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Suzuki Samurai restoration project
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14-10-2015 1:08am#1Hi All!
This week I am officially starting the restoration on my 1989 Suzuki Samurai
:D.
So a bit of background on the car. The Suzuki Samurai is the predecessor to the Jimny. They were available with a number of body styles, long and short wheelbase passenger and van variants as well as a short wheel base convertible (more body styles might have been available but they are the ones that I know of anyway!). Engine wise it was available with either a 1.0 or a 1.3 petrol engine. At the start of production all engines were fuelled by carburettors but eventually moving to fuel injection in the early 90's to meet California emissions mostly. Late 80's carburettors had become very complex (again in an effort to meet emissions standards) and are notoriously difficult to get setup right. The 8 valve 1.3 in carb form develops 63BHP and is coupled to a 5 speed manual gearbox. In normal use on road only 2 wheels (rear wheels) are driven. 4 wheel drive and low range is selectable with a transfer box. The reason full time 4 wheel drive is not used all the time is that there is no centre differential fitted so differential speed between the front and rear wheels is not possible. If these cars are driven in 4wd on hard surfaces bad handling and transfer box damage will occur as a result of this. These little jeeps became really popular with the 4x4 community as they were cheap reliable but also extremely competent off road.
My particular car is a short wheelbase van 1.3. I got it as a present for my 15th birthday and it's the first car I ever owned. It is the car that I learned how to drive in as well as being the car that I learned a lot of my mechanical mechanical skills on (limited as those skills may be!). As a result of this it has a very special place in my heart and I couldn't possibly put a price on it!
When I got the car it didn't run properly, Basically it would drive fine but would not idle. After years of arseing around with the help of my dad to try and get it running properly I eventually gave in and changed the original carb for a Webber conversion kit. Thanks to the new carb the engine runs absolutely sweet:cool: however, the bodywork is really letting the car down.
So fast forward to this week. I have taken the week off work this week to finally get started on this project. I have been planning to do this for years and years. However, in order to work on the car first I would need a place to do it. We have a barn at home which has an area at the back that's not currently not in use.
Here's the barn (pleas ignore the MR2 engine swap project in the foreground!)
Used to store a load of general crap
This largely unused room in the back is where the project will take place!!
First of all there was a wall in the way so that had to be knocked down so I could get the car in.
Before:
After:
The pillar came down too but I don't have a specific photo if that!
Then the Floor was prepped and painted as was the ceiling.
Not the very neatest job but it's only a shed. The main reason for painting the floor was to stop the concert dust.
Then the lights were changed from a single bulb to some florescent tubes. The tubes aren't perfect but they are ideal because they are what I had lying around. I may change them at some stage but they'll do for now.21
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Now for the jeep!! Sadly it was sitting on the drive for the last couple of years and had turned a bit green!
Visibility not great!
And here are the problem areas.
After a wash using the very safe one bucket method!
It was sitting so long that worms were living under the tyres :P
Then it was a mater of starting it and driving it into the shed. Was a bit hard to start as the fuel bowl was empty and the fuel pump is mechanical. To save the starter motor having to crank the engine for ever and ever I just put a few tea spoons of petrol into the carb over and over and let it run on that until the fuel was drawn up from the tank. Once it had it ran absolutely sweet :cool: Gotta love electronic ignition!!!
That's it for for today. The plan for tomorrow is to start stripping it so I can see exactly what it needs. At the moment I think the list is something along the lines of this:
- Strip out the interior and get a better assessment of the bodywork needed.
- Probably take out the engine so the engine bay cat be thoroughly assessed too.
- While the engine is out it'll be cleaned and dressed up a bit. I was toying with the idea of rebuilding it but it's so sweet its just not worth it I don't think though that plan may change. I will be changing the belt, water pump etc anyway.
- Change all the fluids obviously!
- Repair the sloppy gear linkage.
- Hopefully a full rebuild of the suspension. The plan is to polly bush it all and put in new dampers. I assume I will keep the existing springs.
- New brake shoes and cylinders in the back, new pads and disks up front. The callipers may require some work too. New flexi pipes too and possibly some hard lines depending on condition.
