Jimny Cabrio to Pickup Conversion (pick-up / Pick up)

Hey guys.

Please excuse the time frame of this thread, it was composed on a local form to me (N.I) so I'm just sharing the madness that went on the week before Christmas.

Enjoy!

My old boy has been harping on about how much he would love a wee pick up to run about in. The man likes to keep active in his tender age of 72 which involves collecting firewood from the farm & running bags of rubbish to the dump.
His current ride is a Lexus RX300 which has had its bumpers painted a few times as he’s at that dootery stage he’s prone to knocking into things. He even took the side of my Transit out when it he left it in gear.



Anyway, he gives a lot & never really gets anything back. In fact he’s never had a Christmas present as it gets him embarrassed & frustrated that someone would waste money on him.

So, it needs to be

1. Cheap and small (so he can knock it)
2. 4WD (For mud & snow)
3. Plenty of room in the rear to cart stuff about

Looked at the Daihatsu Hijet & Suzuki Carry but the bed in their pick ups was a little too excessive.
A Land Rover Defender 90 is a million pounds these days since they stopped production & with the woolly steering & spongy brakes he’d have turned it into a Defender 70 in no time.

So, I arrived at the Suzuki Jimny & decided the cabriolet model would be easy enough to convert.
Finding one locally was tricky enough.
During a Donedeal.co.uk search a Donegal man had a wanted ad up for an engine for his cabrio & I asked him if he’d sell his as a non runner with its cracked head.
We arrived at £250 sterling, a set of Ford Mondeo ST24 turbine alloys & x2 stainless exhaust mugs that sealed the deal (£350 total).
Off to the most Northerly point of Ireland we collected this thing, clean, all there & not looking like a bad buy we loaded her up & headed for Higgins Car Dismantlers Garvagh where I had arranged to have a replacement engine waiting for me. £350 again. Reversed the trailer into their yard, big Polish boy lowers the 1300 16v G13BB into the boot with a forklift & we set off again.

Advert pic





Unfortunately I got called back to work offshore the day after so only got stuck into for the first time today.
The head etc was stripped off so we just took the rest of the done engine out & I made a start on the rear.

Roof off



Rear seats & trim out



Had to re-route these rear light, seatbelt wanring & fuel filler cap release cables as they’ll only get in the way of the bulk head when I’m welding it in.



Serious volume, I would say 1m3 (1m x 1m x 1m).



Must try & source a polycarbonate type caravan window for the bulk head.

As this is a surprise Christmas present I’ve only really got a week left to drop in the new engine & fabricate the wee truck’s bed. Ideally I’d like to do it in checker plate but I don’t have a welder fit for aluminium so 3mm mild steel sheet & some car body Shutz or stone chip will have to do.

Hopefully update this early next week & remember guys, it’s a secret.

Engine in today & test fit of the bulk head. Fair bit of footering yet.



Bulk head fab shop wasn’t so sexy

As Ice Cube once said, today was a good day.

Cutting through the 4mm thick sheet steel with a 4” grinder was taking its toll (25 cutting disks). So opted for plasma cutter for cutting out the window.



The fit still wasn’t quite right so another 10mm off the sides helped it slot in with a bit of persuasion. Never been so happy to hear the metal pop into place as there was absolutely no give with the 4mm sheet steel. It point blank refused to be manipulated and so a 6ft long pry bar was drafted in.





MIG welded all the way round



Tomorrow will hopefully see the engine running & a coat of hammertite for the exposed areas.

Decided to get back at it around 10pm tonight. Got the engine running, just missing top coolant hose, radiator cap & air intake pipe.
I’l have to see if Higgins Dismantlers still have them.



Finished off the welding of the bulk head & gave the truck’s bed it’s first coat to dry over night.

Today started off with acquiring the missing engine parts from the scrap yard.

After they were all sourced & fitted we fired the engine up & found smoke from the alternator. Turned out to be the belt rubbing across a seized alternator pulley but luckily we were able to rob one off the old engine.



Muggins here was too impatient to let the first coat dry from the night before & sprayed stone chip ontop as a final coat. The idea is that stone chip has a rubbery texture & items thrown in the truck would ‘bounce’, or at least have some energy absorbed.



Well, it reacted & everything started to melt.

Pee’d off I decided to get this car off my mates lift & back home to my own garage as the project was running behind schedule. No life in the battery & with no booster pack or charger I went to jump it off my Transit van.. but the starter motor packed in. It’s the second starter I’ve put in that ‘05 Mk6 2.0

Anyway, got project Jimny started but the bonnet latch wasn’t playing ball. Finally got it to shut but now it won’t open so that’s another job on the list.

Got home, clear head with all my own tools around me the wife kindly helped me cut the Perspex window to size & fit to the bulk head. 4mm thickness perspex was bought in B&Q and the seal was purchased off a windscreen fitter.
Now, I’ve never fitted a window in my life but although it was extremely pernickety it was rather satisfying.





Frig it, let’s get this gunk off & start again.



All back to bare metal again it gets a fresh coat which will be left to cure until at least Saturday when I will make up the timber trim.



Happy boy.

On the short drive home I noticed the wee truck has a noisy thrust bearing, the pads must be worn through & I need to refasten the seat belts to avoid the bulk head in some way.

Other than that, we’re on target for Christmas Day.

Planned to give the exterior a wash in daylight & polish in the garage but Christmas shopping had to be done.

Quick pic of masking tape removed



About to head to bed after a few cans of Guinness & a G&T around 9pm it occurred to me I have a heavy weekend on the horizon with friends I havnt seen in a while with it being the festive season.

Maybe taking a dander down to the garage to start the woodwork may not be a bad idea.. I was right. 6hrs later I’m updating a thread on here.

Mrs BarryPort came down to assist

All hands on deck



She got stuck into cleaning the interior bless her. Before:



After:





While I started packing out the bed to level it out. Did my upmost to utilise existing threaded holes in the chassis.