Agatha Alice

As promised in the camping conversions thread I finally got some pictures of our very distinctive orange modified 1990 Hiace. This vehicle, I'm told, was used as a goods delivery vehicle in Japan. I don't know if the 'manga van' modifications would have been done before or after that use, and as it has the rear air-conditioning unit I'm of the opinion that it would have initially been a mini-bus when it left the factory and at some stage the seats would have been removed to make way for cargo. Like many used Japanese vehicles it found its' way here to New Zealand and has had several owners here, the last one who we bought it from used it as a promotional / business entertainment vehicle. It had disco lights inside, a big power amplifier and a woofer in a cabinet inside a cupboard, 'Knight Rider' scanning lights at the rear and 'meteor horns' at the front and an ultra-violet light tube overhead the dash. These have all been removed, the lights and horns have been made legal and a lot of work has gone into making it a camper certified as self-contained for two people and fixing up lots of things that needed doing. We have owned it for just on one year now.
The change of the side door from the original slider to the 'batwing' style gives a lot more room on that side, but it does mean that we can't get into the rear if someone parks too close.
I could go into great detail of what is in the pictures, but I think I'll make it easier by not doing so but instead answering anyone's questions.
Apologies for the photographer not holding the camera straight and I have cropped some of these images to remove irrelevant surroundings.


Since these pictures were taken another radio has been installed in the overhead console.

See new post below since the image host seems to have failed.

Wow, that's a hell of a thing!

Full Japanese custom treatment, I see what you were saying about the finish on the walls now, and about loading onto a two truck - quite an overhang!

I'd check the weight loading of the wheels BTW. The original Toyota steels are tremendously strong but most after-market alloys for these seem to be rated at 600kg (will be cast into the back of the wheels) - I'd be concerned about the front ones as they carry the engine weight.
Also is there ventilation for the sleeper? The MPV has vents at the back for that, may be worth adding a smoke alarm too - which reminds me I need one for mine.

A very interesting beast!

I'm quite liking that gull door BTW, a useful sunshade or rain shade, that's rather cool.

Thanks for the heads-up on the wheels; I hadn't thought about those. The tyres are within their ratings although with not much to spare.
There is a smoke detector, if you look at the picture which shows the roof liner you'll see a cover I made to hide where a blown loudspeaker was on the right hand side. There's another one the same on the left, just out of the photo, and the smoke is mounted on that.
I have been thinking about ventilation; the tailgate doesn't seal fully on either side so some air enters but you're correct that carbon dioxide is heavier than the rest of the air and will form a layer at the bed height. I haven't come up with a solution for that yet, particularly as it is already rather cold in any but the hottest weather so I don't want to make it any colder. I'll keep thinking!
As there's no rear window I have removed the mirror from the original rear-view housing and attached a 7 inch LCD which is fed from the camera that can be seen at the top of the tailgate. It also has a second input which is fed from another camera above the front number plate and can just be made out in the second pic, this allows seeing those concrete blocks they put in parking lots before the front fibreglass moulding comes to grief (again - we had to have it rebuilt already).
Also there's another camera and two floodlights above the side door so if someone comes knocking Carole can see who it is safely before opening the door, the display for that is just above the door on the inside. The other unit next to that display is a Wi-Fi hotspot which is connected to two mushroom-shaped aerials on the roof so she and any companion can use laptops to access the internet.
Above the switch panel there are two USB charging outlets, a cigarette lighter style 12 volt outlet and a special connector which supplies 19 volts for her laptop.
The side door is no use as a rain shade; the rain runs down the door to the lowest point when it is open ... which is between the door and the van!
The orange rod on the front left is simply a corner-marker to assist with parking. It did have a flag on top but that caused it to lean over and bang on the body so it came off very quickly.
I have and can get more pictures (when it isn't raining); some things didn't show in those but I didn't want to flood the thread with too many pics.

Sorry to anyone looking at this thread, it seems the image host is down at present. If that stays the case after a few days I'll try to figure out which pics I posted and re-upload to a new host.

