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Oct 17, 2010 15:27:27 GMT
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Model: Mitsubishi Delica L300 Starwagon Super Exceed Year: 1993 Mileage: 82,000 Tax: 6 months (at time of sale) MOT: 12 months (at time of sale) Location: Bristol Price: OIRO £9,500 Anyone who knows me or knows this vehicle will probably be thinking "WTF???". It's gonna break my heart to sell this, but up for grabs is the best known Delica in the UK, in Europe and even across the pond in Canada & the US. This vehicle is a piece of Delica history. Back in 2003 I spent over 6 months searching all over the country for the best L300 I could find with the 'right' spec. After literally covering a good few thousand miles I found this one for sale about 500yds from where I live! The irony. It's a 1993 model year L300 Super Exceed (top of the range) in metallic grey over metallic silver and comes with the following 'toys' as standard: Chrome mirrors & steps Crystal lite roof system (see below) Tinted rear windows Rear curtains Front air conditioning Seperate rear heater/air conditioning Hot/cold/ice box/fridge unit Electric front windows Central locking 6 speaker stereo including 'Audio Stage' roof speakers Alcantara 'suede' seats with 'Super Exceed' logos Middle row captians chairs with arm rests Slide/tilt/adjustable rear bench seat with fold out table/arm rest Deep pile carpet throughout LSD rear axle Selectable 4WD Auto locking front hubs Winter pack (twin batteries, uprated alternator) There is probably more, but you get the idea! The car was compeltely stock/standard when I bought it. Apart from the list of things above which are all factory items, there was nothing else to set it apart from the rest of the Delica's except its amazing condition. Then I got to work on a four year mission to make it a 'replica' of the lifted Delica's that can be seen in Japan. No expense spared, this was an extensive build that has taken many, many hundreds of hours. A lot of the things on the car are custom/one off items made by me or designed by me to replicate the items fitted in Japan. More details to come. PartII will be covering the lift.
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Steve
Posted a lot
Making progress in small, easy to handle chunks of awesome
Posts: 2,034
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Oct 17, 2010 15:40:10 GMT
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Oct 17, 2010 16:38:35 GMT
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PtII: The lift The Delica has had a full lift fitted. Not just a 'body' lift like most Delica's you see, this has been properly designed to account for the extra height and still allowing the vehicle to drive and handle properly. All suspension has been uprated, heavy duty torsion bars, heavy duty rear leaf springs along with uprated & polybushed Pro-comp ES9000 shock abosorbers matched to the lift. Many hours of re-engineering went into the lift to allow the orignal camber/castor to be retained. This is not just a straight body lift and the ball joint spacers alone took over a week of work and many 'protoytpes' to get the correct offsets and tapered shim inserts to allow the ball joint pin to seat correctly allowing full suspension movement while still giving a good height lift. A sceengrab of the CAD drawing I did for the final ball joint spacer....only one element from around 100+ parts of the lift. Unlike most seperate 4x4 chassis lifts, being a monocoque design it is much trickier lifting a Delica. New extendable steering column had to be sourced, gearbox cables rerouted, longer brake lines, radiator relocated, gearbox relocated and angled to account for the new prop angle, subframe mounts extended....the list goes on. An example of the rear springs: 3" lift over standard, then combined with 2" lift blocks (designed by me to tilt the axle for perfect alignment with the prop) and 2" longer shackles. Together this gives a combined lift of 7" before fitting bigger tyres! Fitting the 'final' kit alone took me and my friend (the UK's most experienced Delica mechanic) over nine full days and very late nights to fit. All the running gear, front subframe, suspension & gearbox was removed along with the engine being lifted out of the way during installation. The result is a Delica that drives very, very well despite its height. Further to this, a complete anti-tramp set up was designed and made by me to counter the axle vibration when pulling away. Custom brackets and four Pro-comp ES9000 shock absorbers were installed and this has made pulling away so much better. Only the most minimal vibration is now noticable....most of which is actually the chunky mud terrain tyres. Most of the lift was designed by me at great expense. As an example, just to get the rear U-bolts for the lift blocks I had to order a custom batch of 50 U-bolts to the spec I wanted because no one made high tensile U-bolts big enough to fit the diameter of the Delica axle that were anywhere near long enough to accommodate the lift blocks. I still have a big bag of these (approx 46 of them) in the garage!! As an example of how extensive the lift is, here is a shot of the 3" lift that I designed for other L300's. This kit is nowhere near as complex or involved as the 7" one on the Mystery Machine, but it starts to give you an idea of what is involved. Just to clarify....^^ that shot ^^ is only for the 3" lift I designed, nothing like the 7" one on the Mystery Machine which is far, far more complex! Next installment: exterior parts....
