Back To My Roots: A Suzuki Samurai Project
- Thread starter stuntnuts
- Start date
![[thumbsup]](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f44d.png "Thumbs up [thumbsup]")
I installed the new KYB steering stabilizer last night. Much improved feel and no more binding up due to the poor alignment of the stock location stabilizer to the new drop pitman arm. I was forced to mount it under the tie rod link, due to its "too close for comfort" proximity of the oil pan, if mounted above it. But it doesn't really sit any lower than the bottom of the front axle, so ground clearance isn't an issue. As a bonus, it matches the white on the new wheels perfectly, so it looks cool. 
I feel like the steering gear now has some play in it that I will need to adjust. When I pulled it off the truck to cut the old pitman arm off, I noticed the adjustment screw was loose. Thinking nothing of it at the time, I just tightened it back up. But it clearly came out of adjustment when this happened. Unfortunately, the Mk2 Golf radiator is mounted right above the adjustment screw, so I will have to remove the gear again to make the adjustment.
I feel like the steering gear now has some play in it that I will need to adjust. When I pulled it off the truck to cut the old pitman arm off, I noticed the adjustment screw was loose. Thinking nothing of it at the time, I just tightened it back up. But it clearly came out of adjustment when this happened. Unfortunately, the Mk2 Golf radiator is mounted right above the adjustment screw, so I will have to remove the gear again to make the adjustment.
I finished gathering all the components of the stereo system for the Samurai yesterday. The goal was to keep every component "period correct", as there's nothing more irritating to me than looking at an old car that has a modern head unit in the dash and an over the top sub in the rear. If you recall, I spent nearly a year finding the same model head unit that I had in my first Samurai, in 1991. As a high school kid, I was too poor to afford an amp back then, or anything fancy for the rear, but I build my own 6x9 speaker boxes and was pretty proud of myself.
For this Samurai, I wanted the rear speakers I couldn't afford 30 years ago. The problem is, they are all 30 years old now and quite rare. They were all placed behind the seats in early 90's trucks and because of this, they took some abuse. Like I did for my head unit, I flipped thru my 1991 Pioneer Car Audio catalog and figured out which model was the exact one I desired way back when:
Found them:
Most of the pairs I've found were smashed into oblivion, dented grilles, missing the mounting brackets, etc. I finally found a pair that looked great in pictures and were complete, so I jumped on them. They showed up yesterday and although I haven't listened to them yet, I'm quite happy with their appearance. As expected, they have the inevitable scratches on them, but that's OK, they survived for 30 years without dents and broken cases, which is quite the feat.
Here they are after a quick clean up:
The stock Samurai stereo is a Clarion unit with only 4" front speakers in the kick panels, behind factory grilles. They are horrible sounding, single-coned garbage that I had to replace. Seeing that these would be hidden behind factory grilles, I chose to cheat and purchase present day Pioneer 4 inchers to replace the stock ones:
Finding a "period correct" amp was also a challenge. I knew I wanted a 4 channel amp, because the head unit only produces 7 watts per channel, and the way the Samurai vibrates and rattles, it was going to need a lot more than that to drown it out. I found one on Craiglist, local to me, owned by a pretty cool mobile installer who has a ton of vintage stuff. Although it is a bit newer than the targeted 1991-era (it's a 1994 model), it still looks appropriate, as Pioneer was still using their old logo at this point. I will be mounting it under the driver's seat:
As soon as the fuse holder and wiring supplies come in, I will begin the install. I can't wait!
For this Samurai, I wanted the rear speakers I couldn't afford 30 years ago. The problem is, they are all 30 years old now and quite rare. They were all placed behind the seats in early 90's trucks and because of this, they took some abuse. Like I did for my head unit, I flipped thru my 1991 Pioneer Car Audio catalog and figured out which model was the exact one I desired way back when:
Found them:
Most of the pairs I've found were smashed into oblivion, dented grilles, missing the mounting brackets, etc. I finally found a pair that looked great in pictures and were complete, so I jumped on them. They showed up yesterday and although I haven't listened to them yet, I'm quite happy with their appearance. As expected, they have the inevitable scratches on them, but that's OK, they survived for 30 years without dents and broken cases, which is quite the feat.
