STRECHING MY SUZUKI SIERRA

[Taimur]

Dear friends,
I just have joined the forum and want to share my first rebuild. broadly I should not call it a rebuild rather its more body work. I am not going to change anything with suspension, engine or transmission. reason being, I don't have technical expertise and secondly no after market products are available here in Pakistan. so I am going to do what is available.
I started this project last month but couldn't post here as I was not aware of any such forum.

Plan:

1. stretching chasis.
2. stretching body.

reasons

1. LWB is rarely imported to Pakistan and few avaiable are with soft top. 
2. I need extra space to accomodate my hunting gear, 1 or 2 dogs and a fellow hunter.

below are the pictures of my Sierra SWB. its with stock specs.

[Taimur]

BODY SWAP AND FRAME STRETCH

First we removed body, engine, transmission and suspension to pull out the fram. then frame is extended.

 13.6" from center and 9.6" from rear.

[Taimur]

few more pics. center and rear extension.

[heiney.5]

Nice work.

I'm curious to see the body modifications, keep the pics coming.

[firemedic396]

Taimur, it looks your doing a very good job so far. It's difficult to tell from the pictures, but I would like to suggest something that may help you in your build. At every place where the welds meet (the places you have extended) You might want to weld either a diamond shaped or square shaped piece of flat steel over top of the welds (sometimes called a junction plate) to add more strength to the frame and help take some of the stress off of it due to the additional weight and twisting of the longer frame. Keep up the good work and post some more pictures as we all would like to follow your progress.

[Taimur]

|removethispart|@firemedic396
thanks for your advice. I have wellded some extra piece at inner side of the joints but I will definitly go as advised.

BODY CUTTING

another important issue was how and where to cut. My thought was to cut the areas where minimum cutting can be done and also save main pillers. below pictures may explain the work.

[Taimur]

these pictures may give better view of the idea.

[BRD HNTR]

This looks like an interesting build.  I like the attitude of just doing it, and I am sure your dogs will appreciate your work.  Keep the messages coming.
Thanks

[Taimur]

FIXING THE VEHICLE:

After cutting the body, now we started fixing back the stuff on chasis. the basic idea was to fit everything on chasis and then weld the missing links. the only modifications required were to extend main shaft, silencer, petrol pipes and break pipes. below pictures can eleborate the same

[zukimoo]

it's very important to add the plates on the outside and inside where you lenghtened the frame. I do alot of welding and even a professional welder will add these plates. When you weld if the wrong heat setting was used or it was cooled too fast then it will have created a brittle area. The extra plates will make sure this area won't break.

The last one I extended I welded a piece inside the frame rail that was just fit inside. slipped a stock size piece over the little one welded that unto the little piece and then slipped the end of the frame onto the other little piece. I had pre drilled some 1/2 holes into the front and back piece of the stock frame rail and then when all together I plug welded the holes in....after all that added the diamond plates on the inside and outside....overkill? YUP...big time.

You posted that you were doing this for more room...while you've got the body off you should add some receiver tubing on both sides of the frame and then you can build a tray for the back of the zuke. You can carry a good load if you mount this real good.


I had pics of all these jobs but bought a Dell computor......Dell computor=lost files from computor crashing.

[firemedic396]

Looks like your progressing very well! I like the work you have done so far, and the lines of the vehicle going to be very unique.

[Taimur]

dear zukimoo,
your guidelines are appreciable. will go for this once through with body welding as it will be easy then to remove body.
please watch below progress.

[Taimur]

few more angles

[hegemon]

Excellent work on those body panels, did it take a lot of time to get the lines correct?

Also, what is your plan for the window glass, will you have custom glass made to fit, will it be fixed, or do you plan on retaining a sliding type window?

keep up the good work!

[firemedic396]

Taimur, truely impressive work! With proper application of filler, sanding, and paint you will never know it was a shorter vehicle.