87 Suzuki Samurai

[JandDGreens]

What a beautiful baby, looks happy in that photo. Looks like your little Samurai is coming along nicely, love your trip report. (to bad about the accident but glade your Ok)

[Java]

that accident sucks, sorry that happenned. Looks like a lot of good stuff is happenning too!

[DETN8R]

Thanks Guys!

[DETN8R]

I had been hearing a rattle for a while and I thought I narrowed it down to my fan clutch going bad. I wasn't experiencing any overheating or anything but I decided to swap out my fan in favor of an electric one. I had been following some of the local Zuk guys on a Facebook group and they had posted a nice electric fan setup utilizing the fan from a Kia Spectra. With the rattle really worrying me and $100 gift card to Amazon I ordered the fan and a fan controller from Amazon. I was hoping to get the fan installed in time for a camping trip because I was worried about the rattle..... Turns out that rattle was the loosening frame side bolt from the exhaust manifold to the catalytic converter. I put off installing the electric fan for a week. I decided to go through with the swap because I had purchased the parts and formulated the plan.


The fan fits the stock Samurai radiator almost perfectly.



The fan has these squarish tabs on the passenger side that fit into some squarish holes in the some brackets I'd need to make. I chose to make them from Aluminum because it would be easier to drill some holes and square them up with a jigsaw and file. I got some brackets from work in the scrap bin to use.















The drivers side mounts were easier. I used a 3/4" wide 1/8" thick piece of flat stock aluminum for the bracket. I was able to use two holes from the original fan shroud mounting bolts.





I used some 1/2" deep drill bushings as spacers for some bolts to mount the fan to the radiator on the drivers side.





The fan is a tight fit and I ended up finally removing the hood prop to move the radiator as far forward as I could. I never used the hood prop anyway.








In addition to getting this new fan off Amazon I just had to use a plug from a kia because I couldn't stand the thought of using spade connectors to power it. I ran to the junkyard in search of a kia to steal the fan plug/harness from and ended up leaving with a spare kia fan and the harness for it!


I used a hayden fan controller to control the fan. It uses a temperature probe that I conveniently installed into a spare port on the thermostat housing.





I got it all wired and through it all in front of the battery because I'm a lazy guy.







Fast forward a week later and I get emissions here in Colorado, and Pass!!





They didn't even question the engine swap!


I'm going to the zoo with my kids and notice that my temperature gauge is too hot. My fan didn't kick on. I immediately suspect the fan controller after parking and entering the zoo. After I hotwire the fan and get home I discover that the wire that powers the fan controller itself got smashed between my battery and fender. Kicking myself, I repair the wire and commit to improving the wiring in the area on the coming weekend.

[DETN8R]

I used some HDPE (cutting board material from the tailgate table project) to make some mounts for the Sidekick Fuse Block, fan controller and the ARB Compressor Relay.










We've been getting some decent rain here in Colorado lately and the Samurai leaks horribly. I suspect water is getting in under the windshield frame and the door seals leak as well. Either way your feet and knees get wet while driving in a heavy rain. I ordered a new lower windshield seal from Roadless Gear, which was a good 1/4" thicker than the original and I was very hopeful that it would fix the leak.










The new door seals were more spongy and thicker than the old ones as well.







Pretty confident that I won't be getting water in through the door seals anymore but the windshield frame is still leaking...

[DETN8R]

I got a welder for Fathers day from Abby and decided to start putting it to use. I finally got handles welded to the retaining nut on the tire carrier.



Now, it's just the cheap Harbor Freight welder but it's a start and I can start joining steel to steel. With that in mind I decided to tackle the rust hole in the back of the Samurai. I cut around the hole with a grinder and a dremel.





In the process of welding in the patch piece I discovered more rust closer to the side of the tub and hidden underneath the sealant they put over the joints.





This really had me beating my head against a wall. I was starting to consider just going for the virtual lift and welding in trailer fenders so I could finally clear some bigger tires. The area was too tight to get at with my grinder and the dremel just wasn't the right tool for the job. I purchased a cheap body saw from harbor freight. The tool worked well and I was able to remove even more of the floor the tub behind the wheel well.





Now I'm honestly not sure how much of this is me being a poor welder or the fact that I have a poor 90 amp welder with no gas and I'm using flux core wire.
I smoothed the welds with a flap disk and slathered everything with some epoxy that Abby just happened to have out as she was building my daughter a bed.





Sprayed it with black spray paint and called it done.







With that project done it was time for our 4th of July adventure. I needed to take my kids to meet their Grandpa (my dad) in New Mexico. When I would go visit my dad in New Mexico we would go camping and fishing at Morphy Lake. We loaded the kids in the back of the Samurai and packed up the trailer and set off.







After having lunch with my Dad in town we set off to find a camp site at the lake much to our disappointment.





Oh well. We found a campsite nearby down a forest road. We had run into mud our whole way up to the lake and even more up to the campsite.











I had rigged some fishing rods to the roof rack with some zip ties so I suppose some fishing rod holders are in the works soon.

[DETN8R]

After doing some camping and fishing and meeting back up with my dad and grandma we headed back home to Colorado. About 20 minutes outside of Las Vegas, New Mexico we ran into trouble with the trailer. One of the tires blew. I guess it didn't like being pulled at 75mph.








We had good luck though. The Tractor Supply store just happened to be open on the 4th and my dad was able to bring us two new trailer tires.


