I sold my truck last month and was getting a little antsy about not having a spare rig to drive around...so I shopped for a few weeks and picked up this little gem for $1600:

it's a 1992 with 105k on the ticker, but estimated 30k of that was behind a motorhome.  It has a few dents but nothing major.  It was in a front end collision and needed a new grille and a few hours with some hammers, dollies, a slide hammer, and stud welder but after that it looks really good.  It came with a 4" superlift kit and 31" goodyear MTR's.

Funny story about buying it though...I had to drive up to Lacey, WA to pick it up (3 hours away from me).  I asked the guy if I could drive it home or if I needed to bring my truck and trailer...he said, "Sure!  I drive it every day!  No problems at all!".  when I got there, I noticed that tags were expired, rear driveshaft u-joint caps were almost completely gone, no taillights, only 1 brake light and 1 turn signal (bulbs were good...turned out to be a ground issue), and the inside was DISGUSTING (motor and gear oil all over everything, with a layer of orange peels and little debbie wrappers on top of it all).  I voiced my discontent with the situation and managed to negotiate the price down to $1600, and figured I would try my luck and making it home.  I dropped the rear driveshaft in the Cabela's parking lot and started home in front wheel drive.  Not 5 minutes down I-5, I saw the blue and red lights in my rearview mirror.  Really?  Already?  After listing off all of the violations I was committing, the officer and I had a nice discussion about firearms (I have my CCW in OR and WA) and he let me off with a warning. 
When I got home, I used my tractor to lift the sami up onto it's rear bumper and I pressure washed out the inside.  After a thorough cleaning, I fixed all of the sami's issues:  Leaky distributor o-ring, clicky starter, replaced one headlight and fixed the taillight wiring, and repaired the rear driveshaft.  The rear driveshaft was another issue...it has been bad for so long that the u-joint cross wore through the caps and into the yoke...when I tried to press in the new u-joint caps they got stuck before fully seating.  I broke one of the caps while trying to press them back out...so in true redneck fashion, I welded washers over each cap to keep the needle bearings in place.  It will never come apart again, but at least it is on the road for no $$ out of pocket.  I'll put a toy driveshaft in there as soon as I find one on craigslist.
Over the weekend I ordered a bunch of other cool parts:  Stainless steel header (to replace a cracked exhaust manifold), various oem parts including some body plugs and glove box door, 6.5:1 tcase gears, upgraded front tcase output shaft, mighty kong tcase bucket, rear mini-spool, k&n air filter, a CD player and marine grade speakers to fill the holes left by the previous owner, and some ABS body panels.
I know I'm supposed to be working on the unimooki:
http://www.zukiworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=22577.0
(shameless promotion of my build thread)
but I'm tired of waiting on parts.  I thought I was done with samurais when I sold my turbodiesel one...but here I am building another one.  I figure this one will serve in its current form for a year or so and allow me to wheel occasionally until I'm done with the Vitara. 

where r u at in washington i dont think u r to far from me

where r u at in washington i dont think u r to far from me

I live near seaside, OR.  A couple of hours south of Lacey, WA.  A little over an hour from castle rock 

Orange peels and little debbies... that is a weird combo.  Looks good though, what you are you going to do for a front bumper?

Orange peels and little debbies... that is a weird combo.  Looks good though, what you are you going to do for a front bumper?

I hammered the original back into relative shape with a 13lb maul...it's in place now.  I painted it with a few cans of rust-oleum semi-gloss black.  I'll build a custom bumper/winch mount when time permits. 
I built this one about 5 years ago for an older sami I owned...was thinking something similar...

Nice.  These little trucks are so much fun to work on.  I've had my 87 sammy for almost 2 months and have countless hours tinkering and fixing all the little things that a 22 year old truck needs.  I have so many things I plan to do I sometimes have a tough time deciding what to do next.

Lovin every minute of it to

Nice.  These little trucks are so much fun to work on. 

Agreed.  This is my 6th sami; just can't stay away from the little buggers.  Everything about the rig is familiar. 
Gotta say too...this is the first EFI one I've owned (except for a brief week-long part-out of a 1990) and it is awesome.  The TBI setup seems simple compared to the myriad of vacuum hoses and motors on the carb, and the engine has more power than any of the carbed ones I've owned. 

