muddysamurai
Present
Gonna start a little build/restoration thread on 2 Suzuki Samurais into one. I started my habit/hobby with a 88 Samurai that had been rear ended and basically only needed a tailgate, gas tank skid and a tailgate......oh and a new engine which was sitting in a box in pieces yet to be rebuilt. It was around 2000 and I was in college, got that Samurai rebuilt and began daily driving it as I added lifts and other goodies to it over a few years until handled like crap on the street and couldn't maintain 55. It had a YJ SPOA conversion, 4.16:1 t-case gears and a rear lockrite and a couple skid plates. It had a good straight body with some of the usual rust until various body panes met trees, and rocks.
I kida fell out of wheeling around 2010 and life got busy and may of my other wheeling buddies fell away from the hobby or moved away, but I hung on to the Samurai through getting married, building a house and starting a family. I finally drug the Samurai home from sitting outside under a tarp at my parents house to my house in 2019, where I messed with it and fought to get it running again, but not good, and deciding what I was going to do with it.
I decided I wanted to make it more streetable but still able to take it wheeling, so I decided I wanted to big the lift back down a little via putting it back SPUA but keeping the YJ setup. I also decided I wanted to somewhat restore it and put a back seat back in so my 4 y.o. son could ride in it. Did some searching on Craigslist and FB and found a Sammy nearby for $2100 that looked to be in decent shape, got the guy down a little to $1800 and brought it home.
It looked pretty good but had rust in the usual spots but the body was much straighter, but it had been in a wreck and the firewall was tweaked a bit and the right front fender had been replaced and the hood and the cowl wrinkled up., I am pretty sure the front axle was replace with a junkyard one and the front tube crossmember had been hacked out and badly replaced with a square tube. I ultimately decide I am going to swap the body of the gray one onto the frame and drivetrain of my original one, and swap the engines (the blue one had been developing a knock). I don't have a garage of shop to work in but I discovered to the dismay of my wife that a Samurai will fit though the double doors to my basement!
Begin the dismantling! I was going to use the best body parts from either Samurai to make a better one, and replace others that were bad on both.
I removed the fender flare attachments, the rocker cover attachments, and the cowl and sub fender on the right side and replace it with the same piece from my blue Samurai.
I has taken me about 18 months to get to this point be cause I have been pushing it to bottom of my list of priorities, but I am going to make sure is closer to the top so I can get this done and back out on the road sooner than later, and hopefully this build thread will help me keep it there.
More to come soon!
I kida fell out of wheeling around 2010 and life got busy and may of my other wheeling buddies fell away from the hobby or moved away, but I hung on to the Samurai through getting married, building a house and starting a family. I finally drug the Samurai home from sitting outside under a tarp at my parents house to my house in 2019, where I messed with it and fought to get it running again, but not good, and deciding what I was going to do with it.
I decided I wanted to make it more streetable but still able to take it wheeling, so I decided I wanted to big the lift back down a little via putting it back SPUA but keeping the YJ setup. I also decided I wanted to somewhat restore it and put a back seat back in so my 4 y.o. son could ride in it. Did some searching on Craigslist and FB and found a Sammy nearby for $2100 that looked to be in decent shape, got the guy down a little to $1800 and brought it home.
It looked pretty good but had rust in the usual spots but the body was much straighter, but it had been in a wreck and the firewall was tweaked a bit and the right front fender had been replaced and the hood and the cowl wrinkled up., I am pretty sure the front axle was replace with a junkyard one and the front tube crossmember had been hacked out and badly replaced with a square tube. I ultimately decide I am going to swap the body of the gray one onto the frame and drivetrain of my original one, and swap the engines (the blue one had been developing a knock). I don't have a garage of shop to work in but I discovered to the dismay of my wife that a Samurai will fit though the double doors to my basement!
Begin the dismantling! I was going to use the best body parts from either Samurai to make a better one, and replace others that were bad on both.
I removed the fender flare attachments, the rocker cover attachments, and the cowl and sub fender on the right side and replace it with the same piece from my blue Samurai.
I has taken me about 18 months to get to this point be cause I have been pushing it to bottom of my list of priorities, but I am going to make sure is closer to the top so I can get this done and back out on the road sooner than later, and hopefully this build thread will help me keep it there.
More to come soon!
)
