ok so i purchased a 89 sidekick a few months ago and i am in the process of building it up. what all would be good beginner modifications. i do like offroading. but dont know where to start. so anyone want to help. oh and for money. i am somewhat limited to costs....so a sufficient cost effective build would be helpful. i have 7 years welding experience but i am more into the import tuning world. so 4x4 is new to me. but i do enjoy it. thanks guys!

'89, huh?
mine has the 1.3L w/carburetor and i am finding that a little rare.
anyway- first i started taking it out "fishing" to see what it would do.
then some 235x75 tires.
then spring pucks and small body lift.
then 31" tires.
the more you use it the more you find to do to it, but i suggest using it is most important for deciding what mods to make.
mabe

option 1/

rear locker/spool/welded     260/110/30
I i could do it I would do home made 2 inch body lift.  30 bucks
jeffs spacers full kit spacers and shocks 200
tires prolly 31s sumitomo all terrians/bfg mud terrian/bfg all terrian/ craiglist special              600/800/900/300
front locker          300

total price  800 with locker700 spool 600 welded plus tire

or

rear locker
2inch body lift
29s tire
rock sliders 280
front locker

bout same price or skip rock sliders and be even cheaper

well i have a guy that will sell me 30" mudders for $200 so i thought about getting those? good idea? bad idea? and then go into building a lift kit. but should i do body or suspension lift first? and is it a good idea to get ride of stock front diff and go with solid diff? does samurai front diff work?

that's a good price pending one how much tred but luckly these are light so tread lasts a while.

First off what wheeling are you going to do?

What is your budget? 

Solid axle is better cost a ton more. and is a ruffer ride on street.

is this your diver of just a wheeler.

For me it's a toss up which to do i would do body just casue it's cheaper, but what ever supension give your frame more lift and your body, body only gives your body more lift.  I am cheap though but first what is your budget and what are you going to do with it.

and I'm not the most expereince here at all.  But i think everthing I'm saying is correct or close to.

well haha im trying do a little work hear and there to my kick. and i just got new hubs(4wd didnt work when i bought it) and that cost 20 bucks! haha. my soft top was torn to hell. got a brand new one tinted for 150! and now for the tires. they have 85% tread left. guy i want to get them from had them on his jeep but he lifted his jeep so now 30"s look tiny for him. so ya now for lift kits thats what i want to do next. my budget is a tad bit tight due to me building my [drag car] which im droping like 8 grand into before next spring. sooo in terms of that. probably close to 500?? give or take. so wht do you think?

What kind of wheeling do you do and is this a daily driver?

and is 500 including the tires?

and how do yo feel about trimming fenders?

nah its not to much a daily driver. only when it snows out or dont feel like driving my other cars. and yeah i have no prob triming fenders. just need to know the proper way to do so. and i paid 500 as is with busted top and hubs were shot. and some kinda stupid white wall tires. i am getting the 30" for 200. so total i put in bout 700 bucks total including price of kick. andi would like to do any kinda wheelin. more mud and hill climbs rather then rock for rock i guess.

 With mud and hill climbs i don't think a lift is as important as with rock crawling.Then in my opinion a lift doesn't help a ton i would just do a body lift weld the rear end trim the fenders and put those 30 inch tires on and see how you like that.  I mean then you would be in like 60 for lift and locked rear end.



Now that is the cheap way to do it but it will work as good as the nice way off road now on road the maners of a welded locker are not as nice as that of a real locker.

locker 260
still homadebody lift for 30

on both options a front locker is always a good idea but do a quick body lift and through the 30's on there and if you don't want to trim the fendes put a coil spacer lift on it which will give you more clearance(not sure if that helps that much in muding though). then weld the rear end,  And I bet that will do better than 95% of other rigs out there.  Also i have heard manual locking hubs is a good idea, i guess that stock auto hubs break alot. don't know just heard that.  They run like 150 though.

what do you use to stay in the $30 buck limit for a body lift ?

I would use a good thick gauge steel square tube cut into cubes You can still use the factory bushing but you will need to buy longer bolts to go with it. As far as i know you can hit about 2" max before you need any brakeline / steering modifications. But I personally like to keep body lift to a minimum. I say put in 1-2" rubber spacers in your springs, 1" Body lift, then trim back your fenders as necessary to fit in the 30's. 

My issue with body lift is that your raising your center of gravity without raising any real ground clearance. It serves a very good purpose for fitting big wheels when your suspension lift is maxed out for your budget. 

Amusingly enough, with the stock wheels I was able to put 30x9.5 tires under Project Trouble without any lift at all.  Going to do some bumper trimming just in case though.