I'll start this off, I believe I heard of this site a while back, but never joined for some reason til now. Looking through the Suzuki section, there's sooo much more current stuff compared to most of the other forums. I love Zuwharrie, but the reality is there is only a handful of active members, me being one, and not a lot of crazy builds going on there anymore.
As my name suggests, I (did) have a diesel swapped Samurai. I built that from around 2013-2015. Drove it for a while, then moved from Nebraska to Utah. Once here, I made a series of crazy decisions, and I ended up with this. Started having engine issues though, and had some debt I needed to pay, so reluctantly, I sold it, and moved on with my life. Or so I thought. I made it about 4 months maybe? Before I ended buying another Zuk to build.
Which is what this guy is. Picked it up with good intentions, I swear. It had a transfercase, but when I opened it up...... lotta nastiness. Managed to salvage the housing, and that's it.
Picked up some stuff for this build. Got my old seats from my old rig back! For free!! Then I picked up some Pacer 15x8's for $50, a transfercase and downpipe with cat for $80, some YJ brackets (can't remember how much I paid, but was almost free, and some rubicon express reverse eye YJ springs for free!
I started ripping the whole thing apart. Was thinking about radius arms from the get go on this thing, so I started planning on that. Cleaned up the front housing.
And somewhere between last post and this post, I bought a house. Shortly before which, the guy I sold my sami to, texted me, asking if I wanted the tub and frame back from the zuk I sold him, because he was losing the place he was parking it at. He said I could have it for free, but I felt guilty just taking it, so I sent him $20, and gave him a soft top bow that he needed. Here's how I got it back. No axles, engine, trans or tcase, hood, passenger fender, core support. Driver fender got back, but I had chopped it up previously for EPS, and was beat anyways. I sold the other tub, but kept the hood, and traded it back to him so I could have my original hood.
I sold the other black tub I had, but kept the axles. I then threw them under this rig for the time being. Rear is setup with the RE reverse eye YJ's, SUA. Threw a set of 235/75/15's I got for cheap on so I could roll it around. I need to get started on the rear axle soon, because I sheared off 4/5 lug studs on one of the drums.
I also picked up the front fenders, and a beat up core support. Traded a guy some high steer arms I had. Threw some LED's in I got for free (just paid shipping). And I bought an SJ410 grill, Indian made, quality is absolute garbage, 0/10, WOULD NOT recommend Suzuki Parts USA, in case anybody wants to know.
Somewhere along with buying the house, I decided to stay on leafs, and was thinking about swapping another diesel into this thing. But, plans always change!
Unfortunately, I'm ashamed to admit, my welds on the frame extension I did a couple years ago, were just awful. Well, not just awful, they were straight trash!!! I had used 1/4" plate, and it definitely didn't get burned in hot enough. I have started cutting them off, and will be rebuilding this thing the right way, and making it actually safe! I also cut off my old shock towers.
Amidst all the other stuff, I finally got ahold of the owners of the property this Geo has been sitting at, for as long as I can remember, which I'm pretty sure has been at least the whole 3 years I've lived in Utah so far. Went and peeped at it. 16v, 3 speed auto, 2wd.....it's perfect!!! Forget the diesel idea, this thing can be mine for $100. Getting a whole donor for $100 will free up more money, AND oil pan clearance, so I can still do radius arms after all!! I just need to go pick it up. There is no title, and the property owner is not the same as the previous owner of the vehicle, so more than likely, there will be some legal stuff I need to jump through so I don't get ripped off one way or another.
So here's pretty much where I'm at currently. I thought about making my own radius arms, but decided to just use something existing. I picked up a set of FJ80 stock arms for $65. I also mocked up my transfer case location, which I'm thinking about pushing back 6" from stock. I have enough cab room, so why not? Lastly, I drew up an idea for my axle side brackets. Not perfect, but I think it'll all work out. Will post more soon as it happens!
Why do you say that? They just a little dirty and rusty. I’ll wire wheel them, and spray them with Steel-it. They’ll look better than everything else on my zuk!
Why do you say that? They just a little dirty and rusty. I’ll wire wheel them, and spray them with Steel-it. They’ll look better than everything else on my zuk!
Well you will definitely never need to worry about breaking them, that FJ80 stuff is stout. The stock arms bind up but that's any radius arm.
I was actually flipping through your build thread (more like a book at this point) on Zuwharrie last week while bench racing a diesel swap for my Samurai. I absolutely love the simplicity of the older diesels, but having an engine that weighs twice as much that only makes a bit more power than my 1.6 is a pretty big buzzkill
