Hi Everyone,

I live in Pompano Beach, Florida and this is my 1987 Samurai JX Build.

(This is one of my Bucket List Builds so it is a bit over the top)


I have posted some of the build in the Welcome section as a preview. Decided to move the build over here for an appropriate build thread.


Hope you will be interested

I will start off with the before and in progress pics because it is still being built.





Finally got the front suspension together enough to roll the Rig outside for the first time in a year and a half.





My buddy stopped by today with his stocker. Thought that you would like to see what that looks like next to the big one while it was out.




For those interested in the lift dimensions:

Stocker is 15.5” to the bottom of the rocker panel.
Big one is 36” to the bottom of the rocker panel.

There is a 20.5” difference in lift from the stocker to the big one.

Here are the suspension and drive train stats:

88" wheelbase, 84 inches tall, 82 inches wide.

Front frame extended 8 inches rear 3 inches

4 1/2 inch YJ lifted springs

Toyo 38's and 16x12 wheels

85 Toy front axle with all Trail Gear inners including Trunion Bearing Eliminator
529 gears open and High Pinion, 6 Shooter Knuckles with High Steer and 1 inch
Space.r

Rear axle is Trail Gear offset Sami Toy housing, 529 gears open and 1.5 spacers,
Rear Disk Brake, Outboard Shocks.

FJ80 steering box, Panhard bar and Rancho 9000 36" length.

ZOR Snatch

6.5 Transfer Case Gears

The trans will also be gone through

No driveshafts yet

Here is the motor. I have a small machine shop and machined a lot of the parts for the
motor, suspension and steering mods.

Here is the Before Pic





After




Motor: 1.3 .020 over and deck shaved,


I used dish pistons because of the decking,

1.6 Reynolds ported polished and larger valves and shaved head.

Adjustable timing gear was used because of the shaving of the head and block.

I also had to make a custom timing adjuster wheel. It was too small in diameter and was unable to get the timing belt tight.

Internals are balanced and flywheel,

I'm going to use a Centerforce clutch this time.

The intake was made from a solid block of 6061. It started at 35 pounds when the machining was done it was 8 pounds. I also decided to machine the water ports in the manifold.

The carbs are 32mm Katana GSX-F.

The external accessories on the motor I have also machined up.

The distributor has been switched to mechanical.

Please feel free to click on the link to hear the motor run.



http://www.skyscomputers.com/pictures/friends/Zuk%20Motor.wmv

I also do fiberglass work ( Not By Choice)

After installing the front Shrock Work bumper it looked like it was missing something. I decided to make a lower valance to conceal the 8” frame extension. I’m also getting a bit older and needed an additional step. I decided to make some running boards for the 2nd step. The back tire is being used as the 1st.

The bumpers, fiberglass pieces and the body moldings were Rhino Lined to match the paint for durability.


Front Lower Valance




Side View Running Board




Rear Side View Running Boards

Front Frame Extension is 8” and is level to the ground instead of following the frame. I also smooth out all my welds. This tends to add a lot more time to a build just my preference.

The Rig is rather high as you can see. This presented some unique problems trying to get the steering geometry setup without a steep angle. I will go through the mods and the parts that needed to be made to correct the problems in the next couple of posts.


I also have an unusual steering set up with the FJ80 box, Lifted YJ springs and the addition of the Panhard bar just to make it more complicated. There is not a great deal of room to work with when you have to add a shock tower in the mix on the DS.



Steering Front View. I still need to do some welding and fitting yet.
The steering geometry is set at 5 degrees.




Panhard Bar was bent at one end to 5 degrees to shorten the PS mounting bracket. I have a 3/4 Heim in the DS and will be using a suspension bushing on the PS. This will help the bar from flopping with the bend in it.




Extended High Steer Arm was made from 8620 the same material the 6 shooter arm is made out of. These pieces will be tig welded together. The block started off at 30 pounds. After several hours of whittling I got it down to a more manageable 9 pounds.

To help eliminate one problem:

I started off by dropping the FJ80 box 1” to help decrees the drag link angle. The Frame was notched 1” and the holes filled in the frame before adding the frame plates. This was done to the inside, outside, top, bottom and the notch.

1" Frame Drop Mod




1/4 Outside Drop Plate




Outside plate mounted with DOM bushings and rosset welding holes.




Inside plate mounted

Now that I have the FJ80 box mod done. The next issue was mounts for shocks, panhard and bump stops. This took me quite a while to come up with something to incorporate all of this into 2 mounts.

Note:

These mounts were made to sandwich over the TG Shock and Ball support Brackets on both sides.



Driver Side (Side View) Shock Mount and Bumpstop Pad




Passenger Side (Rear View) Shock Mount ,Panhard Bracket and Bumpstop Pad that still needs to be added to the top.





Passenger Side (Side View) Shock Mount ,Panhard Bracket and Bumpstop Pad





Passenger Side (Front View) Shock Mount ,Panhard Bracket and Bumpstop Pad





Drivers Side Frame Panhard Bracket and Lower Bumpstop Mount




NOTE:

Thought I would add that I switched over to the 6 shooters after the pics were taken.

This is the side that got to be very congested.


Components:
Fj80 Box
Panhard Bar Bracket
Ford Shock Tower

Mods:
1" Frame Notch
Frame Plating
Bump Out for the Steering U-Joint and Box Plating






Drivers Side Bumpstop Mounting and Pad Locations. There will be additional bracing added to the Panhard Bar Mount for the stress of the Bumpstop Action.





FJ80 Box 1/2 Extension Block. I added this to lengthen the Drag Link. This will also cut down on the angle and decrease the rotational effects of the Panhard Bar.

Note:

The Drag Link length is 37 1/2 inches. Anything over 36 inches is ideal for a Panhard Bar applications.

This was 9 months of work in a few postings. There is a lot more to see if there is any interest.

Please let me know and I will continue with the build.

If this site had a LIKE button i would push it
some sweet machining work there mate

Thanks for the mention of the machining.

Here is my back ground

33 years experience in Tool and Die, Tooling Machinist, Job Shop Machinist,
CNC Machinist, CNC Programmer. Have also got a small shop of my own to putter in. Just a lathe and a mill for the big stuff all tooled up.

Things that I usually build consist of Hotrods, Custom Motorcycles and a few Rigs as far as automotive work.

Since there was interest in the machining here are a couple more pics of the intake.

6061 Aluminum Intake

( This ways a solid block and weighed 35 pounds )

When it was finished it was 8 pounds








This took 260 hours just for the intake. This was also done manually and no cad design was used.

Wow that's a sweat build, love the fabrication work...
Will be good to see it doing some trail work...
Keep the photo's coming...