Here they are after a quick clean up:
The stock Samurai stereo is a Clarion unit with only 4" front speakers in the kick panels, behind factory grilles. They are horrible sounding, single-coned garbage that I had to replace. Seeing that these would be hidden behind factory grilles, I chose to cheat and purchase present day Pioneer 4 inchers to replace the stock ones:
Finding a "period correct" amp was also a challenge. I knew I wanted a 4 channel amp, because the head unit only produces 7 watts per channel, and the way the Samurai vibrates and rattles, it was going to need a lot more than that to drown it out. I found one on Craiglist, local to me, owned by a pretty cool mobile installer who has a ton of vintage stuff. Although it is a bit newer than the targeted 1991-era (it's a 1994 model), it still looks appropriate, as Pioneer was still using their old logo at this point. I will be mounting it under the driver's seat:
As soon as the fuse holder and wiring supplies come in, I will begin the install. I can't wait!
melbakid said:Should have a nice sounding system when your out on the road. First trip should be for ice cream cones with the wife and kids!
I long for those days again.
Zuki4x4 said:
I started tearing into the stock stereo "system" yesterday, and by tearing into, I mean I gave the only speakers in the truck their walking papers. :laugh:
These factory Clarions are rated at an unbelievable 5 watts.
I mounted the new Pioneers to the factory grilles and that didn't go off without a hitch. The separate tweeters protrude beyond the mounting face of the flange, so I had to space them back about 3/8". Luckily my local hardware store had exactly what I need to accomplish this task, with some nylon spacers. :thumbup:
I installed them and ran them off of the Pioneer head unit and the difference between these and the stock Clarions was obviously mind-blowing. It's so much better that I really don't even see the need for the amp. While I was in the wiring, I tried out the rear TRX speakers and they sound great....very satisfied with that purchase. I also routed the rear speaker wires under the carpet. Again...waiting for the amp wiring to arrive, so I can finish this off.
I decided that I don't have the room to keep the stock wheels and tires, so I put them up on Craigslist. I haven't gotten any hits on them yet, so if you know anyone, please send them my way. :laugh:
I finally got around to installing the audio system over the past few days. Everything works and sounds great, I'm very pleased. The amp is 4 channel, powering both the front and rear speakers. Thankfully there is no distortion from the front speakers, as the Pioneer amp has a switch on it to cut all low frequencies from those speakers. I'm letting the rear boxes produce the lows. Overall not bad for a period correct budget system, which I think I have just over $200 invested in.
The Pioneer GM-X304 Amp:
The Pioneer TS-TRX40's
I wasn't able to use the elusive mounting brackets for the rear speaker boxes because of the size limitations in the Samurai, between the rear seat belt retractors. I velcro'd them to the carpets and I think they will be OK like that. I was also on the fence on whether I should mount them where I did or to the tailgate instead. Mounting to the tailgate might have been a bit cooler, but would have required a lot more wiring and removal of interior panels that I didn't want to deal with at the present time. I can always do that at a later date, if I wanna get fancy.
Overall, this system replicates what I had in my old Samurai quite well and also, with the addition of the amp, enhances it greatly. Listening to the same vintage hip hop cassettes I used to listen to 30 years ago, in my old Samurai, while driving this thing down the road, really hits me in the nostalgia feels.
I finally got around to installing the audio system over the past few days. Everything works and sounds great, I'm very pleased. The amp is 4 channel, powering both the front and rear speakers. Thankfully there is no distortion from the front speakers, as the Pioneer amp has a switch on it to cut all low frequencies from those speakers. I'm letting the rear boxes produce the lows. Overall not bad for a period correct budget system, which I think I have just over $200 invested in.
The Pioneer GM-X304 Amp:
The Pioneer TS-TRX40's
I wasn't able to use the elusive mounting brackets for the rear speaker boxes because of the size limitations in the Samurai, between the rear seat belt retractors. I velcro'd them to the carpets and I think they will be OK like that. I was also on the fence on whether I should mount them where I did or to the tailgate instead. Mounting to the tailgate might have been a bit cooler, but would have required a lot more wiring and removal of interior panels that I didn't want to deal with at the present time. I can always do that at a later date, if I wanna get fancy.
