I found a $1000 4x2 suzuki sidekick, most 4x4 I've seen are $2500 or more. Would it be worth it to buy 4x2 and convert it? Can it be done, my plans are to radically tranform it once I get one anyway!

 

It really depends on what you plan on doing with it.  If you plan on swapping to solid axles and a Samurai T-Case it would probably be worth it.  A jack shaft from a Samurai and some new t-case mounts and your ready to go.

If your planning on going step by step your going to need a 4x4 Tracker as a parts vehicle anyway, so it is probably better to start off with one.

A 2wd with a locker will perform about as well as 4wd with open diffs.

A buddy of mine who's in a rock crawling club ask if the transfer case on a sidekick is divorce or mated.
He said if it was divorced it would be easy just find a transfer case, axle, mounts and misc. items.
Thanks for the locker comment would be great til I build it up. I also plan on swapping out for Toyota axles so would there be a difference.

                     

It's mated. Some 2wd transmissions had a "blank" in place that you can swap out to put in a stock t-case. Some didn't have this, and you need to get a new transmission with a t-case. If you're planing on doing Toy axles - maybe you plan on going with big tires? If you do - you can put in a divorced Samurai t-case + 35" tires and be at stock gearing (stock Sami case is 1.4:1, stock kick case is 1:1 in high range). You can always play with the Toy diff gears to go with larger / smaller tires from there. Look into the Aussie locker while you're at it. It's good stuff.

Thank you all for the info, do you think its worth buying for a $1000?!?

For what you're planning, if it looks like it's generally worth about what the guy is asking, then yeah, buy it.

It doesn't sound like it's going to stay 4x2 for very long, and you've got lots of options with toyota and samurai stuff to look into.

Make sure it runs good, and isn't completely rusted out.  The soft top models usually rot out near the rear wheel wells.  Definitely check that out.

-Mooch.

$1,000k is a good price for any base vehicle. Since you'd be likely throwing away the front end when you went with Toyota axles anyway, you only need to come up with a t-case (and maybe t-case / trans combo) and a front drive shaft (which you may need custom done for toy axles anyway).