Midnight Oil

Originally Published: March 2011 Words: Tim Gibson Pictures: Steve Taylor

You’ll hear a lot of things said about the original carburettor in the Samurai, none of them very complimentary. In Dave’s words, it wasn’t fit to be used as anything more than a paperweight. Replacing it here is a Nikki unit, fitted brand new, which can take high-angle hillclimbs and side slopes without turning the engine into a spluttering basket case

The original 1.3-litre Samurai engine is… gone. What you’re looking at here is a 1.6-litre eight-valve unit from a Vitara (one from the days before they went over to fuel injection, obviously). Dave made the change because he wanted a bit more oomph, and rates the Vitara lump as the best option for a Samurai as it doesn’t weigh any more than the original engine. ‘This keeps the vehicle’s weight distribution about right,’ he says, ‘which is good news both on and off-road.’ The engine mates to the standard Samurai gearbox by means of an RS Manufacturing adaptor plate, while Dave made the new engine mounts himself

An Optima Red Top is wired in as the main battery, while a second unit powers the winch, rear KAM diff-lock and all ancillary electrics. The batteries are charged by means of an 80-amp split-charge system, and the standard Suzuki wiring loom remains in place. The alternator comes from a Vitara

At the hot end of the engine, a Calmini four-branch manifold links to a custom-made Infinity stainless steel exhaust

The Samurai didn’t originally come with power steering, but then it didn’t come with gigantic tyres, either. Hence the appearance of a Jimny PAS pump, seen towards the bottom left of this picture

Having scored himself a second-hand Warn M8000, Dave stripped it down and rebuilt it with an Albright solenoid. He fitted dash and bumper-mounted remote controls, and a dash-mounted isolator switch. The winch runs with steel cable; Dave did buy some Plasma rope a couple of years ago when he was planning to start entering challenge events, but pressure of work meant he never managed to realise this ambition. Because the Plasma would require a new fairlead to be fitted, which would in turn require modifications to the bumper, he decided to stick with the steel

Being an engineer by trade, it won’t surprise you to learn that Dave built the winch bumper himself

Both axles came off the vehicle to be shot-blasted and painted, and were completely rebuilt before going back on. New seals and bearings went in all-round, and the rear gained a disc-brake conversion from RS Manufacturing. It also has a KAM locking differential, heavy-duty halfshafts and an ABS plastic diff cover. The front, pictured here, is also heavily modified, with an ARB Air-Locker and a diff cover of its own

The suspension uses components from a Rocky Road Deluxe coil spring conversion, but Dave has modified it to suit his own taste. This involved reducing the lift from eight inches to six, which he achieved by moving the mounting points from the base of the chassis rails to the top. Dave made the mounts, which convert the Samurai from its standard leaf-sprung set-up, himself. He also modified the kit’s radius arms, A-frame and panhard rod to compensate for the changes he’d made to its running height

Messing with suspension height has no end of knock-on effects; the Samurai’s steering geometry, for starters, was all over the place and needed to be modified to suit

With the original leaf springs now gone, a link system was required to keep the back axle in place. Whereas there’s a panhard rod at the front, the Samurai now mimics the system that graced a million Range Rovers by employing twin trailing arms and an A-frame

Long links make for long articulation. And the length of the radius arms on the Samurai can be gauged by the fact that they very nearly meet in the middle of the car; here, units from the front and rear axles pick up on the same chassis-mounted bracket

Behind the original gearbox is a transfer case featuring an RS Manufacturing 6.1:1 conversion. This is 24% lower in high range and 170% lower in low range. One of Dave’s favourite modifications, it does a fine job of compensating for the 35-inch tyres. In his words, ‘It puts low range where it should be: low’

Trail Tough double-cardon propshafts provide the flexibility necessary to live with the suspension lift. These replace the Rocky Road components that Dave originally fitted with the suspension upgrade

The roll cage is a Rob Storr creation, but it was made as a one-off for Dave’s car. It’s a full external design, incorporating all-round body protection and three-inch tubular rock sliders. The cross brace goes through the roof and is fitted behind the front seats. There’s plenty of space for it here, because the cabin has been extended

Sand ladders are mounted by means of some spare box section that Dave had lying around. And here’s something nice. Those jerry cans you see there don’t tend to have anything in them – Dave just likes the way they look. Presumably he wouldn’t be shy of pressing them into service if the need arose, all the same

There are plenty of off-road vehicles out there with brush-painted finishes, but not a lot of them combine it with the camo look. ‘I painted the body in NATO green,’ says Dave, ‘then my mate Peter did the camo finish on top. I’m really pleased with it – it’s the first thing people comment on when they see the truck’

The rear pick-up bed looks as if it was designed specifically to be home to a 35-inch spare tyre. There is, of course, a reason for that…

The familiar bank of ARB switches points up the fact that this is a Samurai with the potential to deliver true four-wheel drive. In fact, the front locker is a KAM unit, but Dave controlled it this way for the sake of neatness

Inside a basic, functional cabin, a set of Mamba buckets keeps the crew well and truly in their place. The seats replaced an earlier pair which went up in flames rather dramatically while Dave was working on the truck-cab conversion and the grinder caught them with a shower of sparks. If you think the need for a workshop fire extinguisher is one of those things that applies mainly to other people, think again…

They look a bit out of place next to the Samurai’s ancient vent controls, but a bank of LED digital amp and volt meters let Dave keep an eye on how the electrical systems are faring

First time Dave Curtis went green laning, he was having so much fun he ended up staying out most of the night. Years later, he’s built a Suzuki Samurai with a spec like no other. It’s a tribute to his skills as an engineer – and, we reckon, a whole lot more late nights, this time in the workshop.

