Well this summer I'm buying a project truck to be my designated off roader! As of right now I have two possible vehicles, but I'll get to those in a sec. This truck has to be strong, and pretty strong. Originially I was being pretty open minded, but I was mainly looking for either a Jeep CJ7, old school Ford Bronco, or an International Scout II. Like I said I plan to be going through some pretty nasty stuff with this, but not much, if any, rock crawling so I don;t need a suspension with HUGE travel like a 4 link or anything. Here is the 4 Wheel Club Ill be joining next year when I transfer colleges to Michigan Tech. University: http://www.mtu4x4.org/ Check out some of these videos http://www.mtu4x4.org/Videos.htm

Anyways on to the vehicles I am looking at right now.

#1. 1976 International Scout II Traveller. This bad boy has a 345ci V8, SF Dana 44's front and rear, Chrysler Automatic Torqueflight 727 Tranny, Gear driven cast iron Dana 20 t-case, and for how old it is it has A/C (which is a factory York compresson, so easy on-board air), and even cruise control but no power steering, so with big tires that would need to be coverted to PS. Leaf Springs front and rear that are sprung under. Now some of the bad news. It is 30 years old and has been sitting for god knows how long. Doesn't run but I'm told it should with very little work. Rust is also pretty extensive, bad enough to have to fix it even though its only a beater.

If I got this I would do a SOA (spring over axle) conversion with 4" lifted springs to get desired height. With that it would hopefully clear 36s or 38s. This would be a custom lift since SOA kits aren;t made for Scouts. It would also either need a high steer conversion or a custom "Z" bar drag linkThe guy said $700 I offered him $500 and he said he wasn't to sure.

#2. 1984 Chevy K5 Blazer. Has a 350 under the hood and a 700R4 tranny, not to sure on the t-case. SF 10-bolts front and rear. Right now it sits on 35's factory. Not so sure if I beleive that though since a web site says it will clear 35s with a 6" lift but it belong to one of my friends so thats a plus. Also Leafs F&R. Kinda shady gears with either 3.54 or 3.73s. Good thing is that if its on 35s right now I could put a 6" lift on it for $600 w/shocks and maybe fit 38s or 40s.

If I got this one it wouldn;t need as much work, but it would be a bit more to lift and put possible lockers in. I haven't seen pics yet so don;t know about the rust.



Any questions ask! But which would YOU choose for a beater thats gonna be going through some TOUGH crap?

 

personally I'd get the bronco, but it doesnt appear that your considering it anymore- any reason?

out of those two i think the K5 looks cooler, but the Scout is a little more rare.

so i guess my answer for what i would get is the K5

 

#2

The rust alone is a major issue, but with #2 you know the person that owns it...and depending on who he is...you may know him well enough to feel comfortable buying it.

 

rust is what i would not want to deal with. for that reason alone i'd go with the k5. they are a bit bigger too so you have some more room to work with, but harder to fit through some trees. get some foldaway mirrors!

i have a hard time imagining an 85 coming stock with 35's... maybe it did. i'm not a chevy guy. i think if it was anything they were 33's still having to deal with high insurance and "high" gas prices during that time. oil embargo was just lifted two years before..

yeah it would be pretty bad *** to fix up the scout though.

also do you want to spend hours during the summer fixing or out on the trails? i'd rather be out driving, than sitting in the driveway trying to get a stuck motor to turn over.

you could always go with a crate motor for the scout. if you could find it.

 

go with the K5 dude... K5's are wicked awesome offroad ,,, and there will be a butt ton load of better aftermarket market for the K5 then the scout, and its a GM so when it breaks the parts will be cheap LOL!!!!

it would be more practicale to regear a better truck and lock it up instead of doing extensive structural work to an older peice... i would wreckin the K5 would need SOME work as far as body and everything but it would prolly only be cosmetic and you could do it at your own pace and still wheel the snot out of it

also that motor AND tranny are Dime a Dozen... every swinging dick and their brother either has a 350 and/or a 700R or knows someone that has one... so it would be ALOT easier to buy parts or newer/better cores to rework ... and 5.7L's have ALOT of potential

mainly the availablilty for parts for the K5 would be 10 times better then the scout b/c of the fact theres a bigger demand... bigger demand equals more manufacteres equals lower prices..

K5's look cool too!!!

 

The K5...I'm looking at an ex-military K5 for my next plow vehicle.

Check out this website: http://www.coloradok5.com/ TONS of info!

 

Those are some pretty cool videos. Somewhere there's some old broken down fellar sitting there asking himself.... "why the fvck does my kid need another 10 grand for Michigan Tech"

 

K5, no question. Like crazy1 said, would you rather be spinning wrenches, or spinning wheels?

 

ok think of it this way. first of all, what is this trucks main uses going to be, ( rocks, mud, trail, little of everything). second, is this truck going to be street legal? are you sure a spring over axle conversion is legal in your state. you really need to sit down and thing of what this is going to be used for. also thing of tire size and im guessing since its a trail truck your not going to go easy on it. you need to consiter parts braking like the dana 44's with 38 inch tires. if i where you i would take the CJ7 and do some good modes to it like swap some 60's under it. let me know what you really want to do with it and i can help you more.

 

First off, nothing is out of tyhe picture, not like I'm going to get one of these 2, and ONLY one of these too.

The biggest thing here is money. I'm up for getting a cheap rig and having to wrench on it. I know how to wrench and I'm not affraid to do it! I would still LOVE to get a CJ7, and if I had a chioce of all of these right now, I would probably do it. Reason I say probably is because it is very expensive to get a CJ7 to good wheeling stregnth, power, and height. CJ7's come with crapy engines, and axles. So getting a CJ7 would involve an engine/trans swap, and deffenitially axle swaps. I'm not affraid to do any of these but thats alot of $$$. I'm not looking to buy something and go wheel the hell out of it the next day. This is gonna be a summer long preject getting this thing ready to go.

Biggest thing I'm looking for is something that is more or less good to go. That includes good engine/trans/t-case and axles. I know no matter what I get its gonna cost some money and wrenching time, but I'm trying to minimize both of those. I would LOVE to get a CJ7 and throw a 350 in there and some D60's but thats just way to much money The 10-bolts in the K5 aren;t the strongest, but they're better then the D44's in the Scout [sm=confused06.gif]

The main thing this will be seeing is mud and water, just like in those movies I first posted.

Also, SOA is legel in Michigan

Thanks for all the feed back! I'm leaning towards the K5 but am no means done looking! If I could find a CJ with bigger axles and engine in it for a good price I'd be all over that thing!

Keep them coming!!! [sm=interesting.gif]