1991 Toyota Deliboy

Thanks to Grizz and Paul. I did see AdamC doing his thing at C&M, but I stayed well clear. Just as well, as I would have felt it necessary to correct his 'Club Penguin' nonsense...

Here's my new tread pattern:



Nice!

I actually need to space the front wheels out slightly, as clearance to the upper arm and anti-roll bar is a little tight at full lock. It doesn't grind like the previous wheels, but it needs a little more wiggle room.

Thruxton today was very silly. The Deliboy was there as support/understeer demonstration vehicle for the Mission Motorsport Skidpan day, wearing it's new Nankang tyres.



With only the weight of the old wheels in the back and all 70hp to play with, it steadfastly refused to oversteer under my (lack of) control. Keeping the throttle pinned only resulted in understeer, and if I didn't pin the throttle, it just drove around as if it wasn't on a skidpan at all. This was in stark contrast to the many more powerful vehicles which slithered and spun left right and centre. I'm not disappointed, as it demonstrated that I have a reasonably safe set-up, and I won't be trying to catch an escaping tail while leaving a roundabout anytime soon.

You don't really expect this view in a Deliboy:

New RR motto?

Excellent work, Grizz! 

I'll keep an eye on that build. I'm mostly just repairing the Deliboy, so it will be interesting to see a proper pull it apart and start again approach. 

Ha, I drove one of those a couple of times when I worked as a milkman in Dunedin in the mid '90s. It felt like something Mickey Mouse would drive.

It could indeed be your photo, rigpig. I picked it off Flickr. The intervening years haven't been so kind to the Deliboy, as it looked a bit mintier back then. 

Anyway, this week has been fun in Deliboy-land.

I installed earplugs and headed down to Goodwood to assist at the Mission Motorsport Invitational on Monday. The Deliboy confused, confounded, appalled and delighted in equal measure.

For some reason, I had to stop on the way down for a photo opportunity.



I was directing traffic. Easy enough when the drivers are paying attention, slightly more tricky if the opening part of their windows is at knee-height. I bent over to suggest where this visiting F1 should park, but quickly ended up on hands and knees after realising I couldn't lean far enough without falling over:



Did the Deliboy look out of place there? Yes. Yes it did.



However, that didn't stop the owner of this cop car wanting to buy it off me. Clearly he's even more deranged than I am.



Lots of weird and unusual car photos were taken.
Understandable, as it's not every day these two vehicles are in close proximity:






After packing up, I headed to my overnight accomodation in Horsham via Arundel, because it's not every day that you can park your JDM delivery van in a medieval setting:



The reason for taking the Deliboy and staying overnight was so that I could stop by Ace Engineering on Tuesday for more eating biscuits and watching Gareth fix things. The primary objective was to swap over the seized aircon compressor for one I'd sourced from my new friends in China. They didn't include any instructions, but they did send me a lovely photo of Tom Chilton pointing at a tiny sticker on his BTCC car, which is almost as good.

The new compressor was intended for a Land Cruiser, but as the main case was the same and there was only a small difference in pulley offset from the Deliboy type, it was mainly a case of Gareth swapping the top plate with it's piping connections and also draining and re-filling the R134a refrigerant.

Top Job. Ice cold. Very pleased :thumb:



You can also see the new fuel filter in that photo, which was far easier to fit than I expected. Not just because Gareth did it.

The 5K engine has 3 auxiliary belts, but my attempt at sourcing 3 equivalents was only 66% successful. The old Alternator belt had to go back on, as the generic one I purchased was a little too generic. A more specific one will be sourced as part of the large order I'm about to place with my favoured supplier in Japan.

I'm going to try to find some time this weekend to pore over the Deliboy (in between assembling IKEA furniture) and finalise the list of replacement parts. This will take a couple of weeks to get to me, and then there will be a further flurry of activity once it arrives (and hopefully I'll have sorted out the garage a bit more by then). Stay tuned!

I'm really getting the hang of ordering parts from Japan, but they've starting arriving a little out of sync, due to having to wait for parts to be made.

First to get here was this vitally important device:



The knob had fallen off the old one, so it was little difficult to operate. On top of that, there was a lot of drag in the mechanism, so I had to investigate.



All it really needed was some silicon lubricant on the glass runners, and it was as smooth as you would expect, so that was nice. The driver's door is now complete. And beautifully trimmed.



While in Halfords recently, I was overcome with desire for a new powered device, so picked up a wireless compressor which uses the same battery pack as my drill, impact driver, buffer, etc. It makes a change from fighting with the cable of the 12v socket powered one, which is now in the boot of the Lexus for emergency use only.



While doing a random check after driving the other week, I noticed that the front offside wheelnuts were very hot. This indicated a bit of brake binding. As I was taking someone to a local garage, I booked it in for a second opinion. In the meantime, I managed to free off the brake a bit myself. As I was doing this, I popped the bonnet to check the brake fluid reservoir and noticed a significant lack of coolant. Something had sprung a leak. After topping up the coolant, I started the engine and tried to track it down. Soon enough I spotted a drip drip drip from a heater hose at it's connection to the thermostat housing. Judging by the state of the clamp, it had been tightened before. More than once. It's in the area at the centre of the spotlight in this photo:



So, I dropped the van off with Victor the mechanic, who isn't scared of weird Japanese offerings (his daily driver is a 1990 Prelude with 4 wheel steering). He confirmed that there was only one leak, and threw on a replacement hose, taking care to by-pass a rusty section of water pipe at the same time. He also confirmed that I'd freed off the caliper enough, but 2 of the other brakes were a bit seized. I've now ordered parts to refurbish the front calipers (replacements are not available) and replace the rear brake shoes and wheel cylinders. Drum brakes frighten me, so I'll do the fronts and Victor can do the rears.

My ex asked if I could donate/recycle some household items, since I have a vehicle which can easily accomodate rolls of carpets and a complete dining set. Among them was a wildly-patterned carpet off-cut which she suggested could be used to upgrade the mats in the Deliboy. Say no more...





They look a little ill-fitting in those images, but that's just due to them still being a bit curled-up when cut to size. They've relaxed a bit now.

Next, another delivery from Japan.



This included a heater blower resistor pack, increasing my fan speeds back to 4 from 2. It helpfully fits into the blower assembly in front of the passenger's left ankle, so no major disassembly was required to fit it. While I was there, I also checked the blower fan itself, and it doesn't contain any woodland animals, leaves or gravel, so that's nice.





I also acquired replacement pedal pads, and even the little grommet which massively reduces the amount of faffing around I do whenever I have to prop open the bonnet. Note that the grommet displays it's own part number.

Mirror is pure sex, love that.

Rust...? Pffftt.


You got this.

I'll sort out those issues, just for you. The cable tie wasn't done by me, of course. The rest of the wiring for the LED rings around the headlamps would probably give you palpitations. It ain't pretty.