[updated:LAST EDITED ON 29-Apr-02 AT 09:37 PM (EST)]going over all your posts and things i just realized that you know a lot about off road and performance mods. why dont you find an old truck and build your self an off road beast like im doin? somethin fun to do on your free time, i know you have to have a little, and when your finished you have the perfect toy.

Edit: i dont really know why i posted this here, i thought this was the offroad and 4x4 section. i probably shoulda just put in the general though.

 

Well back in my "younger" days,(I'm 35 now) I had a 77 f250 that was pretty much just for mud and rocks. That was in 83, when there wasn't to many "store bought" parts available. I fabricated almost everything. The guy at the spring shop thought I was a flake.
It looked identical to the first bigfoots of the day, but I only ran 42s on it and it had the 300 with 4:56 gear.

Then my interests went to circle track racing, my friend was already building chassis in his garage at the time, and we decided to try to make a real business out of it. After buying out a well know east coast race chassis shop,(after the death of the owner), Iv'e been wrapped up in that for the last 14 years or so. We just recently (2years ago) bought a building to house the business. Every once in a while I do a project, first was a 70 Road Runner then a 71-442-w-30 a 68 GTO then , 39 ford coupe. All I have left out of my collection is the GTO and I think that might be sold soon.

I have been talking to my partner about perhaps a "OFF ROAD" type of business recently, but were not sure of how much time we can dedicate to it. He is the best in the area when it comes to setting up gears, rebuilding transfer cases and any fabricating and welding that needs to be done. We are very close friends to Denny's Drive Shafts, who builds a bullet proof shaft.
And considering nobody in our area installs lifts, I figure it would fly.
We have plenty of room at the other end of our buliding to do it, so I am thinking of heading that end of the business myself.

If that were to happen, I suppose I would have to build something cool for advertisement purposes alone!!

I will keep you posted on what I do in the near future.

Also thanks for the complimnet

 

if you did get a business like that started, to me, it would be a good idea to have you for Fords, someone on Chevys and someone on Dodges. that way you will have every feild coverd in the major groups, dont forget jeep and toyota. you can make some serious money off of that, or at least it would seem to me. anyway, i think somethin like that would be a fun job, and you have your circle track job too.

 

Well, all in all lifts kits are basic bolt-ons, you can buy kits for all the popular makes and models so fabrication would be limited.
As far as having 1 person for each make, that would get pricey paying everybodys salary. If you can bolt springs in a ford you can do it in a chebby too.

If we were to go the off road route as a spin off type business, I would probably hire 1 guy to do most of the bull work.
From what I'm reading, it sounds like these off road places are charging $1,000 or more for an install, thats not a bad chunk of change for what took me 4 hrs to do on my 01.

Just one more thing for me to ponder, I guess.

 

Yeti
I startted basically the same I was playing around with trucks and looking at the lifts that are out there and now I opened my business mainly specializing in custom lifts and building rock climbers which is very popular down here in Arizona. My customers have been my best advertisment so far my latest project is a rock crawler dodge durango
with a complete custom fabricated 4-link suspension front and rear useing air bags from an old Peterbuilt truck. there is big money in 4x4's especially if there is alot of them in your area. I am also fabricating the same air bag suspension into my 82 F150 I figure almost 22"s of lift when all said and done plus each corner will be completely adjustable for when climbing over big rocks gonna stay with 35" tires for wheel travel reasons possibly 38's for show reasons

 

Here in Buffalo, we have an abundance of snow, so everyone and their sisters have 4x4's. We have no real rocks for climbers, mostly state lands that have old logging trails and an occasional mud pit.
Seems that lifted trucks were popular in the late 80's around here but to tell you the truth, I haven't seen to many other than the older trucks around here latley.

Most "real" 4x4's are set up for plowing rigs, thats why I couldn't go with a bigger lift, I still need my plow to touch the ground.
We do most of the gear setups and rearend narrowings around our area, today we had a guy drop of a Dana 80 out of a ram because he backed it up on a cement curb and cracked a chunk out of his housing.
Just swapping out the carrier and axels into a new unit.

I'm sure we could make a go out of the common 4x4 fixes, axle shaft joints, transfer case rebuilds, etc but my partner wanted to get away from the dirt and grime and thats why we went into the circle track venture.

We will see what happens in the next month, if business slows down a tad, perhaps I will get something started.



Not enough time in the day I tell ya