Blake's Jimny

I've been a very busy bee this month with some jobs on Jenny, seeing as the weathers been nice.

Firstly, I managed to get a hold of a MOD cup holder from eBay. I actually prefer it to my one that's replaced the ashtray as it's not in the way of the gear stick, nor does it shake up and down as much.

 

Next on the list was to replace the gearbox mount in an attempt to reduce some of the vibrations, I was going to get this replaced at the same time as my gearbox. However the one I'd bought for the garage to swap in was the wrong one, so if anyone's after an OEM mount without packaging, just give me a buzz. I've noticed there's a slight improvement but nothing major other than slightly easier gear changes. Next to replace will be the engine mounts and crank pulley... hopefully during an engine swap.

 

And the main event of this update... New shock absorbers!

I'd been browsing for a while and I was going to get some AVO ones (I'd wanted adjustable ones) however I believe the company went bust and I was no longer able to buy them. My searching lead me to RHDJapan where I bought a set of APIO Roadwin shocks for front  and rear . 

The cost with shipping and customs fees wasn't too bad and not far off what some people pay for a set of UK market ones. Plus I get to add more #JDM tat to my rust bucket   

I also got around to fitting new (to me) springs on the front as I'd already had the rears off when I replaced the shocks for MOT.

    

   

They're made by KYB who are the OEM for Suzuki anyway, and I believe the ones on the front were original, so had done 166K! They're also a very nice colour in the right light.

   

Fitting the fronts was a bit of a faff as I had to break out the grinder to cut off the seized nuts, and lowering the front axle meant disconnecting a lot of stuff too, but we got there in the end. 

 

The rears were easy enough as previously mentioned I'd had them off before. However it was very boring only being able to spin the bolt a fraction of a turn at the time.

Overall I'm very happy with them, I've got them on the highest dampening setting (14) at the moment but might have a fiddle around as they fronts and rears may benefit from different settings. The main thing I've noticed is that changing lanes (I did another airport run) is a lot more snappier!  

Something that's been on my list of Jimny jobs for a while, and I've finally got around to, is painting my spoiler!

it's come up okay, however the paint is flat in some places, I might do it again at some point but it's a bit of a learning curve.
I'm going to do my spare wheel cover next, and see if I can improve on that, then maybe the front end if I get good enough.

 

Nice work!