This thread will follow my most recent Sidekick Build, I am a bit behind on the thread vs. build already and should be finishing it up over the next few weeks.

A few years ago I bought a 2 door 1995 5 speed suzuki sidekick, I did a simple 2" coil spacer lift and hit it with a hammer untill 31's fit. I do not like body lifts.

I wheeled it like this for a year or so but the 31's ate a bunch of power and the body was so rusty all the body mounts ripped out of the floor. I also had numerous issues with the front aluminum third, first is snapped at the cross-member mount, so I repaired it with the collar a member on here sells, it worked for a bit but the passenger side mount failed later on, the bolts were installed with locktite and torqued but the housing failed catastrophically .  The final straw was when the diff was rammed into a rock and the housing cracked.  




I decided to start looking for a 1995+ 2 door with an automatic transmission, so that I could use my 5.12's from the 5 speed kick. I found a 1996 2 door for $1,300.00 certified ant e-tested so brought it home. That weekend I was wheeling it out back of my house in stock form and it ended up on the roof. I decided to use the doors and hood from the white 1995 kick and thus the PandaZuki was born.


First drive after the roll over

I tore the truck down and found some rust holes (I will deal with those later in the thread).

Took the interior out and wire weeled the rust, this pic is after a nice layer of bedliner.



I am working on the hagen widening mod got the control arms widened.

Still need to weld the washer on there.

While I was at it I modified my spring mount.  


I cut the old one out with a zipdisk and repositioned it with a piece of 5" schedule 40 pipe.






I plan to run the OME lift springs for the V6 grand vitara in the front + whatever size spacer i need to match the rear. For the rear I am going to use the rear coils from a 1991-1996 Honda Accord, here they are pictured next to the stock coils, I picked up KYB 1991 cavalier shocks to use with these.


I also did the Hagen Over Rotate with the rear diff


Still need to get the rear shock mounts welded on.

Started to collect parts;
Thorley Header

Sky Idler Arm

Steel Front Housing I pulled from the junk yard (I have the rear portion but no pics yet)

Skid Plates From the Front to the Transfer Case

Front KYB's with a limiting strap

Warn M8000


Old Kick.... looks sad.


To Be Continued...

Looks good.  Are those stock skid plates all the way back, or did someone make them up?  The back one looks a bit different then the one I have.

Thanks for the comments, the front skid is OEM, the tranny and transfer skid plates are from Alderedego Motorsport / Zukination.   

It is kind of hard to tell from the pictures but by rear pinion is not as "angled up" as it should be. When I installed the rear coil spacers a year ago I also swapped in a rear end w/ a locker installed (lockrite) and the rear lower links were seized solid.  I cut them out and replaced them with some links from Altered Ego Motor Sports.

Now that I have done the " hagen rear over-rotate" the 1" longer rear links are affecting the pinion angle. So I ordered some parts from TMR Customs and made my own rear links. I will be using a 2.5" Johnny joint at the axle and a bushing at the frame mount. I am using 2" OD DOM by 1/4 wall, It is probably overkill but it is only adding about 3 lbs of weight vs. what I had. These are adjustable from 17.5" to 19" bolt center to bold center. Stock is 18"

All welded up


New Link Beside the Old Zuki Nation Link



I also got my rear brakes set up, I am running the Rear Disk Brackets available from Lowrangeoffroad with sidekick front calipers and rotors, everything bolts up nicely.


For the front end I am going to use 4 Door Brakes with Vented Rotors.
 

Lastly I welded in a Cross Beam of 1.5" x 1.5"  by 1/8"  wall steel to re-enforce the forward lower control arm mounts. 

Great choice on the brake upgrade, it made my Sidekick a completely different trucklet, the stockies were absolutely scarey here in the mtns. 

Sky Idler Arm

To Be Continued...

I brought a brace for the bottom of the idler arm over from A arm support.  That will keep the idler bracket from bending.  Just take the nut off bottom and put bracket and weld in place.  Take nut off and remove the upper bolts to remove it.

We moved the mount for the lower links forward on Project Trouble so we could use 30" lower links.  It gives it a lot softer ride, even if the angles are not perfect since we didn't modify the upper link at all.

Thanks for the feedback so far.

I have been busy with work and Christmas shopping so the progress has slowed down a bit.

I finally finished up the rear links and painted them, one last issue is that they require 9/16th bolts (pictured below) I will have to drill out the mounts so they fit in the stock locations.


As I mentioned above there was a bunch of rust hiding under this kicks nice looking exterior, after I started poking around I found numerous problem areas that i knew I would have to deal with. So begins the patching, and patching and patching... Still have a lot to do. I hate this job... I really do. Thankfully all the body mounts are in great shape.


Painted Patch work on the Passenger Side

Passenger rear wheel well.... GRRR !

Drivers Front Wheel Well




I also started working on a "strap" for the front differential pinion mount, need to connect it to the cross member and its done. I plan to only use the top piece, the bottom piece is only there for reference.