- Then the big one, the bodywork... I won't be doing the welding myself, I just don't have the time to put into learning properly so I will be getting a man for that
. I'm not sure what to do with the paint side of things though. I'm not sure if I will paint the whole body or not. If I am then I will need to get new stickers made up for the side. Super important to me to get those right. I'm really not going for showroom here or even close! I just want it to be good and usable and not bodged, done properly but it doesn't have to be super pretty!
- Interior tidy up a little bit, I'm thinking of doing the floor in the back in truck bed paint so it will be nice and tough for putting stuff in. Practicality is key!
I think that covers the plan for now anyway, I'm sure it'll change over time but we'll see how it goes. 0 -
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Leave well enough alone with the sweet engine, bad idea to tinker when it's good.
I think you're right. Compression is good and even, oil pressure is good too. I think belts and water pump and fluids and leave it alone after that. If condition deteriorates in time it can be rebuilt then.TeaBagMania wrote: »We had the Samurai in the states for awhile; they are indeed great little jeeps
Nice barn\workshop. Id chop down that foliage growing on the side, its hell on structures
They are loveable little jeeps alright
I would cut down the plants from the barn alright but it's a lot of work and the barn isn't mine. All the plants make it look nice and countrysidey
Pictures of todays work later on
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Good luck with it.
Have a look at Wheeler Dealers doing one up
Cheers Colm. Was the one wheeler dealers did years and years ago? An old white SJ410 sort top? I think I remember seeing it.
I found some pictures today of when I first got the jeep back in the day for my 15th birthday.
The bull-bars have been removed since then. They may go back on, I haven't decided yet. The spot lights have been changed too.0 -
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So today I set about stripping out the interior. I started by taking out the seats. Interestingly the drivers seat and passengers seat are mounted in a completely different way. Annoyingly the bolts for the passengers seat go through the floor. One of them was rusted beyond opening so I had to get the Dremml out and cut the head off the bolt. I will have to deal with the stud left in the floor at some stage in the future.
Seats finally out.
I also too all of the floor mats out. I think it's cool the way they are designed. They are all plastic not carpet and clip down onto the floor with plastic poppers. The idea being I assume is that they are easy to take out and hose down when they get muddy while off roading and the likes.
With the carpets out I could see that the floor on the passengers side is actually fine and will require no work at all I don't think. There are two fairly small holes on the drivers side that will need to be dealt with.
Steering wheel also came off. I always find that a bitch of a job but I got it in the end.
Crap picture with the seats, mats and steering wheel out.
Then I started to take the dash out. This needs to be done as the wiper motor is in poor condition and needs to be replaced or rebuilt and is located behind the dash. Annoyingly to take the glove box off I needed to take the front grill off :pac:. Basically the bonnet latch cable needed to be pulled through the dash. To do that it needed to be released from the latch. To get to the latch I had to take off the grill. To get to the grill I needed to take the spotlights off!! It's funny how you can sort of get side tracked from the task at hand!
I then got stuck trying to take the instrument binnacle off. The hazard light switch is in the way of getting the binnacle off and the steering cowling is in the way of the hazard light switch. However I can't get the cowling off without the switch being removed first either. It's hard to explain without a good picture. The manual was no help either so hopefully when I go back tomorrow and I'm not so cold I'll be able to work something out
Here is a quick snap of the offending hazard light switch. If anyone has ideas it would be much appreciated! Sorry for the crap pics, i will get a better cammera up and running for tomorrow.
Progress on this project is a bit slower than it might be but I'm carefully bagging and tagging everything as it comes off the car as I have no idea when the project will be done and it will definitely save time in the long run having everything labeled. The key to labelling things on a project like this is actually to use pencil not pen. If you put oily things in a bag with a label the ink will be washed off but the pencil won't I'm trying to make the labels meaningful too, it is time consuming but will be worth it. It can be frustrating when you just want to bull on and make progress though.
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This looks like a big project.
Do you have a target date for completion?
Forgot about these posts. Realistically it'll probably be winter next year when it's done. I think that's the plan anyway. Very open ended for now.I'm expecting the end of the week for it to be completed.
Could be an idea to get a few mechanically sympathetic friends to help along as well DZ...?
The end of this week next year :P
I had a friend call over earlier in his GTV but we didn't do any work on the zuk. Just listened to his broken exhaust then made a massive eBay shopping list for the jeep :pac:0 -
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TeaBagMania wrote: »
Keep the bulbar, it looks tuff
I take it you have a welder
Nice progress, keep us posted
But it looks cuter without the bull bar :P I have plenty of time to decide anyway.
