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Anyone ever stretch a samurai hood and front clip?

YotaAtieToo

YotaAtieToo

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Joined
May 19, 2020
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142
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Bonners Ferry, ID
Jeep guys have done this quite a bit with early CJs. Saw someone do it recently and made me think, why not a Sami?

My thought is to stretch it in the middle of the fender 3-5" and then make a piece that moves the hood hinges out the same amount.

Move the rad, steering box and axle forward, gaining room for bigger tires, and bigger engine, while stretching the wb and not fighting all the issues of trying to push the axle forward, moving steering box, ect.

Anyone seen it don?
 
I've seen stretched samurai's but never the way you want to. By the point they get to stretching the hood and wheelbase most just end up as a buggy almost. It could probably be done pretty easy with just an extra set of fenders, for the hood I would either just make a new piece in front of cowl for hinges to bolt to or extend the cowl itself so hood is stock. I kinda wanted to do the opposite one day and extend the seating area by shortening the front clip, so WB and overall length would stay the same but have more room in interior on a TT. That would get my 1.0T engine dropped in making it 1cyl shorter than stock samurai too lol.
 
I stretched my fenders 3.5". I am still hav8ng the debate on adding on to the cowel or stretching the hood. I have a spare tub I can cut the cowel off. Also have 3 hoods. My sheetmetal skills are weak so that's why I've been putting this off.
 
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Fenders for reference, might be more like 5" stretch. Both the cowel and the hood taper so I'm not real sure how to go about it and not have it look funny.
 
350TacoZilla said:
I've seen stretched samurai's but never the way you want to. By the point they get to stretching the hood and wheelbase most just end up as a buggy almost. It could probably be done pretty easy with just an extra set of fenders, for the hood I would either just make a new piece in front of cowl for hinges to bolt to or extend the cowl itself so hood is stock. I kinda wanted to do the opposite one day and extend the seating area by shortening the front clip, so WB and overall length would stay the same but have more room in interior on a TT. That would get my 1.0T engine dropped in making it 1cyl shorter than stock samurai too lol.
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Trying to stay away from the buggy path.

Just feel like a few extra inches would help with the planned 2.0 swap as well as a little extra firewall clearance.


bdkw1 said:
I stretched my fenders 3.5". I am still hav8ng the debate on adding on to the cowel or stretching the hood. I have a spare tub I can cut the cowel off. Also have 3 hoods. My sheetmetal skills are weak so that's why I've been putting this off.
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Pics from the side?
 
There was a company that used to advertise in the old 4 Wheel magazines that sold Samurai 4.3 conversion kits and they all had slightly extended noses. Tried searching for pictures but couldn't find what I was looking for.

Anybody else remember that?
 
SLOWPOKE693 said:
There was a company that used to advertise in the old 4 Wheel magazines that sold Samurai 4.3 conversion kits and they all had slightly extended noses. Tried searching for pictures but couldn't find what I was looking for.

Anybody else remember that?
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Wasn't that extended at the very front though? Like they just pushed the core support and such forward i keep thinking.
 
Lightning Conversions did the stretches. I’m really not a fan of those long hoods. They look weird in person.

Unless you want to run a clutch fan, I don’t see a need to stretch anything for the 2.0. It’s tight but they fit. With that being said, I’ve seen the hood mounts moved forward and a small removable cowl plate added to keep the stock hood length with stretched fenders and it’s plenty of room for a v8.
 
bad zuki said:
Lightning Conversions did the stretches. I’m really not a fan of those long hoods. They look weird in person.

Unless you want to run a clutch fan, I don’t see a need to stretch anything for the 2.0. It’s tight but they fit. With that being said, I’ve seen the hood mounts moved forward and a small removable cowl plate added to keep the stock hood length with stretched fenders and it’s plenty of room for a v8.
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I'd prefer a clutch fan to keep things simple. Plus like I said, more room. For bigger tires and longer wheelbase.

I'd probably only do more like 2-3"

I want to cut the frame at the motor mounts and go flat forward at some point, just figured why not do this also?
 
bad zuki said:
If you stretch behind the wheel opening, it looks fine. If you stretch it after the wheel opening, It will have more chin than a Chinese phone book.
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If I did it, it would be in the middle of the wheel we'll and like 2-3" definitely not going for the look above :laughing:
 
There was that guy on the old site in chilie that stretched his. He's the one that he did the highest altitude driven in it beating jeep. I can't remember exactly how he stretched his though. I don't remember it being bad looking. Need to find that agian and maybe get some ideas
 
bdkw1 said:
There was that guy on the old site in chilie that stretched his. He's the one that he did the highest altitude driven in it beating jeep. I can't remember exactly how he stretched his though. I don't remember it being bad looking. Need to find that agian and maybe get some ideas
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I remember that. Wasn't it green?
 
