1989 Samurai
Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 4:48 pm
Will start from the beginning. Got a paper round when I was 10, managed to save about 5g by the time I was 15 and ready to buy a car, one of the people I delivered to had this suzuki sitting in their shed, looked at it every day. 
A couple of months later I saw it for sale on the side of the road for $5800, didn't have that much so forgot about it. Decided to go and have a talk to him a month later, he said he was moving and wanted it gone. How much, said I. He replied $3500, went back the next day with the cash, and I was now a proud owner of my first car. A pristine 1989 Samurai JX with 105,000 k's on the clock and in absolutley mint condition in every way.
First modification was to remove the swaybar. Then after reading about the rust issues these things have, I pulled off the plastic sill trims to find some rust holes in the bracket, so they were removed and as the sill underneath didn't look too flash either some aluminium checkerplate was riveted over the top. I was also watching on trademe to find some new tyres, but was unable to find something suitable, so the decision was made to buy some new ones, I wanted something that would be good onroad as well as offroad, and they had to fit without modifications. Initally I was looking at AT's but after seeing the pictures of MT's in the sales booklet I made my mind up pretty quick. I also wanted to protect my nice shiny panels, so I bought a bullbar off trademe and fitted it. So after this stuff was done it was looking like this:
And the tyres looked like this:
That was enough to get me started, took it out on a couple of mild club runs, then I decided for some reason to try and do power slides on a gravel road, it didn't end well.
[IMG=http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/1088/rolledzuk006.jpg][/IMG]
Cost $3500 (the same amount I bought it for
) to get it fixed up, they did a good job though and you can't tell anything has happened. As 4WDing tends to be rather unpredictable I decided to put in a rollcage with the help of my Dad, who is a fabricator. This is what the cage looks like:
Also made up some side protection for it at the same time, this is the finished result:
Drove it like this for a while, had a lot of fun learning to drive offroad, but then the urge for the harder tracks came, so I bought a Lockright off trademe for $400, removed the diff center myself which was the first time I had ever done any mechanical work, and gave that and the locker to the local driveline specialist to be fitted as I had done some research and lots of people complained about them being noisy, so thought it best to get it done right the first time. Cost me $100 to have it fitted, but it makes no noise whatsoever, don't notice it onroad at all, and off road it turned it from a capable stocker into an absolute weapon, embarrased lots of bigger trucks whilst still being able to drive home quite happily at 100km/h. Also removed the front bumper due to it being a mud catcher. Here are some pics of me testing out the locker:
[IMG=http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/934/copyofmudzuk001.jpg][/IMG]
Enjoyed it like this for a while, then got the inevitable urge to fit bigger tyres, which wasn't helped when I saw these on trademe for $500, listed the old tyres on trademe and got $1k for them, so worked out nicely.
31x10.5 Nankang Mudstar's.
[IMG=http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/6757/mudzuki021.jpg][/IMG]
They were great tyres in swamps, floated across quite well.
However, the power loss from fitting the bigger tyres was noticeable, so after doing a bit of research, I fitted extractors with a 2" exhaust, a high-flow air filter, put larger jets in the carby, fitted an electric fan and advanced the ignition timing. All of these mods worked together to provide a decent performance increase albeit at the expense of fuel economy.
Again, drove it like this for a bit but it still wasn't enough, I wanted to climb even the most impossible hill. So bought some more tyres, another club member mentioned he had some old SAT's in his shed, reckoned they would be perfect for a suzuki. He had 5 in total, 4 half worn and 1 brand new. Another club member had a pair of good ones off an old mill he was getting rid of, bought the whole lot for $200. I decided to run two half worn ones and two good ones until I could find another good one to make a set of 4. The size was 7.00x16 (30.5" tall) so I needed some 16" rims to put them on. Found some rims locally, they were 16" SJ flatdeck rims that had had the outside bead cut off, 4" of steel added, then welded back up again. Bought 5 of them for $200, looked like this:
These tyres were awesome offroad, simex type grip, but without the simex pricetag.