I don't have a welder no. I'm planning on getting a "man" to do the the welding. I think I could get a man to do a lot of welding for the price of getting a good welder and learning how to use it. It will probably be better too.0 -
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Excellent progress so far.
I know a good chap for the welding if you like, local chap to me his name is Tom, let me know if you want his details.
Yeah cheers. Stick his number in the thread there. Might be useful for someone else if they want welding done.:)What way is the chassis rust wise?
As far as I can see at the moment it's pretty much perfect. Surface rust in places but nothing serious. I think they made the chassis out of better quality stuff than the sh!te they made the body out of!
Got a bit more stuff done today. This mechanicing is hard work. Much less tiring to sit at a desk :P I might throw up a few pictures in a bit 0 -
Progress report time :pac:
So I was too lazy to post up pictures yesterday so I'll post from both yesterday and today today. Think I got that sentence right
So The next morning the impossible task of removing the binnacle was easy. I just undid the screws at the end of the dashboard (just inside the doors) and that allowed the dash to move up enough to get the gauges out.
Then I took out the remaining dashboard screws. 3 along the top, one at the bottom and the 2 at each end I had already removed. Then it was just a case of disconnecting the last few electrical connectors going to a few switches, the clock etc. Then untangle the loom from the dash and then the plastic portion of the dash just lifted out, the metal structure that it bolts to was left behind.
Then it was time to remove the structural part of the dash. This turned into a total nightmare thanks the the handicapped ape that installed the alarm in this car :mad::mad::mad:. I spent about an hour and a half untangling the mess of wires from the dash structure. Every connection was just twisted and taped. Not one aspect of the install was conducted properly. Most of that 1.5 hours was spent removing that apes wiring from the factory loom and fixing up the factory loom where they had interfered with it. It's stuff like this shoddy alarm install that makes old cars unreliable for people. If you just twist and tape stuff it's obviously going to go wrong. If the factory wiring was left alone older cars would be an awful lot more reliable.
Anyway, some pictures of this dreadful wiring.
Then it was time to move on to the engine bay. First thing I did was drain the cooling system. Was a little tricky as the hose clamps on the lower rad hose sheered wen I tried to open them. Eventually released the hose and an unbelievably good job of catching the coolant :pac:. I think over 90% ended up in the basin. Surprised me anyway!!
Then it was time to take the rad out followed by the fan shroud. I then too off the fan belt because sure it would be rude not to! Belt was actually in perfect condition.
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Then all the wiring was disconnected from the engine. There isn't very many of them. Then I took the starter motor out. Years and years ago I bought this 13mm ratchet spanner specifically to take this starter out. Access is actually quite poor and this is just the tool for the job as it once again proved today!
Starter out.
Made by Mitsubishi.
After that I moved on the the exhaust manifold, or headers as they say in the united states of awesome. Not sure why they call them that but they do. Anyway, I had all the bolts and nuts on the exhaust well soaked with this stuff.
Absolutely fantastic stuff. Everything on the exhaust undid properly. Not one thing rounded or sheered. A little tip though for very rusty 10mm bolts. As they rust away the 10mm spanner becomes looser on them and is more prone to round them. To avoid doing this a 3/8 inch spanner is a fraction smaller. You might need to beat the spanner on with a hammer but it won't round the head.
Exhaust manifold off and tied up was a cord to not over strain the exhaust mounts.
Then I started to undo the bell housing bolts. The plan is to take the engine out but leave the gearbox behind for now. The coil mounted to the firewall was in the way of getting one of the bell housing bolts and I couldn't undo the screw holding it. Out with the blow torch it was! Turns out the screw had some sort of ultra strong thread lock on it, the heat released it though. Once I had the blow torch out I got distracted from the bell housing and used the blow torch to help release some of the screws for the wiper motor that I couldn't release the day before. Turned out they had the same thread lock on them so they're all out now too 0 -
Time for a little bit progress report on what have been happening over the last 2 days.
So I finished taking out the bell housing bolts on Saturday and that was about it! then today another Boardsie volunteered his help and came down to assist with the engine removal. Brilliantly Suzuki put very convenient little hooks on the engine for this very purpose.
