When mudding use a stock are filter with a ladies nylon sock over the inlet. Dont laugh to hard! It works great for keeping mud out of the filter but must be cleaned often if you are hitting the mud fast and hard.
"Shave" the lip off of the bottom of the rear diff. I shaved my 60 front(1/2") and my 14bff(3/4''). This gives more clearence and helps to slide over rocks and such.
Use flat top knuckels on that 44 front. With 4'' or more lift a 10b tie rod on these knuckels will have about 2.5'' more clearence than the 44 unit.
Flip or trim your over loads for more flex.
Lose as much weight as possible. In the summer I ditch the top, doors and tailgate on my k5. I gutted, stripped and chopped my sub. about 2000# lighter than stock. All I can say is WOW.
Horse trade. Any time you find good parts for cheap or free grap them. Even if you have no use for them you can trade them later or sell them for a profit.
Read yor local classifieds, nickel-nic or such to keep up on the going rate for parts. This will give you buying leverage and give you a baseline for selling / trading parts.
I could post up all night.... I might edit in more if I remember some more good ones!
EDIT!
Buy a cutting torch and small wire feed welder. The buy in isn't cheap but the money you save in doing your own fab work will come back ten fold.
Home made shackle flip. I did mine for under $20.
When building exhaust on the cheap visit your local muffler shop. Often times they will let you dig through their scrap bin. I scored a bunch of 3'' stainless coated nearly new pipe. I got enough to do the whole system on my Sub-buggy in one trip.
Home made high clearence front drive shaft.
Clocking ring for 208. $67 shipped. I did this and swapped in an older x-member(late 70's) to replace the cheesy stock one. This mod can get very expensive if you have to buy high angle, long travel shafts though. I'm running minimal lift on this truck and am squeezing by.
Weld the rear. If you plan on running tires bigger than 35'' dont weld the front.
Spicer 5-760 x axle shaft u-joints. Very strong and about $20 each.
2 quart engine oil filter. Who doesnt want more oil in the system? Even though its lower than stock I have never hit mine on anything.
