How to build an 80 on a budget

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Wow, great gift but well deserved. Congrats on your associates and thank you for your service.
 
:bounce::bounce2: You will be happy with his skidplate. It has saved my a$$.

Thats what I am hoping! I ordered it after a pretty rough weekend at Big Bear. At one point I had hit my T case so hard, my shifter didnt want to stay engaged... I was worried for a bit but kept wheeling, eventually it worked itself out haha. I am counting on this skid to save me from future worries.
 
Devil Dog, YOU DA MAN! I'm close to buying my first 'cruiser, looking for an 80 on a budget, and everything you've done here has inspired me and given me hope that I can have a nice rig, too. Thanks so much for documenting all this, thanks for your service, and congrats - you deserve that awesome rig!
 
Devil Dog, YOU DA MAN! I'm close to buying my first 'cruiser, looking for an 80 on a budget, and everything you've done here has inspired me and given me hope that I can have a nice rig, too. Thanks so much for documenting all this, thanks for your service, and congrats - you deserve that awesome rig!

Haha thanks, I appreciate it! I love my land cruiser and I spend a lot of time scouring Craigslist for great deals. Just be patient and the perfect cruiser will come into your life. I looked for mine for about 8 months or so.

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Haha thanks, I appreciate it! I love my land cruiser and I spend a lot of time scouring Craigslist for great deals. Just be patient and the perfect cruiser will come into your life. I looked for mine for about 8 months or so.

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Devildog: Great thread. You are few months ahead of me. I was lucky I found the truck I was looking minus the lockers in about a month, but I paid bit more than you did. I PM sean today about the bumper, but after seeing how much yours cost, I might have to wait until the wallet recovers.

Welltech (USMC 89-93)
 
Devildog: Great thread. You are few months ahead of me. I was lucky I found the truck I was looking minus the lockers in about a month, but I paid bit more than you did. I PM sean today about the bumper, but after seeing how much yours cost, I might have to wait until the wallet recovers.

Welltech (USMC 89-93)

Glad you enjoyed the read. THANKS FOR YOUR SERVICE!

I have been extremely impressed with this truck even in its unlocked state. That being said, I am looking to re gear right after the new year and will have an auto locker put in top while the third is out. I am really looking forward to the gears and a locker, I anticipate it will being an entirely different vehicle!

P.s. I was 2 when you joined ;)
 
Love this thread. I have a similar approach to my build. Sell parts to buy parts. I'm currently selling off a bunch of old workout equipment I inherited from an old roommate to pay for a set of sliders. Nice work so far.
 
Love this thread. I have a similar approach to my build. Sell parts to buy parts. I'm currently selling off a bunch of old workout equipment I inherited from an old roommate to pay for a set of sliders. Nice work so far.

Glad you enjoyed it, I watched you sell a lot of stuff and replace it so I guess the idea came from you.

You will love having sliders. But when I bought mine for some reason I thought the belly was invincible... It isn't. Sliders were followed almost immediately with the red neck skid.

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Happy 1 year anniversary to me and my cruiser!


Dec 8, 2011

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Dec 8, 2012

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Finally got around to rebuilding the front axle. Some people may poo poo me because I didn't soak everything is fuel and re paint every part, but I didn't have the time for that.

I had a buddy of mine who has done this several times give me a hand. We knocked it out in about 5 1/2 hours with the two of us, so 11 man hours.

I got the kit from cruiseroutfitters. Everything went together great. It looked like the wheel bearings have been repacked before but the axle has never been serviced. 201k on the rig lol...... Guess my feelings of urgency weren't for nothing.

Only bad news I had was that while pulling the third out to replace the gasket (unrelated to axle service, had a big leak) I noticed that there were two teeth broken off of the ring gear. Also some metal shavings have come off the spider gears. I was a little bummed but its not the end of the world, ill re gear eventually and fix the problem. Until then, if anyone has a line on a cheap ring gear for the front let me know!

Big thanks to bajadan who taught me how to do this! Next time ill be able to tackle it on my own.

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Wow...impressive to say the least. Great find on that 97 for the money spent. Amazing at what you've been able to do with your budget. Very impressive.

Nice looking rig and I'm sure is extremely fun to drive.

What gear ratio are you thinking with your tire size when you re-gear? Just curious.
 
Wow...impressive to say the least. Great find on that 97 for the money spent. Amazing at what you've been able to do with your budget. Very impressive.

Nice looking rig and I'm sure is extremely fun to drive.

What gear ratio are you thinking with your tire size when you re-gear? Just curious.

Thanks for the kind words, it is a blast to drive!

Debating on gear ratio... Was dead set on 5.29's but not sure about cruising speed. Thinking 4.88's but don't want to regret that. If I put it off long enough then ill do a diesel swap and be happy with 4.10's lol...

I think for now ill drive 4.10's until I have a very good reason not to. And may do the marlin t case gears before diffs...
 

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