[BIGKEV]

Just picked up a little treat that popped up out of nowhere. A car that I never thought I'd look at but when opportunity arises you just gotta grab it.

97 JX sierra soft top with a genuine 51000klm on the clock, owned by an older gent I know who only drove it between two adjoining suburbs for the last 13 years. Mechanically excellent but requires a little bit of rust removal. Bought unregistered for the pricely sum of $500, so I'm pretty pleased with myself right now.

The plan is to fix up the rust and get it to my young bloke as his first car. I'm looking for a bit of inspiration in regards to potential mods for the car that could add value without over capitalising. We are only picking her up this weekend.

Rust repair component currently unknown but I have a mate who owns a panel shop that will look after me with repairs and respray and will confirm costs with him this coming Monday.

Everything on the vehicle seems to be stock, so was considering roll bar, lift and bigger wheels/tyres, but not sure what is achievable as yet. May need to look at replacing the soft top. My lad is quite tall (6'5) so may need to look at what we can do with the seat mount to get him in it if legs are too long. Ideally would like the back seats in but they currently do not have seat belts fitted, also the AM/FM cassette deck apparently won't do for a 17yo and something with Bluetooth/usb is required.

So currently just need to work out where our budget will sit and hoping some regulars might be able to assist with some estimates that we can work towards when putting it all together.

Rust repairs - TBA
Possible seat mount relocation
Rear seatbelts
Radio
Soft top
Roll bar
Lift kit
Wheels & tyres

Got no idea how to post a photo, but will provide when I work out how to drive this forum eventually.

[Gwagensteve]

I will reply in more detail tonight, but no modification will add value. An engineer approved g16b engine swap would add value but not more than it costs to complete.

Your car is already worth substantially more than you paid for it.

[Zook_Fan]

Rust repairs - Can be anything depending on the extent of the rust.
Possible seat mount relocation - Haven't mentioned your location but while the seat mounts may not require much to change any change to seating position will require engineering or blue plate certification. This modification may range from $100 if you do the work yourself and you live in QLD to $1000 if you change seats at the same time, etc.
Rear seatbelts - You can get new ones at Repco, they weren't much last time I purchased them. Approx. $70 a belt.
Radio - Really depends on what you want. I'd budget $250 for a head unit with Bluetooth and an okay set of speakers.
Soft top - $300, less if you go second hand.
Roll bar - If you want something that will protect the driver in a roll the rear seats are in the way ($500-$600). If you want to pretend to protect the driver any sort of alloy "roll bar" will do, can get them second hand for around $150 to $300.
Lift kit - With a coily your options are limited, search around on here. $800
Wheels & tyres - Set of steel rims $300, tyres can be anywhere from $800 up if looking new.

These are all really ballpark figures, it really depends on how you want to use the car. If it's your son's first 4x4 experience fix the rust, make him fit and let him go. Let the mods required become obvious as he finds the limits of his car which will far outweigh his ability for now.

Don't worry about the value of the car so much, if you want to make money sell it now. Right now depending on how bad the rust is the car is worth around $3000, besides the rust work nothing else in your list is worth anything to a new owner.

[Gwagensteve]

Right, in front of a computer.

Quote:

roll bar, lift and bigger wheels/tyres, but not sure what is achievable as yet.

You have an SJ80, which has a number of key differences compared to the more common leaf sprung car.

I'll second Zook_Fan's comments in relation to a "roll bar" There are many cosmetic bars around which might actually be worse in a rollover than nothing at all, especially as your son is very tall - it will put his head back so the cross bar will be quite close to his head and the vertical bars might be worryingly close as well.

There's really only one commercially available "lift kit" - it's a 40mm kit which uses ultima shocks and king springs. I think it's OK but not awesome. Basically, the coil sierra suspension design is allergic to lift.

Tyre size increases need to be limited. 215's are 28" tall and won't interfere with the gearing too much and fit easily (on standard wheels) going beyond this starts to affect gearing negatively and other fitment issues start to rear their head.

Correcting the gearing is a bit more complicated than for a leaf sprung car as you can't re-gear the existing transfer case, you'll need to swap in a transfer case from a leaf sprung model along with the jackshaft and front driveshaft.

As for moving the seat rearwards, this is a bit of a compromise. Whilst I'm pretty short, we've had some very tall club members with Sierras. (up to 6'7") Moving the seat back might help, although you need to be careful to ensure the floor or rails don't crack, but interestingly, moving the steering wheel closer to the driver helps a lot, because it's all about freeing up knee room - you want your knees between the wheel and the dash, not trying to share space with the steering wheel. I don't think trying to get the seat back far enough to get your son's knees away from wheel is feasible - the ergonomics would go all wonky.

[adrock82]

As a new owner myself, I second (or third?) the wheels/tyres/gearing conundrum. One of those things "I should have known" previously... 31" tyres with no gear change has left it pretty useless off-road. Now need to change the gearing or go back to stock tyres to get that real Sierra feeling!

[MrRocky]

As someone who is 6"4 the best mod i have done is fit a boss kit and a smaller steering wheel, this means i can use the window winder while driving without having to move my foot of the accelerator pedal and that my knees dont hit the bottom of the steering wheel.
I also had to heat and bend the pedals so my size 17 shoe doesnt press the pedals all at once.
As for seats, original position is fine for me

[BIGKEV]

This little car runs like a dream, the cancer in the body however is ugly, may be too much to be economically viable to repair. Meeting this afternoon to run through the damage with my panel beaters, but from initial conversations it's not looking good. If so we may be looking to offload her to someone who can do something more with it. Located in Brisbane. Will keep you posted.

[Asho]

Admittedly I haven't any idea how much rust it has, but I would recommend giving it a go yourself.
Tools needed for removal: Wire brush, rough sand paper, a sand paper flapper wheel for drill, a wire brush for drill, and some rust converter.

If the rust is just concentrated in a few panels, I would recommended replacing the panel, you can usually pick up panels for a good price (for instance I've picked up a brand new inner and outer wheel well for $150).

If you don't give up on her, she won't give up on you.