Hi all

[steve_h]

Hi everyone,

I’m planning a mission and considering my complete novice level lack of abilities in the area of motor mechanics I thought it wise and most probably extremely beneficial to introduce myself here.

The plan is to put a Suzuki LJ80 body on a 2006 jimny JB43 chassis. After that the addition of wheel spacers, lift kit etc, roll cage, some body work tweaks, huge flared arches, bloody great tires and various little bits and pieces it should provide me with my objective.

The objective: To make a smaller version of the anus lower forty that is within normal peoples price range, doesn’t cost a fortune to run (1.3L engine instead of 5L), but is just as much fun to drive and gives a new lease of life to a 4x4 classic.
Pic of the anus lower forty btw:

6.jpg (108.91 KiB) Viewed 8005 times

What I’ve got so far:
£7000 to spend
Sourced a LJ80 in England
Sourced a cat D damaged 2006 jimny
Cleared out one of my farm barns and now calling it a garage lol

My first question to you guys before I go ahead and buy the LJ and the jimny is will the LJ body fit on the jimny chassis?

I am sure that this will be just the first in a long line of questions but I promise to try and do as much as possible off my own back and with a good read through the forums, I will update you with pics as it comes along though – so you can all have a good laugh!

Cheers for any help guys
Steve

[OllieSJ]

Sounds good m8 best bet would be to import one as most over here are rusted out. Welcome as well

[steve_h]

I did look at that but its 2 or 3 thousand as apposed to about £500

[ScottieJ]

to in UK

As much as I like the idea I'm a bit of a purist when It comes to LJ80s as there are hardly any left and if its a good body it would be nicer to see it restored in my opinion and not cut up, theres only 25 on the road in the UK and most of those are heavily modified ones.

LJs are very narrow compared to a jimny and the wheelbase almost 10" shorter , you'll also need to cut out widen and modify the transmission tunnel to fit the jimny transmission in there, it's really not going to be a straight forward or easy job to be honest and will require lots of welding and fabrication.

In Germany this company make a fibreglass shell to fit an SJ chassis and this would probably be easier to use.
http://www.weiss-design.de/kunstofftechnik/index.html

[turbo-tom]

Welcome mate

[steve_h]

Thanks Scottie

I had already had a look at the german site as i found it talked about on the forum before, but i do prefer a nice original metal shell to work with even if it is going to ruin a classic.
I had assumed they would be more narrow but i think i can make it work, not too bad with welding and luckily have mates who work in fabrication for aerospace companies and the motor industry - time to call in a few favors lol
I suppose if the wheelbase is shorter then i will have to extend the body a bit but i'm thinking this is a possible idea? (even if you hate it mate lol)

[ScottieJ]

It would be possible to stretch the Body but doing it and keeping the proportions right could be hard to do, not sure where would be the best place to stretch it without making it look a bit odd to be honest. The only place you could really do it would be behind the doors I think unless you want to lengthen the doors as well?

[Darrell]

Welcome to the club

I can't find any dimensions for the Lj chassis

But have done a couple of diagrams just for the basics

[steve_h]

lol thats exactly what i was thinking actually, if i cut the shell straight through at the doors and add length there's less bodywork to keep in proportion and it will just look like it has slightly longer doors than other lj's
what do you think?

[steve_h]

Wow Darrell thanks mate that's an incredible piece of information! and on a sunday night!
Thanks alot and for the warm welcome
Time to put the kettle on and start looking at diagrams