Author Topic: Stupidity in a Suzuki SJ - non VAG idiocracy.  (Read 26887 times)

VW BUSH

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Re: Stupidity in a Suzuki SJ - non VAG idiocracy.
« Reply #20 on: 15 April 2011, 18:23 »
looks like good fun to me, my boss has a 76 landy with a tuned V8 and other bits which look off roady. He has hours of fun in muddy puddles and has invited me out in it :cool:
Lets hope i dont get any bugs.......

Offline danny_p

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Re: Stupidity in a Suzuki SJ - non VAG idiocracy.
« Reply #21 on: 15 April 2011, 20:12 »
havent been offroading for fun in ages........ :sad:


have a bastardised comboulation of landerover s1 and rangerover.   it was a 4.6 V8   i think it's a V5 now, engine was sick when i put it in  and about 3 mins on the rev limiter bouneing up a very steep slope sort of killed it a bit more.

just need to find some poor sod with a 4.6 p38 vouge se   thats gone pourus so they can donate the engine to me
all the VW's have gone bar 1.

Offline Gulfstream11

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Re: Stupidity in a Suzuki SJ - non VAG idiocracy.
« Reply #22 on: 16 April 2011, 11:36 »
My off-roader was a 4.0L Jeep Wrangler TJ with all the mashings.But like the OP says,them SJ,s just left me smiling.Great fun :grin:

Previous rides..MKIV 1.8T   MKIV PD150  MK5 GTI MK5 edition30 now MK7 GTI PP

Offline danny_p

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Re: Stupidity in a Suzuki SJ - non VAG idiocracy.
« Reply #23 on: 16 April 2011, 12:13 »
never driven an SJ in anger,   driven a SJ based blitz   thats an amazingly capable macene but seemed short of grunt
all the VW's have gone bar 1.

Offline Diamond Hell

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Re: Stupidity in a Suzuki SJ - non VAG idiocracy.
« Reply #24 on: 16 April 2011, 20:57 »
Get your backside down here for the 8th then Danny  :tongue:
Just because you're offended doesn't make you right.

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Offline Diamond Hell

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Re: Stupidity in a Suzuki SJ - non VAG idiocracy.
« Reply #25 on: 14 October 2011, 08:41 »
So there was an unfortunate incident involving some undulating terrain last weekend:

http://youtu.be/Sq6VerqTEpU

Those of you with elephantine memories (or who've started on page one of this thread) may remember that this thread started with a mod-trialler that was butchered up when I got my grubby mitts on the silly little SJ.  One of the items that was salvaged from that was a ROPS frame. 

Now, say what you will about horses and stable doors, we've decided to get the frame on the SJ now (there are a few months with no trials), so last night we started by straightening out some of the damage you can see here:



The fold in front of the nearside windscreen was pushed out using a bottle jack on a sleeper block in the footwell.  The hinges have been removed, as they'd both sheared in the roll.  We're going to need a porta-power pack to square the screen frame up and then the main pillars are also seriously p*ssed and will need the same attention.

Once this fold was pushed out we measured up and cut holes for the front hoop and test fitted:



Fits in there nice and tight.  Next on this we need to remove the speaker boxes Suzuki put in the footwells, handily in the path of the descending frame.

Here's the ROPS frame, mid-preparation:



I've removed the nasty tin roof, cut out the box section that had been gobbed in the back of the roof area (no idea why).  Next up is to remove a couple of the rear bars, cut and notch them appropriately and weld them back into the vertical frame as a proper X.  Obviously there will be harness bars put across the X, too.

When that's done, there are some holes to cut to the rear body, to fit the cage down to it.

After that we need to fabricate up front hoop mounts on the chassis outriggers.  Oh and then make up mounts for the harnesses and fit up the second shell seat for the victi passengers.

Should keep me busy this winter then.  :grin:
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Offline Diamond Hell

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Re: Stupidity in a Suzuki SJ - non VAG idiocracy.
« Reply #26 on: 13 February 2012, 22:39 »
Bit more prep on the ROPS on Sunday



Which included a lot of cleaning up the frame, where it's had crud gobbed on it from time to time - mesh across the windscreen, snorkel brackets etc - BYEE

We also cut the holes in the rear tray where the stays will go, ready for welding the stays down.

Before the stays are welded down there's the small matter of 3mm foot-plates to be welded on the top of the chassis and the 50x100mm carriers for the front of the hoop, to supplement the outriggers which aren't in the right place, or big enough.

Once these are sorted and the main hoops are secured we can then re-fit the diagonals in the rear stays, as well as fitting harness bars across them as well.  They were set to alternate stays, rather than crossing the same ones.

Once that's done either the fuel tank needs to go back in, or it needs to be replaced with a smaller one, which is more out of the way.

Might even have it back up and running for the March trial.  :cool:
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Offline Horney

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Re: Stupidity in a Suzuki SJ - non VAG idiocracy.
« Reply #27 on: 13 February 2012, 22:46 »
I'm not sure, but I think that cage may have been fitted wrong. :grin:

Offline Diamond Hell

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Re: Stupidity in a Suzuki SJ - non VAG idiocracy.
« Reply #28 on: 13 February 2012, 23:09 »
Designed to stop it rolling on its roof.  :grin:
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Offline Diamond Hell

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Re: Stupidity in a Suzuki SJ - non VAG idiocracy.
« Reply #29 on: 16 February 2012, 23:43 »
Cage starting to look like it's actually going to fit on the vehicle



To ensure we could weld the reinforcement plates on the chassis properly we decided to have a look to see how much effort would be needed to lift the body up by about 3-6".

Turns out there's about eight bolts that secure the body to the chassis, so we undid/sheared off those and the jacking beam came into its own - just jacked up the body off the chassis and used the stacking alloy platforms to prop it up off the chassis.

Annoyingly the phone battery was low at the point it was up in the air, so I didn't get any photos of the impromptu body lift.

Anyhow - got in there with a scurfing disc and took where the 3mm plates were due to go back to bare metal, then welded around the edge of those:



The reinforcement plates are to the specification outlined in the Blue Book.

Annoyingly the middle stays are shy of the chassis  :angry:



Here are the outriggers tacked in place on the front.  They are 50X75mm box, with 3mm walls, as defined as the minimum spec for outriggers for mounts.



Obviously the box needs cutting down once it's fitted up.  :grin:
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