This is our Suzuki Vitara offroader project

By Colin Kitchenham

At the beginning of May 2006 I bought a Suzuki Vitara 1600 with a seized crankshaft, with the intension of building an off road on road vehicle. After a lot of discussions with various people it was clear that it would be better to buy another vehicle and use the engine from that, as it would cost £300.00 to put the crank right and fit new gaskets, so I started to look for another one.

            At the end of May 2006 I bought another Vitara which had a blow head gasket, so I decide to strip both engines and make one good one, so I used the block from the new one and the head and ancillaries from the original one. I then sold some of the parts from the new one to recoup some money. After fitting four new core plugs and all the gaskets and seals I put the engine back in the motor.

AND IT STARTED!!

            The engine sounds good and runs really well, Now comes the fun part, the body will be removed and raised three inches then a complete repaint in BS Golden Yellow with black parts, the engine will be fitted with a four branch manifold, high flow catalytic converter, cherry bomb middle box and straight through pipe to the rear and a raise air intake and breathers.

          The rear and side windows will have black limo tint fitted over the top of the decals advertising the company, then the rest of the decals will be fitted to the body by Steve of J.B sign productions of Benover Road Yalding. Phone number : 01892 730519.

            The wheels will be 8j’s from a wide boy Vitara and 31 inch tall mud terrain tyres fitted, the suspension will be lifted 3inch’s to take the big tyres and give more ground clearance.

As this project goes on I will update this page as a diary type entry so keep looking back to see what has changed.

22nd June 2006

The body has know been removed ready for the body lift kit to be fitted and the modifications to lift the fuel tank.

24th June 2006

The fuel tank has been raised by 3 inch's to allow extra ground clearence at the rear and a better decent angle.

29th June 2006

Lift kit now made and fiitted, just need to fit the body now and modify the steering column.

4th August 2006

Body fitted back onto chassis,Rear wings removed and new ones fitted, gearsticks and steering lengthened

Many thanks Colin Kitchenham