DFW Rusty
Well-known member
- Joined
- May 21, 2020
- Member Number
- 898
- Messages
- 416
With the completion of our house being in hand, and the wife being ultimately happy I am hoping to be in the market for a budget starter rig soon. Have to finish the skirting on our house and build our carport, should be 100% by March-ish.
What I am wanting is to get something farily barebones, relatively complete vehicle that either needs TLC or something along those lines, preferrably older (old enough to antique tag), full frame (no XJ), auto(preferred, can swap later), has a factory full (3 wide) back seat for the kids. This will give me my building blocks for a future build. I'll probably spend a short time fixing it up and making it road worthy and light trail worthy and then enjoy it for a year or less. During that time I will slowly build my stock pile of beefy parts: 2.5ton rock wells, atlas or doubler, hydro steer components, beadlocks, 44" TSL's... etc... etc... then when I have all my parts build my rig. Then build kind of an old school heavy, full bodied, family trail rig. I don't really want an already built rig cuz most full bodied trail rigs of this size are hammered dog shit or over priced lightly hammered dog shit!
I am leaning towards a K5 blazer preferably a mid to late 80's model, but not sure what would be the best choice.
So on that note and given the specs I plan to dump into the rig, what would Irate4x4 pick for the vehicle to build, budget being $5k ish (preferrably a little under) I almost posted this in General4x4 section, but given I'm not in the market yet and dont have my rig yet I'm not going to start a "maybe if" thread there. I know full bodied rigs aren't for everyone, and they aren't as capable as buggies, but it's my preference. My last rig was a full bodied TJ on rockwells and 46" tires and although it was a heavy pile, I loved the look of a full body rig on the trails and big tires.
What I am wanting is to get something farily barebones, relatively complete vehicle that either needs TLC or something along those lines, preferrably older (old enough to antique tag), full frame (no XJ), auto(preferred, can swap later), has a factory full (3 wide) back seat for the kids. This will give me my building blocks for a future build. I'll probably spend a short time fixing it up and making it road worthy and light trail worthy and then enjoy it for a year or less. During that time I will slowly build my stock pile of beefy parts: 2.5ton rock wells, atlas or doubler, hydro steer components, beadlocks, 44" TSL's... etc... etc... then when I have all my parts build my rig. Then build kind of an old school heavy, full bodied, family trail rig. I don't really want an already built rig cuz most full bodied trail rigs of this size are hammered dog shit or over priced lightly hammered dog shit!
I am leaning towards a K5 blazer preferably a mid to late 80's model, but not sure what would be the best choice.
So on that note and given the specs I plan to dump into the rig, what would Irate4x4 pick for the vehicle to build, budget being $5k ish (preferrably a little under) I almost posted this in General4x4 section, but given I'm not in the market yet and dont have my rig yet I'm not going to start a "maybe if" thread there. I know full bodied rigs aren't for everyone, and they aren't as capable as buggies, but it's my preference. My last rig was a full bodied TJ on rockwells and 46" tires and although it was a heavy pile, I loved the look of a full body rig on the trails and big tires.