I have a 87 D50 carbed 2.0 4cyl/5 speed 2wd my goal is to make it into a mild wheeler rig and comftorable DD while retaining 20 mpg avg (in my dreams) and most importantly staying street legal/reliable and smoggable. I guess an expedition vehicle would be the best way to describe it. Heres some ideas i have. Im a little new to the mini truck scene so i'd like to hear some ideas. Heres a pic to get the creative juices flowing



1.Interior
A.Double Din unit right under the climate control tilted up because im tall
B.Swap in some nice bucket seats off CL with a tubing base to build off of for the cage.
Question #1 Anybody know what seats works best for these rigs? Im 6,3 250lbs.
C.use an Ammo can for the center console
D.Tint the windows
E.Soundproof the entire cab

Drivetrain
Im thinking get a TBI'd 2.6 with a 5 speed and t-case Then running a 2nd t-case once i figure out what t-case mates to their transmissions lol.

Question #2 What transmissions n T-cases did these little monsters use? I know my full sizes of that era were all np208s and np241's if you went up a little bit or np203/205's if you went back a little bit but idk shet about these mini trucks and my googling powers are not strong enough.

Axles
I've been bouncing ideas around inside my head non stop on this. I have a set of 1/2 tons 44/12 bolt out of my 76 k5 that i could use because its getting 60/14 bolt installed under it but those are full widths. While that would be awesome offroad not so much on road. Considering maybe jeep axles or yotas to get a little wider but not full widths. Really undecided here. Thoughts?

nice lookin truck. why not get a 4x4?