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nutter81
Part of things
I joined facebook so i could talk to the missus
Posts: 928
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Oct 17, 2010 17:30:55 GMT
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well worth it any one who sees this car will say so too only wish i had the money as i would have this like a shot good luck with the sale bruce
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Oct 17, 2010 17:36:42 GMT
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PartII: Exterior Most of what you see on the exterior is either custom or very rare/sought after JDM accessories. The wheels are rare 6x139.7 PCD Centerline 10x15" alloys (i.e. direct fit) and were sourced after a lot of research that culminated in me buying a Pajero just to get the wheels from it, then selling the Pajero on with stock wheels. These have very recently been fitted with brand new Khumo KL71 Mud Terrain tyres in 33/12.5/15 size (AKA massive!). The wheels were painstakingly fully polised last year by myself then treated to four layers of Chemical Guys wheel guard then four further layers of Poor Boys wheel sealant. I think you are starting to get the idea of the attention to detail this vehicle has received? One of the restored wheels with new Khumo 33" tyre fitted. These have done approx 400 miles since being fitted. The roof crate is a genuine Aiba Works crate designed specifically for the high roof L300. These are rare - and when I say rare, there are no more than four of these (including this one) in the UK. There are lots of Pajero ones that have been adapted to fit, but they never fit that well and the proportions are all wrong. The Aiba Works crate will take a lot of weight and abuse! In front of this is a stainless steel light bar which I designed and had fabricated to replicate the 'feet' of the Aiba roof crate. This kept it looking 'correct' with the roof crate while also giving me a matching surface to mount my awning on. The feet were constructed beautifully and the bar itself bolts onto the feet. A sturdy piece of kit and a true one-off. 4 x stainless steel ION spotlights attached - it took me ages to find a light that suited that also wasn't made from chrome (i.e. will rust!) and that had a nice lens/reflector design. In the middle I attached my VERY RARE (only a handful in the UK) IPF remote control spotlight/seachlight. £300+ each!! This is one of the 'must have' items on any Japanese lifted Delica and was one item I was determined to fit to mine. Many months of scouring and I managed to get one in from Japan in the rarer stainless steel (as opposed to the black powder coated version) - I replicated the stickers on it as accurately as possible to give the authentic IPF 924 look. I haven't wired this up yet but I have mounted the original 'joystick' to control it on the dashboard in a very OEM way where it looks right at home. To say this piece of kit is rare is an understatement! Then there is the awning. A roll out FIAMMA awning that is housed in an aluminium tube which is permanantly mounted on the feet of the roof crate and light bar (hence why I designed the light bar this way) The awning takes about 2 mins max to unroll and set up. The legs and support bars are all contained inside the awning. It's a work of art to see it and a joy to use. This alone transforms the vehicle giving shade and shelter outside the vehicle These shots are from when I first fitted it: The bullbar was sourced from a Hi-Lux Surf. Made by 4x4 Engineering, it's a lovely piece of kit and is full stainless steel. I was too narrow for the L300 though so I designed and had made lots of parts in stainless steel to adaprt it to fit. Mounting brackets and special 'contoured' spacers fit perfectly to give a finsih that doesn't look like it's been adapted. Here is a shot of the extra parts I designed just to get the thing to fit: All parts were made in stainless steel then powdercoated in satin black to look as original as possible but also to avoid any rust even if the powder coat got chipped I also had four stainless bracket made and welded to the original crossbar so that I could mount 4 x stainless spotlights 'underslung' as well as two PIAA ION twin spotlights above (the PIAA spotlights retail at around £400 a pair!!) The rear ladder is made from 316 grade stainless steel. I had five of these custom made by J&T Tubes in Poole to my specification and with my own MM logo laser-cut into the top bracket (the other four sold immediately) This allows you to access the roof crate easily. The quality is just amazing. To go with the ladder I also made a fold down bike-rack that fixes to the ladder. I originally made one out of an old aluminium motorhome bike rack then got the main frame made from 316 stainless to match the ladder. Details of the bike rack prototype can be seen here: www.mdocuk.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5023I also adapted the rear tailgate with the addition of another pair of gas struts to cope with the extra weight. This makes life a lot easier instead of having the tailgate crashing down on your head all the time!! A subtle but very effective mod....full details here: www.mdocuk.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5116More to come later......but I am sure you are getting the idea of the time, money and attention to detail that has gone into this vehicle??