Overall, this system replicates what I had in my old Samurai quite well and also, with the addition of the amp, enhances it greatly. Listening to the same vintage hip hop cassettes I used to listen to 30 years ago, in my old Samurai, while driving this thing down the road, really hits me in the nostalgia feels.
I went to the local pick and pull over the weekend and grabbed a few thing that I need to tie up some loose ends over the winter or sooner:
I foolishly threw out the stock Samurai EVAP canister when I originally pulled the engine, thinking I wouldn't need it/ever use it. I currently have the vent line unplugged at the tank. When I fill the tank up, the smell of fuel vapors is pretty bad, when parked in the garage, so I grabbed a couple. There are a few OBD2 Geo Trackers there, that have the bigger plastic tank. I wanted to use one of those, but I don't think there's enough room anymore Samurai engine bay. Luckily, there was also a pre-OBD2 Tracker, with the smaller metal canister type that comes stock on the Samurai, so I grabbed that, too.
To make this work with the ABA EFI, I grabbed an EVAP purge valve from an OBD2 Mk3. While I was in the Mk3, I also got the distributor hall sensor dust cover. Why you ask? Because the one that came on my engine mysteriously does not have the timing mark required to properly time the intermediate shaft to the cam and crank. When I did the timing belt before dropping the engine in, I noticed this and had to "fudge" it. Over the winter, I will verify the timing and adjust if the rotor doesn't perfectly line up with the mark.
I also grabbed a pair of Mk3 battery cables. The stock Samurai cables that I'm using, have reached their limit as far as neatly adding accessories to the wimpy stock post clamps. I strongly prefer Mk3 cables to clean everything up.
I also was out and about and took quite a few pics over the last few days, here are a few of my favorites. And yes, if you have a keen eye, you'll notice something missing on the Samurai in a few of them.....for good reason. More on that soon.
This was an old trail I used to take my first Samurai down in the early-90's. Sadly it is now gated and no longer accessible:
I foolishly threw out the stock Samurai EVAP canister when I originally pulled the engine, thinking I wouldn't need it/ever use it. I currently have the vent line unplugged at the tank. When I fill the tank up, the smell of fuel vapors is pretty bad, when parked in the garage, so I grabbed a couple. There are a few OBD2 Geo Trackers there, that have the bigger plastic tank. I wanted to use one of those, but I don't think there's enough room anymore Samurai engine bay. Luckily, there was also a pre-OBD2 Tracker, with the smaller metal canister type that comes stock on the Samurai, so I grabbed that, too.
To make this work with the ABA EFI, I grabbed an EVAP purge valve from an OBD2 Mk3. While I was in the Mk3, I also got the distributor hall sensor dust cover. Why you ask? Because the one that came on my engine mysteriously does not have the timing mark required to properly time the intermediate shaft to the cam and crank. When I did the timing belt before dropping the engine in, I noticed this and had to "fudge" it. Over the winter, I will verify the timing and adjust if the rotor doesn't perfectly line up with the mark.
I also grabbed a pair of Mk3 battery cables. The stock Samurai cables that I'm using, have reached their limit as far as neatly adding accessories to the wimpy stock post clamps. I strongly prefer Mk3 cables to clean everything up.
I also was out and about and took quite a few pics over the last few days, here are a few of my favorites. And yes, if you have a keen eye, you'll notice something missing on the Samurai in a few of them.....for good reason. More on that soon.
This was an old trail I used to take my first Samurai down in the early-90's. Sadly it is now gated and no longer accessible:
Diesel_Zuk
Well-known member
I'm trying to look hard, maybe I'm missing it. Is it the side mirrors? Almost looks like passenger one is missing in first pic, and both in the second pic?
A small but very detail orientated update:
The stock battery cables on the the Samurai leave much to be desired. At first it wasn't a big deal, but once I started adding accessories in the engine bay and that vintage Pioneer amp, the positive clamp really got maxed out. Plus, let's face it, they are an eyesore:
Enter the Mk3 Golf/Jetta Battery Cables.The best part about them is their ability to cleanly ad accessories to them, instead of just stacking ring terminals onto the pinch bolt. If you recall, I made a junkyard run a few weeks back and retrieved a pair of these wonderful copper beauties.
