Samurai Project

1987 Suzuki Samurai Project

I completed this fun project a couple of years ago. The fender flares, running boards, top and fastback were all custom made using wood and composite materials. Here’s how I did it.

But before that I want to show you what it looked like when I brought it home from the auction. Yes, I got laughed at!

Fender Flares

I removed the old flares to make wider ones.

Plywood stations and foam board define the basic form.

I hot-glue a scrap of laminate to dam the expanding foam. Blind nuts and machine screws will hold the flare on the Samurai.

Pour Foam expands like bread dough.

A rasp and DA sander are used to shape the flare.

The foam is covered with fiberglass and attached to the Samurai.

The Top

Waxed playing cards hot-glued in place and Tyvek (red) tape will help me to form the frame.

After 3 layers of glass mat have cured I peel the frame off the Tyvek and trim the edges.

I beef it up by adding a 1/4″ of foam and 1/4″ of wood to the frame and glass both sides. It’s strong enough to stand on!

I’ll finish it in black. It still needs some fairing, but the basic structure is there. I’ll hold it down from the inside with clamps like the ones that hold a Jeep hood down so it can be removed.

The Fastback

This is the piece that makes my Samurai unique. It’s built like a cedar-strip canoe.

I have a basic plywood form on the back that is part of the structure, and one on the inside that will be removed once the outside is glassed. The cutout from the back will form the door later.

I use bondo and elbow grease to fair up the structure.

One layer of glass on the outside will be strong enough. After that I’ll remove the inside form (seen in the photo) and sand the inside smooth before glassing it. The sanding of the inside is the worst job! It’s very dusty and hard to get a smooth finish on a concave surface.

It’s not looking too bad!

Here’s the cutout from the form I talked about earlier. I’ll cut a hole for a window and add a fiberglass flange to hold the window.

Sweet! I added locking handle afterwords.

Here’s how it all came together.

This is how she looks now. Besides the parts I fabricated I added a geared-down transfer case, air lockers front AND back, bigger tires and wheels, bigger leaf springs front and back, beefy bumpers and a winch…along with some other goodies. Hope you enjoyed the project!