The entire trip went well and of course we couldn't help but having one mishap with that blown tire. But the only nagging thing that I disliked about the trip was the soft top flap noise and the HEAT. Unfortunately I couldn't take the doors off with the kids in the back so We had to leave them on which allows the samurai to get pretty warm. I think I need to really work on putting the air conditioning parts together for the Samurai. I really need to get serious about that. And I really want to find a hard top....

[JandDGreens]

Thanks for sharing, I wish I could do more camping than I do, Maybe next summer.

[DETN8R]

I hear you. We're really making a big push to get out and camp this summer. We spent last summer buying and gathering gear, this summer we're dead set on using it.

[JandDGreens]

So far we have just done day trips. We got the chance to Kayak Rampart Reservoir (wakeless day use lake) a couple Sundays ago was a good day (we got there very early as it gets real crowded). We scooped out the campgrounds as I would like to make a weekend out of our next trip or at least a overnighter like Sunday-Monday as that is our two days off.

[DETN8R]

Haven't had much time to work on the Samurai. Started a new job recently and my daughter just started school... Priorities.


Some good news though. Someone was throwing away a two piece hard top! So I got one for free. it's the weird one though where it turns the tailgate into full door.
Some glass was broken/missing but you can't beat free!








The latches were in bad shape so I sourced some new ones from McMaster Carr.
Part Number is 1864A15
https://www.mcmaster.com/#1864A15





I drilled out the old rivets and removed the old latches and riveted on the new ones.










The rear portion of the top has a longer distance to reach for the latches and I was missing one of them.
So I determined that I can reuse some of the ones I removed from the front portion and make them reach the tub of the samurai using some threaded rod and some coupling nuts made from tee nuts.


For now I will just replace the broken window with acrylic or lexan. Whichever the plastic shop has scrap of. I will also probably replace the rear glass. Currently it is plexi with window tinting. I'm pretty sure at some point it was actually glass . I also need to figure out how to mount it to the tailgate.

[Jim]

DETN8R previously posted:

[DETN8R]

Thanks! I'm doing maintenance at the Amazon building in Aurora. Better Pay. More Days Off.

[Jim]

Cool - more time to spend with family - or work on the sammi - choices choices...

[DETN8R]

Mostly it's all family time.
Hard to find time to work on the Samurai.

On a side note. I've finally got all new tires on the Samurai. 215/75R15's. BFG All Terrains KO2's.
Had to break down and get some because the rear drivers side tire quit holding air. Thankfully I had the ARB OBA compressor so I always had air.

[DETN8R]

.

[DETN8R]

I've been driving with the hard top all this week. Sure was a battle getting here and it looks like we're starting to get some more snow now here in Colorado.


Being that I was able to get the front piece mounted with rivets and the catches from rally tops I intended on doing the same to repair/replace the latches on the rear as well.


I was originally going to just use the rear latches the way they were because most of them were still mounted. I went to do a test install and one of the latches broke. I ordered some new latches and some hardware from McMaster Carr.
I got some M5x0.8 All thread since that's the thread size of the hook latch on the latch. I got some stainless M5x0.8 coupling nuts because they were cheap. I also ordered some new catches from rally tops again.


Another thing that I did that wasn't really in the plan was that instead of rivets for the latches on the rear hard top I used some expanding rubber rivnuts. The same type I used to mount my custom ABS door panels. The hard top did have some metal reinforcing laminated into the fiberglass.













I did not like the way the hook latch mated into the catches from rally tops.



I did discover that the triangle eyebolts from the cheap Amazon latches I bought had the same thread size as the one on the latch.





The latches are just made of folded steel. Same for the hook on the latch as well.
This means that the threads weren't perfect and I had to chase all the threads with a tap before it would accept the allthread extensions I had to cut to get the latches to reach the tub of the Samurai.


I drilled a center hole in all of the catches from the cheap Amazon latches so that they could pivot to some degree because the two rearmost latches are angled and I didn't want the headache of trying to mount the catches at the correct angle.

[DETN8R]

With the rear piece of the top mounted I had to figure out the mounting for the rear glass. Now this is the most retarded setup I've seen from a hard top company. At least rally tops has some legitimate hinges for their rear glass. The glass had some brackets that attach to the tailgate .... somehow. I've never actually seen it in person and the few pictures I've seen online don't show details.





I cleaned all the paint and rust of the brackets and repainted them.
I had a plan to mount some flat plate aluminum to the tailgate for the rear glass to bolt to. Me and Abby purchased a bandsaw about a 2 years ago. It's been sitting outside for about a year and I needed to cut some aluminum plate to make the brackets for the rear glass.








I used some more rivnuts to attach the plate to the tailgate. I marked out the material I needed to remove to clear the gasket when the tailgate was closed.



The drivers side of the tailgate had a raised section to clear the latch mechanism but I needed the plate to attach on the side to provide stability for the rear glass brackets. The bandsaw sure made easy work of all of this.








I ended up buying a piece of polycarbonate to replace that rear glass since the tinting on it and yellowing from age made it impossible to see through.








So far so good. I'm having some issues with the front top piece sealing against the windshield but my gasket is damaged and trying to source a new one is hard.







Now hopefully this winter I can source some Air Conditioning parts.

[Jim]

Good progress!

FWIW: I didn't like surface rust issues on my drill press's machined post. Coating with WD-40 didn't last before rust started again. I gave it one coating - YEARS AGO - with Slick 50's OneLube and it has yet to form surface rust. The table of your band saw might like it too.

I hear they reformulated since then (I had the old "red can") - hopefully the new stuff is as good as the old:
http://www.slick50store.com/supercharged-one-lube-spray