Time for a underdog build thread here. First of my name is Paul and I’m from The Netherlands (near Alkmaar). I’m a board member of the dutch suzuki club (suzuki club nederland). And yes you’ve guessed it right, I drive Suzuki.
I’ve been following SW for a while now. Checking the builds and stuff and I just love the low lifestyle. What I’ve noticed here, is that all the builds are good/perfect quality. And I’m gonna try to achieve the same quality build.
My daily driver is a Suzuki Baleno (Esteem) 1.8 Estate. I need a stationcar for transporting my drumkit. The car has a lot of mods, but my girl won’t let me stance the daily.




My first build was a clean tuning build in 2009-2011. A lot of work went into the body.











I was quite keen with this car, but when I crashed it, it was time for something new, but stil Suzuki. So last year I’ve bought an mk1 Swift GS from 1986 (the same year in which I was born) with the plans to stance it out. It really is an underdog, because only 6 of this type of car exists in The Netherlands. Everybody’s doing bmw’s, honda’s, audi’s.. but stuborn me is going for an old swift.
The main problem with this, is that parts are extremely hard to find and everything has to be custom made. Also the car has leafsprings in the back, which troubles the lowering…
The project will be done in a couple of fases:
1: installing mk1 swift gti interior, gti skirts, gti brakes, lowering and widened steelies (done)
2: wrapping the roof in gloss black (done)
3: removing old engine, cleaning/shaving enginebay, mounting refurbished mk1 swift gti engine (G13B 16v twincam), refurbished gti gearbox and Mikuni carbs (almost done)
4: more lowering, rollcage/rollbar
5: wheelarches, cleaned boot, dipping the car and mounting the refurbished Ally Cat rims
6: re-upholster interior
Enough talking, more pics of the build.
As bought:




Lowering: custom Weitec coilovers, Koni rear shocks, lowering blocks:


New/refurbished GTi brakes, with EBC greenstuff:

Interior: complete gti interior, done the whole car with vibraflex, installed car-audio



After fase 1:



Fase 2 and 3:




























Ally Cat 13”7J rims:




I hope this project passes SW-standards, a lot of parts are already laying around, but it’s not easy to install. Nothing is plug and play.
I’ve been following SW for a while now. Checking the builds and stuff and I just love the low lifestyle. What I’ve noticed here, is that all the builds are good/perfect quality. And I’m gonna try to achieve the same quality build.
My daily driver is a Suzuki Baleno (Esteem) 1.8 Estate. I need a stationcar for transporting my drumkit. The car has a lot of mods, but my girl won’t let me stance the daily.




My first build was a clean tuning build in 2009-2011. A lot of work went into the body.











I was quite keen with this car, but when I crashed it, it was time for something new, but stil Suzuki. So last year I’ve bought an mk1 Swift GS from 1986 (the same year in which I was born) with the plans to stance it out. It really is an underdog, because only 6 of this type of car exists in The Netherlands. Everybody’s doing bmw’s, honda’s, audi’s.. but stuborn me is going for an old swift.
The main problem with this, is that parts are extremely hard to find and everything has to be custom made. Also the car has leafsprings in the back, which troubles the lowering…
The project will be done in a couple of fases:
1: installing mk1 swift gti interior, gti skirts, gti brakes, lowering and widened steelies (done)
2: wrapping the roof in gloss black (done)
3: removing old engine, cleaning/shaving enginebay, mounting refurbished mk1 swift gti engine (G13B 16v twincam), refurbished gti gearbox and Mikuni carbs (almost done)
4: more lowering, rollcage/rollbar
5: wheelarches, cleaned boot, dipping the car and mounting the refurbished Ally Cat rims
6: re-upholster interior
Enough talking, more pics of the build.
As bought:




Lowering: custom Weitec coilovers, Koni rear shocks, lowering blocks:


New/refurbished GTi brakes, with EBC greenstuff:

Interior: complete gti interior, done the whole car with vibraflex, installed car-audio



After fase 1:



Fase 2 and 3:


















Ally Cat 13”7J rims:




I hope this project passes SW-standards, a lot of parts are already laying around, but it’s not easy to install. Nothing is plug and play.
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