Suzuki Club UK

well i bought it in 2007 as my first car i dont have the original picture but it was pretty much bog standard apart from GV alloys with 235 70 16 road tyres and a weber carb with a nice paint job (from what it seamed

if i knew what to look for rust wise i wouldn't of paid as much as i did for it, all the rust in the usual places so naturally it got a virtual lift as soon as i started welding it and the bonnet re sprayed matt black (bad paint job was removed via large sticker and the sun)
i ended up trying to stick the standard arches on in the new position and got a couple of lights on the winscreen hinge bolts (have been moved now)

i didnt like them so ended up getting some defender arches (about 3 month between buying fronts and rears) also bought a set of poly bushes and another set of springs (all 4 were rears i think) so i mixed n matched them to get a bit of lift from them and made a new front bumper from a landy series 3 bumper i was given and did some tread plate sill covers too

next i made up some bolt on rock sliders and got my hands on some 215 15 colways on weller 15 by 7s for 40 quid and got my front arches done
after that came a bit of a spruce up in the engine bay and on the dash

1 after a few month i was wandering around the scrappy and spotted these
235 85 16 mud tyres and i decided i had to have them 120pound later they were off the landy rims and on my alloys had to have a play with flexing it to see if it caught and i think it got the bulk head so i took the axle off re drilled the perches and moved it forwards 20mm ish it caught the springs but i got wheel spacers much later i then decided to have a go at making a rear tow point

then came a day i was bored so decided it needed removable doors before it even got its mud tyres it had already passed its test . .. i hadnt tho

i had a few spare parts nocking about so i made up a snorkle for it out of a bit of large bendy hose and some alloy flue pipe off a boiler and made it fit through the side of the bonnet as it made more sense than cutting a hole in the wing after that we moved house and got a work shop as we had set up a family bussiness and i started driving it around the industrial estate and private land for a bit

i decided the bumpers wanted changing up a bit so i welded a bar on the front bumper moved the standard lights into it and made some metal end caps for the rear from stainless (it use to be a catering light i found in a skip) even thought about covering the full rear bumper with it as it was almost a perfect fit over it also made up a new tank guard from a navara A bar cattle grid i was given

made up some new light guards for the rear from an only industrial fridge vent (from the skip ) i then had more accessories that needed switches (sub, lights, cb, air horn, reverse light, immobiliser switch and soothing else) and the original clock was long gone by this point made up some eye brows to partly cover up the holes from my stupid green lights i fitted also i think they look cool i then moved back to my mums place and got a job that actually paid so i got a set of 32mm wheel spacers here a before n after no more catching on the springs so did a little work to her (only minor things like lights etc) and got her on the road in 2012

then at work the next day i found a rock then i found 2 rocks and then loaded up some friends and headed to garstang ford for a play then i drove her as she was for a while chasing my friends saxo go faster silver low thing down bumpy roads

and then i hit a speed bump at 40 and put my arse through my seat

asked on facebook and got some new seats off minimog(tristan) for 75 quid and gave my friends a lift near by the day i went to pick em up so i didnt need to pay for fuel

got home and had them fitted fairly easily on their own runners at some point i robbed a 12 ball off my mate so i made it my Tbox knob also i got fed up with my tyres catching the arches on bumps cos they werent wide enough so i bought some 'unbrakeable' defender +2 arches that suspiciously came in a box marked fragile (considered sending them back because of that)

so i got those on no more catching now and very little rubbing offroad too

i started getting on better with my dad n went to work for him for a decent pay so i started doing alot of stickers etc so she got covered in them

i got a bit of a rattle on my 1.3 conveniently when a 1.6 8v engine came up for sale for 125 with a sj gear box and clutch . . . so i decided to buy that and get it fitted luckily i already had a skinny starter fitted the carb was junk so i decided to put my weber on it off the 1.3 . . . turned it over and a very loud bang and flames came out of the carb, ive never moved so fast in my life, i cleared a 50 foot work shop in the blink of an eye ducking under a car lift too

got that running spot on with just tweeking the carb and then went to my first pay n play and it really surprised me, no stalling on hills hardly got stuck where the disco on 33s i was following did and showed up alot more expensive 4x4s after a while i noticed a dent in the bonnet where the bolt on top of the carb was digging in and starting to rub a hole so it got a bonnet scoop off a trooper for a tenner and a bunch of holes drilled in the bonnet under it to help keep it cooler altho it didnt really need it
i then decided on doing a bit of a temp pick up to it so stuff stops falling under my seat only needed angle iron some inch n a bit box section and a sheet of 5 mm plastic all just glued and riveted in place . . . and had my sub mounted to it my standard back box then blew up on the way to a car cruise so when i got back to work the next day i went to see the guys who were braking cars on the industrial estate i was working on and got this for 15 quid just because i needed something there n then

a big fooking jap drift cannon
so i made a pipe to make it fit from some 52mm exhaust pipe i had lying around and jammed a bit of 1 inch box into the bend to act as a baffel as i knew it would be too loud for me and then just got it welded to the rest of the original back section after the flange a few months passed and then my diff went boom and blew a hole in the back axle (stuck it in 4wd and carried on home) so i took it out and did a temp repair until i could get a new one and also welded up my axle . . . and i figured it would be rude not to brace it while it was off

I spot one of my edits got a good build thread there mate

There is still more to come but I needed sleep

i later got a riveted 16 inch landy rim so i decided to make a hybrid wheel using my suzuki center as i wanted to run a full size spare and it roughly matches the offset of my gv alloys too
paint wise i decided to just keep it simple and spayed it silver . . . but as i was still working with my dad in a sign writing company i made a couple of stickers for it

and then got carried away a tad the tyre i fitted to it was a tad fooked to be honest and its emergency use only so i decided to fit an led strip to the inside of the rim to use as a 3rd brake light(or tail light i forget)
the wheel carrier needed a bit of a tweek . . . just cut n drilled the welds and moved it out n up so the 235 85 16 cleared the bumper ok at some point it got astra shocks up front not entierly sure when and i decided to wrap them in vinyl to brighten them up a bit . . . pretty sure they are the gas ones but not certain any more tread plate sills needed to come off for a spot of welding and they stayed off as they didnt fit right with the new arches so i made up a set out of aluminium composite panel and wrapped in carbon effect vinyl (we must of had about 50 meters of the stuff that we bought dirt cheap)
my professionally fitted water temp guage


shortly after i took her off the road as i was being messed around with money etc so after many arguments i left and moved back to my mums n then in with my girlfriend (now ex) so suzuki has been a bit neglected i hadnt seen her for about 3 months but when i did she fired up first time . . . didnt even need to poke the starter with stick or anything

shes now been sat in my mums front garden while im looking for work but im slowly getting her ready to go back on the road the second i find work

first thing i did was rip out the bulk head behind the seats (luckily i made it easy to remove ) and found my rear seats and seatbelts ready for it to be a 4 seater again

then i decided it needed new door panels after my old ones were painted hard board

made these up and now im at the stage where i'm adding rattle mat through out and then going to get some carpets in there too i think

my current to do list is

rear diff
rear half shaft studs
check brakes
finish the interior
new head unit
new rear door panel with speakers fitted
and new tyres as im back on the 235 70 16 road tyres as the mud tyres were de laminating and starting to eject tread