This is a run I was on in River Falls, WI.  The Carb was acting up that day and I stalled on the way up this little hill, and on the roll back down the hill I managed to rearrange my right rear fender and destroyed the taillight in the process. The dents in the door have a matching set on the other side of the truck.  Jeep trails just aren't quite wide enough for a full size, so sometimes a little body work is necessary.  But nothing a hammer and dolly can't fix or at least improve on.
 




 

This was the start of a new building project, was suppose to be a 1969 Opel Kadett L on a shortened Ramcharger frame.  Unfortunately I couldn't get the steering figured out to my satisfaction so the body went to the steel yard in the sky, but I've still got the frame.  It's now has a 98 inch wheel base and I'm working on a full cage body to put on it.  Hope to have it done by 2000, but things are always subject to change.   The drivetrain is still in the works, but I'm thinking Dana 44 front and Dana 60 rear, 40" tires, 440, TF727(unless I can find a reasonably priced bell housing for another NP465), NP205, maybe a 2" lift, but I hope to keep it fairly low to the ground.  Would like to run 4.88's for gearing.  Hopefully run coils for the suspension front and rear so I can push the axles to the ends of the frame.  No overhang to worry about, at least in theory anyway.

Well the above project never happened. The frame was sold off and the picture to the right is the new project as purchased. A mighty 1987 Samurai!! The SPOA was all ready completed, (partially anyway, backyard engineering being what it is and all). The previous owner had stripped the interior and left me a really swell 2500 lb. Superwinch and 31X10.50 Grabber AP's, too bad he'd also managed to bake the clutch out of it too. But I managed to nurse it through the winter while plans were being laid to waste multiple paychecks on the build up. After countless nights drooling over the offerings of Spidertrax and Calmini for the Suzuki inclined. The decision was made that the gears just had to be changed. I mean 4.11's, who could live with such a tall gear. Now 5.83's, that's a real gear. Of course Calmini forgot to tell me they were $50.00 more than the 5.13's, but that wouldn't have helped anyway, they were out of stock.

So out came the axles and differentials. The rear axle was treated to new side gears and a Lock-Right. Set up was much easier than I thought it would be, but I found out that the ring gear contacts the differential hat in the process of putting everything back together. After a slight modification with the BFH everything fit just beautifully. The front differential housing got the same treatment prior to installation of it's new gears. The front is still running open until power steering is added to the truck. The parking brake system was rebuilt, due to a previous failure causing the brake handle to be completely destroyed. After replacing the clutch the rest of the driveline was put back together. Then it was on to cosmetic tuneups. (With Memorial 2000 in Dresser, WI approaching I had to at least do something to improve the appearance of the truck)

The first thing to do was make the doors removable. The hinges were removed with the aid of an impact driver (and the occasional cold chisel) and cut to fit. The rear cargo area was enclosed to make room for a the tire to mount over the bed and making more storage space available underneath. A mount was fabricated also to hold the Hi Lift jack. The Grabber's were sent to the tire recycler in the sky and replaced with Pep Boy's Enforcer M/T's (just another BFG M/T knockoff for half the price). With time running short it was time to lay down some paint on the truck. Unable to find a suitable gawdy color to use, I decided to go with Black and Yellow as my primary colors. Well after completing the hood in Yellow (Only 2 1/2 rattle cans) and leaving most of the shop in yellow dust, I decided that was enough of that color and the rest could stay factory charcoal. Except of course the lower half which just had to be done in Black. Now all that is left is the testing phase. I'll be posting new pictures after Memorial 2000 and we'll see how the Samurai survives 3 days of torture.

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