Stayed like this for about a year, by far the most fun stage so far, was very stable due to no lift with lots of offset. Del Fuego on here put up a wanted ad for some mud tyres, so I sold him the worn ones and the rims, and started looking for another good SAT to complete the set. While I was looking for a tyre I needed some wheels to run around on, so I bought these:
After 20 years the brakes needed some attention, one of the calipers seized while I was driving so an overhaul was required. Removed and stripped the calipers, gave the bores a hone, and reassembled with new seals etc. The old rotors were had it and couldn't be machined, so I bought new ones. Got to love shiny new bits:
As any person who has driven a stock suzuki would know, they don't have much suspension uptravel, so it was time to give the 20 year old shagged suspension the flick, replaced it with EFS goodies.
Tracked down another mint SAT, was following an old hilux and noticed it had one as a spare, made the driver an offer which he accepted. Bought some 16" Grand Vitara rims and got the all fitted up, looked like this:
The extra clearance from the lift made a huge difference offroad, wasn't dragging it's ass over everything anymore, not to mention the awesomness of looking down on all the normal cars in traffic Next mod was ditching the 1300, was still going fine but the years of thrashing it had taken their toll and it was starting to get a bit smokey. Rather than just replace it I decided to upgrade, swapped the jimny alloys above for an 8-valve G16A carby, bought a BenT adapter kit and bolted it all up. had some headgasket issues at first, but getting the head skimmed and a new gasket sorted that. Fitting the 1600 has completely transformed it, so much more torque than before, at Woodhill there are some long sandy hill climbs, with the 1300 I had to hit about 7000rpm+ in 1st low to get up them, but with the 1600 it just cruises up in 2nd low. Thats pretty much it so far, now I am fitting 33's, have fitted a transfer case out of an SJ410 for lower gearing, will be fitting lower geared diffs as well. I picked up the new tyres today as the other ones I bought were about half-worn. Just waiting on rims to arrive, they should be here this week, then I will get them sandblasted and will paint them this weekend hopefully, then get the tyres fitted next week. 
A couple of months later I saw it for sale on the side of the road for $5800, didn't have that much so forgot about it. Decided to go and have a talk to him a month later, he said he was moving and wanted it gone. How much, said I. He replied $3500, went back the next day with the cash, and I was now a proud owner of my first car. A pristine 1989 Samurai JX with 105,000 k's on the clock and in absolutley mint condition in every way.
First modification was to remove the swaybar. Then after reading about the rust issues these things have, I pulled off the plastic sill trims to find some rust holes in the bracket, so they were removed and as the sill underneath didn't look too flash either some aluminium checkerplate was riveted over the top. I was also watching on trademe to find some new tyres, but was unable to find something suitable, so the decision was made to buy some new ones, I wanted something that would be good onroad as well as offroad, and they had to fit without modifications. Initally I was looking at AT's but after seeing the pictures of MT's in the sales booklet I made my mind up pretty quick. I also wanted to protect my nice shiny panels, so I bought a bullbar off trademe and fitted it. So after this stuff was done it was looking like this:
And the tyres looked like this:
That was enough to get me started, took it out on a couple of mild club runs, then I decided for some reason to try and do power slides on a gravel road, it didn't end well.
[IMG=http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/1088/rolledzuk006.jpg][/IMG]
Cost $3500 (the same amount I bought it for
) to get it fixed up, they did a good job though and you can't tell anything has happened. As 4WDing tends to be rather unpredictable I decided to put in a rollcage with the help of my Dad, who is a fabricator. This is what the cage looks like:
Also made up some side protection for it at the same time, this is the finished result:
Drove it like this for a while, had a lot of fun learning to drive offroad, but then the urge for the harder tracks came, so I bought a Lockright off trademe for $400, removed the diff center myself which was the first time I had ever done any mechanical work, and gave that and the locker to the local driveline specialist to be fitted as I had done some research and lots of people complained about them being noisy, so thought it best to get it done right the first time. Cost me $100 to have it fitted, but it makes no noise whatsoever, don't notice it onroad at all, and off road it turned it from a capable stocker into an absolute weapon, embarrased lots of bigger trucks whilst still being able to drive home quite happily at 100km/h. Also removed the front bumper due to it being a mud catcher. Here are some pics of me testing out the locker:
[IMG=http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/934/copyofmudzuk001.jpg][/IMG]
Enjoyed it like this for a while, then got the inevitable urge to fit bigger tyres, which wasn't helped when I saw these on trademe for $500, listed the old tyres on trademe and got $1k for them, so worked out nicely.
