let me introduce me&my Hiace

Hi!

I am so glad to find this forum. It's not that easy to get information for these cars here in Germany. So here I am, ready to ask a lot of stuff and hopefulle contributing to this community. Let me give some background:

My name is Manuel and I live in Germany. By the time I turned 11 years, the first GranTurismo game addicted me to japanese cars. So it was always a dream for me to own one. I studied electrical engineering and by beginning of my job-live there was enough money to own a car, rather than just Motorcycles. So it happened that my first car was (and still is) a Subaru WRX type-RA from 1994 which I imported from Japan in 2015. More on the performance end, I love to give it a run on racetracks and play around with parts, settings and my driving skills. I experienced some Engine deaths but was always able to repair it with some kind of uncommon techniques. I rather spend money to try something, than just buy new stuff.
By watching some videos of the PacifiCoastAuto YouTube channel I came into contact with the Hiace and loved it. Looks great, its size is not that big, agile like a car, all-wheel-drive and its from Japan. Frustrated by the high prices we pay in Germany for any kind of van (since the van-life hit the society) and still ending with rusty shit, I searched the web again in January and found my Hiace. It has been shipped to Germany and arrived about 1 week ago. This is my 1997 Super Custom Limited Hiace:





I was lucky ... no mayor issues from the technical end. Interior is in great condition, engine seems healthy and didn't leak for a long time. (engine is just dusty, not a single hint of oil) Corrosion is technically not existing beside some slight body damage at the roof. All electrical stuff works beside the parking sonar. It does not have the fride/icemaker and the joyful talk, which would have been a bad ass gimmick but you get what you pay for. It has something like 180tkm on the odo but the 1KZ-TE doesn't care.

Since I am not familiar with the rules here, I hope it is fine to use external picture upload services. There are a lot of questions to this vehicle for me. I was able to find some service manual but it is just for the RZ and L engines and I didn't find anything related to non-leaf spring rear axle design.
Up to now I did not decide on how to proceed. Getting something street legal in Germany is pretty complicated but I guess I start with obvious must-haves like rear fog light, the little worn seat belt at the drivers seat and the headlights. And there are some of my questions:
Headlight and parking-light are one unit, going arond the body edge. Is there any left-hand-drive country using these headlights? The ones that are fitted are not allowed to operate in Germany since they are RHD design, hence will glare the opposing traffic.
Does the seatbelt from the seats way back fit the front seats? (driver & co-driver)
Whats the height setting of the Hiace? My service manual talks about two positions: front lower control arm, inner bolt and back axle front pivot for the leaf spring to measure the height. It states ~280mm at the front and 300mm at the back. Using these points (replacing the leaf spring pivot with the trailing arm pivot) I came up with app. 205mm front and 260mm back and about 450mm wheel arc height. (center of wheel to wheel arc)

Thank you all for this forum. I already learned a lot and the journey had just begun.

Manuel

Nice van.
The headlights for the Super Custon were specific to the Hiace/RegiusAce and don't think they were ever sold in LHD markets so there won't be a headlight available with the appropriate pattern.

The only way to alter the height of the rear is replacement springs. They are available in New Zealand from Cobra Springs in different height. (Google them. Their web site has most japanese vehicle models including the Super Custom 2WD & 4WD)

Hi!

Thanks - I already figured out some stuff. There are "just" four bullet points on my list before I can bring it to a technical inspection guy.
I also removed one front wheel to check for the rim markings. I guess this model is not really made for 280mm clearance at the bolt described above. I measured about 75mm positive suspension travel in the current setting. So lifting it that much will end with no headroom, hence no comfort. I will keep it the way it is for now. Maybe getting som addiction to offroading first.

Manuel