They certainly weren't perfect, corrosion on the ends and covered in engine grime. I got to work and cleaned up the terminals on battery side. I went to the hardware store and picked up all new hardware for them:
I was hoping that I could reuse the terminals on the other ends of them, meaning they wouldn't be too long, but that wasn't the case. Both the positive and the negative were too long for the distance they needed to travel in the Samurai, so I had to cut them to length. I measured twice and cut once, went to the local Autozone to find the correct sized lugs (2 gauge, 5/16" stud hole), which they actually had in stock, and then realized something when I got home. I have no means of crimping the new lugs to the Mk3 cables. I have various crimpers, but none remotely close to having the ability to crimp 2 gauge lugs:
I called around locally, NAPA to see if they made custom cables, various repair shops, even the local VW dealership, who I'm friendly with and no one had a crimper large enough to handle these. I regrouped and found this unit on ebay. It's Chinese-made, probably a pile of sh!t, and $27 shipped, but I only needed to do two lugs with it, so I risked it. It looks like a bolt cutter tool, but with dies on it instead of blades:
It tried it out and thankfully it didn't fold on itself. I wasn't comfortable with only one crimp on each, so I double crimped it. I'm hopeful they will hold up. I also added some shrink wrap on them to keep the strands corrosion free:
And the finished product, custom length Mk3 battery cables:
I installed them and the fitment was perfect. I re-routed all the accessory powers and added a replacement body ground with a larger gauge wire than the stock Samurai negative cable used. Overall, I'm very happy with this mod. I realize it's a tiny detail, but to me these things all add up:
I thought about the Mk4 Golf/Jetta distribution box above the battery, but it just wouldn't fit the Samurai-sized battery and not look out of place. However, seeing that my new Mk3 positive cable is already maxed out, I may have to get some form of an auxiliary distribution box at some point, if I add anymore accessories, which I currently don't plan on doing.
That's it for this update. I promise a VERY BIG update is coming VERY SOON. Sit tight....
The stock battery cables on the the Samurai leave much to be desired. At first it wasn't a big deal, but once I started adding accessories in the engine bay and that vintage Pioneer amp, the positive clamp really got maxed out. Plus, let's face it, they are an eyesore:
Enter the Mk3 Golf/Jetta Battery Cables.The best part about them is their ability to cleanly ad accessories to them, instead of just stacking ring terminals onto the pinch bolt. If you recall, I made a junkyard run a few weeks back and retrieved a pair of these wonderful copper beauties.
They certainly weren't perfect, corrosion on the ends and covered in engine grime. I got to work and cleaned up the terminals on battery side. I went to the hardware store and picked up all new hardware for them:
I was hoping that I could reuse the terminals on the other ends of them, meaning they wouldn't be too long, but that wasn't the case. Both the positive and the negative were too long for the distance they needed to travel in the Samurai, so I had to cut them to length. I measured twice and cut once, went to the local Autozone to find the correct sized lugs (2 gauge, 5/16" stud hole), which they actually had in stock, and then realized something when I got home. I have no means of crimping the new lugs to the Mk3 cables. I have various crimpers, but none remotely close to having the ability to crimp 2 gauge lugs:
I called around locally, NAPA to see if they made custom cables, various repair shops, even the local VW dealership, who I'm friendly with and no one had a crimper large enough to handle these. I regrouped and found this unit on ebay. It's Chinese-made, probably a pile of sh!t, and $27 shipped, but I only needed to do two lugs with it, so I risked it. It looks like a bolt cutter tool, but with dies on it instead of blades:
It tried it out and thankfully it didn't fold on itself. I wasn't comfortable with only one crimp on each, so I double crimped it. I'm hopeful they will hold up. I also added some shrink wrap on them to keep the strands corrosion free:
And the finished product, custom length Mk3 battery cables:
I installed them and the fitment was perfect. I re-routed all the accessory powers and added a replacement body ground with a larger gauge wire than the stock Samurai negative cable used. Overall, I'm very happy with this mod. I realize it's a tiny detail, but to me these things all add up:
I thought about the Mk4 Golf/Jetta distribution box above the battery, but it just wouldn't fit the Samurai-sized battery and not look out of place. However, seeing that my new Mk3 positive cable is already maxed out, I may have to get some form of an auxiliary distribution box at some point, if I add anymore accessories, which I currently don't plan on doing.
