Hey guys, my neighbor's 88 sami just broke down, its a little dinged up on the outside AND inside - but he was just going to throw it away so I took it off his hands for free 

It isn't much to look at, but for some reason I want to fix this thing up and cruise around in it during the summer. The Odometer reads just under 80k but I'm not sure if its turned over or if so how many times.

I think the only thing wrong with it is the starter but I'm going to have a mechanic come by and take a look at it.

Basically my goal is to get her mechanically sound again, and then repaint the car black and the wheels white and throw some new tires on it.

I don't have a lot of mechanical knowledge so I'm a little intimidated(although my goals are modest). I know NOTHING about Zukis' or Samurai's in particular other than they have 4 wheel drive and remind me of mini-wranglers. 

Any words of wisdom or advice to get me started on my way? Are these things known to have a lot of problems? or are they pretty reliable? I realize each car is different and it really comes down to how much they were abused but i'm just wondering if these things tend to be money-pits or are more on the worry-free side.

Again, not trying to jack it up and soup it up, just want to get it looking decent and ride pleasantly.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I will continue to search and read up the topics on here.

Samurai's are very easy to work on, any part that you want you can pretty much get.
Most of the time the parts are very cheap, and there is lots and lots of after market support for these mighty minis.
If taken care of they will be super reliable.

If your just going fix it up, you shouldn't end up spending too much money on it, but i guess that really depends on how clean it is and how much work your willing to do.
But for most of your parts Hawk strictly Suzuki will have pretty much anything you could need.

Hope that helps out somewhat, and welcome to the Suzuki family!

Amilla