[Tyler09]

Just curious I have a 1996 Suzuki Sierra soft and I'm wanting to change the body to a hard top. My question is what models are compatible, or what is a straight swap for it, what sort of work has to been done, cheers for the help.

[Gwagensteve]

Any 1.3 Sierra body will physically fit - as in the body bolts will line up. There are, however, a bunch of little differences. The most obvious is that the SJ80 has differently shaped inner guards to clear the shock towers and provide access for the top shock bolt. You'll have to retain the leaf sierra front clip (bonnet, guards etc) as the SJ80 front end doesn't line up with the leaf sierra body lines.

Seat mounts are different between the two as well, although it is possible to swap a coil sierra dash into an earlier model.

The biggest issue is nothing to do with fitment though - it's registration and legality. The vehicles compliance and build plate won't match the chassis number. It will need to be reclassified for registration, and obviously the numbers won't match. I believe the year of registration is based on the chassis #, therefore the car will need to comply with all ADR's for a 1996 model - putting, say, a 1990 model body on it will cause headaches legally. Your registration authority might demand the completed car is subject to engineer approval. Obviously you can avoid this if you swap a 1996-1998 coil sierra hardtop body on to your chassis, but personally, I'd sell your soft top car complete and buy a hard top - there's no point building something Suzuki already made. The only exception would be if you had lots of work in the SJ80 chassis - if the suspension had been refabricated or a complex engine swap had been done.