That's it for this update. I promise a VERY BIG update is coming VERY SOON. Sit tight....
Deadlight44
Well-known member
I used the Bluesea fuse box off Amazon seems to be very good quality for price...
Deadlight44
Well-known member
I hinted a big update a few weeks ago, and boy, did I deliver...
It's no secret that the seats in the Samurai are in pretty rough shape. They are 35 years old, all original, and in desperate need of attention. As destroyed as they are, they surprisingly have held up pretty well if you compare them to my first Samurai. I got that one in 1991, it was a 1986 model with 60,000 on the odometer, so six years old and those seat looked like utter rags. My dad arranged for a local upholsterer to recover them with two-tone vinyl (dark grey with light grey inserts) and they came out amazing. My only gripe was that the new inserts never matched the existing door cards after that, and it always bothered me, but my dad paid for the re-skin, so I wasn't complaining.
I knew it was time to do the same thing with this Samurai, but this time, I was determined to have the inserts on the new covers continue to match the door card inserts. The local upholsterer who did my first Samurai's seats, in 1991, was still in business, so I took a drive west to pay them a visit. I told them what I wanted....new dark grey vinyl coverings on everything but the inserts, which were in good enough shape to reuse, luckily. They came back with a quote of $1,200 and asked me to leave the seats with them over the entire winter. The quote felt a little high to me, but seeing the work they did, first-hand on my old Samurai, it was acceptable. However, I really didn't like the part about leaving them for 5 months. So I gave it some thought...
Here are the BEFORE pics of the seats:
A lot of the seams had come unraveled:
And there were random tears in the vinyl and worn out fabric:
I googled "Suzuki Samurai seat cover" for the heck of it and came across this ebay link...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1986-1995-suzuki-samurai-jx-FRONT-AND-REAR-seat-upholstery/114239422319?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
I was intrigued. Although these particular ones were not my style, and certainly not want I was looking for, it was my gateway to greatness. The seller owns an upholstery shop in Connecticut and has done MANY reskins on Suzuki Samurais.
https://www.facebook.com/A1upholsteryservices/
I contacted him and asked if he could make me what I requested from the local upholsterer, new covers with dark grey vinyl with my existing inserts. He replied that he would, in fact, be willing to do this for me. The agreement was that I'd pull the existing covers off and ship them to him. Once he received them, it would take 5-7 days to complete them and ship them back to me. I was blown away. Not only because it would be a 5 DAY turnaround instead of a 5 MONTH turnaround, but because it was for 1/3 of the price as the local guy quoted me.
Sure, I would be on the hook for removing the old covers and shipping them to him and also risking that these original irreplaceable items be lost in the mail, but it was worth it. I was also going to be on the hook for rebuilding the foam and fixing all the seat frame issues as well, but I was 100% cool with that too. Over the years I had rebuild a pair of Mk2 Trophy Recaros, a pair of B5 A4 seats, and I've reskinned some Mk7 GTI seats, so I wasn't intimidated. I executed an ebay "Buy It Now" and got busy.
The first order of business was to remove them from the vehicle and start the disassembly process. Note the condition of what was being removed as well as the staining on the original inserts that I was reusing:
I started skinning them, one cover at a time, and everything went pretty smoothly. The only hiccup was when I went to remove the headrest guide tubes that go into the seat backs. There was no good way to pull these out with destroying either them or the seat cover inserts that I was to be reusing, so I sacrificed the guide tubes. Luckily, these guide tubes were still available in Japan, so I ordered a set of new ones from Megazip.
The following pics were taken for my use, to refresh my memory, once the new covers came in, to see how they all went back together:
Before sending the covers off to A-1 Upholstery, I decided to run them through the washing machine to see if I could tackle the staining on the inserts. I'm happy to report that the washing machine was up to the task! I hung the covers out to dry in the afternoon sun and prepared my packaging materials:
The covers looked great, so I packed them up and dropped them off at the post office. Connecticut is only a couple hundred miles from me, so A-1 Upholstery received them the next day.
