Project Zukenstein gets new body parts & 1900 Pug Diesel

[zukenstein]

I have waited 10 years to finally build my own off roader partly because of the expenses of children, which suck the life out of your bank account. But I finally started, I will post as and when I get the time and when the forum picture upload works, so no hassle. Started a while ago so a lot to start with.

Will be loads of pics as I know you all like pics.

Any CONSTRUCTIVE comments welcome any stupid nit picky ones will be ignored, life is to short.

The start - as bought off Ebay for £200 in 2007 - LWB Samurai non runner resting in a scrap yard and interior full of water.



Got it up and running and back on the road for £250. Little bit of welding required, but the body and even the paint were pretty good. I think the previous owner had started stripping it to sell off bits or modify it but never really did much and just scrapped it.
Standard 92 LWB with homemade SWB softop conversion. Original Suzuki softop another Ebay find for £40.





Ran around like this for a year then 1st Stage
Add a leaf all round,
Diahatsu alloys,
235/75R15 Bronco Grizzly Claws
Custom 4x2 steel box bumper.

Here you can see the difference tyres and add a leaf made!

[zukenstein]

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Pretty good offroad



Then fitted some extended L*and Rover arches as the tyres poked out a bit.



Then this came along FSO with a 1900 Pug diesel and rear wheel drive 59000 miles. £235 Ebay again. It had only really been used on a farm and caravan site. Just had £80 worth of new clutch.




Stripped it completely and scrapped the shell

So the monster rebuild plan was born.

1900 Pug Diesel and box from the FSO
Rocklobster tcase
Vit front ventilated discs
Rear disc conversion
X brake handbrake
Vit Power steering
Got a phobia of tipping over so keeping it SPUA with the add a leaf on back and Rears Up Front
Missing link front shackles. Dog leg rears
Polybushed all round
Range Rover bumpstops bigger and lower to stop axle hitting Pug sump
Procomp shocks all round
Front diff armour
Tcase bucket
Virtual lift
Back of LWB has a big overhang so cutting 9 inches out of the body only, rear chassis members will be within the box section rear bumper and bolted in place using old towbar mounting points
Rear rad because I am fed up with mud clogged radiators causing overheating
Need to keep rear seats (kids ) so custom rear bodywork to house rad
90x90 Box section sills
Custom fuel tank cut down from FSO one, wide and quite shallow more ground clearance and tank armour
Reverse rim Diahatsu steel wheels and Kumho KL71 33x12.50x15 tyres - makes the track 8 inches wider.
Probably bonnet scoop to clear engine. Thought about body lift but want it as low as possible
Custom stainless exhaust
Snorkel
Axle breathers
Removable doors and half doors for summer
Full interior roll cage

Aiming for all mods to be bolt on and no chassis cutting so I wont need an IVA test

Rough idea of the look and stance I am aiming for - my inspiration with a little photoshop – no idea whose zuke this is hope he doesn’t mind me using it.

[zukenstein]

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Let the work begin…

Stripped out the rear to cut down the rear body whilst still supported by the chassis



Not much rust at all and I was cutting this part off anyway, well pleased





Carnage…

[zukenstein]

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Cutting away arches for virtual lift



9 inches shorter



Plating arches for virtual lift





I know it looks curved on top but that is the camera, before anyone points it out

More to follow…

[zukenstein]

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Virtual arches taking shape you can see where the arch is cut away how little rust there was









Frame built across back to hold radiator

[teamidris]

Good approach and departure angles. A 'slippy bit' under the middle and that will be a really good performer

I'd recomend rear rad to anyone. Only downside seems to be the need for extra expansion bottle capacity. Seen them mounted high, and seen them mounted low with a transparent air duct so it works well at speed. But still waiting to see one flat on the floor blowing hot air underneath I digress though Nice build

[John yota]

