Update on the '88 beater...

Freshmeat

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Geismar, LA
I've made some more progress. While letting it idle to check temps and fluids and whatnot the coolant bottle exploded. Instead of diving into the cost of upgrading the cooling system to the '92+ equipment I replaced the bottle with one from Quadratrac. It seems to cool just fine so I'd rather not burn money when I don't need to.

Something in the back is making a world of racket when on the streets. I just can't tell whether it's the unsecured hatch or the D35 having issues. Going to try to get the hatch to latch tomorrow and will take it from there.

Today I trimmed the front fenders and removed the rear flares. The sawzall combined with lots of weak spots from rust made the cuts a bit rough, but what didn't line up quite right caught a thwack from the 6# mallet, which seems to be pretty convincing. Also used the mallet to clean up the rocker panels a bit. They're all rotted out and hanging loosely so I removed what I felt was safe and anything that seemed to have any strength left was smashed inward to at least level things out a bit.

So here's what I'm working with so far:

The passenger fender was the first I've rolled on my own so it's kinda rough, but once I got the hang of it the driver's side came out much better.

XJ092.jpg


XJ093.jpg


XJ094.jpg


XJ095.jpg


The rear bumper is a work of art. The brackets fell apart (presumably in the accident) so the owner used coat hangers to position it in place. Interestingly enough, the passenger side bumper end had a huge ant nest built up inside of it.

XJ096.jpg


XJ097.jpg
 
A couple poser shots behind the house... I didn't think it would flex this well with a stock suspension and the rear swaybar still attached, but I guess that's the benefit to not having a Samurai any more.

XJ098.jpg


XJ099.jpg


Going to trim the rear tomorrow and throw away the rear swaybar.
 
Thanks. I trimmed the rear wheel openings this morning and removed the rear swaybar. It flexes a bit more evenly, now. Hoping to take it out briefly tomorrow to get an idea of what it can handle.
 
Back
Top