I am creating this thread to show off my Sambar build. Since no auto project is ever complete, I am going to call this Before & During! I bought the kei truck off of Craigslist, and the old owner trailered it from Reno to my place in Tahoe! The old owner had all of the paperwork and from the maintenance receipts, it looks like he installed a G&R Imports filter kit and tune-up kit. One issue I had with G&R's tune-up kit is their coil wire. I was cruising around just enjoying the truck one day when the motor shut off while I was driving it. I didn't know what was going on at the time and figured that I just bought a POS. AAA brought my truck back home and I found out that the coil wire was so long that it had grounded itself on the exhaust. The wire looked way longer than it needed to be, so I looked up the specs on the wires. This wire was supposed to be 19 centimeters, guess how many inches the wire was? So I fixed that up and the truck instantly started as it normally does After that little issue, I painted the truck bed-liner black and put one of those cheap Amazon radios in. My plans going forward are a 2" body lift, a set of tracks, a toolbox in the bed with a dual battery setup inside and a roof rack with ski and snowboard racks
I just a 1990 Sambar. I am going to hone my paint and body skills on it (I have none). What dash kit did you use on the radio?
I'm glad y'all are enjoying the build, there will be plenty more on this thread! mrimpala: good choice on your truck! I didn't need a dash kit for mine. When my truck was in Japan someone upgraded and put a tape deck under the AM radio. They didn't take out the AM radio and they put in a stock Sambar double din radio trim in when they did. When I got the truck I removed the AM radio & the tape deck and installed this: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WFV59WD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 - and it fit the double DIN trim almost perfectly, there was some minor Dremel work to get all of the buttons accessible The double DIN trim is available from Japan, check out line 422 of this invaluable document made by rkrenickit: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mASg41uyMmMQCKHPuEAaKd6tTgOhHdlgUGOQIc_ojwo/edit#gid=0 limestone: I ordered 2 of the "California" mirrors for my truck, I'll be plastic-dipping and installing them soon. I've also got a gauge cluster with the tach on the way, I'll post pics when everything is mounted
Just to let you know, you will need to rewire your truck for that cluster to work. The connectors are the same, but the wiring is completely different. Don't try to just install it and turn it on, as it will likely burn up the cluster. I need to make a writeup on how I did it..
Good to know! I know there will be some work for the wiring due to lights and such being in different places. If you do a write up please let me know, my cluster is on a boat now, should be a week or 2 more
Hey MTT! Here's where I'm at w the Subi: I've got the left side bigger KV4 mirror installed and the "exo-cage" is welded up. I'll be mounting a light bar and ski/snowboard racks up top. I like how the bars turned out, still waiting on the right side mirror and the tach cluster to come in.
After months of wrenching and procrastinating, I've got the truck on tracks and I tested it out on snow this morning! I installed the 2" body lift kit from Banzair. That kit is great, very simple to install and the results are great! I got some wheel adapters/spacers and bolted up the tracks. The anti-rotation bracket mounting was the toughest part of the track install, as there is no kit for a Sambar. Cut, grind, bolt and it finally fit. The door still hung a little lower than I thought it would, so a little grinding and it clears the tracks with plenty of room for suspension travel. I'll probably fine tune my door trimming job and I'm thinking of chopping the rear mud flaps. I have a small repair to do on the exo-cage because I had to cut it off to install the body lift. I ran all my accessory wires last night, just a bit of crimping and wire hiding and this rig will be "done"
Tahoe, Pretty Cool! Great job! Thanks for the pics, and explaining what you did! I really like it, and can appreciate your hard work! Limestone
