tube chassis with a 4 speed atlas and a aluminum block 5.3 LS on 2.0 16” air shocks or coilovers although this changed a bit. The other goal was to build it affordablly without skipping out on the key bits to make it reliable by buying used where I could.
 
I started off by cutting away the body panels I planned to use. Fenders were easy just unbolted them along with the hood and so on. The cab I had to cut away from the firewall along with cutting the floor out and chopping the doors for the boat sides. With this I went ahead and cut the dash out and basically everything else that wasn’t apart of the body panels.

I then started laying out the subframe. Thankfully I found someone who has built similar rigs and he offered lots of advice. Right or wrong I estimated where I wanted the motor and drive training sitting along with wheel base and built off that. I didn’t have a full drivetrain for mockup but used what I had and went off measurements for the rest.

I knew I wanted more headroom Than would be “standard” in the OE size luv cab so I essentially built a small body lift into the frame so the can sit a couple inches taller since I’m 6’3” and wanted plenty of headroom. Only reason I regret this is I think it would look better with the cab 2” shorter lol.
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Used my Fab table to start the subframe so I knew it was flat. I was glad to have the table especially because my garage concrete is not even close to flat.
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I was able to source super duty axles very adorably. Front was free and got the rear off marketplace thankfully. Using the 4link calculator off here I got the numbers I liked and started building the suspension.
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Ended up doing a DIY truss out of thick wall 1” 3/4 tube and I have since added some plate to the mix as well to make sure it’s stout. After this I moved into the rear coilovers . I mentions I had planned to do 2.0 16” coilovers. Well I borrowed some FOA coilovers for mockup. This is where I would change that setup. First I bought 2.5 coilovers and bypasses within a week or two after finishing up shock mounts but also I sorta wish I went to trailing arms but I didn’t want them hanging low as they can do. And ultimately this is for the rocks and to go fast between trails or have fun. I am sure it’ll be plenty fast in the desert for me.
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I ended up spending a week in the desert In a side by side with long arms and king suspension and I realized I wanted something that could go a good bit faster than I was building. Didn’t help that my daughter loved going fast off-road as well. So I found a marketplace deal on these 2.5” coilover and bypass shocks and these are now what I’m building off of even though I had already purchased some used sway away 2.0 coilovers.

Lastly for this post the raceline 20” wheels came in and the 42” milestar labels! Thankfully I have some buddies in the offroad industry and they passed their dealer pricing on for wheels and tires. But the beef of the raceline wheels was impressive I definitely see why they are popular.
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Here’s a couple pics I took mocking up the new bypassed
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These came off an ultra 4 car I was told.
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Test fitted the bedside after a 11” chop. At this point I’m mostly sure I hadn’t built the front suspension fully but I wanted to see it with body panels to get an idea of how it looked.

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This came out pretty good but I tried to dim the semi circles by hand and shoulda busted out a hole saw. But I obviously didn’t care enough to change them.
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So from there it was all tune work and finishing up the front suspension alright all the link mounts are only tac welded in so I can get the permanent power plant in before really finalizing any of that.
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After all that I just had to get the hood fitting again. At this point the front suspension was all tacked in securely enough it could move and after a make shift tie rod from scrap steel it was time to move it. To put the motor in I needed to turn it around so the front of the car was at the front of the garage door so I had more room to work on getting the power plant. Sadly that still hasn’t happened. Basically I got busy with work for a couple months then broke my foot and was non weight bearing for the last couple of months of 2025 and into January of this year. Typically work slows down the last part of the year so a lot of progress could have been made but it wasn’t. That said the motor is about to come out of the donor car. It’s a 5.3 lm4 from a Buick SUV. I had planned to use the 4l60e to save money but I ended up having a friend give me a TH400 just to get it out of his garage so I’m thankful for that because I was starting to think sticking with the stock trans would be a bad move. Even worse as I’m thinking of doing a small twin turbo setup so they spool fast and shoot for 6-700HP at the crank or 300+ wheel on 42s. Shouldn’t be overly hard to do.
 
the bit I have been doing since getting cleared to walk again is working on a slider rail. It’s definitely not needed for this truck as it has boat sides but I wanted them more for a step especially when you park over a hole or flex out and get out. It helps to climb the tire and walk up the slider. This is also the estimated ride height. Looks sorta tall but it has a 19” bell height at this height and has about a 6’3” or 6’4” roof height with 8” of up travel. It may not sit quite that high but it’s within an inch two tops as I want a lot of up travel.
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In theory it’ll even drive out of the garage which. Would be very nice to store it inside when it’s done!
 
I had 3 mikado's back in the day.
Best stock mud truck evar.
Not boggin but feild assault
Nice to see a different rig.
 
Here’s what I’m doing for the front bedside mount. Haven’t made any more bedside mounts but I have some tube tac welded to hold it in place.

One thing I’ve been thinking about is should I dove the front or back? Originally I was thinking not cause the whole tire nearly is outside the body but I see many do it and I had someone mention when still I’m likely to get into the sheet metal in those areas. Granted I’ve wheeled plenty but this truck will go places my big 80 series wouldn’t dream of.
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I’m thinking now I need Mikado skins for my Ftoy. I have a line on a free one ran when parked. You got me thinking.
 
mobil1syn said:
dude that is a hell of a deal.
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I thought so too! When I saw them I was in SoCal and driving home to Oregon the next day and he was gonna be in Sacramento at an Ultra 4 race. I told him if he holds them I’ll be there the following day and i won’t talk him down just straight cash. Thankfully the dude didn’t sell them before I got there.
 
