Family Fortunes

Originally Published: June 2013 Words: Dan Fenn Pictures: Dan Fenn

Bow shackles are attached to 10mm steel brackets fixed in place on an M24 threaded bar run through the tubular crossmember. Not light, but strong as an ox

The lower mounting bracket for the front skid plate also secures the leading edge of a 5mm chequer plate sump guard

Another view of the bumper shows how impressive the Vitara’s approach angle is now. There’s nothing sticking out any farther than it needs to be; a winch tray might change matters a bit, but considering what went into it this is a particularly neat design

Fitting a snorkel yourself is something most 4x4 owners would be willing to try. Fabricating the roof rack behind it, on the other hand…

As home-made racks go, you’ve got to say this one’s pretty elegant. In fact, even as professional racks go it’s still top-drawer, with a slimline design that’s much better suited to the everyday hazards of British off-road conditions (aka trees) than some of the monsters you see

Lots of vehicles from the Vitara’s era have torsion bars up front, which can be lifted simply by winding them round but tend to provide a rock solid ride as a result. The Vitara’s independent front end rode on coils, opening up a wider range of replacement options: these are +2” units sourced from Jimny Bits

$More +2” Jimny Bits coils at the back, but where do you think Franco got the shocks from? From a dead Vauxhall Astra GTE, that’s where. Yes, best kind of Astra GTE, etc. Anyway, he drilled them out from 10mm to 12mm to accept the Vitara mounting bolts: ‘works very well,’ he says, ‘for a fraction of the cost’$

The crossmember tucked away beneath the rear bumper is the second replacement one Franco made up; the first threw the body out by 10mm, which we can’t imagine made his day. The bumper itself might be made from box rather than tube, just for the sake of variety, but it’s every bit as brutally strong as the one at the front. As well as making up the left and right recovery eyes you see here, he cut off the old towing attachment and welded it directly to the bumper, strengthening it with 8mm steel bar

Just in case you were thinking those recovery eyes were casually butt-welded on to the bumper, here’s the truth. Anchored to the crossmember using the same principles as those at the front, they ain’t going anywhere in a hurry

The main bar in the rear bumper is inswept at its ends to prevent it from digging in to the ground on the way over extremely uneven terrain. The Vitara’s back end was deceptively strong in original form, but this won’t get dented when it has to prove itself, and it adds a useful few degrees to the truck’s departure angle

Plan to fit bigger tyres to a vehicle and it won’t be long before you’re also planning to cover them up. The wheelarch extensions you see here are for a Land Rover; Franco mocked them up in place then cut them down to suit his Vitara. Insa Turbo Dakars are a good, sensible choice for general use, providing plenty of bite for green laning without being so aggressive as to damage the ground or wreck your ride and handling on tarmac

Here’s a nice touch. Franco ‘signs’ everything he makes with this little monogram: if you’re a hater, you’ll call this pretentious, but if you too take pride in your work you’ll get exactly why he does it

There wasn’t much wrong with Suzuki’s original seats, but after putting up with a decade and a half’s worth of bottoms they might not support you as well as you’d like them to in a side slope. A nice set of Cobra bucket seats sorts that right out, and looks very cool

More cool stuff: the rest of the cabin does a smart job of looking original but interestingly enhanced. Simple stuff like a fire extinguisher, CB and tablet mount see to that, simply by being positioned on the dash top where everyone can see them

Bet you’ve not seen this before. Not on a Suuki Vitara, at any rate. Franco wired in a pair of strip lights to illuminate the interior at night, switchable from up in the roof between the seats. A hopeless little vanity light is not what you want to be relying on when you’re out of petrol in the middle of Salisbury Plain at night and you’re trying to read a map while your co-driver fishes out the jerry can from behind you: these, on the other hand, most definitely are

When he’s not making cool stuff out of metal, it appears, Franco’s making cool stuff out of wood. Actually, this drawer system is built on a frame made from angle and box, but it butts up to a hardboard bulkhead. That makes a stout carcase for the drawers you see here, which are tucked in beneath a flat platform for stowing cargo and mounting a cradle for a jerry can

Franco Rizzo’s half-brother used to own an old Vitara that was fit for not much more than a date with the scrap man. But having already built its front bumper, Franco was looking for an off-roader of his own. So he started making plans…

We’re a bit nervous about saying this, but the Suzuki Vitara you’re looking at here is called The Diggler. A quick look on Google will avail you of various horrific meanings for the word, but we’ll play safe and assume it’s just an innocent reference to the scooter company. After all, just like a scooter a short-wheelbase Vitara is a light, agile little thing. Well, it is by 4x4 standards, at least.

Nimbleness and trim dimensions were high on Franco Rizzo’s list of priorities when he bought this truck. So was not spending much money, of course, and this too is a reason why the 3-door Vitara (and this one, specifically) fitted the bill.

‘The truck used to belong to Gary, my brother from another mother. I had made a bumper for him a year previously, as the original was knackered. But then its time came. He was ready to weigh it in – so I paid him £150 and saved it from the scrap man.’

