Well, yeah. It's as bad as it looks. The Dana 44s from Dynatrac, all setup and ready to go are, like $5000. The fabrication is well north of $10,000. The engine, transmission, and transfer case are a few thousand. The bracketry to mount the alt, A/C, and PS pump was $1000 by itself (including said accessories with the brackets). So it's pushing $20K before paint and interior....
Its not going to be a show rig or garage queen either. It will get driven. Alot. Off-road too for camping and such. But, I will admit, I'll keep the serious rock bashing for my X-90. The X-90 is the one with low ratio transfer case and ARBs front and rear, winch, rock rails, skid plates, etc. Gotta swap in an Anvil or do a SAS...
Let's face it. I can modify both the Samurai and X-90 for less than the cost of a new Chevy Suburban/Tahoe thing, or god-help-us, an H2.