After a camping trip and group ride at Morris Mt. ORV in Alabama this past weekend I became a Samurai Lover and swore I'd have one by the end of this week...

Well on Monday I just bought this 86. It has a decent spring over (I need to grind and re-weld a few spots and they didn't address the brake lines or the drive shaft spacers) a bad camo paint job and brand new tires.

I have already painted the exterior today and line x-ed the back and ordered the drive shaft spacers and a top. So chime in and let me know what to get started on or ask me what it has on it that I might need to address.

Thanks, Chad

Oh Yea,

   I ordered a brass shifter sheet for the transfer shifter and noticed that the bearings for the transfer case were shot and it roars like crazy! Where is a good place to get bearings and a gear for the case because that is the one thing that the little guy lacks is a little more low end.

And check out my pics on the last page of the pic thread notice day 0 

  Welcome to the sickness 

Zig

Good call on the new paint job.   Looks good

Welcome to the game.  As for what you need to get started, you already have the Zuki. 

Good call on the new paint job.   Looks good

Thanks. I painted all the hinges and handles black today and left the bolts OD Green. I think little things like that set off the look.

I have to do something with the transfer case it's bad. Not to mention with the tires it needs to be geared down.

Any suggestions on where to get the best deal on the 4:1?

Gotta say, I like the look.

as for gears and the t-case rebuild, call on any of the vendors. i prefer trail tough myself, the owner (brent)always has time to answer the dumbest of dumb questions and ships your junk the next day
you look like you got a good start to a fun hobby
zukipilot says it best.......

Welcome to the sickness 

Zig

I got my 6.4:1 from trail tough a couple of weeks ago.  I paid the 250 core charge and had them send me one already built (and nicely cleaned) and I boxed up my old one last week and sent it back.  Very reasonable on price and you know its going to be done right.  They usually answer your questions before you even ask them.     I have delt with a lot of companies in the last six months with a build of a kick and a sammy and trail tough tops my list of best vendors.  Only downfall is you have to call for your order and I am really a click and buy kinda guy.  Petroworks is good for that and if you have to go to rocky road.  Trail tough and petroworks have the fastest shipping though.  I usually get things in 3 days from them.  RRO is a week to two months with no real indication as what it will be. 

Yeah, and I agree, welcome to the sickness.  I am roped in well over what I intended and have passed on to a buddy who now ownes a sammy.  So remember, when you start wondering why you spent so much in upgrade parts just get a buddy hooked so he can by the parts you upgraded from.    

Check this out:
http://www.zukikrawlers.com/showthread.php?t=14056

she is a sexy bitch, once you get the gearing sorted out, id go with a rear lockright, or take your third member to a certified welder and weld the spider gears, if its a daily driver consider the locker, if its a wheeler ,hell ive gone to a mini spool and love it , that locker just irritated me, another cheepie is junkyard f150 shock towers for the front, you can get some decent travel shocks with these, weld em on and watch the tire droop, well for stock springs anyway, it just gets worse from there, roll cage is a good call when you can do er

I got my 6.4:1 from trail tough a couple of weeks ago.  I paid the 250 core charge and had them send me one already built (and nicely cleaned) and I boxed up my old one last week and sent it back.  Very reasonable on price and you know its going to be done right.  They usually answer your questions before you even ask them.     I have delt with a lot of companies in the last six months with a build of a kick and a sammy and trail tough tops my list of best vendors.  Only downfall is you have to call for your order and I am really a click and buy kinda guy.  Petroworks is good for that and if you have to go to rocky road.  Trail tough and petroworks have the fastest shipping though.  I usually get things in 3 days from them.  RRO is a week to two months with no real indication as what it will be. 

Yeah, and I agree, welcome to the sickness.  I am roped in well over what I intended and have passed on to a buddy who now ownes a sammy.  So remember, when you start wondering why you spent so much in upgrade parts just get a buddy hooked so he can by the parts you upgraded from.    

  Do you know if they are new gears or do they grind them? I have heard some companies actually grind or mill the old gears and to stay away from that?

she is a sexy bitch, once you get the gearing sorted out, id go with a rear lockright, or take your third member to a certified welder and weld the spider gears, if its a daily driver consider the locker, if its a wheeler ,hell ive gone to a mini spool and love it , that locker just irritated me, another cheepie is junkyard f150 shock towers for the front, you can get some decent travel shocks with these, weld em on and watch the tire droop, well for stock springs anyway, it just gets worse from there, roll cage is a good call when you can do er

I just happen to be one of those certified welders. I own a fence and ornamental steel co. I was actually thinking of welding the front spiders. If I did that wouldn't it be fine on the road as long as I keep the hubs unlocked?

As for the cage, I'm gonna build a sweet external with all the bells and whistles i.e. high lift compressor ect. And I'm going to build it out of galvanized black vinyl coated pipe so it will look awsome! I am starting on it nest week and am going to take lots of pics for y'all to see.

New

yea it will be fine with the hubs unlocked and straight ahead traction will be awsome, i run a locker in the front , my buddy had a spooled first gen bronco {front and rear} and frankly i thought it sucked, i mean it was shoot and point but turning the thing was crap, the two tires need to take different arcs, a locker allows this, with the front spool he had to sort romp it off and on to get it to go around anything, i geuss that realeased the tension on the one tire ,i know this is supposed to apply to both front and rear but the rear seems to unload itself pretty easy. as far as the rear it will only be notice on sharp turns{like a parking space} im sure it wears the tires more but sammi axels are so narrow i found it preferable to the lock and unlock between shifts, my opinion is weld the rear and spend the 200 bucks on a lunchbox locker{lockright or detroit ez lock} lots of ways to do things, this is what happens to suit me, hope it helps