I had a rear bumper that I ordered from Altered Ego Motorsport I decided to weld on an attachment point, wow hitch and tire carrier (still in the works) and mounted it up (after fixing all the rust holes back there, sorry no pics).

Bumper


Get Me Out ! Point


Hitch


Swing Tire Carrier

realy nice project keep going, i'm also on a rusty project probably in worst condition than yours

where you get you new rear link bushing ? and how longer than stock are your link.

thank

Pier

I threw my old links out before building these, so I asked online to see what the stock length was and was informed it was 18" from bolt center to bolt center.  These are adjustable from 17.5" to 19" bolt center to bold center. The bushings and Johnny Joints are from TMR, http://www.tmrcustoms.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=6&zenid=676bb3602b822da1220b6ee6686544fb they are a Canadian company and everything I have ordered shipped really quickly.

Unfortunately the cold has been getting to me, I am up in Canuckistan, East of Toronto and without a heater in the shop and waiting for parts to come in (OME Front Springs for over 2 months !) my progress has slowed.  Regardless I have been making headway.

Welcome To My Nightmare,


First off I filled in that huge fole that was in the passenger fenderwell;

Sorry for the crappy pic, its all painted with bed liner.

The front bumper is mounted up and the winch is sitting in there, looks like it is going to work.


I also picked up some KC SlimLites and decided to make some custom mounts on the window frame. I don't want them to snap off if this thing ends up on its roof again.

You can see my budget snorkel in the works also.

The rear axle is installed I re positioned my rear spring mounts after the "Hagen over-rotate"  and only need to weld up some sort of shock mounts.

Current State Of Affairs


There is a lot of lift on the rear axle, I am hoping it settles once I get some weight on there otherwise I'll have to chop down the springs a bit.

So I rolled My Tires in the shop from outside and installed them on the rear axle,

At this point I still have the 31's from my old setup, I am thinking I will run these untill they are bald and then upgrade to some 33 X 10.5's.  

This Differential protector I have is hitting on the gas tank so I will have to cut it down.


I also scored a soft top for cheap, I am currently trying to collect the missing hardware and I'll be able to install it.


I am running a Doug Thorley Header on this rig w/ a 2" Magnaflow exhaust system (muffler and resonator). I have been waiting to install it for a month now while the header gasket was in the mail. IMO the Doug Thorley gaskets are garbage but they are the only ones who make one that fit.  

At least she is still going together. 

I decided to bite the bullet and just do it properly... I just ordered a 26 spline ARB air locker for the front steel differential pictured above.  Pretty excited. 

Is anyone else running this setup ? I have most of the weak links taken care of but I'm worried about eating up CV's, With only 31's how much of a problem do you think I will have ? (assume hard driving)

Who is running the toyota CV's and would it be a worthwhile adventure at this point ?

BRD HNTR ran that setup, he ran into CV issues when to much droop was added.  Other then that they seemed to hold together pretty well.  If you invest in some limiting straps you will probably be ok.

While you are doing all this work, I would make 1" longer diff drop brackets.  It will save you some CV issues, especially with hard wheeling.  The OME lift springs for the V6 grand vitara in the front, and whatever lift you built into your spring pads will put you right a maximum lift for the CV's with the diff in its present position.  You will probably find that you have very little down travel left on the A arms.
Having an ARB up front has been great, you will really enjoy the benefits.  Be especially careful where you route the 5mm air line.  It is not at all heat friendly, and will melt easily.

Thanks for the replies and Tips, cant wait to get this thing out of the shop  . I have some limiting straps I plan to run they seem to help the struts hold up a little longer, I'll have to adjust them to limit the CV angle. Also I don't think I mentioned it yet but I will be running the altered-ego diff drop brackets. They have somehow managed to get 4.5" of of them and I am only looking for 4 so I think I will be okay.

Updates are few at this point I've been sick, and I lost use of the "good" camera.

I was trying to figure out how to get fluid to the rear calipers and decided on some stainless steel braided lines along the axle w/ a t-fitting. I figured that I would have to replace the rear flex line anyways, so that it would not be the piece limiting axle travel...

I ordered some Russel fittings (10mm banjo fittings, -3AN lines and some T Fitting), wasn't really sure how It would would work out and to be honest I am not sure yet. I mocked it up with some zip ties.  I'm worried about the line getting caught and pinched in the coil or mushed/ ripped off by trail debris.   


Looking Down on the caliper




Proportioning Valve Installed,


I removed the rear automatic brake adjuster (load sensing proportioning valve) that connect to the upper third link, I plan to attach my electric line lock to the inlet line from this valve. I also removed the 2nd rear brake line, so I now have a single line running to the rear disks. The only issue with this is that the factory splitter (on the frame near the passengers feet) has an opening for the 2nd rear brake line, I think I will just thread a bleeder screw into this area so I can seal it off.   

Also figured it was a good time to do some preventative maintenance so I replaced the wires, cap and spark plugs.
 
 

This measurement (hard to see) is from the ground up to the rear fender, sitting on 31's. Its about 37-3/4".