I started looking for spring bushings as mine are shot. Well for 73 SJs you cant find em. So being a fabricator and welder i figure, fine ill just swap in some GM springs and wile im at it some GM axles as well so it will be easier to find axle parts too. Well i started looking around, and these followed me home. Looks like my Wagoneer will be the beer wagon. 

Thats a Dana44 front and an AAM 10.5" full floating rear, with 4.10 gears, $400...

 got the engine, transmission and transfer case pulled out. Next thing is getting things washed up so the new gaskets can be installed. 

 right now im working on how im going to do spring hangers. I plan on running 52" GM springs to try to get a little better flex wile keeping things simple. I also plan on boxing the frame the rest of the way (its boxed to the trans. cross member  from the factory).

I still need to order a new cam and timing gear set as theres a flat lobe on the cam right now. After i get the new cam bought and things put back together ill be buying lockers. Im going with a detroit for the rear and for right now to keep cost down i figure ill weld the front. A few buddies of mine run welded fronts and just run with 1 hub unlocked until they need it. I think ill run that way until i get my on board air system rigged up( my a/c compressor is a piston type so ill just be hooking it up to a mini shop air set up) and ill probly put an ARB in the front end. I hope to get this thing rolling by this summer.

 so i finally got my rear out to the shop to do something. This pile of parts is a transfer case, i promise...

 yup im checking bearing pre load gear condition and resealing the T-case. Next up is the transmission...

 it has the Buick th400 trans, but its an amc 360 engine. Yes i was thinking of digging up a 500 for it...

 well i got held up on the T-case so i pulled the transmission down to look at the clutch packs. The forward clutches looked great and the direct clutches still had the part numbers on em! So i think my trans is good to go. Heres a shot with the forward clutch hub out...

 So now that school is done for spring break its time to really get stuff done on the Waggy. I got he axles dropped and interior gutted out this weekend. I also got the transmission and transfer case back together. Due to the condition of the body im going to chop it down and make it into a short wheel base pick-up. So it will become a 2 door. Also the frame at the rear has some issues so im going to be making a new frame for it from the cab back. This will also make it a bunch easier to mount spring hangers and ill end up dropped the wheel base down to 106" from 110".

 really no turning back now...

No kidding, no turning back now!  Good luck.
I remember when my Jeep was sitting all in piles and I thought to myself, 'oh crap, what've I gotten myself into' but it sounds like you have a solid plan for where you're going.  Looking forward to seeing it come together.

 well im on hold until pay day (story of life right).  Then ill be able to buy some iron and fab up the rear frame and hang my springs. As far being done by June, dont know about that. I will need to be done by Septenber though. My mom really didnt like this past winter in DE so im running the TJ to her for this winter (yeah thats right cross country road trip in a TJ). Trying to get a Mini through 3 feet of snow dosnt work...

 Oh and yeah, this was fun, i had to air down my trailer tires to get this to clear. Sometimes i wonder what my neighbors think...

 Well it seems i tried to do too much. I didn't brace the frame up enough so when i started welding it kinda bent around a bit. Oh well it sure was fun wile it lasted, now I'm on the hunt for another 4x4.

Whoops...