The engine will for now be stored in the shed along with the other Suzuki parts. I put a plastic bag over the carb to keep the spiders out while it is awaiting work! As I have said above based, largely on Bigus' post as well as what other's have recommended I will not be rebuilding the engine. I will be replacing a number of the seals though to stop a few oil leaks. The distributer drive seal is the main culprit I think. I'm in 2 minds about replacing the clutch. The clutch in it appears to be dated 2005 so has little milage on it and I think it's fairly good. On the other hand a new clutch kit is only €80 so might be worth doing when the engine is out anyway. Hmmm decisions decisions.
Once the engine was out we set about finding all the body mounts on the chassis and giving them a good spray of penetrating fluid. The wing man then started taking the front bumper off and I started removing some of the body mounts. That's about as far as we got. Here is the jeep as it stands at the moment.
All in all I think it's a very good start into the project in the first week! I'm absolutely delighted so far anyway and a BIG thank you to everyone who has helped and contributed advice and comments so far. I really appreciate it. It will probably be next weekend when more progress will be made now
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quadrifoglio verde wrote: »Be jaypers I've a load of grey hairs
Not at all! Just call it metallic hair 0 -
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There's a zombie thread somewhere on boards of a basket case suzuki jeep rebuild ,
Yes I remember that alright. Was in the classic car section AFAIK.
As for the bodywork, at the moment I'm planning to go down the route of getting it professionally done rather than having a go myself. It's not something I've ever had a go at before. Working full time and living away from the jeep during the week means that I only have weekends so time is limited to learn how to do the bodywork. I'll keep the option open for now of having a go myself and we'll have to see how it goes.
As for the clutch, a brand new clutch kit (release bearing, disc and pressure plate) is only €80 so it seems a crime not to just change it and have 100% peace of mind that it's perfect. I think I may get a new flywheel too or at least a ring gear as it's quite worn at the points the starter always engages.
I'm trying to keep an open mind about all possible options for everything at the moment and I'll make the decisions when they come up based on current factors at the time. I don't have a hard and fast plan for the project really other than it's going to end with the car tested, taxed and insured and as usable and reliable as possible. Everything else is subject to change!0 -
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Time to write up the work from the weekend! Had some other stuff to do so didn't get a whole lot done. However, any progress is progress.
First thing I tackled was taking the back bumper off. First thing to do that is to remove the tail lights. When I removed them this mess was in the wiring behind them. There has been about 3 generations of trailer wiring fitted, all of them badly. Thankful all the connections were made on the tail light side of the wiring rather than the loom side. I need to replace the tail lights anyway so it's not a big problem.
With the lights removed I then sheered all 4 bolts holding the bumper on :mad: I'll have a lot of drilling out bolts by the time this project is done I think!
Interesting where the rust has developed. I assumed that it had spread up from under the bumper but it has actuallt started at the top of the bumper. Possibly water gets trapped here or the bumper rubbed through the paint with vibrations etc.
Next I took the boot seal off and removed the 2 body mounts hiding under it. Then I took out the headlights so I can take the mounts out from under them. Sounds like an easy job but it actually took about 2.5 hours. All the screws were stuck and needed blowtorch action to release them.
One out!
Here's the body mount it was hiding. Rusty rusty.
One of these mounts came out no bother but the other was very rusted. They are 14mm bolts but the 14mm socket was very loose on it from the rust. Instead of rounding the bolt I got a 13mm socket and hammered it onto the bolt. The thinking being that the 13mm wouldn't round it. unfortunately this didn't work! Rounded the bolt anyway. That was the start of the 4 hours of cursing and swearing and drilling and grinding trying to get it off. In the end I cut through the middle of the body mount with a hacksaw. More drilling ahead :P
Moved back to the interior after that. Removed the heater matrix/blower motor assembly.
Then I removed the fresh air vent. Fairly sure all that crap shouldn't be there :pac:
Then I finished taking out the alarm. The hopeless ape that installed it managed to drive me absolutely mad again. Anyway, this is the only piece of the alarm that will be kept as I don't have another switch blank. Hopefully I'll get another one though.
To the bin!
That's all I got around to this weekend. hopefully next weekend I'll get the body removed. Only things left to disconnect are the break master cylinder and the speedo drive. Once those are done the body can be lifted off. I don't know how much the body weighs or how exactly I'm going to lift it yet. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated 0 -
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