If youre just looking for pictures, heres the links. Below them is the story of how I got this Samurai into Boston.

http://www1.coe.neu.edu/~nrainvil/P1010015.JPG
http://www1.coe.neu.edu/~nrainvil/P1010017.JPG
http://www1.coe.neu.edu/~nrainvil/P1010018.JPG
http://www1.coe.neu.edu/~nrainvil/P1010023.JPG

Back in December I bought a Samurai in Florida with a 12a engine swap done to it, that was running "a little rich". After trying to drive it up to Massachusettes, failing, leaving, trying to fly back down with a carburetor, and again failing (something about security thinking it was a bomb...) I waited a couple months until I could go down with my friends Jeep cherokee and tow it up.

So we drove down, and I picked the Samurai up in Fort Meyers, and at first everything was going well. But then, up I-75 a little ways we noticed the trailer was swaying a little, so we pulled off at the next exit to check it out. As we were pulling into a gas station a tire blew, which then caused the trailer to jack-knife and spin us around in traffic. Fortunatly noone hit us, and the only damage was a dent in the Jeeps bumper, a broken come along, and wrecked tire and rim on the trailer. We had a spare on, but didn't trust it with the weight of the Samurai on it, so we figured we'd just get a hotel for the night and get a new tire the next day. Little did we know that there was a hockey tournament in town, so all the hotels were booked. Eventually we ended 30 miles away, up in St. Petersburg at the Village Inn (which we only got a room at since a women checked out right in front of us due to no phone, no tv, and roaches). The next day our luck continued, and every tire place we went to didn't have the right size trailer tires. On Monday the warehouse opened and we got the tires. After a getting the Samurai back on the trailer, we started driving north again around 4. From then on the trailer went fine, though we had it loaded up very front heavy, since we were a bit paranoid about it swaying again (made the ride a bit rough in the Jeep). At least it went fine until we were in South Carolina, and we noticed the new tire was low on air. It took 5 gas stations until we found a working air compressor, but we filled it up and continued driving. We had to stop every 50 miles or so to fill it, which got a little annoying, so we eventually stopped at a Walmart in Virginia to get the tire patched. After a few hours of waiting, we found out the puncture was in the sidewall, so it couldn't be patched. So we just put some Slime tire sealant in it, which helped some, and kept stopping every so often to top it off. We eventually got back to Boston on late Tuesday, a little over two days later than we expected to.

As for the Samurai, it needs a little work. The body is in decent shape. No rust, though it could use some paint. The 12a install wasn't done all that cleanly, though this wont be anything close to a show car, so it should work out fine. I'll probably have to install a larger radiator in it, and mount the exhaust differently, its killing ground clearance the way it is now.

 

You had an adventure. It was worth it though.