after weeks of inactivity i finally managed to get 3 good days of work done to the yellow peril.
as a lot of you know most of this off road modding is little fiddly bits that can take a lot longer than major bolt on stuff.one of the jobs was to replace the flimsy plastic rear door trim with a sheet of 8mm thick foamtex plastic sheet,
this is often used for signs and this particular bit was rescued from a skip in the services on the way to the donnigton 4x4 in feb! a strong but easily cut material ideal for lining doors ect and easily cleaned.
next was the snorkel, i had managed to get a second hand one from ebay for a small sum and after one of my mates had collected it from london it was posted to me.
it came with some rubber pipe and an after market airfilter so all i needed was a small 58mm od 45 deg bend.
i got a silicone one from ebay for about £7.00 inc p+p, reasonable i reckon, it all fitted together quite well so i then took the plunge and got out the hole saw and drill and eneded up with these holes:-
after spending some considerable time measuring and making a template i was only 2mm out on the larger hole.
the after market airfilter will sit on some tubing when not off roading and looks like this:-
i can then take off the filter and then connect up the snorkel when i need to, using the new 45 deg 58mm silicone pipe.
the efi vitara has a large air box which would not fit onto the snorkel and give me room for the winch solenoid box so it had to go.
after fitting the soleniod box i then fitted the winch to the bumper after a good coat of black smooth hameritte, it dried very quickly in the heat!
it was a fiddlly job as the base plate would not go in with the winch bolted to it so it had to go in in 2 parts and be bolted together in the bumper.
as you can see it is a tight fit but looks right.
as this bumper is from a lr defender and is for a much larger winch the fair lead holes were in the wrong place so i used a sheet of 5mm thick ally to mount the new fair lead to and it endes up like this.
i have only connected the bottom winch cable as the others are easy to get to, just in case i need to take it out again, hope not.
i do not think it looks too out of place and is much narrower than i imagined it would as the defender is wider than a vitara.
also fitted the new 235-75-15 knobly tyres and gold 8 spoke wheels.
i have also bought an oil cooler and reckon there is just enough room under the bonnet for it.
still a lot to do, take off the rear hood and convert to a pick up, fit the sump/diff guards, spot lamps, rear bumper and snorkel to be fitted and of course the 3 colour camo paint job.
can't wait to get it sorted and driving.
