Suzuki Samurai shopping for a friend

[straycat]

Well, went out yesterday and today with a buddy who wants a small 4x4 for the Ocala area. Something to drive to wheel or put on his trailer. We went Sammy shopping and this is the best I found so far. It is an 87 with a really neat lift and 17 inch wheels and 33x12.5 tires. Whoever did the lift did a great job!! The motor is clean and fresh, the interior is sharp and smells great as well!! Everything works (no a/c). Nice top with no leaks or signs of any leaks, and the windows go up and down very smoothly. The thing rides great and handles great as well. All new gears front and rear and the body has no rust. It is very peppy for the 1.3 liter motor and it has a 5 speed that shift super smooth. Somebody took care of this little guy and it shows. It is a second owner car as well. Trying to talk the dealer down some. Going back next week to seal the deal unless somebody else buys is for the asking price...but we can pick up a neat older Jeep set up for about $6,000 in really great shape since I find them all the time. We were going to give a fair offer of $4,900 and see if we can get out with it for that. My buddy said he and the wife will got $5,300 at the most. What do you guys think?

 

[84stealthranger]

not a fan of the rims but looks rugged

 

[strvger]

see what gears are in it. if they switched pumpkins with a manual tranny tracker or sidekick with 5.13 gears, it might be worth it. that motor, u-joints, and brakes will be only temporary lugging those big tires with stock 3.73 gears. that is a lot of money for that vehicle. lifting those is relatively very inexpensive. my tracker has a 4.5 in lift done for under $300 including shocks. and look closely for limiting straps on the suspension. that will be very tippy on fast corners and challenging trails. honestly, while $5k would be more than i'd spend on it, getting the dealer down $2k from his asking price might be tough.
just my $.02.

 

[feellnfroggy]

Not bad looking, have you checked ocala4sale.com? Thats where I always looked when I lived in Dunnellon. Theres alot of stuff available down there. Best places to check otherwise are orlando and tampa and palm beach.

 

[Boggin]

do she have front lift blocks? if so thats a no-no

 

[straycat]

see what gears are in it. if they switched pumpkins with a manual tranny tracker or sidekick with 5.13 gears, it might be worth it. that motor, u-joints, and brakes will be only temporary lugging those big tires with stock 3.73 gears. that is a lot of money for that vehicle. lifting those is relatively very inexpensive. my tracker has a 4.5 in lift done for under $300 including shocks. and look closely for limiting straps on the suspension. that will be very tippy on fast corners and challenging trails. honestly, while $5k would be more than i'd spend on it, getting the dealer down $2k from his asking price might be tough.
just my $.02.

I said in my message that the gears are fresh. They have been upgraded since I took it out for about 30 min. and it is a super runner. Plenty of power!!! I know the gears are at least 5: to something but I am not sure what they are. The salesman is going to have all the info next week when we get back over there. Man...neat little truck!!!!

 

[straycat]

Not bad looking, have you checked ocala4sale.com? Thats where I always looked when I lived in Dunnellon. Theres alot of stuff available down there. Best places to check otherwise are orlando and tampa and palm beach.

Yea, I'm up in that area.

 

[straycat]

do she have front lift blocks? if so thats a no-no

No!! I would not even look at it if it did. This is a done right lift!!!!! Somebody put serious money in this truck!!!! I don't like the price at $6,900 but the guy will take a good cash offer, so we will see what my buddy comes up with by Monday afternoon.

 

[Hopman]

Try $5,700. Maybe 5500.

 

[4x4junkie]

No!! I would not even look at it if it did. This is a done right lift!!!!!

I certainly would hope so... Though those front springs look suspiciously high up for not having lift blocks under them

Do you have a better pic from the front?

 

[02RangerXLT]

Nice rig, but for 7k, no way...

 

[ZackW]

Man, I used to have a 87 Samurai, god how I loved that thing. I left it pretty much stock with slightly larger tires and that thing would go anywhere, and get insane gas mileage while doing it. The only thing I hated was how tiny the damn thing was, only way I could really drive it comfortably was halfway hanging out the window.

The nice thing about these is they can go pretty much anywhere, I used to take mine down 4 wheeler trails. Like already stated though, they are really top heavy, especially raised up like that. The narrow wheelbase doesn't help matters much either.

The springs on a stock sammy are pretty flat too, but there's no way this one doesn't have blocks. If it doesn't have blocks, then he fabbed up taller mounts for them, which is basically the same thing aside from the worry of them falling out.

As much as I'd love to have another, there's no way I would spend $5-7k on one. There's nothing complicated about lifting them, so you could find a nice stock one on craigslist for a lot less and do the work yourself and save a few thousand. Least that way you'd know exactly what you have in it.

On 2nd thought, it might not have blocks. I forgot the sammys came with the springs attached under the axle, so a simple spring over conversion gives it an easy 2-3" of lift.

 

[strvger]

you can see the extended shackles as well. not optimal, but they work.

 

[Ranger Kip]

those are durable stock, and dang that is nice, you got my okay on gettin that sucker, they are fun!