Dave Curtis is very much one of these people. His first off-roader was a Series IIA Land Rover, which he bought with only half a chassis. As an engineer by profession, the thought of fitting a new one didn’t faze Dave, and he was out in it on Salisbury Plain within a matter of weeks.

‘I’d never done any off-roading before then,’ he reports. ‘I had so much fun that I stayed out most of the night. And from that point on, I was hooked for life!’

With a track record of repairing Land Rovers, Dave surprised even himself when he bought his first Suzuki. ‘I was at a trials event and saw a 1988 Suzuki Samurai advertised with a blown engine,’ he says. ‘They wanted fifty quid for it, so I bought it, repaired it and soon discovered that small and light has big, big advantages.’

With a new-found enthusiasm for all things Suzuki, Dave fitted oversized Grizzly Claw tyres, a three-inch suspension lift and a heavy-duty Pro Comp steering damper. He found the Sammy’s leaf-sprung set up a bit hard, however, and was keen to improve the vehicle’s articulation. ‘I could have gone down the drop shackle route,’ he observes. ‘But I had other ideas…’

These ideas came in the form of a 1989-registered Samurai, which Dave bought as a totally standard MOT failure. It needed some welding and new kingpin bearings to get its ticket, but after a couple of days in Dave’s workshop it was ready to go. Although Dave initially transferred the modifications from his original Samurai over to the new vehicle, he had other intentions for his new steed right from the very beginning. He’d decided that a coil spring conversion for the suspension was the only way to go if he wanted to obviate the Samurai’s limitations as an off-roader, so he set about sourcing an appropriate conversion kit for it.

‘I originally intended to build the suspension from scratch,’ he says, ‘but I thought it would take too much time. In the end I opted for a Rocky Road Deluxe kit, which I imported from the USA.’

Despite his best intentions, purchasing an off-the-shelf kit hasn’t proved as labour-saving as Dave hoped. Once fitted, the set-up wasn’t to his taste – a bit too high, and not as stable as he wanted. So he’s modified it, reducing the eight inches of lift to a more manageable six. This in turn has required further adjustments to the steering geometry, panhard rod, radius arms and A-frame. It’s a good job he enjoys spannering so much.

With the suspension finally perfected, Dave was able to fit a set of 35x12.50R15 Cooper Discoverer STTs mounted on 10-inch Vitara Fatboy alloys with 35mm billet spacers. A grippy and very tough mud-terrain tyre, these aren’t the most aggressive you’ll ever see but do very well on and off-road – and although Dave would have liked a set of Simexes, he’s worried about the extra strain they would have put on the drivetrain.

If he did the build again, in fact, he says he’d think about fitting smaller tyres. Not being a fan of body lifts, he had to do a lot of work to the body and chassis, including moving the front axle forward by two inches, in order to make room for the tyres.

Talking of working on the vehicle’s body, it won’t have escaped your attention that this is a truck-cab Samurai. Dave planned it to balance interior space with just enough of a pick-up bed to accommodate a 35-inch spare and a pair of waffles.

To do so, he removed the rear half of the hard top from an SJ413 and welded it to the back of the soft top’s box section. This creates a little bit more room in the cabin, meaning the roll cage’s cross-brace slots behind the seats without encumbering the driver and passenger.

Lots of work, then – but it’s been worth it. The result was a vehicle whose wheels will follow even the most undulating terrain, and Dave is well chuffed. ‘I’ve not measured the articulation,’ he muses, ‘but it’s certainly good enough for my needs.’

Although he was once a keen trials enthusiast, Dave is now more interested in tagging events near to his Somerset home, with the occasional green lane adventure thrown in for good measure.

And herein lies the rub. When Dave first built the Samurai, he didn’t need to think about accommodating anyone other than himself and his wife, Ali. But nowadays, there are two Curtis children who want to join in on the off-road trips – making a two-seater Samurai something of a white elephant.

That’s why, when I phoned him up to talk about the Samurai you’ve been reading about here, it turned out that he’d just sold it. Sorry. Needs must, though, and he was in the process of deciding which model of five-door family car to replace it with.

No, don’t worry, we’re not talking about the relative merits of the Vectra, Mondeo and Citroen C5. Dave’s choice was going to be an age-old one: Land Rover or Suzuki?

This time, however, it was boiling down to a Discovery or a long-wheelbase Vitara. Much more family friendly than a six-inch Samurai, either way, but still very much the real thing. And as Dave bade us farewell and set off in search of his new family motor, we felt pretty sure that whatever it turned out to be, it wasn’t going to stay un-modified for long…

SAMURAI, NIKKI CARB, VITARA ENGINE, CALMINI MANIFOLD, DIY WINCH BUMPER, RECON WARN M8000, RS MANUFACTURING TRANSFER CASE, TRAIL TOUGH PROPS, ROB STORR CAGE, MAMBA BUCKET SEATS