VAXXi's Jimny (Little Tank)

Well, long time since I've updated the topic. No roofrack yet due to a prohibitive costs, almost 1000 euros. A long pause due to being overseas for work, but we have:

- new Mann air and oil filter, with Castrol 5W40 synthetic oil
- new antifreeze, new brake fluid, new ATE brake pads
- fixed the leaky oil seal:

- new rubber boots for all shocks (previous ones were mounted by covering the water holes, so they're badly rusted on the outside)

- finally the rear shock brackets are on:

- 25mm SuperPro spacers for the front to compensate the sagged springs

- new W5W parking lights (had a pair of Osram 1W LED, but they're too short for the sockets)

- new Osram Diadem front signal lights (they're transparent with a rainbowish effect when off, quite nice)

- one of the previously mentioned Osrams went to the inner lamp

- PIAA signal lights on the rear (from Japan :silly: )

- new Osram "white look" lights for the rear number plate lights and one spacer stud replaced, since it was broken during wheel removal.

The car is now level (front seems a tad higher than I wanted, but nothing much).

Also have a pair of these bad boys, but they're impossible to mount on the front bumper without manufacturing a bracket of some kind... still thinking about how to mount them (don't want them on the roof).

Treated myself for Easter with a new CB radio (60W :evil: ), but I still have to tweak the damn cable or go back to a magmount.

Little Tank is now at 53378 km, burned 2454.10 liters of fuel and an average of 8.643 liters per 100 km (33 MPG).

Here it is standing next to a stock Jimny:

I've managed to spend a few hours taking off the bumpers, side fenders and bonnet grille to clean up the dried mud behind them (and it's a LOT). No rust in sight yet

New gadgets to be mounted in the center console:

Not many updates lately. As the old chinese 2 DIN started to show signs of age, I took the plunge and replaced it with a new Alpine head unit. Took the time to clean up the crappy wiring done by the previous install (no soldering, no shrinkwrap, wires simply tied together and stuffed behind the head unit :sick: ).

Using a blank plate, some plastic bits and a lot of Dremel-based magic I managed to get it from this:

to this:

The left over space seems just right for a ScanGauge :laugh:

Also tried to fit some 6.5" speakers in the back (even made some adapter rings)... forget it, there's no way 6.5" speakers will fit in there due to the wheel arch and general positioning. Oh well, 5" will have to do for now.

57135 km done, 8.641 liters for 100 km average (32.69 mpg), 2783.67 liters of fuel burned.

I received a donation consisting of an original Jimny fog light switch, which fitted right next to the rear fog switch. It's probably from a pre-2005 Jimny, as the lighting is white ... absolutely no problem since it'll be used to power on the HID lights so it's ok to be "different" :laugh:

The plug was already there, the switch lights up nicely, but I don't get a connection at the 2-prong front fog connectors and the button doesn't light up to show it's on; I assume the fog relay is probably missing, to be investigated.

My Jimny has started shedding ! :laugh:

Ah well, the lighter the better

Well, let's do some small updates.

Some winter driving in this kind of terrain:

The car in snow:

A few weeks later, all the snow melted and the same road was a mud pit. Car looked like this:

~63789 kilometers, 3357,66 liters of fuel, 8.639 liters/100 km average (27.22 mpg).

New Panhards arrived today (after breaking it ) together with genuine chassis bushes + Trailmaster caster corrected bushes for the front axle, all in rubber (not polyurethane).