I thought you'd taken them out, postimage.org seems stable.

No idea how these organisations stay in business however, after paying for the web hosting, storage and bandwidth with no visible source of income I don't see their business model. Maybe they are government run sites to hoover up images?

Would be great to see them again!

The site itself isn't down as Cloudflare states that it gets a response from the site but the servers are currently not responding to requests.
I can't remember which pictures I posted so maybe I'll just upload all I have to another site and put them in again rather than trying to fix links in the original post.
I too have no idea how those sites work; one I use to share files when needed is similar in that there seems no visible source of income, but that one is still working fine.

Let's see how long these stay up:

Great stuff, an awesome beast!!

For easier movement and sale it may be possible to turn it into a more 'rounded' shape without too much effort:

The front looks like a standard Hiace front sprayed the same orange would fit quite well and suit the shape still.
The back also has a moulding line where the row of lights are such that the entire bumper could be carefully trimmed up to, keeping the row of lights and leaving a graceful curve to the wheelarch end, done carefully it may not even need paint.

Yes I've looked at options for re-shaping the front and back overhangs and I think a very considerable improvement can be made with a little careful cutting of what is only cosmetic. The rear can come up to the top of the indented piece below the lights / reflectors and the front can have the folded piece removed or maybe even higher as the rego plate can move if necessary to the flat piece just above its present location.
This will be considered if no-one is interested in purchasing it as it currently is and the stated reason by prospective purchasers is the clearances; I think our panelbeater friend will be able to do those changes quite easily and cheaply.
The whole front moulding is held with just a very few bolts as I discovered while under there replacing the alarm siren which had failed.

Yes I think a mild rear trim and a new front would do the trick, you can always advertise the original front as part of it. If you cut the back off carefully with masking tape, jigsaw and mask you could also keep that too!

It's a great colour and a rounder look would make it look cuter like an orange

I think the existing front will cut just fine. So far no-one has wanted to come and look so until they do it's just thoughts.

All the work I did on that van was supervised and thoroughly inspected; I should have posted this pic which shows the inspector in one of her many positions:

That's a proper cat!!

We had two black-and-white cats, Hugo was quite similar looking to her, but with a pink nose.
Now we have just one cat, a tabby who thinks he lives here but doesn't really, he's quite helpful though!

Yes!! Now that is a campervan!

Hey guys, sorry I don't know how long ago the original image host failed so those pics may not have been visible for quite some time (nobody mentioned it though).

@GPW I'm pleased you have the valuable assistance of a cat when you're doing things even if it doesn't belong to your place. There's something about having to wait for the cat to finish investigating where you want to place something before you can put it down, specially if that something is quite heavy, for example!
I wouldn't be without my cats, they're the most loving things imaginable.

Wow, really awesome version of the Hiace!

Wow, thanks for pointing me over here Agatha Alice, I definitely see why you don't need the rear heater! That thing is insane!!! And to think that people go crazy over my swivel seats and red velvet interior! You must have caused at least a couple crashes from people gawking hahaha!!! A beautiful van indeed!

Hey I'm Tony, please call me by that. My housemate Carole named the van, the name has historical significance for her and the van is for her.
Yes it gets looks from people everywhere it goes, I'm sure Carole's eldest daughter had it right when she first saw it and said it looks like "a shaggin' wagon". One thing about it; if it is parked in the local mall parking lot, it's really easy to see where it is parked without having to remember which aisle to go down!
If you want to see more vans like that one there's a thread or two on this forum about them, they were called 'Japanese Manga vans'. Google will also show some examples, many are far more outlandish than ours!

Incredible, she's a real beaut Tony! I try to do a trip with my mom every year to go hiking somewhere new, and I convinced her to go to Japan this August. My hope is to find some car show, or at least see some cool manga cars like this, while in Tokyo.... As well as snag some parts for my van while im over there! Thanks for sharing!

We have today sold this van after it has sat mostly unused in our driveway. I have given the new owner the URL for this forum so it is possible they may join up here.
I'm also posting in the general section.