While the upholstery shop was doing their thing, I got to work on the frame/foam rebuilding process. As I mentioned earlier, I had done a few seat repairs in the past, but nothing as extreme as these. I had a few issues here that were new to me.
First off, the oldest trick in the book is to take the passenger side foam out of the frame and swap it with the driver side foam when you rebuild seats. This is because, for the most part, the passenger side seat has WAY less miles on it then the driver side does. So using the fresher passenger side foam on the driver side seat frame makes it feel like brand new, in comparison.
Sadly, the Samurai seat foam and frame are molded together as one piece. The foam is not removable from the frame and the frames are side specific. I'm kinda screwed here. Because of this, the driver side foam was going to continue to be the driver side foam in its second life. I went back to Megazip to see if the foam/frame assemblies were still available, and unfortunately they were not. What I had on hand was what I had to work with.
I suited up in my COVID-19 protective gear and made two stops, the local parts store and Joann's Fabrics. I grabbed some 3M Upholstery Spray Adhesive at the parts store and some replacement foam and 1/2 a yard of headliner material from Joann's:
I began to study what I had to work with and what approach I would have to take:
I started with the passenger side back, as it was the least damaged of the pair and I could get myself comfortable with the one which needed less repair. I simply added some headliner foam to cover a split in the back of the seat foam:
Then I flipped it over to address the front of it. There is a metal wire cage that is embedded into the foam that holds the cover to the foam. It had pulled out of the foam and was just flopping around, so I positioned it back were it needed to be and used more headliner foam to resecure it to the rest of the foam:
I also had to address a tear and worn out chunk of foam where the bolster meets the back. I cut out a portion of the dead foam and replaced with a new portion of foam. This would then be covered with the headliner foam to smooth out the transition of old foam to new:
I also added a strip the entire length of the weakened bolster to back portion to reinforce it and prevent further separation:
And with that, one piece was finished! I moved onto the driver side, same section, but much worse. I fixed the backside of it the same way I fixed the passenger side:
The foam on the driver side was in real rough shape. Dead, torn, disintegrated, etc, so I had lots of cutting out old foam and then lots of holes to fill:
Similarly, the driver side was repaired in the same manner. Cut out dead foam, replace with new foam, and cover the wound with headliner foam. I also had to re-embed the metal cage in this one as well:
Two down!
Now it was time to do the driver side bottom portion. Also in rough shape, I got to cutting out the old dead foam and replaced with fresh foam. Again, all the new foam was covered with the headliner foam to smooth the transition and provide some reinforcing. I also had to re-embed the metal cages that the bottom portion of the seats also have:
Aside from re-embeding the metal cage, the passenger side bottom didn't need any repairs. The front foam/frame repairs were complete!
It was time to move onto the rear seat. That was quite simple, because we all know that no one sits in the back seat of a Samurai besides 40 pound or less children. :laugh:
My work was done and now I just had to wait for A-1 Upholstery to wrap up their portion. Unexpectedly, later that day, I received an email from them that said they were finished and included the following:
I was BLOWN AWAY!!! They looked EXACTLY how I had hoped they would!!! At this point, I couldn't wait for Fedex to drop off the covers the following day. I honestly didn't sleep that night, because I was so excited.
The following day they showed up and looked even more fabulous in real life. The quality and craftsmanship was outstanding, I made a good choice:
That evening, I got to work. I grabbed my hog ring pliers, studied the pics I took of the disassembly, and got to it. I started with the front seat bottoms and was thoroughly impressed with the fitment. Overall, these were pretty simple to put back together:
Then, I moved onto the rear seat bottom. Very similar to the front seat bottoms, just bigger:
From there, I did the rear seat back portion:
I saved the most difficult for last, the front back portions. They were a bigger challenge than the rest due to the fact that they have a bungee cord inside where the bolster fabric meets the insert to keep it tight and from bunching up. After a bit of swearing and sweating, I figured them out and was happy with the results:
And right on time, my order from Japan showed up, so I could install the headrest guide tubes, and ultimately the headrests:
I put the halves back together and finally got the big picture. The fronts:
And the rear:
Now the moment I've been waiting for......time to put them in the Samurai!!!