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Oct 17, 2010 19:08:22 GMT
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Thanks for the comments guys. I know this is turning into a bit of a build thread, but I've never done a proper build thread and just want to show everyone what is involved in this vehicle. Nearly everything on this car is either very rare or custom made. There are LOADS of other things on the outside that you woulnd't know about or are 'hidden' like the 316 stainless steel mirror arms. The standard chrome ones usually rust like mad and I had a batch of exact replicas made in stainless so no more rust worries. This wasn't as simple as it sounds due to the very tight bends and awkward angles. I finally found a company that fabricates burners for hot air balloons to make them for me. All the standard bash plates were removed and acid dipped to remove all the rust, then zinc plated in bright zinc before being painted. You don't really see these but I felt the need to tidy these up anyway! Before: After acid dipping & plating: Painted: The whole underside has been undersealed. Not just a quick blow over.....my friend and I spend a whole day masking off things then blasting every nook & cranny with over 15 litres of the stuff! We used a four post ramp to make sure we got proper access to all the small and hidden spaces. Call it peace of mind! The exhaust is a custom side exit system made in stainless steel with an aftermarket stainless tailpipe from an R32 Skyline GTR fabricated onto a one-off downpipe. It's massive and totally OTT yet very in 'keeping' with the proportions of the vehicle. Sounds great in a very deep, subtle rumbly way. Not at all intrusive or annoying. Please note - the photo above shows a different custom system that I had fitted before the Skyline one. (best shot I can find of the side exit) Also fitted is an alloy bash plate/under guard from a Chamonix model. These were only fitted to the Chamonix and are very rare. The front registration plate is 'backlit' and illuminates the plate at night. The current registration is not included in the sale (will be returned back to original K plate) but a new rear illuminated plate will be made with the original registration number. There are also lots of little details like original IPF wiper 'savers' that space your wipers off the screen when there is going to be a frost overnight. In the morning just flick your wipers on and they disengage allowing to use your wipers as normal without them being frozen to the screen. Such a simple thing but brilliant in the winter. The front windows now have rare full sizes EGR wind deflectors fitted which mean you can have the window down without being blown to pieces! It makes it much nicer to drive with the windows down. These are light tinted too which act to cut out sun glare as well. Both front and rear parking mirrors have been retained which really help parking in tight spaces. Rear lights are 'Crystal' lights with clear uppers and red lowers. THe only set I have ever seen in the UK! Yes, they are rare too! The front bumper was remove to get it resprayed to remove the stone chips. While this was off I drilled out the spot welds on the registration plate holder and installed riv-nuts in place so that the reg plate bracket could be removed. This is because they do rust easily, so this makes it possible to refurbish it without having to redo or remove the whole bumper. Lastly, there is the wheel arches. These are also very, very rare! I bought a Delica with these already fitted although it was running much narrower wheels! I removed the arches and sold the vehicle on with the existing wheels. I then had the arches resprayed to match my Delica and fitted them a few days after fitting the lift (along with the wheels, modified bumper and the stainless bull bar) Here is a GIF timelapse of me fitting the various parts over a weekend (you can just see the illuminated reg plate in the GIF too!) Next - the 240V hook up/charging/invertor system
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recarouk
Yorkshire and The Humber
Posts: 435
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Oct 17, 2010 20:00:46 GMT
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can i just say, you sir have an amazing passion for this car.
i can truly see how much love and attention to detail has gone into it.
i hope that whoever the new lucky owner is apreciates just how much work has gone into this vehicle.
and for all the other idiots who keep questioning the price, you could spend £4k on one of these cars and it wouldnt be 20% of this one.
good luck with your sale, and can i just say how much i have enjoyed reading the work you have done so far.
best of luck.
