Been ages, but yesterday we went over it and started to look at what needs doing on Daniel's wee beastie. The chassis is pretty much perfect, and the body is in great condition - the usual rust holes in the wheel arches, but that's about it. So Daniel decided to restore it, rather than make an offroader beater out of it.
Some pics (mostly of bits that need replacing):
Dragon's teeth shackles:
Nice shock tower bodge that has already come out (going back to standard ride height anyway):
Driver's side door handle:
The whole front skuttle and windscreen surround is pukka:
I have mixed feelings about the front wings. They're straight and unmolested, but there's huge holes in them around the front corner where it meets the wheel arch (drivers is small hole, actually - passenger side you can drive a bus through):
But as I say, they're straight and the arch extension lip is solid mostly, except for towards the front where it's rusted completely away. Not sure if we should try to salvage them, or rip them off and just weld a new lip on for the arch extensions to fit to:
The hood is in great condition, all things considered - but it's definitely way too grotty for a "shiney". I'd appreciate comments from soft top owners on whether to try to restore it, or get another one altogether:
Rear bumper - needs a new light cluster on the passenger side, but actually the whole bumper is junk. Not a straight bit on it (it's worse than the one on my SJ!):
Door cards are just bits of ally. Nout wrong with that if you're building a toy for the off of the road, but this is going back to shiny stock, so no to these:
The seats... Oh, good god...:
The dash is cracked and has holes that someone's drilled in it to fit some whatevers to the dash. Terrible pic:
Also need a standard gearknob (and maybe the lever itself, this one has had it's thread munched - if we can't clear that up, I say we just replace the whole gear lever):
The list of jobs so far (so far!) looks like this:
Fit standard shackles all around
Fit the headlights!
Strip and paint the front bumper (already pulled it off)
Fix the driver's side door handle
Fit the passenger side window mechanism
Pull the engine (it smokes when cold, that needs sorting) for cleaning/painting the engine/engine bay
Clean and paint the engine bay
Tidy up the wiring loom in the engine bay
Sort the engine, paint the rocker cover and get the airbox looking nice (strip/paint it)
Sort out the Aisin carb (going back to factory, so we might stick with the aisin)
Fully recondition the brakes with new pads etc, and recon'd calipers from brakes international
Strip and paint the axles/leaf springs, replace the rear drivers side spring (it's bent)
Repair or replace the soft top (Advice please!)
Cut off the rollcage and make the sills look factory somehow
New shocks all round (the old ones are completely shagged)
Paint the whole vehicle (anyone know paint codes so we can restore it to factory looking paint?)
And maybe get factory decals for the body.
Bits I'm now definitely on the look out for:
4 sets of standard shackles
Standard Samurai bullbar, straight (the one in the pics on the first page wasn't included in the sale)
Rear bumper inc corner bits
Rear left light cluster for Samurai
Full set of seats (front and rear Samurai seats in very good condition. Rear split seats, not the bench)
New dash in good condition without cracks and holes drilled in it like the current one
Factory door cards and the wheel arch cards for the rear (I might have the rears and drivers side door card, but if anyone's got anything...!)
Full set of shocks (I'll get these new)
Might also need front wings, if anyone's got a good set going cheap, as these ones have huge holes in them - I think I can repair them, but if a good set come up cheap, then I'm totally into a swap.
We're going for show car quality stuff here. You know, like Helen's old 410. As factory as possible.
I'm mostly giving Daniel advice at this point, rather than actually helping physically - because my illness is still kicking my ass. I'm hoping to help with painting parts and stuff like that, which I can do sitting down.
But yeah, huuuuuuge project. Daniel is in the car trade, so he knows how much work he's set himself up for. He's probably keeping this thing as a weekend sunny weather toy for him and his wife to go to the beach in, but if he can get £3500 for it when it's done, he'll take it. I personally think that's at least £1000 beyond realistic (maybe £2000-2500 is realistic in my mind, if it's perfect) but he's ok with keeping it if he can't get that for it. Which is what I'm sure will happen.
And maybe a few years from now, it'll be worth what he's after. But hey, I'm all for him keeping it!
