1991 Toyota Deliboy

Cheers Joe, I think I have options for the lights and I'll see if I can live with the exhaust on the mostly local journeys I do. 

You are correct, Joe. The original sealed beam headlights were fitted to:-

4Runner
Celica
Corolla
Corolla II
Corsa
Deliboy
Dyna
Hiace
Hilux
Land Cruiser
Lite Ace
Lite Ace Truck
MR2
Regius Ace
Sprinter
Sprinter Carib
Sprinter Trueno
Starlet
Tercel
Town Ace
Town Ace Truck

So if I can't sort out the current ones with Halogens, I will have plenty of options for doing something different. 

Oh wow - I have a lot of love for this - I'm very, very jealous!

Needs some smaller, dishy wheels though! Subscribed

I thought it was the most obvious car there!

It looks like some purchases have arrived from China, Germany and Scotland...

I'm supposed to be moving house in 2 weeks, so it's the perfect time to clog up my current residence with things.



The wheels were an eBay purchase, and nobody else was bidding, so I bought 4 used steel wheels for less than the price of one new one. As expected, there was some surface rust, so I decided to throw some paint on them. I went for Hammerite Direct to Rust metal paint, because I am quite lazy. I decided on silver paint, went to Halfords, put it in my basket, and then noticed that other more interesting colours were available. So I bought and applied GOLD.

I did the minimum surface prep (remove flaking paint and rust, roughen up the paint surface a bit, use paint prep wipes), and then had at it.



There are runs, patchy bits and contamination, but for something which will spend it's working life at ankle height, it'll do.



Tomorrow I'll add a couple of layers of clear coat to the wheels, order the tyres and install new ignition leads.

Meanwhile, on Social Media, this attracted some attention from Global van enthusiasts. I stuck my nose into a Twitter thread about the Indonesian-market Toyota Kijang, which is a funky vehicle, and then this happened:






A contact in Japan confirmed that Liquor Shop Ogawa is no longer in business, which is a pity. The building is still there, so I'm not driving a ghost-van or anything. Yet.

Anyway, there are some funny people on the internet. 

Nice, it looks like a Honda city on steroids

Cheers Grizz, 

I don't have a motorbike, but I'll be certainly be throwing a couple of bicycles in the back and taking the kids places. 

Many Japanese owners do swap the seats out. I'm tempted to do so, mainly because it will give me the opportunity to take both kids in a single journey, but for now I like the novelty of the folding passenger seat with walk-through capability. We'll see....

My man Tak in Japan makes the round-headlight kits himself, which is cool. I need to resist the temptation to spend money on some custom features before I finish fixing the fundamentals, though.

I should be moving house a week today, so the last couple of jobs before I do that are fitting the new tyres onto the gold wheels on Monday, and er... taking it onto a skidpan on Tuesday...

Mission Motorsport are running a skidpan day at Thruxton on Tuesday to raise money for the charity, and I'll be helping out. It stands to reason that my JDM RWD will try it out at very sane speeds (i.e. walking pace). 

If you'd like to join in, click here ----> Ticket Link

You don't need a unique vehicle to do it in, by the way. 

Today was the day that gold wheels, new tyres and the Deliboy were united as one.

The Tyres are Nankang AW-6 All-seasons sourced from Blackcircles, in a larger-than-standard but not ridiculous 195/55R15 size (same diameter as original 165/80R13). They will hopefully assist with getting through whatever Winter brings our way.

Fitting was accomplished considerately and professionally by my local Halfords Autocentre, under the watchful eye of Gary. They removed a total of 6 universal (and hence floating-about) wheel spacers, torqued the nuts to a generic Japanese vehicle setting (seems fair), and informed me that one of my wheel nuts is missing.

It looks a bit different now.





Not only are the wheels and tyres a bit more realistic, but the rake of the van has reduced, due to no longer having dragster rear tyres and a significant front to rear tyre diameter difference. I think it's a big improvement.

I dug around when I got home, and replaced the missing wheelnut temporarily with an original Toyota Accessory locking nut that came with my RAV4. I think I have more nuts somewhere, but it can wait until I've moved house.