CAE's Daily Jim

Picked up my first Jimny the other day, after looking at a few Scottish grubby ones I decided to take a trip down south in search of a clean example. A 4 hour bus trip south to 'The North' and I found what I was looking for. A 56 plate JLX+, £2300 job done.. A few flakes of rust in the usual reported spots but no holes, handled the 150mile jaunt home in it's stride, bar a small issue with tracking (pulls to the left slightly, minor vibration between 40-45ish mph).

Overall chuffed to bits, I am happy with the way it drives, was pleasantly surprised by the little pronounced cam climb at ~3800 on the VVT models, didn't expect that, makes me happier that I was able to muster the budget for one, as well as the piece of mind that I'll be able to commute into work in it when they put this stupid LEZ into Glasgow.



Of course I now have a collection of tiny Japanese things:


Already been planning some jobs for it.
[strike]1. Fix a few immediate niggles, get tracking done, repair a bit of trim thats driving my crazy & fix a new aerial as the old one is damaged[/strike] Trim botched, aerial replaced
2. Diff/Gear oil service & brake fluid - It has had its engine service sorted very recently, however these fluids seem often forgotten.
3. Address the few patches of rust, none of it is holed through but their are a few flakes in the Jimny spots, I think under the lights might be a bit worse than the boot floor but haven't stripped it down yet. Plan of action is to brush it down and seal it with some tetroseal on the underside. Any advice for this is welcome.
4. 3" Lift - Undecided how I am going about this, either 3 inch spring lift, or 2 inch spring with 1 inch body, zuke is primarily for road use but I think 3" all in gives the look that I want & from what I've read will allow my desired tyre size without any trimming on the VVT bumpers. Again, would love some advice on what options are out there for this
[strike]5. -30 offset steel modulars & a set of BFG KO2s (215/75r15), its got a hodge podge of Chinese tat & Bridgestone dualers on it at the moment, would like to replace sooner rather than later.[/strike] GG AT3s in 205/75r15 fitted on refurbished stock steels, lighter than the aftermarket modulars and much more budget friendly.

That's all the immediate plans to get it set up the way I want it, got a few other odds and ends long term I'd like to do; such as
-Roof rack & work lights, saw one with a black aluminium basket with spot light mounts on it which I loved
-Snorkel
[strike]-Seats, not a fan of the stock seats, lots of cheap options out their that could replace them, split between Ignis Sport Recaro's or a set of MX5 tombstones, both crop up every now and then for ~£100[/strike] Ignis Sport Recaros Fitted
[strike]-Tints, Think the blacked out panel van look would suit it[/strike] Done, 5% back three
-Tow bar & recovery points.

So yeah, lots of plans, not a lot of currency. Love how it drives, feels good to be in my own 'truck' again, reminds me so much of a much smaller version of my previous L200. It is even the same colour scheme as my last Shogun.

Very nice. Be warned though that now you have one of your own it will begin to consume every little bit of your thought process, your entire life will begin to rotate around the Jimny. It's awesome. Oh and it will take all the spare change out of your pocket, because once you start buying trinkets for it you will never stop. It really is awesome.

Looks really nice
For rust treatment and so on take a look here www.buzzweld.co.uk/
A 2" lift works out way cheaper than a 3"
I have a 2.5" spring lift on mine with 1"body lift
i also opted for 3" castor arms all round rather than castor bushes
so it's slightly over castored but it drives very well

Jack

215/75/15 will fit on a standard one with a small trim of the bumper (gen 3). I have them on mine with a 2" lift and I think it looks just right.

Hm, I am split between going 2" and going 3". Going for a whole 4" total lift I am not a fan of as it dwarfs the 215 wheels in the arches, the 3" just seems to look 'right' to me, although some pictures I have seen with 2" look good, others look like the wheels have been shoe horned in there.

Out of curiosity how much more work is needed for a 3" lift? Even with 2" one my intention was to do it 'properly' with castor corrected radial arm bushes, rear shock reposition shackles & driveshaft spacer, what more work would be needed for 3" total lift? I'm pretty anal about my geometries :laugh: Also anyone have any knowledge of whether a 2" suspension with 1" body lift would handle better than going straight for a 3" suspension lift, as the chassis/engine weight is held lower with the former.

11/60, hehe already spend way to much time and funds on the Mazda, about to start stripping all of my bits out of it to transplant into a less rusty chassis when one crops up.

This is with just over 2" springs and 1" body blocks

Fitted my first major mod to the Jim today.



Seats weren't my plan to do first, but these came up at a good price and they have transformed how the car feels to drive. Love the things. Passenger side was an utter bitch as nothing lined up, drivers side went on without a hitch.

Just need to find a set of rear seat covers that match the material, rarely use the back seats but would like them to match.

Very nice, much better then the stock seats.
Have you got a link to where you bought them from?

eBay, for £200.

They are the seats out of a Suzuki Ignis Sport.

Were the ignis seats a direct fit or was there some chopping and changing of rails etc

You need to transplant the seats on to the Jimny seat rails. This requires the back bars to be chopped and extended by about 20mm. There is a guide online here: www.bigjimny.com/index.php/forum/7-jimny...-recaro-into-a-jimny also if you look at Madsv my jimny thread (Norwegian Jimny build, or something along those lines) he has some decent pictures of his tear down.

As for the difficulty of the transplant, I'd say it's hit and miss, once you have that bar extended the rails do need bent a bit to force in, i did the passenger side on my own and it took me over 4 hours to figure it out, none of the bolts lined up correctly and it was a nightmare to put together. However I did the driverside with a friend and we had it done in just over an hour, everything fit as if it was supposed to be there.

<img src=" www.bigjimny.com/media/kunena/attachments/23680/DSC_0118.jpg " alt="DSC_0118.jpg"/>

Show me your MX5 please.