1991 Toyota Deliboy

Along with probably many others on here, I'm a member of the Revs Limiter Facebook group, where like-minded car fans gather and discuss old car stuff, mostly. They've held a few online events this year to try to alleviate lockdown stresses, particularly the lack of live events to attend. People from all sorts of backgrounds with lots of weird and wonderful vehicles have taken the time to show and tell about their vehicles, businesses and interests.

The latest event took place on Saturday, and we were given a few weeks notice to see who wanted to contribute a 6 minute video. Mission Motorsport prepared a couple of workshop videos, a few people showed off their cars and garages, and I thought I'd throw something together about the Deliboy.

After much soul-searching, I built up the courage to just go for it. I didn't want to do any editing or anything fancy (partly because I'm lazy, partly because it's supposed to be enthusiast rather than pro-level content), so I pre-recorded my contribution in one take. It wasn't terrible, so I didn't do a second take. The trouble was that I hadn't planned what to say in advance, and my mental bandwith isn't sufficient to talk about one thing while thinking of the next thing to say, so I sound a bit robotic at times. Next time I might write a script

Here's the link to the public Facebook page (you don't need to be a Facebooker) if you want to waste 5 minutes and 58 seconds:

www.facebook.com/646005898/videos/10157356454125899/

My phone can't switch from front to rear cameras while recording, so I wasn't sure how to do my intro. Then I remembered that my van has 4 externally-mounted mirrors, so I just used one of them. I'm very pleased with my intro to zoomed out transition. It just went a bit downhill after that. Still fun, though.

Here's the proof-of-concept test shot (the only time you'll see my face in this thread, honest):

It's cold today, so I've been outside in the mist waffling at my phone camera to record another video, and posted it to the Revs Limiter Facebook group. Still missed lots of information out, but it's 7 minutes not entirely wasted.

www.facebook.com/646005898/videos/10157377839240899/

In case you're wondering, Top Gear haven't called me.  It's harder than it looks, this talking and thinking business. I'm just glad I don't have to look good and/or clever at the same time. I can hide behind the camera and just try not to drop it.

For security reasons, I decided to obscure my house details (although it doesn't appear in the video):

I'm sure you don't need a comment, so I won't!

It does not light up, but because it's transparent, light passes through and refracts off it like a beautiful disco ball. Sort of. 

Came for the pics, stayed for the penguins. Utterly, magnificently, somewhat horrifically bonkers.

Never, ever sell that van. Ever.

Well, the big bouquet gearknob looks fantastic in the Lexus, so that's that sorted. 





I've been doing some more thinking about the wiper situation, and it's still a bit complicated, despite all the parts I ordered turning up.

The Hiace parts follow a similar concept to the Deliboy, but everything seems a little bit bigger.

For example, the hole in the scuttle panel isn't big enough for the spindle to fit through. I'll have to be pretty sure that I can get it to work before cutting metal, although it won't be a big modification.



Sticking my phone inside the scuttle (because my head wouldn't fit) it's also clear that the 'wings' on the rear of the casting are much bigger on the Hiace. There isn't a lot of space in there, so these too might have to be cut down a bit to make enough space to insert the spindle and rotate it to the correct orientation.



I'll have to do a bit more thinking about the link lengths to try and decide if I'll have enough of a wiper sweep on the driver's side. Also, of course the ball joints are incompatible sizes...

As the wiper arms are also out of production, I've bought some generic ones which have a clever adjustable length mechanism. Fully extended, they're almost as long as the original Deliboy items, although they lack the 'kink' at the end which allows the wiper to sit parallel with the bottom of the screen.



They also lack the threaded holes to fix the wipers to, so a little more engineering will be required here:





So, yesterday was a thinking day. Today was a doing day. The heater control panel illumination hasn't worked since I bought the van, so it was time to replace the bulb. I watched a couple of Youtube videos of other Toyotas to reassure myself, and then started taking things apart. A lot of things, as it happens, as it's clear that it wasn't a priority as a service item. What could have been a couple of small parts turned into a complete disassembly of the centre of the dash before I could get anywhere near to the bulb. Everything overlaps, so it took an hour to get to this point:



It's not a significant-looking bulb, and it has a tiny little blue sock to modify the output colour:



In case you're wondering, I used the folding bulkhead cage arms to support my worklight. It was a dull day, and the van handily blocks all the light from my garage lighting:



A quick trip to Halfords to purchase a replacement bulb, swap the sock over and then another fight to get everything back together again. The aftermarket fog light switch was particularly fun, as it had cleverly been wired up with 3 identical black wires. A bit of trial and error (mostly error), and it was all looking functional again.

This weekend was going to be the culmination of all my wiper-replacement activities, i.e. I was going to try to install a driver's side mechanism.

First of all, I needed a slightly larger hole for the Hiace spindle to fit through. Out came my new 'making holes larger' tool:



I primed and painted the newly-exposed metal, leaving time for other preparations. I disassembled the Hiace linkage to only leave the parts I was going to use.



I needed to move the ball joint cup from one side of the bar to the other, as the direction is reversed between Hiace and Deliboy. The cup is formed by two plastic halves which are pressed and partially melted together. There is no easy way to pop them out and swap them round, so had to cut them off and apply some epoxy resin to reunite them.



From Amayama.com in Japan I'd ordered some Deliboy-specific fitting parts. I needed to pick and choose which Hiace and which Deliboy bits would go together.



After using my Dremel-a-like to open out the holes in a rubber gasket and washer from the Deliboy bits, I noticed that the Hiace spindle is not perpendicular to it's backing plate, so I'd actually need a tapered rubber gasket to attach it to the Deliboy body. Fortunately, there was one included in the Chinese Hiace set, so I just had to cut it down to size.

