We are completely redoing Zuk10. It was fun with the 2 stroke 2 cylinder engine but it's time to do some serious rock climbing, and also have some comfort and ease. The original LJ10 body on Zuk10 was of the first LJ that I ever owned. I have had it for 14 years now and when I received it, the body was beat up and floor boards were starting to rust out, plus it didn't even have a windshield, I used a Jeep windshield frame and shortened and narrowed it to fit. So it has seen better days. What does that mean for the project? A new body. It is a very good body with no rust nor dents and to keep it this way, we will have to build a roll cage that will protect the sides and front end. First off lets take a look at the new body coming off the frame.

Since LJ10 grilles are so hard to find, Zuk10 will be sporting a LJ20 grille until we get some fiberglass reproductions made of the 10 grilles. The body will have a 2 inch lift, this is so we wont have to cut into the floor-pan where the Samurai transfer-case is placed, plus to help keep the body from getting beat up. The paint will be original Suzuki Yellow.

Now the power plant: The engine is a 4 cylinder with 16,000 miles from a 1997 Geo Metro. It is a computerized fuel injected engine. Since the engine and transmission is longer than the original 2 cylinder, we had to remove the first transfer-case (see picture below) that was used for the low gearing, and since we lost that extra gearing a "Rockcrawler" gear set from Calmini is being used in the Samurai transfer-case. The axels already have 5.38 gears in them. With the dual transfer case setup we had a 7 to 1 ratio!

Then we had to find a transmission that would fit nicely behind the Geo engine, something small but with enough power, and we found it, a 1978 Chevy Luv pickup 200 Metric transmission. The beauty about this transmission is that the plate we would had to have made was already bolted to the engine. Below is a picture of the jig we had to make to make sure it aligned up for the Geo engine.

The modifications that had to be done was, the Luv flywheel had to be re-drilled and some support brackets made for the transmission mounting to the engine. The exhaust system was easy to install since the Geo only had a couple bends to it, and where it mounts to the exhaust manifold is square so all we did was turned it 45 degrees so it will face towards the back. The catalytic converter  was removed for extra power.

There's Jimny mounting the transmission to the frame, extra mounts were place there for extra support.

The picture above shows the transfer case and exhaust installed.

And now for the body, above two pictures are after the body was bead blasted and then painted in primer.

The two pictures below are after it was painted. We decided green would be better for hiding any dents that may and will occur.

The engine is a nice fit, looks like it was made for the LJ.

Graphics was done by stickerXpress www.stickerxpress.com

The only two gauges we need is the fuel and temp, also two "Idiot" lights for the charging and oil.