Badvada

[badvada]

Well I have 3 or 4 years worth of build an pictures into this thing but I'll try and post some of it up periodically

Here is my 1992 oldsmobile bravada that I bought stock for 400 bucks in 2019. At the time I had a 4 door s10 I had beamed and cut the back frame off for a cage/links( that never happened)

I didn't buy the Olds on a whim, in fact I had been looking for a nice one for quite a few years and this one came up for a steal. Running driving with working ac

 

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1 month later was the DezertDimes meet (Been a long time member) and I cobbled together a mid travel kit as fast as I could to bring it out there and surprise the homies with a new rig. I modified a set of stock lca I had laying around and built an upper arm. Threw on some fenders, 33s and a simple front bumper

 

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I took it out and promptly found the lca I had modified was too weak and bent near the balljoint, allowing the tire to stuff into the remote oil filter lines... so I hopped in fusion360 and designed a complete set of uca and lca that used full size truck balljoints, zr2 s10 axles and would fit a bypass shock. The kit worked extremely well, more on that later.
The new kit cycled 11" was 3" forward and 2" wider than stock and retained the bravadas awd. I ran it as such for a few trips with stock rear springs lift shackles and some rancho shocks. It worked pretty good for what it was

 

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After that it was time for some drivetrain upgrades. I installed a shift kit in the trans, 2400 stall converter, headers a chip in the ecu, and a b&m ratchet shifter with a trans temp gauge, electric fans and a duel circuit derale cooler for trans and oil.

I took it out to razor road and it worked great. Had good power, was fun to shift and got me around

 

[badvada]

Sadly that trip was also the last of the motor. I was aware of the front main seal leaking and had in fact bought the replacement, but didn't have time to install it before the trip. I instead brought extra oil and kept it topped off. However I ran out of extra and made a trip to the convenience store on razor road for a few more quarts and headed back to camp, where I was insulted by my brother inkaws sxs passing me. So I punched it to pass and... well that was all she wrote.

At that point what am I to do. A new used motor at the time was 1000 bucks.... or a junkyard 5.3 ls was 500 bucks. I picked up a holley terminator for less than 1k (new without the handheld direct from holley) And some other od bits to make it work
I modified the 5.3 oil pan to fit the front diff. Used tbss manifolds to fit the frame, and to my surprise the stock fuel system was enough to run the 5.3 all in the swap cost me less than 2k

I spliced in the holly harness and some of the ls sensors to make the entire dash function(tho the tac read fast due to be a v6 tack). Put a simple tun in the holly with my laptop, and the thing absolutely ripped! Fast enough to slightly pull on a canam turbo.

While I was at it I added a steering quickener and a hydroboost I had laying around. At this point it was mid summer and no real trips were comming up so I turned my attention to the rear suspension

I picked up a set of dirt cheap 2.5x10 race series bypasses for 500 bucks rebuilt them and replaced a resis(somehow the previous owner had drilled a whole in it) and I had an old set of procomp 2.0x4 bumpstops got them mounted and it was time to hit the dirt

 

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This thing was sweet! Talk about go-kart. It accelerated hard and handled well. It would even take medium size whoops without complaint. Being stock leafs and 10" of travel it really held it back from getting into deeper terrain. The only issues I had first trip was a nut came off an upper balljoint in the front end because I never put a pin in it and the spare tire hanger got loose and came back to shatter the rear glass

However. It was way too fast to not have a cage or seats and harnesses ect. It was getting into speeds where it was really dangerous

 

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Reason and logic prevailing, it was time for a cage and a better rear suspension.

What was important to me was retaining 4 seats, a safe cage, and a rear suspension that could hang. I threw around some ideas, deavers, shorty links and shortcourse, even considered irs with an 8.8. But in the end I decided on doing a mezzi setup.

