Hello all, new here and just built up a Samurai in the last 3 months. Thought I would share my story and pics. I bought a 1986 Samurai 3 months ago that needed lots of TLC. Body was beat up, needed maintenance and clean up (at first glance). It had a cage, bumpers, shock hoops, and rear locker so I figured it would be a good start for me to build in to a little off roader. I planned to clean it up, paint it, install a front locker and run it. Little did I know that would not be so simple!
Here's how I got it
First thing I did was remove the home built rear top thing and clean all the junk and debris out.
Next step was to modify upgrade and install.
Install new seats, install front locker, make brackets, modify bumpers/cage, bedliner interior, install half doors, new tires, sand,sand,sand,sand,sand,sand,paint/powdercoat yada yada yada
I took it out on it's maiden voyage and it did OK for about a day. Realized that it needed to be geared lower right away. After the first day on the trail, it started to go downhill. Motor started smoking like a mofo and got to the point where you could barely drive it. Luckily I trailered it so I loaded it up and took it home. I decided that I didn't want to mess with fixing the 1.3 and would look for a 1.6 8v and do a quick swap. This is where things started to snowball a bit.
If I'm swapping motors, why not just do a 16v w/EFI? OK
Why not rebuild the transfer case to 6.5:1? OK
Why not do power steering? OK
Why not do High Steer? OK
Why not do a header? OK
Why not do a new clutch? OK
Why not do a complete new exhaust? OK
Why not do new custom front springs? OK
So all that happneed.
Done.