I hope you enjoy the pics as much as I enjoy looking and sitting in them:
I'm so happy with this seat project, I feel like it really put this Samurai over the top. I'm no longer ashamed of the interior and when car shows return, I'd be proud to show it off, completely. The door cards match, the seats still look stock, everything is pleasing to the eye, and they feel stiff and supportive.
It's no secret that the seats in the Samurai are in pretty rough shape. They are 35 years old, all original, and in desperate need of attention. As destroyed as they are, they surprisingly have held up pretty well if you compare them to my first Samurai. I got that one in 1991, it was a 1986 model with 60,000 on the odometer, so six years old and those seat looked like utter rags. My dad arranged for a local upholsterer to recover them with two-tone vinyl (dark grey with light grey inserts) and they came out amazing. My only gripe was that the new inserts never matched the existing door cards after that, and it always bothered me, but my dad paid for the re-skin, so I wasn't complaining.
I knew it was time to do the same thing with this Samurai, but this time, I was determined to have the inserts on the new covers continue to match the door card inserts. The local upholsterer who did my first Samurai's seats, in 1991, was still in business, so I took a drive west to pay them a visit. I told them what I wanted....new dark grey vinyl coverings on everything but the inserts, which were in good enough shape to reuse, luckily. They came back with a quote of $1,200 and asked me to leave the seats with them over the entire winter. The quote felt a little high to me, but seeing the work they did, first-hand on my old Samurai, it was acceptable. However, I really didn't like the part about leaving them for 5 months. So I gave it some thought...
Here are the BEFORE pics of the seats:
A lot of the seams had come unraveled:
And there were random tears in the vinyl and worn out fabric:
I googled "Suzuki Samurai seat cover" for the heck of it and came across this ebay link...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1986-1995-suzuki-samurai-jx-FRONT-AND-REAR-seat-upholstery/114239422319?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
I was intrigued. Although these particular ones were not my style, and certainly not want I was looking for, it was my gateway to greatness. The seller owns an upholstery shop in Connecticut and has done MANY reskins on Suzuki Samurais.
https://www.facebook.com/A1upholsteryservices/
I contacted him and asked if he could make me what I requested from the local upholsterer, new covers with dark grey vinyl with my existing inserts. He replied that he would, in fact, be willing to do this for me. The agreement was that I'd pull the existing covers off and ship them to him. Once he received them, it would take 5-7 days to complete them and ship them back to me. I was blown away. Not only because it would be a 5 DAY turnaround instead of a 5 MONTH turnaround, but because it was for 1/3 of the price as the local guy quoted me.
Sure, I would be on the hook for removing the old covers and shipping them to him and also risking that these original irreplaceable items be lost in the mail, but it was worth it. I was also going to be on the hook for rebuilding the foam and fixing all the seat frame issues as well, but I was 100% cool with that too. Over the years I had rebuild a pair of Mk2 Trophy Recaros, a pair of B5 A4 seats, and I've reskinned some Mk7 GTI seats, so I wasn't intimidated. I executed an ebay "Buy It Now" and got busy.
The first order of business was to remove them from the vehicle and start the disassembly process. Note the condition of what was being removed as well as the staining on the original inserts that I was reusing:
I started skinning them, one cover at a time, and everything went pretty smoothly. The only hiccup was when I went to remove the headrest guide tubes that go into the seat backs. There was no good way to pull these out with destroying either them or the seat cover inserts that I was to be reusing, so I sacrificed the guide tubes. Luckily, these guide tubes were still available in Japan, so I ordered a set of new ones from Megazip.
The following pics were taken for my use, to refresh my memory, once the new covers came in, to see how they all went back together:
Before sending the covers off to A-1 Upholstery, I decided to run them through the washing machine to see if I could tackle the staining on the inserts. I'm happy to report that the washing machine was up to the task! I hung the covers out to dry in the afternoon sun and prepared my packaging materials:
The covers looked great, so I packed them up and dropped them off at the post office. Connecticut is only a couple hundred miles from me, so A-1 Upholstery received them the next day.
While the upholstery shop was doing their thing, I got to work on the frame/foam rebuilding process. As I mentioned earlier, I had done a few seat repairs in the past, but nothing as extreme as these. I had a few issues here that were new to me.
