I am undergoing a budget build on a 1995 Sidekick from stock to trail/mud machine for under $500.00.  I will explain each step from obtaining the vehicle to running in the mud in less than 3 weeks.
 Lets begin with picking out and picking up the Kick. I saw this Kick sitting in the rear of a local repair shop for over 2 years, so I went to the owners and asked them if they would sell it to me for a trail/mud project, they agreed to do so, and let me have the truck for $0.00 as long as I put their company name on the vehicle for advertisement.
 So now we are set with a solid Kick with a bad clutch cable.


 This is a project that my 12 yr son and I are going to undertake. Lets see if it can be done!

 Ok we started with the clutch problem, I first noticed that the cable was broken at the pedal. I purchassed a new cable at Autozone for $22.00, installed and adjusted to spec. Discovered that the shop had already put a new cluch/pressure plate/throw out bearing.  We then removed the old fuel from the tank and charged the battery..got it running on the trailer, and sure as sh*t the thing went into gear.  I drove it off the trailer into the garage.
 We removed all of the carpet and most of the uneeded trim from the interior(off road use only). At this time my friends are telling me that I can run it in the mud bone stock, well so we went to the local mud pit and trails. "YANKEE LAKE" Brookfield, OH.
 They were correct ran all night in the mud pits, and the trails without getting stuck. Did choke it out when we got mud and water in the air intake tube.
 Now I got a shot of the fever "I like mud"  The only problem is that we don't have a ton of money to build the machine we would love to have in the garage we want. So I explained to my son that we can set the kick up pretty nice for under 500 dollars, he said "lets do it dad!"

 Here we go, my son looked at several kicks on line and said that people are making their own lift kits. I went to the local weld shop and purchassed enough 3"x2" square tubing for the body lift costing $8.00, also the grade 8 bolts/nuts/washers needed to perform the lift, cost $12.00.
 Now the body lift process, we removed all factory nuts, had the truck up on 4 jackstands, removed the drivers side brake line bracket attached to the wheel well leaving it loose. We then used a 4x4 and the floor jack and lifted 1 side at a time high enough to place the metal spacers under the factory studs. On the front and rear of the frame I welded the spacers to the frame after drilling a 3/8" hole in the center. Now the 2 on the side of the body, this got tricky because the factory stud was in the way of my bolt going thru to the frame mount?  So I offset the 3/8" holes on the spacer and was able to bolt them to the factory stud using the bushing on the top and a 1.5" inch 3/8" grade 8 bolt on the bottom, and repeated this process on all 4 of the inside body mounts.
 After all was done I reattached the front left brake line to the wheel well in a different location, still had plenty of room for movement, and had no problems with the fuel filler tube.
 I did have to notch the floor for more movement of the shifters, simple took 1" off the bottom and still goes in all the gears.
  

 After the body lift was done my son measured the height, we gained 2.5"(9 days into the project 9/16 to 9/25).  We had no idea what rim and tire combo we were going to use, so we decided to work on the frontend (skid plate/brushguard) I found the brushguard at the local flea market for $20.00 and the skid plate from a land fill $0.00. Fabricated some front brackets for the brushguard and welded them to the frame, and bolted the skid plate to the bottom frame member and to the core support. Done in 2 days 9/27

I like the build. It seems your still WAY under budget. You need to score some tires, although looking at your avatar, you may have already....Also good to see more Ohio ppl posting...


In the first couple pics those look like alloy wheels? Are they factory 15s, or 16s from a later model?

 Haven't gotten to the next step-ran out of time this morning. The wheels were on it, I don't know what years they fit? But as you will see they were sold for $100.00 and we bought 31x10.50x15's for $80.

 So now we needed to do something about the mud and water getting into the intake system. As I explained earlier we don't have the free funds to just order a snorkel for the kick. Well we built our own. 1st I removed the factory air box, and then moved the mass air flow sensor up on the intake, bought 10' of 2" PVC, and a couple of elbows, a rubber connector and hose clamps at the local hardware store $27.00.
 I started with taking several measurements of the engine compartment to run the snorkel out the drivers fender and up the window pillar. Then we cut the first piece to run from the maf sensor to the area of the original air box, made a rubber sleeve, drilled a 5/8" hole into the side of the pipe for the ambiant air temp. sensor and threaded it in with some silicone. next we had to make a sharp bend up along the inner wheel well to go out the original hole for the factory air box, this was too sharp for a 90 degree, so we cut the pipe almost all the way thru leaving a little and another cut at a 45 degree angle, heated the pipe until we could bend it togather, and sealed it up with silicone and ele. tape. As you can see in the pics we put a rubber sleeve in here for easy removal, then went up, and out the drivers fender after using a 2" holesaw, and then up the window pillar. finally used a generic air filter from autozone 21.95, but had a 20.00 dollar credit on my discount card total with silicone was $6.67

 Our next task was to find some tires and rims. I started looking at the local flee market and on-line, I found 4 good BF Goodrich 31/10.50/15 for $100.00. went to pick them up and talked the seller down to $80.00. Now to find some rims, while at my sons football practice a friend and I were talking about the kick and he says "I might have some old american racing rims that will fit on the kick" The next day he brings one to practice. So I take it home and it fits, after calling him and letting him know that they will fit we talk about a price, he says just do some welding on my truck and you can have the rims.
 the tires fit, but had to trim a little from the back of the fenders.  I think we need to lift the front up another 1" or so.

awesome build goes to show with some research and searching you can buy things a lot cheaper then ordering through a company!

i'm enjoying this thread- jnm78 deserves rep. points.
looking forward to the next installment............

 Thanks for all the feedback.  The next thing was my son wanted to name the vehicle, so we posted on facebook for our friends to give us some ideas. The winner was "Little Mud Booger"  Well I went to another local business and asked them if they could make me a hood decal on the bard er system, they agreed, the hood decal was made and all I had to do was also put a decal of their company on the kick. Awesome!
  Next was the rear bumper, we went to the local surplus store and found 3 19"x 3/16"x3" pipe for $21.00. We then welded them together and used two brackets that were lying around from another brushguard, modified them welded them to the frame and to the pipe. Done a new rear bumper in 1 day!
  This is where we stand, i would like to replace the front seats, if anyone knows what other bucket seat will fit let us know.  I might lift the front another 1" the 31's rub a little, other than that we will be at the Haloween Fest on the 30Th "Yankee Lake Truck Night" Yankee Lake, Brookfield, Oh.  check it out |removethispart|@ www.trucknight.com

 Now that we have a running 95 kick thats ready for the trails and to throw some mud, as I started this post for under $500 you can do it!.
 We have an additional $50 in brake pads and spray paint. Thats the total add it up in the posts and see, we still have money left over for more mods!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You could get your 1" of raise by installing 4 door springs.  With your bartering abilities should be a lot less than a spacer kit (of course maybe you could advertise for them).
I am enjoying your work, keep it up.

 Nice to see that I am not the only "Cheap Bas$%d" out there. Good going, esp. with getting the sponsorships! 

Very Cool! Have a Blast!