This is one of my favorite toys.  I had actually wanted one of these when I was in high school, but it took about 20 years for that want to be fulfilled.  This one has undergone some changes since I got it, but let me first tell you how it got started.

Below is my first Sammi.  I bought it off of one of the board members of zuwharrie.com back in 2004.  Unfortunately I didn't get to keep it long because of financial difficulties (one of those either sell it and fix the grocery getter or use it to drive 50 miles a day and haul the kids around kind of deals), but I had it long enough to be bitten by the bug.  Not only are they great little vehicles for offroading and modifying, but I've met some great people hanging out with the people that love them.   

In March of 2007 I posted an ad on Zuwharrie.com stating that I had a Jeep Cherokee that I would like to trade straight up for a Sammi.  A few days later I met with one of my fellow enthusiasts and we traded.  Below is what my present rig looked like when I got it.

As you can see, it looked a lot different then than it does now (the pictures of the white Sammi up top).  I'll 'splain about that here in a little bit.  

Lots of fun has been had since I acquired this Sammi. 

Along the way I've made a few modifications.  One of the first things I did to it was to install some lower gears in the differentials.  I went from the stock 3.73:1 to 5.12:1 by taking 2 front Tracker/Sidekick differentials and installing them in the Sammi axle housings.  I bought them already setup from a fellow member at Zuwharrie.com.  It was pretty much a bolt in swap except for he had to swap the side gears in the front differential due to a difference in spline count.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from that operation. 

Next came a new air/fuel delivery system and some armor.  The stock carburetor ran pretty well on the road, but on steep inclines I had a hard time keeping it running (a common malady for carbureted vehicles).  There were several options available for the air/fuel dillema including an aftermarket carburetor or fuel injection.  I decided to go with an adapter kit from www.zuksoffroad.com for a side draft carburetor from a Harley Davidson and a Keihan 40mm constant velocity carburetor that I bought second hand off of ebay.  I think the total for that was somewhere around $300.00, which is about the starting range for a decent Weber carburetor setup.  This carburetor, however, doesn't care what angle it's running at and operates normally with the fuel pressure provided by gravity feed, so my aging mechanical fuel pump has no problems feeding it.  This provided me with pretty much all of the advantages of fuel injection without the cost and labor of having to rig up a computer, wiring, and fuel pump for a fuel injection system. 

At the same time I installed a set of "Crabs" (also from www.zuksoffroad.com) over the differentials to protect them from the rocks and a skid plate under the transmission & transfer case from www.trailtough.com.

Unfortunately none of this stuff did much good when I got a little too froggy one day and turned it over onto its roof.  The tragic part is that I didn't even get to yell "hey y'all, watch this."

As you can see it got boogered up pretty good in the rollover.  I had violated the cardinal rule and gone 4 wheeling without another rig along with us in case there was a problem, so I spent about 2 hours with 2 come-alongs, a chain, and a high lift jack getting it back onto its wheels.  Then I had to pull the spark plugs and spin the engine to blow the oil out of the head so I didn't hydro-lock it, refill the engine with oil, remove the fan because it was getting into the radiator, and jack the windshield frame up.  Once off of the trail I discovered that the transmission had drained about dry while upside down (when it started to cry).  I wound up having to stop and drain the oil out of the front differential, remove the shifter from the transmission, and then pour the oil into the transmission.  That was enough to get us back out to civilization.  Fortunately we had towed it so we didn't have to drive it like this all of the way home. 

Not to be thwarted, I began making inquiries of my friends at Zuwharrie.com to see if anyone had a body I could buy.  One of them found this one on ebay in Atlanta, about 3 hours from where I live.

After picking up the new tub, the work was on.

Of course now I had seen the light and bought a roll cage off of another of my friends from Zuwharrie.com.

Then I asked a buddy of mine to do a little artwork for me.  Being a very proud veteran of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division, I asked him to paint the 82nd logo on the hood.

Check out page 2 where I've documented Spring and Summer of 2009's modifications thus far.  I've gotten a lot done this year.