Challenge trayback build

Definitely looking forward to seeing this one progress

I really like the SJ - as someone else said, if the Jimny looks half as good it will set a high benchmark for modded Jimnys.

It's great to see a few people doing the same kind of mods to Jimnys now that people have been doing to Land Rovers and 70 series Toyotas previously. I think it's a great base vehicle to work on and they are now cheap enough that extreme modded trucks are practical.

Si

Right so its back to the bare chassis, all mounts etc removed apart from a few crossmembers.
Seems the tin worm had well and truly got a hold of it!










Cleaned up:


Bit of cutting and drilling:





Then some welding:













Then I ran out of gas  had to finish it off with the arc!



Chassis should now be strong enough to hang my axles from  so started on lower link brackets:



Had abit of a fire cutting these out




Also some more bits for the parts section :





That’s all for now 

Right, got the axle lower link brackets tacked onto the chassis tonight, obviously once its all been cycled and checked for clearance etc they will be fully welded and boxed in.







It seems my jimny was a Friday afternoon build! What with all the rust and then after measuring up for the rear axle and being confused why it wasn’t measuring square I realised someone at Suzuki did a pretty poor job of welding on the mounts on the rear of the chassis!

Looks like you're doing a nice job there. It's a shame your Jimny is that rusty. Mine seems to be perfect apart from a little rot in the rear quarter panels and a bit of surface rust here & there.

This evening I glued together the mounting bracket for the LJ70 steering box and pan hard rod. Hopefully one evening this week I'll have time to glue it to the vehicle.

Si

bloody hell that was rusty, ive never seen one that bad

bluejimny wrote: bloody hell that was rusty, ive never seen one that bad

+1 :pinch:

excellent step-by-step pics aniesigh
as someone who doesn't have the skills to do it, it's really interesting following all the work you're doing,
many thanks
Halford

thanks for all the positive comments

Got abit more done over the weekend, a lot of planning / thinking etc as with any build!
Got a temporary rear top link x-member in place but will need to drop down once engine / gearbox / transfer box and props are in just left it high for initial clearance.
Gap between chassis and rear wheels is not big enough for clearance under articulation so need to taper in the rear chassis section which is next on the to-do list followed by rear panhard. then I can flex the rear up and work out how wide I can put the shocks but avoiding fouling on the tyres on full travel!.

+1 on the rust!!!

I thought Jimny Chassis were well known for being rust free. Did it spend its life on a beach??

I was gonna ask if the frame is built in spain because of the rust, never though to see a japanese built one that rusty

aniesigh wrote: thanks for all the positive comments

Some great work going on here, and using all the right parts is great to see

One thing if you don't mind me offering a little advise, would be to brace this cross member from the centre back to the chassis, or move the mount to the side of the chassis and gusset it... been there, broken one of those... :pinch:

Tell me to bugger off if you don't want anyones 2p worth

Going to be a nice truck, I'll be following this build.

RB