Hmm, that doesn't look stretched. But that's the one I was thinking of.
 
Tydes said:
that was pre
D4BEF7B1-5A9D-450C-916E-F1F65142DE5A.jpeg
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The tilt front is interesting, but that's pretty damn close to what I had in mind.

This rig is mostly used for dinking around, going to the river, ect. But still like to be able to do some legit wheelin.

My goal is not to go down the typical path of 105" wheelbase, big axles, 39s, ect.

I've thought how a 6" rear stretch between the door and wheelwell would be kinda sweet, then maybe 2 or 3" up front.

Anyways, thanks for posting pics, even the giant chin one :flipoff2:
 
YotaAtieToo said:
unless you were a Sami nerd.
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:laughing:

Here’s a picture of what I was talking about. Stock Sami hood just moved forward and another hood cut down and removable. He’s got a 6.0 and clutch fan in there.
 

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bad zuki said:
:laughing:

Here’s a picture of what I was talking about. Stock Sami hood just moved forward and another hood cut down and removable. He’s got a 6.0 and clutch fan in there.
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Interesting, the short portion of the hood is backwards. I guess that would make mounting the hinges easier.
 
bdkw1 said:
Interesting, the short portion of the hood is backwards. I guess that would make mounting the hinges easier.
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IIRC it’s just bolted down, he only takes it off when pulling the motor. The cut hood is backwards to match the cowls up and allow the hood to rest on the roll cage without hitting the 2nd cowl.
 
I just don't think they ever look right if the stretch is big enough to be useful. When we pinch the nose this shortens the fender up a bit so we sometimes need to add 3/4" to the guard to keep the relationship between the slam panel and the hood, but that's not noticeable. I think maybe 2" would be the limit that could be done without looking weird but that's a lot of work for 2" of clearance. Personally, I don't think the J20 is worth the effort to swap in. Running a rear mount radiator would remove the need for the stretch, but if the requirement is for a front mount radiator I don't think the J20 is a feasible swap- it's just too long. running a pusher fan alone is a poor solution. Mazda BP outperforms the J20, has strong aftermarket support and can still run an AW-4 auto, in comparison.

I've been following along with your planning and ideas for this build and TBH it sounds like a lot of work to do a job a much less modified car could achieve easily. I certainly couldn't maintain the motivation for such a big build to do a job a stock samurai with a G16B and 30" tyres could do all day.
 
Gwagensteve said:
I just don't think they ever look right if the stretch is big enough to be useful. When we pinch the nose this shortens the fender up a bit so we sometimes need to add 3/4" to the guard to keep the relationship between the slam panel and the hood, but that's not noticeable. I think maybe 2" would be the limit that could be done without looking weird but that's a lot of work for 2" of clearance.
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I guess I should say I plan to rebuild the frame from the motor mounts forward anyway, so adding 2-3" to the sheet metal wouldn't be all that bad.

Gwagensteve said:
Personally, I don't think the J20 is worth the effort to swap in. Running a rear mount radiator would remove the need for the stretch, but if the requirement is for a front mount radiator I don't think the J20 is a feasible swap- it's just too long. running a pusher fan alone is a poor solution. Mazda BP outperforms the J20, has strong aftermarket support and can still run an AW-4 auto, in comparison.
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Lots of guys running them over here, plus I have one in the donor rig. 1.6s are getting really rare and over priced.

Gwagensteve said:
I've been following along with your planning and ideas for this build and TBH it sounds like a lot of work to do a job a much less modified car could achieve easily. I certainly couldn't maintain the motivation for such a big build to do a job a stock samurai with a G16B and 30" tyres could do all day.
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I find it really funny that you say this. Most guys would say the same about your build over here.

My sami is currently being used and working fine, but I'm always just brainstorming upgrades. Mostly because I get bored.

Not sure what build you're referring to, but A well built samurai with a small stretch on 35s will run circles areoun a stock samurai on 30s in big rocks.
 
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