So out went the stock interior in went a cage, off came the top, hacked the frame behind the drivers seat and cut out the floors. I put together an 8.5 10bolt from a zr2 s10 for links and built the mezzi arms. I used grand Nation circle track full float hubs for mezzi pivots (to be able to put a Sway bar through the pivots ) and built the mezzi arms. I used 12" 3.0 fox 4 tube bypasses and some dirt cheap fox ibs meant for a yxz for the coilovers

Cage work done I redid the floors and made 4 seats work, mounted the battery and spare in the back

Also worth noting, I made the change from 33s to some Dakar Rally 35x10.5 tires and with the rear axle now 4" wider I modified the rear quarter panels to cover the tires and allow the bump travel that now exsisted

In the end I had 20" of usable rear travel. A solid cage with 2"mains 1.75" supports, and 4 seats

 

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More photos

 

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Just a few more

 

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Almost there....

 

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Posting the story of this thing is a task, 2/3rds of the way there and I'll continue another time

 

[TheOkieEngineer]

Are those front fenders fiberglass? Can you give more details on how you build the rear fenders? They look rad! Nice build

 

[badvada]

Are those front fenders fiberglass? Can you give more details on how you build the rear fenders? They look rad! Nice build

Yes they are trailer products fenders. I have a few sets.... as for the rear I cut along the top just below the window and pulled the stock steel out. Then I basically filled the gaps with sheet metal from the original hood. For the corners to keep them from being a hard edge I ran through a bead roller and did a little hammer work

 

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Alright where was I? OH yes just completed the cage and rear end. That's how it stayed for the next few years. I enjoyed it and it absolutely ripped. It was fast, handled well and would take almost everything I could throw at it, except big front hits. G outs into whoops, jumps into whoops, or the bigger whoops out there.

In the dunes it was perfect. Lightweight and awd so it'd go anywhere. Wish I could post videos as I have more of those than pictures

 

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In this form it attracted the attention of Jason over at race dezert and we did a quick photo shoot and he did a writeup on it .

Garage Built Oldsmobile Bravada Prerunner is Unsuspectingly Incredible - race-deZert.com

Providing a Community Platform to Connect Off-Road Racers to Share Off-Road Racing Ideas Securely, Safely and Authentically

www.race-dezert.com

About this same time I had decided I wanted more hp and travel for the front. So I set out to build an lq9 and design a new front end

 

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For the motor I ordered a bunch of parts. Cam springs trunion upgrade ect. I used the heads from the 5.3 and picked up a tbss intake and a summit throttle body. The combo should be in the neighborhood of 500 crank hp. I swapped slapped the motor in just in time for am late season April run with some buddies to butt tune the motor with the holly. Truck was stupid fast for about 10 miles, until my oil pressure gauge quite working so I decided to head back to camp to fix it and make sure it was fine.

On the way back I found some cross ruts comming around a corner doing maybe 50mph. Went through them sideways and snaaaap. Stock cast upright said peace

Well, I could have fixed it in a weekend. Shock shaft was bent, and I had a knuckle and it needed a new cv. But as I had already started building new arms I decided not to and just go ahead with the new front end. This was may of 2022

 

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Now as much as I love this platform, the 4x s10 frame isn't perfect. There's not alot of room for a bigger front diff. The stock one has no gear options and is tiny. The front cross member is massive and sticks 6" in front of the suspension and I've repeatedly found it through 2 track or jumps. So I made the decision to front half and build a bulkhead. This is the project I'm still on and I'll just photo dump the stuff I have

 

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Build parts are duramax hubs, some track motive axles, a 1500 front diff with 5.13 gears. 14b rear with a spool. Og btr beadlocks I had filled and redrilled to 8x6.5, 37"bfg kdr2s fox 2.5 coilovers and hoping to find some 3.5 bypasses

 

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Currently sitting around 18" of travel bumped. Not strapped. I expect 17-17.5 strapped with awd. And this is about where it currently sits

 

[Motiracer38]

Awesome work, I'm going through a 4wd conversion with a custom front half similar to yours right now. Those track motive shafts are a great idea to keep fixed CV joints for the angle yet have some slip. Any idea how well they will hold up?