Suzuki XL-7 build- “XL7-UP”

[The_Lobbster]

Been trying to find a 4x4 to build up. Was torn between a Cherokee and something Suzuki based. I’m more familiar with Zuki stuff, so I started looking for a Grand vitara, Tracker, or XL-7. Finally found one today, was posted on KSL this morning and went and bought it this afternoon.

Plans are for a 3-4” lift, 17” dodge steelies, and the roughly 32” destination mt2 tires I had for my comanche.

One problem, the timing chain let go, so I’ll need to do a valve job at minimum, possibly a new engine.

 

[Stephen]

Love it! I've thought long and hard about the Grand Vitara/XL-7 platform in the past. I think this will be awesome.

 

[The_Lobbster]

One downside about 05-06 is they only had 4.30’s, where the 02-05 had 5.13’s. However, the 05-06 also has a 5 sped auto trans that allegedly is pretty strong, so there’s a bit of a trade off. If desired, I could probably figure out a way to swap in the early style diff and rear 3rd to match.


Did a little mock-up tonight. I’m planning on running dodge steelies, but these jeep wheels do look pretty good hmm….I think with adapters though they’ll still be lacking too much of a backspace for what I’m going for.

 

[The_Lobbster]

I’ll need spacers either way, so maybe I’ll try to just use the Jeep wheels if possible. For context, here’s the steelies I’d be using if I go that route.

 

[Gravy]

What's the bolt pattern you need?

 

[The_Lobbster]

What's the bolt pattern you need?

5x5.5 for the Suzuki. But need a 4” minimum BS, preferably 3-3.5”

 

[Gravy]

Will they clear a 15" wheel?

 

[The_Lobbster]

Will they clear a 15" wheel?

I believe these are a bigger rotor than early sidekick/samurai, and will not. I am not 100% certain on that. I’ll have to look into it.

 

[The_Lobbster]

At minimum I’m sure I’ll need an entire upper end, so I’ve decided to just swap in an entire junkyard motor. Found one in Springville in a wrecked XL7, so I’m hoping that’s a sign that it ran and drove before the accident. I’m going to try to pull it this week if I can take a day off work.

Also robbed the gas door and put on mine since it was damaged.

 

[The_Lobbster]

That sucked. The actual swap is going to be fun.

 

[The_Lobbster]

Did a 2” body lift. Have 2004 Tacoma coils on order for the front, going to try to use some JL Teraflex springs in the rear.

Also got one of the dodge Steelies mounted for testing. I still need to blast, paint, and swap my Firestone MT’s onto them.

 

[The_Lobbster]

Guess I’ll just build plate bumpers instead of tube stuff. Guy I know hooked me up with a 5x4 sheet of 3/16 today, paid him with some sodas.

 

[N-Smooth]

Man I want all of that steel 🤣

 

[The_Lobbster]

Man I want all of that steel 🤣

Most of it is 1/8”, but the big pieces in the pic are 3/16”. I don’t want to lose my connection, but if you want some, I can probably hook you up with a fair amount.

 

[The_Lobbster]

I’ll probably catch flack for this, but here it goes. Still wanted to incorporate tube into my bumpers somehow. Picked up some 1” sch. 40 for cheap and broke out the ole harbor freight pipe bender. Works pretty good for actual pipe! The structural components will still be plate, this will be more or less a glorified brush bar. Still probably stronger than the Chinese jeep bumpers on eBay 😂

 

[The_Lobbster]

Scored an ARB old man EMU 1.5” lift for about $125 from the pullnsave today. Progress is sloooow otherwise.

 

[The_Lobbster]

For some reason I get GX470 vibes from the XL7 looks, and I really like the bronzeish wheels on blue GX’s. I found some different Dodge 5x5.5 steel wheels from a Dakota, but still a 17x7 with a 5.25” backspace. Swiped them up yesterday, gave them a good rinse, wire wheel of the rust spots, then wiped down with denatured alcohol, and laid down the first of at least 3 coats of rustoleum.

 

[Stephen]

That's going to look cool!

 

[The_Lobbster]

Murphy’s law….couldn’t find my dang air chuck, but I mounted up anyways, and just shoved the air hose onto the valve stem….then my compressor regulator crapped out and won’t release more than maybe 20 psi out of the tank.


But still got a couple mounted up. I still need to throw the new lift struts and coils in, and choppy chop some sheet metal. I’ll have to do something different for the rear, I discovered the old man emu coils are too small of a diameter to fit the bucket.


In the meantime til I can address these things, feast your eyes. IMO, the 6 spoke vs the old Steelies I was going to use, was the correct choice.


I feel I need to push the rear back 1”, and the front forward 1.5”. Probably will have to build some custom control arms for that though.

 

[jeeper]

I like the way those wheels turned out.