Great work! Not your first rodeo from the looks of it.
 
GGRR 4555 said:
Great work! Not your first rodeo from the looks of it.
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Honestly first rodeo on a build of this magnitude! But over the last few years I’ve built my 80 series a lot. I just have the brand of ADHD where I hyper focus on stuff and spend far ti many hours reading and watching stuff to learn and get inspired.
 
After debating and talking to a few guys I decided to dove the front and rear of the luv. Not going super aggressive as it’s already a small body. Rear won’t be any more aggressive than the photo from the rear but the front I may bring in a little more. This is about 3/4” each side in front and 2.5-3” in rear. I just wanted to match the esthetics of the rear but I may try bringing the front in a little more.
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I’ll figure that part out tomorrow and finalize how much of any I want to bring the front fenders in then start building mounts for it all.
 
the motor for this thing has been hard to deal with. It’s a LM4 5.3 motor. I’ve been working on pulling it a few days now and I really wasn’t making much progress it felt like. Between missed bell housing bolts and the front differential literally being apart of the oil man it’s been a challenge. I had to disassemble the whole front end and get the CV shafts out of the oil pan plus disconnecting driveshafts and exhaust.. aka cutting them. But it still wouldn’t budge and I had a hard time getting the starter out so I decided to pull the motor with the torque converter on. The other issue I faced is the intake needed to come off because it was hitting the cowling under the windshield. So instead we just cut it all out. As much of a pain as this motor was to pull. I’m very glad we could destroy the car in the process to make it easier.

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My solution to accessing the bell housing bolts.
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Lastly I started patching the hood back in after punching the finders in 1.5” per side.
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Not particularly honestly. For packaging reasons I haven’t ever set a shock to be perfectly 90° at bump and from what I’ve experienced and researched it’s usually not an issue unless it gets past like 15°. Granted that’s according to acutune on a lot of there writeups. And space wise I was a little limited anyways because of the engine cage. At bump if memepty serves they are leant back about 10°and in like 6° I believe or somewhere around there. With this said I realize it’s not optional for dampening which is really what the angle of the shock affects from my understanding.

My land cruiser though on my rear suspension I learned from experience going to far causes issues. Granted not enough he changed it but it gets off near full bump. But on that I didn’t know better and I didn’t can’t to cut the floor.
fl0w3n said:
With the driver coil over being obtuse at full compression are you worried about side loading or weird handling here?
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JDM crawler said:
Not particularly honestly. For packaging reasons I haven’t ever set a shock to be perfectly 90° at bump and from what I’ve experienced and researched it’s usually not an issue unless it gets past like 15°. Granted that’s according to acutune on a lot of there writeups. And space wise I was a little limited anyways because of the engine cage. At bump if memepty serves they are leant back about 10°and in like 6° I believe or somewhere around there. With this said I realize it’s not optional for dampening which is really what the angle of the shock affects from my understanding.

My land cruiser though on my rear suspension I learned from experience going to far causes issues. Granted not enough he changed it but it gets off near full bump. But on that I didn’t know better and I didn’t can’t to cut the floor.
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Thanks, I was just curious. Looks sick overall. Look forward to seeing it finished. Vaguely reminds me of a 74 Ford Courier I had briefly back in the day that was a similar yellow.
 
I absolutely love this thing, one of my dream rigs is this same style, but with a Courier.
 
fl0w3n said:
Thanks, I was just curious. Looks sick overall. Look forward to seeing it finished. Vaguely reminds me of a 74 Ford Courier I had briefly back in the day that was a similar yellow.
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Those were cool trucks also. I wouldn’t mind having one.
 
Well! Motor is in! I have come to learn I shoulda thought far more about how the motor is gonna go in this thing but I’m mostly sure if I go to a larger engine hoist and with some tube conectors in that last straight bar you can see it’ll be much simpler.

With that after stripping the motor down to only the accessories I’m using and pulling the oil pan diff contraption I went to put on my new EBay oil pan. Turns out I’m dumb and it is a gen 5 pan and I have a gen 3 so I need a new oil pan. But I decided I didn’t want to leave a motor in my small driveway any longer and try and be less of “ that neighbor” than I already am… and I am that neighbor unfortunately. But as you can see I nearly had to crank pulley straight up to slide the motor in.
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Slowly but surely it went in and I got it placed close to where I wanted it but it wouldn’t sit level. I used some scrap metal I laid through the links to support the rear of the motor and get it more level.
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I used my old land cruiser tie rod which oddly comes I. Handy a lot to lay across the engine change and support the front with straps. After that I got the trans in. Although I will order the advanced adapter flywheel and other parts for the conversion to a TH400. So when I bolted up the trans I left the Torque converter out and just bolted it on so I can move forward with fab work.

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So if you have any oil pan recommendations let me know! There will be some chassis modifications necessary to clear exhaust and the power steering pump as it slightly contacts the frame although I suspect with a remote resi it would fit.
 
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