This is a transplant post from "zuktah owners" below, so it's not chronological.

I'll make this the primary project thread so more dudes can look at if they wanted.

I'll be doing a few things to the zuk.  Its already sexy as hell, I'm just doing the cool stuff and a few repairs.

This build thread will follow no logical order, because I have to be in the mood to do a specific task before I commit to it.  

Enjoy!

First things first;  Here's the 2002 Neon seat next to the 1987 Sammi seat:





Here are the seat mounts as the existed.  You can see on the drivers side next to the seatbelt there is a piece of metal missing:





Passenger side.  Some fat pig sat in the seat and sunk the rear mounts through the floor.  I'll end up fixing it somehow:





I started with taking the seat sliders off of the Neon seat to test fitment:





You can see here that the Neon slider is about 1" longer than the factory mount:



There's a little pin in the way of the seat fitting all the way down on top of the mount.



I decide to hell with it and get this out:



And start doing this:

After about an hour of cutting and using a chisel, the floor now looks like this:





And my cutting wheel looks like this, lol.  The Dremel wasn't made for this type of work :-)



I could grind the floor down smooth, but nah, carpet is going to cover everything up.

Here are the seats dry fitted for measuring:



If I were to use the factory sliders and mounting points, the seats are just too high up for my taste.  My head comes to within about 2 inches of the roll bar braces.  Not good for wheeling.

I figure what I'll do is attach 2" box tube for the front mounts and 1 or 1.5 inch for the back to get the proper angle. 

The seats in the pic are just sitting on the floor board so they are about 1" lower than they will be when all is said and done.

Alright so I went to Boman and Kemp Friday and picked up some 2.5 x 2.5 x 3/16 and some 1.5 x 1.5 x 3/16 steel square tube to mount the seats.

I'll probably be cutting it tomorrow and throwing it in the zuk to get the seats back in it so I can get it out of my garage.  I also picked up the windshield armor from LRO so I'll be painting that to match the rig (unless the silver vein looks good on there as is) and putting that on.

Got the alternator bracket, new (yes, new) tail lights and lenses and some pedal pads in on Friday.  Got the CS130 alternator on order and all LED bulbs to replace the filament type so bumps on the trails won't effect the bulb, oh and they look better too.

Umm, got the DP rockers, however the bitches aren't going to fit without taking die grinder to em... meh

What else ....... oh yeah I need Tai to come up and weld in some sheet metal to fix the floor where some fat ass sat on my passenger seat.  I plan on fabbing up a rear tailgate panel so I can mount some decent speakers back there.  I may do DP as well but the last thing I need is more weight on my tailgate with that 33" on there.

I'll spend some time on the sammi tomorrow between college work and post up some pics of the progress.

Ok so I got one seat in today.  It took forever to get it right and a few trips to Lowes for some hardware, but I'm satisfied with the result.  There's still some time tonight, I may go screw around with the new rear lights I got.

First thing's first, why not light my Ryobi dust bag on fire while cutting the square tube ...... lol



This is some beefy stuff.



The sliders have little nubs that protrude down so I had to deal with that:









I was going to through-bolt the seats on the tube but decided to drill and tap the holes instead.  I tapped them to re-use the stock neon bolts (i think they're #10 x 1.25)







Yes, it's off center for a reason.  Since the seats are wider they don't quite center with the steering wheel if put in eqially spaced.  This way, the seat is as far to the trans tunnel as it can be.



Both tubes mounted



Mark and drill through.  The material is so thick it was a bitch to drill through.  Wish I had a drill press....





Here's what I did underneath.  This will all be undercoated and the topside will have foam in-between square tube and the floor channels.  It'll also be silicone'd and bed lined.  There are lock washers, and I am considering using lock-tite.



Same thing for the rear:



And here we have one 2002 Dodge Neon seat, with sliders, mounted into my 87 Sammi.  The height is perfect for me and the seat is an inch further back than the stock one at its rear-most position.  Nice for long-legged people.  You can also see in this pic that I have to put another snap into my soft top.  The hole has to be re-tapped.  Matter of fact, I'll go do that shiz now.





The other seat will go in tomorrow.  I test fitted the windshield support bracket today and I decided to use stainless steel allen head bolts to attach it to the windshield frame, instead of the sheet metal screws provided with the kit.  The primary reason is rust.  The screws provided will surface rust at the first sign of moisture.  Fail.

when you get done can you please compile a list of the things needed so I can start gathering stuff to do it myself?

So far for the one side:

REAR:

1.5 x 1.5 x 3/16 steel square tube (19.5 long)

3/8 x 3 stainless hex bolts x 2
   3/8 stainless washers x 4
   3/8 stainless lock washers x 2

FRONT:

2.5 x 2.5 x 3/16 steel square tube (19.5 long)

3/8 x 3.5 stainless hex bolts x 2
   3/8 stainless washers x 4
   3/8 stainless washers x 2

great! thanks man now I will see if I can find the square tube locally here and gather the rest.

Got some hex head machine screws today to mount the windshield support frame.  I may tinker with that tonight.  Either way, I'm doing something to the zuk tonight.

Also went to Harbor Freight and spent $50 more bucks on cool shit I don't need.

I got the windshield support brace put in tonight.  I tested my tapping ability on the little black plastic deals on the roll bar.

Also stainless #8-32.  I put a little dab of silicone on each screw before putting em in to thwart rust:







Now the windshield support dry fit.  Niiiiiiice.



Drillin 22 holes:



All done:





I haven't decided whether or not I am going to put the mirrors on the support or not...  I suppose it would be the right thing to do when I go doorless.  The other option is to get a spare set of mirrors and throw them on when the doors are off.

Anyways, brand new lights:



Found this under the back seat.  Score! (wire cover)



More tomorrow.  Maybe the passenger seat.  I'm toying around with the idea of using plexiglass as a panel on the tailgate.  It's light and strong and I'll mount two speakers of some sort on the tailgate as well. 

IDK.

very good stuff man ..... i get to install seats soon i want my little diesel all set before i move out of the engine bay ...

keep the pics rolling ..gets all of us motivated 

Thanks Recon, I'm trying to stay motivated but the zuk is being stubborn.

No pics tonight cause I am PISSED.  I got all the tubes measured for the passenger seat.  Got the front tube in all snug and was finishing up the last 4 holes on the rear tube....and my 3/8 titanium drill bit simply WON'T cut through the tube all the way.  All the other bits leading up to 3/8 went right through but the 3/8 doesn't want to cooperate.  I tried 3 different ones and all no-go.  The bits are sparking and burning.  Idk.

I'll get a new carbide bit tomorrow and finish it off. 

wow that new bumper looks nice. did you see the guy at the swap meet with the speekers in the tailgate? heres a pic of his below. I also found a guy that put a table there which I am going to try to do and put speakers there too so when the tables down the speakers show. http://www.montaro4x4.com/eng/mecanica_art.php?id=1

I did see that.  I'm not a real fan of the diamond plate interior stuff, I think it belongs on the outside.  I think I'll end up fabbing my own panels eventually.  Speakers back there would be good but being mounted to metal attached to metal I bet it all vibrates like an SOB.

Oh no I wouldnt attach metal to metal I would try something else. I will post on here when I have the plans all drawn and finished probably in the next 2-3 weeks.

whatever you do dont buy the RRO speaker boxes lol, its a bad idea.  this rig looks good man, keep it up!!