Hi all, new UK member here..

Morning folks,

Name's J, 54 (but not for much longer) years of age and I bought this a few weeks ago and am loving the van so far:



New tail lamps fitted yesterday as the originals had suffered from the usual fading and clouding to the lens, o/e Toyota parts from an internet supplier at a mere £58 the pair, next job is to remove that last wee bit of a bike rack that came with the van but was (badly) removed by the previous keeper, then straighten out the otherwise solid tailgate and that'll do for the body, which has never picked up any test fails on structural rust since it came to the UK in 2006 but had sills on both sides replaced by the vendor as they had just started to go at the ends. Inners were found to be as solid as is that massive chassis, which appears to have been dosed well with Ensis fluid from new, so hasn't even got the first signs of surface rust other than on a few suspension components:



Earlier in the week, I changed all of the rough looking mains cabling, the consumer unit and fitted a proper (Voltage sensing) heavy duty relay for charging the van's leisure battery without risking draining the starter batteries (twin ones as this is a 4x4) when the engine's not running.
Next job is to apply the new roof lining, supplied by the vendor but not fitted as he hadn't felt confident about attacking this job without getting himself caked with glue!




Engine bay is a tad scruffy, but the engine itself is as sweet as a 3L ever was, uses no oil or coolant, pulls well and doesn't seem to notice hills. Average consumption so far has been running at a brim-to-brim figure of around 22mpg, but a best of 37mpg should be repeatable if I remember to keep the speed at around 60mph, though as it's correctly registered as a "Motor Caravan" on the V5C, I could legally drive at 70 on dual carriageways and this old lump is more than happy to do just that, hence the low 20s economy, ameliorated to a large extent by running on a 50% veggie / 50% forecourt fuel mix, which reduces the total cost per litre to a very reasonable £1 (vs £1.24 for forecourt fuel alone) thanks to my buying in 25 ltr drums from a cash & carry.

Plan is to spend Christmas (from 23/12 to 26/12) camped on top of a mountain over on the Scots side of the border, so the cupboard arrangements will be altered to accommodate a 120 Ltr fresh water tank and the electric water heater will need to be supplemented by a Diesel fuelled one for toasty hot showers in the wilds, and the twin Leisure Gaz cylinders will be upsized to 907s, more than enough for the amount of hot drinks I'll be wanting and probably sufficient for decent fried eggs too, should the mood take me.

I'm off to have a look at everyone else's vans now, most of which make mine look decidedly scruffy.

Cheers,

J

Doesn't look scruffy to me, rather clean in fact. Don't look too closely at our piece of junk or you'll find lots of things that aren't too good.

Very nice van, look forward to seeing any mods you do!!

How are you going to get diesel heated water - with the usual BMW unit?
I added the air heater one to mine, very effective!!

My Sc is going to need new cills for the next MOT and has just given me loads of grieve curing a power loss problem but I love driving it and will hope it lasts another 100,000 miles

Looks great on the outside would like to see the arrangements inside.

Toyoda wrote:

next job is to ....

While it's all still nice and there is no salt on the roads you should probably rust proof the sills and tailgate + doors. The sills all have little plastic caps over holes so you can do that from underneath, just read up on a decent system to use.

I actually sprayed motorcycle chain lube into my sills, used by quite a few people and very cheap and easy. I'd also clean out the inner wheelarches, use Kurust on any spots you find and then spray or paint with some decent stonechip coating. I've seen new Ducatos done like this, just the wheelarches nicely sprayed with stonechip.

The reason we need to rustproof (or avoid driving in the salt) is because Toyota only made these for Japan, exports to Europe undogo a further stage of rust proofing that's just a waste of time and money in Japan.

That's why you see so many Mazda Bongos falling to pieces....

Very nice J. We have a very similar one (colours/decals) but lower pop top roof. Ours sadly is beginning to go body wise, rear tail gate/doors. And soon we’ll have to get rid as we live in London They’re good vans, enjoy your time with it!

@Toyoda Looks nice - very jealous of the high roof!

Sorry if I missed it, but what year? It looks much like my 1992 Super GL from the gutters down. Sadly I have a standard roof.

I cant tell from the pictures but does this have the white paint scheme above, and a light pearly greenish blue below the belt line? I have been trying to find a near matching paint for this light green-blue and really struggled to come close.

Anyone else find a source for 1990s Hiace colors like this? Would really like to know...

Hi, sorry I haven't been to the forum in a while, life got in the way of van stuff, Yoda came to the rescue by becoming daily transportation medium after my bB (JDM version of the US' Scion XB, but with column shift, foot operated parking brake, bench seat up front and no manual trans option, not that I'd have wanted such a thing), fine wee car that it is, almost broke my back when its (very) firm suspension found a large pothole after some recent flooding. The car's fine, but my bone density hasn't been the best of late so I took the impact and am now about a quarter inch shorter than I had been before that trip!