A noble thing to do whenever you find an old 4x4 in need, of course. But Franco was motivated by more than just a sense of pity for a truck that only needed someone to love it.
‘In 2010, I had got to thinking about a nimble short-wheelbase truck that with a little time, a bit of money and a lot of planning, I could make into a 4x4 that would take me places. I was going to build it with laning in mind, so a SWB 1998 Vitara was ideal.’

Franco’s introduction to off-roading had come years previously, as a kid marvelling at the stories he read about the Camel Trophy. Then, years later, he was the owner of a LWB Ford Maverick and someone gave him… a copy of Total Off Road.

As it happened, it was our February 2008 issue, when we published a roadbook including a set of trails on the Long Mynd in Shropshire (some of which are actually also used in the
free green laning supplement you got with this very issue, in fact). Green laning fit for a king, anyway, and not inconvenient if, like Franco, you happen to live in Stafford. ‘It got my brain ticking,’ he recalls. ‘I did it in the Maverick and it was fine, but it was enough to start me thinking about a 4x4 that would be really well suited to what I wanted to do.

Now, Franco has plenty of experience in welding, so that wasn’t going to be a problem. But this next sentence? Read it as often as it takes to sink in: ‘I went to my local college and did a basic home mechanic course.’

Now, lots of people learn how to build a 4x4 by building a 4x4, basically, and good on them. But having the core skills to do it before you start is a very good thing. Especially as these courses tend to kick off by teaching you how not to crush, burn, gas, electrocute or otherwise maim yourself in the process, which has got to be a pretty worthwhile place to get your education underway.

Here’s something else worth thinking about: ‘I’d read so much about them, so the plan was set.’ Note how it doesn’t say ‘I didn’t bother planning anything, I just ripped in to it and next thing you know I’d knocked up a truck without really knowing what I was doing.’

Of course, you knew that one anyway, because you’re already reading about it right now, so take a gold star and stand by your tool chest ready for action. Franco had worked out what kind of truck he wanted, he’d worked out what he wanted to do with it and he’d worked out how he wanted to achieve it. So once he hit the workshop and put his skills, old and new, into use, it was all plain sailing.

We covered the build of his home-brewed front bumper in last month’s issue, so rather than going over old ground there we’ll recap in a couple of sentences. It sits on one-piece mounts bent up in steel plate, with integral recovery points anchored to an M24 threaded bar running through the original tubular crossmember. The main section acts as the top mount for a steel skid plate, below which a fabricated bracket also holds an aluminium sump guard. It’s strong, it looks good, it cost no more than the price of the metal and Franco has the satisfaction of knowing that every time it takes one for the team, he can smile to himself and think ‘I made that.’

Also built not bought is a rear bumper whose box-section design makes it look very different to the front but whose principles of design are actually pretty similar. Again, the ends are inswept to keep them clear of the terrain and the recovery points are anchored to a tubular crossmember, though in this case it’s one which Franco made up himself. The second he made up, in fact, as the first caused a 10mm misalignment in the body.

Probably the most professional looking addition he’s made, though, is a really nifty slimline roofrack with a tubular frame and mesh floor, which trades a little extra weight up top for a lot of extra carrying capacity. It’s home to his CB whip, as well as a bank of spots and a rear work light, and on a trip away you could expect to see it carrying anything from a high-lift jack to a roof tent.

Further mods include a fabricated tray for a second battery, which is wired in to a split-charge system – even though the bumper doesn’t contain a winch and wasn’t designed to do so. Next to this is the inlet from a bought-in snorkel, and down below a set of +2” coil springs runs with the standard struts up front and a pair of Astra GTE shocks at the back. If you didn’t think you’d ever see the day when the dampers off a hot hatch had enough travel to satisfy the needs of an off-roader, by no means are you in a minority of one.

Franco had to drill out the shocks’ eyes from 10mm to 12mm to accept the Vitara’s mounting bolts, but that didn’t hold any fear. And in that one job, the cost of that home mechanic’s course had pretty much paid for itself.

Elsewhere, he raised the fuel tank by 75mm, shaped a set of Land Rover extensions to suit the Vitara’s wheelarches and turned a standard towbar into a fixed recovery point. Inside, he added the usual in-cab toys like a CB and tablet mount as well as a set of strip lights mounted in the ceiling. A very nice touch, and extremely practical too.

And talking of practicality, the cherry on the cake has got to be the drawer system Franco installed in the back of the vehicle. This is based around a frame made from angle and box, made up behind a hardboard ‘bulkhead’ and sheeted out to create a raised floor that’s 100% flat. A classy bit of work: the floor is home to a jerry can cradle but is otherwise there for any cargo or travelling kit Franco wants to carry, with all his tools and recovery gear already stashed safely in the drawers below.

These aren’t the sort of mods that make a world-beating off-roader, but they certainly are the kind of thing that turns an unremarkable old Vitara (let alone one with a date at the scrapyard) into a 4x4 worthy of note. And that’s just what this is.

Franco didn’t set out to build something that would win awards. He just set out to build something – but not just anything. He knew he was after a light, nimble lane truck, and that’s just what he’s got. There’s loads to look at on this vehicle, whether yours is a Vitara or whatever else. Franco spent a lot of time learning from other people’s ideas before he put a spanner on it – and now it’s your turn to learn from his.

DIY BUMPER, VITARA, FABRICATED BUMPER, JIMNY BITS SPRINGS