First off, the oldest trick in the book is to take the passenger side foam out of the frame and swap it with the driver side foam when you rebuild seats. This is because, for the most part, the passenger side seat has WAY less miles on it then the driver side does. So using the fresher passenger side foam on the driver side seat frame makes it feel like brand new, in comparison.
Sadly, the Samurai seat foam and frame are molded together as one piece. The foam is not removable from the frame and the frames are side specific. I'm kinda screwed here. Because of this, the driver side foam was going to continue to be the driver side foam in its second life. I went back to Megazip to see if the foam/frame assemblies were still available, and unfortunately they were not. What I had on hand was what I had to work with.
I suited up in my COVID-19 protective gear and made two stops, the local parts store and Joann's Fabrics. I grabbed some 3M Upholstery Spray Adhesive at the parts store and some replacement foam and 1/2 a yard of headliner material from Joann's:
I began to study what I had to work with and what approach I would have to take:
I started with the passenger side back, as it was the least damaged of the pair and I could get myself comfortable with the one which needed less repair. I simply added some headliner foam to cover a split in the back of the seat foam:
Then I flipped it over to address the front of it. There is a metal wire cage that is embedded into the foam that holds the cover to the foam. It had pulled out of the foam and was just flopping around, so I positioned it back were it needed to be and used more headliner foam to resecure it to the rest of the foam:
I also had to address a tear and worn out chunk of foam where the bolster meets the back. I cut out a portion of the dead foam and replaced with a new portion of foam. This would then be covered with the headliner foam to smooth out the transition of old foam to new:
I also added a strip the entire length of the weakened bolster to back portion to reinforce it and prevent further separation:
And with that, one piece was finished! I moved onto the driver side, same section, but much worse. I fixed the backside of it the same way I fixed the passenger side:
The foam on the driver side was in real rough shape. Dead, torn, disintegrated, etc, so I had lots of cutting out old foam and then lots of holes to fill:
Similarly, the driver side was repaired in the same manner. Cut out dead foam, replace with new foam, and cover the wound with headliner foam. I also had to re-embed the metal cage in this one as well:
Two down!
Now it was time to do the driver side bottom portion. Also in rough shape, I got to cutting out the old dead foam and replaced with fresh foam. Again, all the new foam was covered with the headliner foam to smooth the transition and provide some reinforcing. I also had to re-embed the metal cages that the bottom portion of the seats also have:
Aside from re-embeding the metal cage, the passenger side bottom didn't need any repairs. The front foam/frame repairs were complete!
It was time to move onto the rear seat. That was quite simple, because we all know that no one sits in the back seat of a Samurai besides 40 pound or less children. :laugh:
My work was done and now I just had to wait for A-1 Upholstery to wrap up their portion. Unexpectedly, later that day, I received an email from them that said they were finished and included the following:
I was BLOWN AWAY!!! They looked EXACTLY how I had hoped they would!!! At this point, I couldn't wait for Fedex to drop off the covers the following day. I honestly didn't sleep that night, because I was so excited.
The following day they showed up and looked even more fabulous in real life. The quality and craftsmanship was outstanding, I made a good choice:
That evening, I got to work. I grabbed my hog ring pliers, studied the pics I took of the disassembly, and got to it. I started with the front seat bottoms and was thoroughly impressed with the fitment. Overall, these were pretty simple to put back together:
Then, I moved onto the rear seat bottom. Very similar to the front seat bottoms, just bigger:
From there, I did the rear seat back portion:
I saved the most difficult for last, the front back portions. They were a bigger challenge than the rest due to the fact that they have a bungee cord inside where the bolster fabric meets the insert to keep it tight and from bunching up. After a bit of swearing and sweating, I figured them out and was happy with the results:
And right on time, my order from Japan showed up, so I could install the headrest guide tubes, and ultimately the headrests:
I put the halves back together and finally got the big picture. The fronts:
And the rear:
Now the moment I've been waiting for......time to put them in the Samurai!!!
I hope you enjoy the pics as much as I enjoy looking and sitting in them:
I'm so happy with this seat project, I feel like it really put this Samurai over the top. I'm no longer ashamed of the interior and when car shows return, I'd be proud to show it off, completely. The door cards match, the seats still look stock, everything is pleasing to the eye, and they feel stiff and supportive.