I also had to chop the Hiace spindle a bit to make it possible to position in the cowl. The angle grinder did the deed.



It's not the tidiest, but it's going to be hidden. I did clean it up a bit with the Dremelish to remove the burrs.

The last piece of the puzzle to get the parts to go together and stay together was this wiper repair clip from Halfords. It holds the slightly oversized cup tightly against the worn ball on the Deliboy mechanism and helps the whole assembly move in unison. Forgot to take a photo of it in place, but you can use your imagination/Google.



This is the original Deliboy passenger spindle with a fresh rubber cap (I left everything else as-is, as I wanted to make sure that something would still work):



And here is the newly-modified Hiace spindle on the driver side:



With everything connected (and no wiper arms attached), it was time to test the sweep operation and distance. The sweep distance looked OK, so the link lengths must be pretty close to the original. However, there was a clunk at full travel, and the mechanism was jammed until I grabbed it and gave it a pull. The linkage was catching on the body reinforcement bracket on the driver's side spindle. Out everything came again, and I made some gentle tweaks to the arm shape by massaging it between a concrete block and a hammer:





The result of this was full and smooth articulation of the mechanism. Success!

Now I had to put the wiper arms on. The Hiace spindle is slightly shorter than the Deliboy one, so the chunky aftermarket generic wiper arm couldn't go on the driver's side without scraping against the body and especially the windscreen rubber. This was easily avoided by moving the old passenger arm and wiper to the driver's side. They are fortunately the same part on the Deliboy (i.e. not handed).

The generic arm needed some modification to fit the wiper blade on, specifically a couple of threaded holes. I don't like tapping threads, because I usually lack the patience and finesse to do it properly, and such a small diameter tap (3mm) was quite likely to be easily snapped.

I found these interesting combined drill and tapping tools online, together with a spring-loaded centre punch. I thought there were probably no good, but worth an experiment:



I drilled a 2mm pilot hole first, and then slowly applied the drill and tap tool, with lots of cutting fluid. It seemed to do something, so I moved onto the second hole.

Literally nobody could have predicted this:



Oh well. Upon closer examination, the thread in the successful hole wasn't very well defined, so I gave up and drilled out clearance holes for a nut and bolt connection instead. :lol:



These bolts needed a little tickle with the angle grinder to bring them down to a more appropriate length.

With the two wipers applied to the screen, it was clear that the generic arm really isn't a good shape. It's a bit short, and due to the lack of a 'kink' in it, the wiper has to sit too far up the screen in the parked position.



I've already decided that it just isn't good enough, compounded by the fact that it bisects my view of the passenger mirrors when parked:



I've found a wiper arm on eBay which might work, so watch this space.

So, does it actually work? Yes, yes it does. After liberally dousing my screen in water, I switched it on and stepped back...



Amazing! I had many many doubts that my attempt at Frankensteingineering would work, but it looks like I got away with it this time. Time will tell if this astonishing success continues.

In other news, Ali Express delivered another gearknob for me to try out.



Of course it glows in the dark. Why wouldn't it?

A new wiper arm arrived today, and I wasted no time in separating it from it's waterproof packaging. I'd spotted it on eBay and took a flyer that it might work, as it looks roughly the same shape and is a New Old Stock Toyota part. It's for a TA40/RA40 Celica from the late 70's, and it's clearly sat in it's box on a shelf for about 40 years...



What I didn't appreciate (and I didn't think to confirm by looking at an online parts cataloque) was that the Celica of that generation had a very neat integrated washer jet system built into the wiper arm. I've seen Peugeot 405s and the like which have a separate hose clipped onto the arm, but in the Celica it ran all the way through the middle, even passing through the centre of the spring. I'd spotted the circlip holding it all together on the eBay advert, but it didn't click what it was.





The upper shaft of the arm is hollow, and the washer nozzle attaches as a sandwiched part where the blade is attached.



It's a very nice piece of Engineering, but of course I wouldn't be using the full functionality. I just needed a wiper arm roughly the right shape for the passenger side of the Deliboy.

The various gubbins for the washer system prevented the arm from sitting down low enough on the spindle for the nut to be tightened, so I managed to remove the circlip and other parts from the base without stabbing or blinding myself, and then found that it sat too low. The base doesn't have a tapered shape to match that on the spindle, so I had to improvise by distorting a washer onto the spindle taper and then tightly fitting the arm on top. It seems to work, and the arm can now sweep freely across the screen. It sits slightly higher than the driver's side one, but everything else on the van is asymmetric, so it doesn't stand out, and I have an excellent view of the wing mirrors on the passenger side. Success! Now I'm just waiting for the wiper motor to die on me...



In other news, I received my V5C back from the DVLA again, with a reduction in engine capacity noted and a separate letter confirming that the Deliboy has been re-classified in a lower tax band, instantly halving the road tax cost. I've re-taxed it and asked them nicely to cancel the previous direct debit.

It wasn't entirely without it's frustrations, though, as despite sending them 4 (FOUR) documents stating and demonstrating that the correct cylinder capacity is 1486cc, it's been changed on the V5C to 1498cc. It's not worth the hassle to tell them again...

Good progress on the maintenance jobs, it needed someone willing to put the time and effort in to get it into a fully working vehicle, I guess those things you've fixed are the reasons why it has spent a lot of time sitting around since it got to the UK.

Halving the price of the road tax is another bonus to make it more likely to stay on the road too. Those extra 12cc on the V5 gives you a free opportunity for a rebore if it ever needs a rebuild.