It's coming along rather nicely I would say. Have you considered mounting the radiator slightly off vertical? This is something that is recommended with vertical mounted intercoolers on high boost / temp vehicles as it helps to get the maximum amount of air on to the fins of the intercooler, therefore helping dissipate the heat better. I suggest it because as the radiator is going to be rear mounted it won't get quite the same airflow as it would on the front. It only needs to be a few degree's from vertical, no more than 5 degree's is recommended for intercoolers. On my old turbo technics Sierra tilting the intercooler forward by 4 degree's made a difference of between roughly 10 and 15 degree's C lower (depending on ambient conditions) to the outlet temp of the intercooler over having it on the vertical. Nothing else was changed, just the angle the 'cooler was positioned at. Just an idea.

I like what you have done so far and am looking forward to seeing it progress.

Cheers, John

[zukenstein]

[zukenstein]

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Wanted to be able to fit the SWB soft top still and enclose the rad so the kids don’t get fried if a hose goes, so modified the tailgate to fit between the arches at the same place it would be on a SWB



Got a couple of rear corners from a scrap shell (thanks Breedsey)



Channel for rainwater

[zukenstein]

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This shows how the top fits as standard and uses the channel to clear the rainwater



Quick mockup to see how it looks. There will be air intakes going into the sides of the wings above the arches and probably smaller arches so the intakes can be bigger, a mesh back with twin 11 inch fans on the rad and a couple of small shrouded fans going in the diamond plate top. The rad going in is the FSO one, which has been re-cored with 20% more tubes top to bottom, doubled up on thickness front to rear and made 6 inches longer. £280 not too bad.



This pic shows the clearance a virtual lift makes - 29 inch tyre with add a leaf (approx 2 inch lift over std) and a 1 inch spacer under the body. I was going to do a 1 inch body lift but I don’t think I will now. As I am keeping it SPUA I thought I would need it to clear the air intakes on the engine but I am going to fit a hood scoop instead. Want to keep the CofG as low as possible.

[Chris™]

Looks excellent with the SWB top fitted and the spare out the back there

[Mook]

that is comin on great! i like how different it looks from most zooks

[Kitesurf]

The truck is coming along really well Dave. Like it.

[zukenstein]

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Out in the daylight





Really tight on space.



With the back cut down the full tear down could begin.





As you can see wanted to lift body off but had to stand it at the back of the garage hence cutting the back down first or it was too long!

[Lil Beastie]

I was well impressed after half of page 1 a couple of days ago. Amazing skills with a welder and that the soft top even fits (id go and make it too short so was all baggy )

Than the last update tho Your doing the full works on it!

Very nice

[zukenstein]

Thanks for the replies

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Trial fitted the pug engine and box to see how it lined up. I am going to use L*and Rover engine mounts for engine, gearbox and tcase. They are cheap at £1.60 each and it means I only have to carry one or two spares for breakage’s. Plus it means I can get something useful off the broken down L*nd Rovers while they change their half shafts.



Engine mounting positions were pretty close





This is where the gearbox ends, tcase in standard position, lovely!!! .



Put front wings and bonnet in place to see what hit. Not bad at all really. I thought I would probably do a body lift as mentioned earlier, to clear the intakes/cam cover but my aim is to keep this as low CofG as I can so I am going for an air scoop instead. Going to fit one from a Shogun/Pajero I think.

[zukenstein]

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Took the gearbox mounting bracket off as the holes underneath in the main crossmember were perfect. Not sure what they were for originally



Cut down FSO prop slid perfectly inside cut down sami prop. Couple of LR mounts in place to set the heights. Managed to line up the output shaft of the gearbox EXACTLY in line with the tcase flange



FSO gearbox mount bracket with new bottom to mount to LR mounts



All in place and tacked



Welded and leved off so hopefully there won’t be any vibration.

[zukenstein]

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Rears up front RUF. Picture shows rear spring compared to standard front spring with add a leaf. Curve is pretty much the same, giving the same lift but extra length gives more articulation and the ride should be less jarring.