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Oct 17, 2010 20:02:44 GMT
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pm sent
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Lawsy
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,615
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Oct 17, 2010 20:03:17 GMT
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good luck with the sale, i've seen this in the metal and its awesome, how do you price a unique vehicle
bruce, i think people here may be shocked seeinga 'retro' at 9500 but seeing the work thats gone in, you couldnt even get halfway to a car of this standard for that money, let alone the amount or 'rare' parts and your fab work makes this unique and worth every penny
i hope a true enthusiasts snaps it up and keeps on evolving
as to the rest of you, be shamed upon yourselves
remember, if you havnt got anything nice or constructive to say, then say nothing - simples - especially on a for sale thread for an awesome and unique vehicle, i challenge you to find another thats had this level of detail
if i had 9500 in q shoebox under the bed i'd be on my way to bristol right now..
good luck and soemones going to get a true unique wagon and almost a piece of rolling art
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Oct 17, 2010 20:09:56 GMT
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My first thought too! Wow, £9500! ..... Bargain! Epic motor, epic history, epic sale posts! MM if I had another £9480 Id be ripping your arm of to get the keys ;D I'm sure whoever buys this will appreciate the care and detail that's gone in to this: you can't put a price on that
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--------------------------- 89 Masterace Surf 03 Astra 03 V40 Sport 09 E90 M Sport
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Oct 17, 2010 20:10:07 GMT
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For anybody who thinks that £9500 is alot, just think a basic Suzuki Jimny is £11000 new. The Jimny is not good its bad and its ugly, where as the delica is meaner than Clint Eastwoods beard ;D (see what i did there )
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1993 Fiat Panda Selecta 2003 Vauxhall Combo 1.7DI van 2006 Mercedes Kompressor Evolution-S AMG SportCoupé
"You think you hate it now, wait til you drive it"
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Oct 17, 2010 20:10:16 GMT
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wow, epic build and attention to detail. hard to belive you're gonna sell if after all that effort and hard work, let alone what it's cost to build it! glws
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Oct 17, 2010 20:18:47 GMT
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did you get my pm Bruce?
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Oct 17, 2010 20:25:58 GMT
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Yep, replied to Dude Thanks for the comments everyone - I was about to pull the plug on this thinking I'd landed in some parallel universe where everything had to be sold at bottom dollar! Your comments have given me a bit of faith that this is not the case. (with the odd exception!) I'm scared about advertising this on the Delica Owners Club because of the amount of flack I'll get for even thinking of selling it!
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Oct 17, 2010 20:28:59 GMT
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So the straight swap with the Bluebird is going ahead then yeah? Cool. I'll be down to get it soon.
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btc
Beta Tester
Posts: 397
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Oct 17, 2010 20:33:17 GMT
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lovely looking must be very sad to be selling up after putting so much into her good uck with the sale and i am sure you will get what you want for her
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Oct 17, 2010 20:33:52 GMT
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have you got any int shots Bruce?
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Steve
Posted a lot
Making progress in small, easy to handle chunks of awesome
Posts: 2,034
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Oct 17, 2010 20:34:47 GMT
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So the straight swap with the Bluebird is going ahead then yeah? Cool. I'll be down to get it soon. It was my understanding that it was meant to be the Bluebird, 57p in copper and a tube of Colgate toothpaste......but you have yet hand over the toothpaste! lol
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Oct 17, 2010 20:35:37 GMT
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Several comments have been deleted, first of all my apologies who have had their posts removed when they had done nothing wrong it's just that comments about something that is no longer there make threads look really weird!
It's bad form in any circumstances to slate a car or price in a For Sale thread under any circumstances, whether you are right or wrong. Don't do it please. If you are a serious buyer and you think you have a valid reason to offer a lower price, negotiate with your knowledge and the owner may be swayed...if you just want to stuff up someone's sale or offer an unwanted opinion, don't bother posting.
Before anyone says it, it's not favouritism. The rules apply to everyone.
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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Oct 17, 2010 20:38:05 GMT
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Post deleted, as I just typed what Rmad wrote, more or less. ;D
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