31x10.5 Nankang Mudstar's.
[IMG=http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/6757/mudzuki021.jpg][/IMG]
They were great tyres in swamps, floated across quite well.
However, the power loss from fitting the bigger tyres was noticeable, so after doing a bit of research, I fitted extractors with a 2" exhaust, a high-flow air filter, put larger jets in the carby, fitted an electric fan and advanced the ignition timing. All of these mods worked together to provide a decent performance increase albeit at the expense of fuel economy.
Again, drove it like this for a bit but it still wasn't enough, I wanted to climb even the most impossible hill. So bought some more tyres, another club member mentioned he had some old SAT's in his shed, reckoned they would be perfect for a suzuki. He had 5 in total, 4 half worn and 1 brand new. Another club member had a pair of good ones off an old mill he was getting rid of, bought the whole lot for $200. I decided to run two half worn ones and two good ones until I could find another good one to make a set of 4. The size was 7.00x16 (30.5" tall) so I needed some 16" rims to put them on. Found some rims locally, they were 16" SJ flatdeck rims that had had the outside bead cut off, 4" of steel added, then welded back up again. Bought 5 of them for $200, looked like this:
These tyres were awesome offroad, simex type grip, but without the simex pricetag.
Stayed like this for about a year, by far the most fun stage so far, was very stable due to no lift with lots of offset. Del Fuego on here put up a wanted ad for some mud tyres, so I sold him the worn ones and the rims, and started looking for another good SAT to complete the set. While I was looking for a tyre I needed some wheels to run around on, so I bought these:
After 20 years the brakes needed some attention, one of the calipers seized while I was driving so an overhaul was required. Removed and stripped the calipers, gave the bores a hone, and reassembled with new seals etc. The old rotors were had it and couldn't be machined, so I bought new ones. Got to love shiny new bits:
As any person who has driven a stock suzuki would know, they don't have much suspension uptravel, so it was time to give the 20 year old shagged suspension the flick, replaced it with EFS goodies.
Tracked down another mint SAT, was following an old hilux and noticed it had one as a spare, made the driver an offer which he accepted. Bought some 16" Grand Vitara rims and got the all fitted up, looked like this:
The extra clearance from the lift made a huge difference offroad, wasn't dragging it's ass over everything anymore, not to mention the awesomness of looking down on all the normal cars in traffic
Next mod was ditching the 1300, was still going fine but the years of thrashing it had taken their toll and it was starting to get a bit smokey. Rather than just replace it I decided to upgrade, swapped the jimny alloys above for an 8-valve G16A carby, bought a BenT adapter kit and bolted it all up. had some headgasket issues at first, but getting the head skimmed and a new gasket sorted that. Fitting the 1600 has completely transformed it, so much more torque than before, at Woodhill there are some long sandy hill climbs, with the 1300 I had to hit about 7000rpm+ in 1st low to get up them, but with the 1600 it just cruises up in 2nd low. Thats pretty much it so far, now I am fitting 33's, have fitted a transfer case out of an SJ410 for lower gearing, will be fitting lower geared diffs as well. I picked up the new tyres today as the other ones I bought were about half-worn. Just waiting on rims to arrive, they should be here this week, then I will get them sandblasted and will paint them this weekend hopefully, then get the tyres fitted next week. 
![[IMG=http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/1088/rolledzuk006.jpg][/IMG]](http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/705/rolledzuk006.jpg/){kind=link}
![[IMG=http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/934/copyofmudzuk001.jpg][/IMG]](http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/176/copyofmudzuk001.jpg/){kind=link}
![[IMG=http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/6757/mudzuki021.jpg][/IMG]](http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/148/mudzuki021.jpg/){kind=link}