So made up some missing links to suit the extra length. Have looked at various ones including Phil’s (Kitesurf) thread and decided I would like to try them with polybushes in the middle. Can’t be bothered to muck about with greasing them so thought this would be easier. If its OK for the normal shackle I figured it may work OK for these. Time will tell.







Opened up the clamp around the spring too so they will drop more.
Will be making some bump stops for them to rest against on the front of the chassis.

Tyres Mmmmm…. Kumho KL71 33x12.50x15

[zukenstein]

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Didn’t want to have u bolts hanging down acting like anchors, like this



So I made up some plates



So I could use bolts up from underneath



Fitted Vitara power steering to cope with the 33’s. Used this template to make the ‘wedge’ for mounting







Decided to fit Vitara LWB vented front discs and move the Sami ones to the rear

Sami top Vit bottom



Needed to trim shroud away other than that they bolted right up





New discs, pads all painted

[Lil Beastie]

nice!

[zukenstein]

[zukenstein]

Painted up the axle and made some armour for the Diff, used 1/4" plate 2 inches wide. Welded to the housing.







Needed to make front bumpstops that were further forward because of the RUF and lower to make sure the sump didn’t get hit. I knew I would have more droop because of the missing links so losing some uptravel wasn’t so bad. Used Range Rover bumpstops as they were more substantial and again cheap at £7 each. Made up a mounting bracket that bolted to the original Zuke chassis mount.







Had to modify them to clear the brake pipe junction and the shocks. More planning required before fabrication .

[zukenstein]

Eventually when funds permit I will be getting a winch, so needed a good solid mounting for the bumper and what will also be the winch mount. I have looked at various ways of doing it but again I didn’t want to really modify the chassis. I knew it had to be more than just the front two bolt holes that some use. Some mounts I have seen are really scary, a winch and bumper becoming detached at full load and flying through the air will take your head off.

This is what I came up with, It slides up from underneath the chassis and bolts through at 5 points. I drilled and sleeved the passenger side chassis the same as the drivers side where the steering box mounts. There is a plate welded along the bottom edge to make it like the bottom of an ‘I’ beam. It also closes off the front of the chassis to stop it filling with mud and acts as a stop for the missing links. I will probably put some more substantial tube inside the front chassis tube as well at some point.



The red outline is where I will put a 1/2“ plate to mount the bumper using 5/8“ towball bolts



The bolts for the steering box go right through the wedge, mount then chassis



Needed a double pulley on the front for the power steering so turned up an adaptor on the lathe so I could mount a single Vitara pulley to the front of the FSO one.





Skimmed the top surface on the lathe



Machined the back to sit inside the FSO pulley





Power steering pump will be going where the alternator is and alt will be moved further up out of the inevitable muddy water!

[forkrentfitter]

looking good,nice to see bits being fabbed and not just bought.

[zukenstein]

Wanted to fit heavy duty mounts to tcase so decided to use the same L*nd R*ver engine mounts on engine, gearbox and tcase. This means I can carry less spares.

Long arm side bolted straight on but I had to mod the other arm

Compared to a standard zuke mount

[zukenstein]

Made up a Tcase bucket I had seen a pattern for and beefed up the long arm and short arm







Made some brackets to be able to attach the bucket to the X-eng handbrake as I had read this bottom part can bend easily where the X-eng logo is stamped through









Coat of paint to finish

[Kitesurf]

Some excellent work going on there Dave. Keep the updates coming. Peeps are looking but It hink they have read the sticky at the top of the Custom Builds section about not posting stuff, unless answering the builders questions.

[zukenstein]

[Kitesurf]

[zukenstein]

@ Phil

Made a bracket to hang the alternator high up out of the mud. Used the mount on the front of the engine that is used when the engines are transverse in Pugs



Also made a bracket to mount the Vitara power steering pump