Yoda's supple torsion bar / parabolic trap spring combination actually provides incredible comfort as well as the axle articulation needed for cross country driving, so the old rascal is effectively keeping me mobile in spite of my consultant's misgivings about the wisdom of using an older Diesel engine in city traffic, admittedly not the most sociable way to travel but at least there's no black smoke, just the smell of frying food as I rumble along. Besides, the consultant is there to monitor my state of health, not to question my van's eco credentials..

Yes, Yoda is a 1992 built (but 1993 registered) one, imported to the UK in 2003 and fortunately owned prior to my taking over the custodianship by people who put most of the maintenance budget into Ensis V fluid and regular inspections to keep that straight old shell in decent order. I always treat my cars this way and have added XCP Rust Blocker to the list of products used in the preservation effort as that stuff is ideal for giving the outer surfaces of the chassis and underfloor area a quick coat of protection, one 400ml rattle can covering as it does the entire chassis with enough left over to coat the front drag links and the torsion bars' rear quadrants. The Ensis V is used inside the closed sections everywhere. I've no intention of standing by while my van dissolves in the winter weather.

Colour wise; Yoda's paint is all over light metallic blue, some of which I had made up by a local paint factor as I'll be wanting to make a few localised repairs and had run out of the bulk paint that was used on the sills after their refurbishment. I shall come back and add the paint code next time I'm out, this info appears under the passenger seat and is visible by lifting the edge of the carpet under the seat when the seat is in its engine access position. The shade is one that appears to have been used by Toyota as recently as 2014 on UK / RoI market models such as the Yaris and Verso S, the Auris (Corolla in some markets) and the Prius.
I intend to remove the rest of the stripes and decals as they're all rather rough and would have to come off to replace the whole lot in any case. Megazip can supply new decals and stripes and cheaply by their usual pricing standards but I prefer the idea of a more stealthy appearance and a van that doesn't need bold graphics to announce its 4x4 credentials, so just the small, 4x4 graphics will be replaced with new ones.

Today, I shall be attending to the slight leaks that the recent exceptionally hard rain found in 2 of the roof vents. The 3rd, the left one in the roof, is almost sure to be less than perfectly sealed too but it was closest to the wall of the house as the van has been parked, so the rain wasn't hitting that with such impact.

Sounds good, could ou post links to the rust proofing stuff?

Leaks may be due to partially bunged up drain holes, the rear left one in particular gets a bit crushed as it clears the fuel filler metalwork.

There was some water ingress at that rear corner, but the vent(s) were responsible for the internal rainfall during the storm. Not an issue since I trapped a sheet of polythene between the cover and its lower attachment to the roof, this is stuck on with 3M's badge tape and will keep things dry 'til I get round to the decorating and fit a flat sheet of polycarbonate in lieu of that annoying roof vent. New seals and flyscreens for the "upstairs" windows are on their way from the local branch of UBC, who sent photos of mine to their suppliers and have identified something suitable, sample on the way for me to investigate at close quarters.

Ensis V used to be available in gallon cans for the private individuals who would buy it for their steel boat hulls and their launching tractors, now though, its sales tend to be aimed at the 40 Gallon drum buying offshore industry professionals though my last purchase involved a car club coming together to make a group purchase, shares being taken by over forty members from a club with only sixty current subscribers on the member list, a pretty good take up rate by those who had become dissatisfied with Waxoyl's inability to work on anything even remotely pitted or other than split new in surface texture..

Shell Ensis V is listed in the following link to a PDF, there's another, more "oily" Ensis product that would be equally suitable for coating those vulnerable closed sections on our precious vans, but I've never given that a try so cannot comment on its effectiveness..
LINK for Ensis V.

XCP Rust Blocker is sold on eBay by a welding supplies company in Westerhope, down in Newcastle and even though I'm only thirty miles away, their price including the delivery is lower than Halfords for the same product.
The aerosols are perfect for all of those fiddly, awkward to treat with bulky wands, little sections that are prone to rot, plus coverage from the can is little short nf remarkable and, like Ensis V, the stuff self heals if the surface is compromised by gravel hits or similar. I have found that this is also resistant to the hot water pressure washer that I use under my Pajero Mini after I've been off roading with it. The car was treated on arrival at my importer's premises and again by me last April, but it would undoubtedly have coped for longer without the extra coat, I just like the idea that XCP's product can be applied in multiple layers for the best possible coverage, yet is effective if only applied once and forgotten about afterwards..

LINK to Dixons' eBay listing for XCP. There is also a trigger spray version, I haven't tried that but have no reason to doubt that it will be as effective, if not as able to penetrate deeply into those hidden areas such as these thin, potentially horrific rot spots (door bottoms) on this, my Pajero mini:




And inside Yoda's n/s/r quarter, during the swapping of the faded original rear lamp units for new: