Burk's Samurai TinTop Build

[Burk4175]

Hey everyone I thought I would finally introduce myself and my 1986 Suzuki Samurai Tintop. The Samurai was my first car and I have had it for a few years now. I have recently upgraded to a nicer daily driver but have kept my Samurai to turn into sort of camping/exploring/overlandish rig. Future plans include a small lift(more than likely OME), slightly larger tires, lower gearing, and a roof rack. As well as i'm sure a bunch of other upgrades along the way.

Currently the only modifications I have done to it are lifted shackles, slightly larger tires than stock, and I replaced the original non-running engine with a runner that had a weber carb as well as a header. The gentlemen who I got it from had replaced the original seats with Dodge Neon seats and unfortunately installed a sun roof... which leaks...

I have already learned a lot from this forum and I look forward to sharing my build with you guys!

 

[ihatemybike]

I dig the lil tintops.

Leaky sun roof, typically two things cause this.

The first being something most people don't know to check, clogged drain lines. Usually the front corners of the sunroof have a small hole, connected to a tube which typically runs down inside the A pillar and drains out of sight. The solution can be as easy as pushing a length of weed eater line through the tube to push any debris out the bottom. I've had many people come back to me stating it's fixed their sunroof.

The second is bad seals. Pretty easy to inspect and replacement seals aren't too hard to get.

 

[Somecallmetimm]

Awesome little ride you have! Looking forward to seeing where you take it!

 

[Ray_G]

Watching with interest along with the other Samurai threads...for some reason I'm keen on grabbing one as a trail rig for my time in the WV mtns.

 

[PPCLI_Jim]

http://bbs.zuwharrie.com/content?topic=131316.0 Heres what i was doing to a soft top 88.5 i was almost ready to do a body swap and motor swap / suspension swap all in one swoop. they are great buggies im sure id be loving mine but things went sideways a bit for me . Now im loving my 88 Trooper. if you need any help or ideas peek around the page link i sent you theres a HUGE amount of knowledge there

 

[Burk4175]

UPDATE

So I have been wanting to add an auxiliary fuse block to the Samurai and I finally had some time to get going on the project. I purchased a 12 circuit fuse block from Blue Sea Systems to power various future accessories like off road lights, cb radio, speakers, 12v sockets etc The fuse block has a 100amp rating so it should be able to handle most all of my powers needs for awhile to come.

So I cut out a small piece of sheet metal and painted it black to act as a base to mount the fuse block to the Samurai.


Then I mounted the panel and fuse block on the driver side of the engine compartment with some sheet metal screws.


I wanted the fuse block to be powered only when the key was on so I hooked up an inexpensive 100amp relay I got from Amazon to the original power wire for the stock radio. So now it is only powered when the key is on. Later on I want to upgrade the cheap relay to a more heavy duty solenoid, but this will work for now. I have the relay mounted on the firewall again with just a sheet metal screw.


I figured I should fuse the system so I got an ANL fuse holder from Amazon and made up a bracket for it and mounted it where there was an old smog sensor. I also changed the original battery clamps to marine style clamps to aid in the installation.


For the power wire I bought a pair of jumper cables from Home Depot and cut, crimped, and soldered my own cable ends on. The jumper cables will be more than able to handle 100 amps of discharge, which I doubt I will ever use.


Overall I am quite happy with how everything turned out. Thanks for watching!

 

[DETN8R]

Awesome! Nice to see another Samurai on this forum!
I like where you mounted the auxiliary fuse block.

 

[PPCLI_Jim]

Awesome clean and neat . keeping it tidy makes it so much easier later if you want to change / upgrade something !

 

[AZ4X4DUDE]

Got a nice little Sammy there. Looking forward to seeing your build progress!

 

[Burk4175]

UPDATE

Well guys I got another update for you! Since I recently added my auxiliary fuse block I wanted to add a radio of sorts to my Samurai so I could listen to some music and I figured while I was at it I would add some wiring and switches for some future electrical accessories as well. Let the pictures begin!

So the original Samurai radio came installed in a plastic box that slides in below the dash however the radio alone took up almost all the space in the case. So I figured that box would be a perfect spot for some auxiliary switches and a smaller radio. So I went researching to find a smaller radio. So I found this small amplifier on Amazon that I thought would work perfect. It won't pick up AM/FM but it will play music off of my phone so it will work fine for me.
https://www.amazon.com/DROK-Amplifier-Dual-channel-Bookshelf-Speakers/dp/B0181Z4M4A/ref=pd_nav_hcs_bia_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=BG1RP9608FXSDBR1B5CM

And so the process began. The original radio mounts into the case by a plastic face insert. So I made a new face insert out of some sheet metal by using the original insert as a template. I made mounts for the radio and five rectangular toggle switches in the new insert. Then I painted it black.


I ordered the toggle switches from super bright leds and they snapped into the rectangular cut outs quite nicely. I am very happy with the quality of the switches. The other two holes are for the amplifier and the headphone jack that will allow me to plug my phone into the amplifier.


I wired up power to the radio and routed the speaker wires to a couple new cheap speakers I got from Amazon and installed as well. I routed power to all of the switches and routed the signal wires back out through the firewall to the auxiliary fuse block for future use.


And here is the finished product minus some finish routing of the wires. Overall I am very happy with how it turned out and I can't wait to actually hook up some of those switches!

 

[Burk4175]

UPDATE

I have gotten a couple things done to my Samurai over the past few weeks but I have just now had the chance to post them up.

Since I recently installed my auxiliary fuse block I had been wanting to add a place to charge my phone and various other things. So I decided to make use of the stock Suzuki Samurai ash tray since I never plan to use that! I decided I wanted to use one round 12v socket and one usb charging socket I got off Amazon. So I cut and bent up a small piece of metal to fit in the ash tray location.


I had already routed two power wires into the cab from when I did my switches to I just hooked them up to my plugs.


Then I just mounted it to the dash with a single screw, it seems sturdy enough. Overall I'm happy with how it came out.


I also replaced the leaky master cylinder I had with a new one I ordered.
You can see the leak down at the bottom of the cylinder.


The old master cylinder was pretty dirty...


The booster all cleaned up.


And the finished product


I bled and flushed the brakes as well, the brakes feel the same but at least now there is no leak!

I have some new accessories coming in for the Samurai so I should be posting some more updates soon! Thanks for watching!

 

[AutoXSS]

I'm digging this thread. Keep up the good work!

I've always wanted one of these, especially a tin top

 

[Burk4175]

I'm digging this thread. Keep up the good work!

Thanks! More updates coming soon!

 

[Burk4175]

UPDATE

Well sorta. I have gotten a few things done with my samurai but I have been having trouble with the website posting the updates. So hopefully I can figure out what is going on so stay with me!

Edit:
So I have tried over 6 times to update my thread over the past month but I every time I go to submit the reply I receive this message.

Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@forum.expeditionportal.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.
More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

And if I try multiple times in a row to submit the reply it blocks me and I am unable to go to the forum section of expedition portal for about a week. If anybody has an idea what I'm doing wrong I would appreciate some advice!

 

[Burk4175]

UPDATE

So I have been wanting to add a roof rack to my Samurai for quite awhile now for a few reasons. As we all know Samurai’s do not have a whole lot of storage capacity so the rack will help with that. It will also act as a base to mount various accessories like offroad lights and a cb antenna. There are a couple of options out there for tin top Samurais but none of them were quite what I wanted. I wanted something easy to remove, lightweight, and very versatile. So I decided to go with a homemade custom platform style rack.

Since tin top Samurais have rain gutters I went with a Thule Low Rain Gutter set up for the base.I used a set of 50” Thule square cross bars and mounted them on the Samurai. The install was straightforward and they fit nicely. I also installed optional lock cores on the rack as a theft deterrent.



As for the platform, I used the atv load ramp idea that I have seen frequently on this forum. I found an aluminum atv ramp online that was just about the perfect size and will be plenty strong enough. Hopefully the aluminum will give me some extra weight savings as well.The ramp required some modifications in order for it to suit my needs. The ramp came with four prong type feet to help grip the dirt when using it to load an atv so I removed those. Also the ramp hinged in the middle in order to make storing it easier and since I did not need or want my rack to be able to be folded up I removed the two hinges.



And then bolted the two ramp halves together with four bolts. I then drilled holes into the rack to allow me to attach the rack to my cross bars.



I used an aluminum strip with a bolt on either side of the cross bar to attach the rack to the cross bars. I used three sets per bar.



Overall I am very happy with how it turned out and I think it will suit my needs just fine.



Thanks for reading!