Dave's la(te)st buggy build...

Congratulations nice work Dave

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk

Success after so many trial runs.

Well done that man.

Still not forgiving you for the rugby.

Roger

Congratulations!

THANKS Everyone!

It's turned out better than I expected... if I stand back and look at it, I think it "looks right"... it's kinda how I pictured it in my (warped) mind, taking influences from the Ford EX Concept Car, the Braziian UTV, side-by-sides like the Polaris RZR etc, but "constrained" by the donor Jimny vehicle and keeping it still recognisable as such for registration and road legality, and bearing in mind the British weather, and keeping some ability for wading streams and rivers...

I need to say a few thank yous...

James Priestley - for supplying the donor vehicle, and countless parts along the way...
Rus & Co at JimnyBits - for supplying most of their range of guards :laugh: , the tyres, the winch, most of the suspension, etc, etc...
Martin at BigJimny - for much of the replacement bearings, seals, etc...
Tube Bender (eBay) - for bending to order the loops used, and the snorkel tube.
Rob at the Offroad Armoury - for the inspiration of Jimny buggies, and the winch setup idea too!
You lot - for reading the blog, commenting and keeping me going with words of encouragement !
My missus for putting up with me for 32 years, 30 of which I've spent tinkering with Suzukis!

I've been out today to pop some petrol in and have a quick spin now it's all legal... MOT and Tax

The speedo is just about spot on with the GPS speedo on my iPhone... the maths were right that influenced the change of diffs from the stock 3.909 final drive ratio to later VVT 4.3 diffs. The gearbox and transfer box are standard. The on-road gearing seems fine after driving it a bit, I'm hoping the offroad gearing is low enough for my needs without fitting the rocklobster SJ transfer box I have sat on my bench...

I just need to get it out and about offroad and see what the low ratio gearing is like... I have tried it in a straight line on tarmac (with the front hubs unlocked) and it seemed low enough, but time will tell...

I have tried to keep the suspension and gearing as simple as possible this time around! 

But, anyway, enough rambling on... I think that's the build finished... from now on updates on trips out etc will be on the blog, but of course a summary and a link will still always appear in this "build thread" like I always used to do with the Jimny formerly known as S200KYS...

Cheers everyone! :woohoo:

Dave

:lol: Spoke to soon! :lol:

My insurance company insisted on there being locking wheel nuts fitted...

So when I went to order them, I spotted wheel nuts with 17mm heads instead of the normal 19mm heads, this will sort the closeness of the nuts to the Grand Vitara alloys So I can use a normal wheel nut spider or socket and bar...

 

Simple Wins Dave! well done mate.

Also, chuffed that you've got it on the road now.
Cheers, Paul.