1998 Jimny Japanese Import

[fella]

It begins. Bought in Hakuba, Japan where my wife and I were doing our 2nd Japanese ski season, from an Englishman no less. Left Tokyo in may and arrived in July eventually, after much faffage from shipping companies. It's where all our wedding gift money went sonit will be around for a long time we hope.

Recap, it's a 1998 Jimny JA22w coil sprung, narrow track. 5 speed 0.6l turbo intercooled, 63horses of power when new.

Nova has been declared and it's off to the garage today to get a rear fog light assembly fitted and then hopefully an MOT. It's either going for a stock sj/samurai light or maybe an LED alternative. The dash doesn't have the switch for a fog light so that bridge will also need to be crossed.

We bought a set of 5, 5.5jx15" rims from eBay that are heading off for blasting and powder coating. Comes with some Goodyear wrangler part worns that will save us using the Yokohama snowtyres and 16" alloys in the mean time.

Once that's done I've found a guy to look at the 2 small rust blemishes on the body that need sorting before summer is out.

I only saw the car for 15 minutes in Japan, and won't be back till November so all this is happening via email with companies, businesses and the help of family, who will enjoy it and drive it whilst we are away.

Over time there are many plans a foot including;
fitting the keyless entry kit it came with
sourcing some front fog lights for the front bumper
Sourcing the spoiler for the rear door.
A respray
The wife desires a 2" lift, will take some time to be figured out as a mash of parts needed as it's an sj chassis with coils and no leafs!
Some chunkier tyres once lifted.

It might not be the quickest build ever but it will happen!

One day our niece will drive it too we hope!

[Rabid Rhino]

So cool.
I had a bubble top one with "Turbo" on the seats. It even had a rear electric locker. Miss it so much.
Front fog lights... You don't have the yellow ones in the grill ?

Spend money on rustproofing..... as they have none and rust really quickly. Possibly thinner metal.

[fella]

Originally i wanted a ja11 and those don't have the bumper fogs and I think look better for it, but we got let down by a few and was gonna give up on getting one. This came up with 2 days before we left the country, wife did a deal after I drove it round he block once. And here it is.

It's been waxoyled for years and has 60k on the clock but will keep on top of it. Not rusty yet so far, just a couple dings in the body that need going over before they start.

MOT passed, needed some wiper blades and didn't need to convert to mph, got a stealth rear fog toggle switch as we can't get the correct coloured button for the dash because the button in the dash colour was never made in Japan.

insurance sorted today which has taken ages as nobody believed the engine size! Paperwork will go to dvla this week and hopefully will get a v5 soon.

[ScottieJ]

Nice, you got any more pics? I've always fancied a K6 engined Sj or an older 2 stroke.

[fella]

There are a bfew more pics in my intro newbie thread.

Here's one new pic from the detailer who is giving it a once over for us!

[fella]

[fella]

we have a v5c and number plates. still haven't seen it with our own eyes since march in Japan!

we have had a set of sj steel wheels powder coated gloss black and have some crap a/t tyres on until we can get it lifted and then fit some nicer bigger ones! still, it saves the alloy 16's and snow tyres for the winter.

its with a more modifying specialist garage now to look at fettling the boost and a gauge to match, piggybacking the ecu to delete fuel cut off and allows the higher boost, fit a bypass valve to keep the boost on tap, sort the rust blemishes out and some intake/intercooler mods.

Lifting is highest on my wife's priority list, but it is proving to be a bit of pain, its supported hardly at all in europe. the sj80 sold in tiny numbers in eastern europe so its nobod stocks any kit for it. the front and rear springs wouldn't be too tricky as neither would be the rear shocks. the difficulty is the front shock runs seats the spring on its base, but not on the top so its halfway to a very skinny coilover. alas for something correct and guaranteed to fit the places to import from are either japan or aus,

aus is easiest as no language barrier, but the shocks and springs are designed for the heavier 4 pot engines (maybe not such a bad idea as we always travel pretty loaded with ski snowboard kit or mountain bikes etc.

the japanese ones are obviously completely correct out the box, but much harder to arrange export for such a heavy item, are a good amount more expensive before the postage which from experience is also really expensive to arrange out of japan.

in a bit of a quandry and am still waiting for a few more companies to get back to me before i have to choose! if anybody knows of anybody who has been in this situation or knows somebody who could, let me know! a picture of the unobtanium part see image!

[donkeychomp]

A coiled SJ. Nice buy matey!

[fella]

Couple of pictures from the garage. It makes all the sounds and has amazing turbo chatter! Not sure how to load a video unfortunately.

The next thing to allow us to finetune it to how we want, is figuring out a piggyback/standalone setup to manage it all.

Get to see it on Sunday at long last.

[Anton]

Twiss is using a megasquirt setup to manage his turbo/supercharged setup. I think you can buy off-the-shelf setups.