Got all of my parts on Friday.  I just need to say; I've purchased parts from almost all of the vendors that sell zuk stuff; had some good experiences and some bad.  But Trail Tough and Low Range Off Road ALWAYS do a great job.  From answering questions on the phone, to fast shipping, great products, etc.  I've always had good experiences with both of them.
I installed the stereo on Friday evening; this will be the first Sami I've had a working sound system in.  I flush mounted the tweeters in the dash.  We'll see how those marine components hold up to immersion in muddy water 
I also installed my tcase gears; I forgot how easy these little cases are to work on.  5 hours from start to finish, including liberal amounts of cleaning.  I used the 6.5:1 gearset made by trail gear.  These are about 1/2 the price of the 6.4:1 Japanese gears.  I was warned that they might be a little noisy, but it really isn't too bad.  There's a bit of a whine that can be heard during deceleration around 40-30mph, but it isn't much and I expect that to diminish as the gears break in over the next 1000 miles or so. 
When I reinstalled the tcase I put the mighty kong tcase bucket in.  I actually had some fitment issues with it...thinking that maybe it got tweaked during shipping.  I had to put it in my press and bend it on 2 different angles before the bolt holes lined up.  Other than that little issue  it was an easy install and looks like it will do a great job of protecting the tcase and certainly won't bend like the stock tcase arms do. 
The spool didn't show up with the rest of the parts...hoping that shows up early this week so I can throw it in by the weekend.  Maybe I'll have time for a few small rocks on Sunday 

Next up,  bumpers! 

Next up,  bumpers! 

Looking for a winch right now...actually 2 of them.  Need one for the Unimooki and one for the Samurai as well.  9.5 XP's would be nice.  Anybody know where they're giving them away for free??
I'll start on body armor soon...but I'm going to get the exhaust out of the way first and a few more days in on the unimooki before I start bending tube for the sami. 

The exhaust on this sami was an issue from day one.  I had to laugh out loud when I saw it.  There was absolutely nothing redeeming about it, except for its ability to elicit laughter from anybody who saw it. 

The leaks throughout the entire system left a constant odor of burned hydrocarbons in the cab, even with the bikini top and windows down.
 
The stock exhaust manifold had 3 large cracks. 

The stock cat had been punched out long ago.  I actually found 2 pieces of catalyst wedged in behind the tcase shifter when I pulled it last weekend.

There was one bend that I still shake my head at.  For the life of me, I can't figure out why it was there in the first place...but I could have let it slide if it was done properly.  However, it looks like the bend was accomplished using a BFH and an alder tree as a die.  The pipe was crimped down to less than 1/2 of its original size.  But I still don't get it...it would have made much more sense to keep the pipe straight. 

The muffler was a dime store glasspack.  Now, I like the sound of a pair of glasspacks on a v8...even owned a pair on one truck.  But, (no offense to those of you running glasspacks on your zuks), I think that a burned out glasspack on a 4 banger sounds like a whoopie cushion inside a 55 gallon steel barrel.  That's why my samurai sounded like.  I constantly felt uncool while driving it in town.

The tailpipe was a piece of 2" shc. 40 sewer pipe.  Now...I almost kept that.  A rock would never have been able to damage my tailpipe.  But...seriously, should an exhaust system ever weigh more than a passenger?

And, last of all, the welds.  Ah yes...the welds.  Somewhere out there is a welder capable of depositing welding wire solely as weld boogers.  A booger welder if you will.  One joint was literally 2 inches wide, over 1/4" thick, and STILL had leaks.  It was amazing.  The sheer amount of time it must have taken to turn a pound of welding wire into weld boogers boggles my mind.  EVERY joint was like this.  And they ALL leaked.  No joke, I could have done a better job welding this exhaust with a coat hanger and a pair of batteries.

I bought a magnaflow muffler and two 180 degree mandrel u-bend from Jegs, and a 6' length of 2" exhaust pipe from my local Napa.  I ordered a stainless Calmini header from Low Range Off Road.  That header is a piece of art; I've owned 2 other Samurai headers in the past and this one puts them to shame.  From the rectangular ports to the TIG welds to the 304 stainless material, in my opinion this is the best header out there for the Samurai.  
So, for a few hunderd $$ and about 3 hours of my time I put together a completely new exhaust system (I added 1 weld booger for posterity's sake).  All joints are welded, all bends are mandrel bends.  I've owned 2 other magnaflow mufflers before this one; they're great mufflers and I'm just as happy with this one.  They are reasonably priced (the one I bought was $64).  And the sound they make suits the 4 cylinder motor; lots of low tones with a subtle bark on acceleration.

That looks good up there in place.  Nice work. 

Man, and I thought my first welds were bad! I think JB weld woulda been better. Nice rig.