Hi all, been wanting to build a cruiser for a while now, I had an HDJ81 for about a year, it was already built up and introduced me to these vehicles. I recently sold that and picked up a very stock '97 LX450, been a family owned vehicle and currently has over 400,000 km. It has front and rear lockers, a well taken care of drivetrain and interior, and is the perfect candidate for a ground up build. I enjoyed the 1HDt, but I've seen a few members on here have swapped in various years of 12 valve Cummins, and that peaked my interest. My daily driver is a '93 W350 Cummins, I'm currently part way through putting a Cummins drivetrain into a 1986 GMC K30 crew cab, and I've been working with these engines for many years now. It just makes sense to me. I want something I can daily drive, and also load up heavy and take on week or or longer expeditions, so, the plans for the build:
-1991.5-1993 12 Valve cummins, mild power modifications, I don't want any more than 300 horse
-NV4500 or a 47Rh, not too sure if I want an auto or stick right now. Leaning towards stick
-4" loaded lift height, researching brands and parts right now. I'm in Alberta, our dollar sucks and everything out of country is expensive, haha
-Armor, I plan to run the truck hard, so skid plates, sliders and some form of heavier bumpers is a must
-Some sort of camping set up, probably build a basic drawer system for the back, that's not a huge priority right now
-Change the colour, previous owner had all rust cut out and replaced with new steel, but they rolled on some sort of bed liner and painted over it with white and black it looks good from afar. I like bedliner, but I want a more subtle colour like an army green or tan. Not sure if I'll have to completely strip the liner and start again, or if I can prep what's there and respray
-35 or 37" tires, to be decided
I know many of you have done similar projects, and I look forward to the advice and discussions. I basically want to keep everything as simple as possible, and be able to grab parts out on the road if I need from any parts store, something I could not do with the HDJ. It's going to be a slow build, but it will press forward! thanks for reading
-1991.5-1993 12 Valve cummins, mild power modifications, I don't want any more than 300 horse
-NV4500 or a 47Rh, not too sure if I want an auto or stick right now. Leaning towards stick
-4" loaded lift height, researching brands and parts right now. I'm in Alberta, our dollar sucks and everything out of country is expensive, haha
-Armor, I plan to run the truck hard, so skid plates, sliders and some form of heavier bumpers is a must
-Some sort of camping set up, probably build a basic drawer system for the back, that's not a huge priority right now
-Change the colour, previous owner had all rust cut out and replaced with new steel, but they rolled on some sort of bed liner and painted over it with white and black it looks good from afar. I like bedliner, but I want a more subtle colour like an army green or tan. Not sure if I'll have to completely strip the liner and start again, or if I can prep what's there and respray
-35 or 37" tires, to be decided
I know many of you have done similar projects, and I look forward to the advice and discussions. I basically want to keep everything as simple as possible, and be able to grab parts out on the road if I need from any parts store, something I could not do with the HDJ. It's going to be a slow build, but it will press forward! thanks for reading