The Tuki Suzuki - Toyota drivetrain, Samurai body

[MiniSimp]

Nice cut and paste.
So all you really have to figure out then is the placement of the upper links on the frame right?

[4RnrRick]

Yeap - you got it.......

Except the frame widths are different - so I "might" have to redo the upper link mount on the axle side - I hope not.... but right now it kinda looks that way. I'll know more once I get farther into it.

[4RnrRick]

Tonight I cleaned up the garage some and got the sami moved forward so I can start working on the rear sheetmetal. Kinda hard to move the rear axle back with a bunch of sheetmetal in the way...The plan is to do a jeep style comp. cut on it with a narrowed tailgate. I also think I'm going to convert the tailgate to a fold down style like a truck, so its actually useable.





And after a bunch of grinding and sawzall action, I finally got it trimmed down to the pieces that I need.

[skipnrocks]

It looks like your going to box in the comp cut?  Have you thought about making you cut go more towards the front of the wheel well and then you could do a simple L piece and put a square wheel well in.  Just a thought to make it easy, and keep that comp cut flowing.

[4RnrRick]

I left the front part like that just becasue I'm not sure on the shape I want yet. I'm focusing on the back part right now around the tailgate.

[skipnrocks]

Its gonna be pretty sweet,  Im stoked to see how it comes along!  I just watched a zuki build on exteme 4x4 where they comp cut it, put some toyota axles in, but theirs was a hard top so they exo'ed but it was pretty sweet!! 

Do you know what wheel base you looking for?

[4RnrRick]

This morning I removed the stock sami rear axle and installed the my Toyota rear axle using my old lower links. Thats a bit too far back, even for me.



Also my upper link mount is going to have to be moved inward about 2" so it clears the frame rail - Bummer.....I was hoping I could just slide it under there and go.



Then I decided to roll the front axle under there and get a feel for how it will look. right now the belly hieght is set to 19.5". After messing with it axle placement some, I think I'm going to place the front axle 12" forward of stock with the rear axle set to a 109" wheel base. That means I'm going to have to shorten the rear links about 6-7" from where they are now.



Now for ride hieght..... I would like to have this sami be low slung (~21" belly) with about 5" of uptravel. I'm not sure if I can hit those numbers, since that means I need about 3.5" of up travel from how it sits now. even with moving the steering box way and up and clearancing the frame rails for the steering, I don't think I can get it where I want it. So anyways - I'm just going to have to explore some other options of some new low profile steering arms or tie rod under the arm setup or go full hydro....





Anyways, thats where I'm at there - I'm sure I can figure something out. BTW in the pictures is a FJ-80 steering box and a TG flat pitman arm that I'm using for mock up. Oh and even with this setup, there is very little room for a coilover!

Oh and I got my aluminum Radiator today - But they sent me the wrong one, so I have to send that back - Bummer!

[4RnrRick]

Well after stairing at my steering for over an hour - I decided to just move onto other things, so I started back on the driver side rear comp cut and narrowed tailgate stuff. I got it tacked into place and started filling in the top rail.





Then after I got the driver side positioned where I wanted it using the passenger side as a reference, I then cut out the passenger side rear corner.

[twistedtoy92]

damn!!!! i love your build!!! this sami is gonna be a wicked rock crawler!!! gotttsssta give you major props!!! keep it up!!!!    

[MiniSimp]

Rick, you may have to go with low steer, full hydro and a Marlink. That is the only way I see fitting everything in there. You're creative enough where you'll figure something out though.
That sucks about the links, I was hoping you could just straight swap, but having it that far back would only be good if you were doing the Iceland Formula racing.
Now that you have the rear cut out on the PS you should roll a tire up there so we can see where you're placing your axle.

[4RnrRick]

Tried working on the Sami today and I ended up getting a raging headache so all I got done was this.

[4RnrRick]

that upper link mount hits the frame, so I can't get the axle high enough to put the tire on.

[4RnrRick]

After looking around for a steering solution, I think FrontRangeOffRoad Ftoy has the best steering setup to fit my needs. Plus I've already got two sets of stock toyota arms I can play with to mock something up. I should be able to get the uptravel I want with this design.

[skipnrocks]

Do you like the desighn because it tucks right up under neath the springs and not over?  Other than that i couldnt tell anything from the pics that might be special about the steering..

[4RnrRick]

Easy...

Look at this picture again...



See how high the tie rod is on the axle because the steering arms are designed to mount it above the leaf springs. since mine will have links and coilovers with a low stance, I need to lower the tierod down about +/- 4" so I can get more uptravel. and using factory arms will let me do that.

[skipnrocks]

Good call.  Very easy pic to see there.....  I never thought about that.  I dont run highsteer on mine either with 5in of uptravel and at full compression my diff comes just inside the frame rails,  I would hit too if I would have put highsteer on mine...  what height will your belly be?

[4RnrRick]

.....right now the belly hieght is set to 19.5". .......
I would like to have this sami be low slung (~21" belly) with about 5" of uptravel.....

[4RnrRick]

Got the passenger side tail gate cap welded on tonight.





And then I cut 15" out of the tailgate and got it tacked together....





Its actually turning out better than I had hoped for so far....

[fatt_matt]

wow!

incredible.. 

[THK Matt]

that looks pretty good.

[skipnrocks]

Nice jop on the tail gate....   Almost looks like it always belonged there 

LOL no man looks great

[4RnrRick]

Almost looks like it always belonged there 

Thats the idea....

[4RnrRick]

Got started on the fold down tailgate conversion tonight....

[kiyul4130]

nice that should be cool. at my friends shop they build real nice broncos...anyways  it has a swing out spare tire carrier and on the inside of it it had a table that would fold down. the table was made of 3/4" (if i remember) square with that steel type screen that was laid over the top. its real nice.

[awhotrods]

Keep up the good work!  

[toyotanner]

looking like it might be ready for browns for 4th of july weekend??

[4RnrRick]

I pulled the rear axle out and rolled the tires under there to see what it looks like and to figure out my fender shape I wanted.





I then used a grinder to remove the metal fender flares.... And to my surprise, there was only a little surface rust under them.





Then I got started on raising and extending the inner fender well.
I'm happy with the results so far...

[skipnrocks]

Fender wells are lookin good!   What guage sheet metal is that?

[4RnrRick]

18 ga.... I wanted 20 ga. but I couldn't refuse the price I got this stuff for.

[4RnrRick]

Got the passenger side wheel well all done on the inside.



Just got a couple more things to do on the outside...