'97 SC in Melbourne - *Project Camper* UPDATE 06/09/23

Well.. another import added to the garage.
Looked at a few...
All didnt quite feel right..
( caught a seller doing the ol 100k windback on the odo)
But we got 1..
Can finally go offroad.
Been lurking on here for a while.
Bit of a wait with it being complied ( workshop stuff up)
But alas its now in the garage ready for rego.
Will be doin camper conversion.
Fun exterior stuff 1st... wheels,tyres, rack etc.
Its a '97 1kz.

Do they really still wind back odometers? I thought that was a thing of the past!
Anyway it's good you got one in the end.

Welcome aboard, there's a LOT of knowledge here and it's freely shared unlike some other vehicle forums.

Well the stripping has begun.
All the rear seats are gone & interior cards stripped in prep for insulation.
Up in the Driving space I've started to update the dreary classic brown interior & changed it up with some modern black.
Pretty much everything that was brown is going to be or is now black.
The dash is the next big piece to do.. just hate pulling dash's out so i'll continue to do other pieces until i get motivated.
Have a few things on order from Japan aswell.. (the yen is really good at the moment)
So cant wait for them to arrive.


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Welcome.

Interested to see the speaker grill on the door card. I think my van has the necessary cut out on the inner piece and possibly also the wiring and a plug for door speakers, but the card itself is smooth in that area (just below the opener). I have front speakers lowish on the dash each side but door speakers generally sound better, though these doors are thin and the speakers might have to be small to accommodate the cut out and not interfere with the window (I also have electric windows).

When a new head unit goes in I'm hoping to also add front door speakers, rear speakers in the rear roof area (possibly easier and probably better than in the tailgate) and a small sub in the frame just behind the LH sliding door. Plenty of other work before this though, in my case.

If you need to remove the front door card, please can you take measurements / pictures of any speakers and wiring these?

Cheers!

sooooo
bit more work finished. Pretty much all the fitout is complete internally.
Battery setup all running with solar dean plug available when needed.
Powered site ready if needed but have more than enough stored power for what we need. (2 x 125ah)
Will post finished interior soon

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Hello.

Looks very neat and tidy, the 12V fuse panel especially! Thanks for sharing.

There are lots of potential pitfalls in camper electronics. Fortunately, there are lots of great YT vids. The best one I’ve watched (as part of a series) is:


There are downloadable pdfs etc from that site, too.

If you’ve not watched this and I realise there might well be significant country differences and practiss; just a suggestion to compare any bits of your build to that.

Cheers!

Nice work on the interior. What did you do there, just respray the door cards then insulate behind and replace? Did you do anything to the handles and other trim items?

What about the headlining? That looks like it might be replaced but not sure what the original colour was?

The interior of my Cruising Cabin is in a bit of a sorry state and I think a fix-up would make a big difference and might use it as an opportunity to insulate as well.

Thanks

CCMark wrote:

Nice work on the interior. What did you do there, just respray the door cards then insulate behind and replace? Did you do anything to the handles and other trim items?

What about the headlining? That looks like it might be replaced but not sure what the original colour was?

The interior of my Cruising Cabin is in a bit of a sorry state and I think a fix-up would make a big difference and might use it as an opportunity to insulate as well.

Thanks

So using the Dupicolor vinyl spray have gone over everything that was the gross brown.
Handles, trims plastics, centre console...everything. Only thing left is the dash to do.
Headlining is the original.. just painted.
No insulation up front as running an insulated/sound proof wall between cabin & rear.
(we have 2 snoring doggo's that will be cruisin/sleeping with us, so they will be sleeping up front)

storage increase unlocked!

1st had to work out the heights i can work with.. needed it to be the lowest i could as garage height will become a factor later once liftkit happens.


Next the cut out for the fan

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another quick size up to confirm my height correction

All looking good...



Some capping just to tidy it up abit... Was going to reinforce what i had cut off, how ever at this stage, i feel no need as what i would consider as the load bearing area wont be holding much weight down the side of the fan .

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Done!!!


Now back to the search for a 270 awning to attach next.
Wheel hunt has been put on hold as shipping out of japan at the moment is stoopid.. with Air being the only option for now.
Its a shame as had my eye on a few sets & was tossing up paying for storage over there until shipping changes...

Very tidy and great to see the pictures.

I’ve seen those fan boxes that you’ve added. They are really great.

The roof rack also looks great and neatly modified. The height looks a little different in the various pictures and I’m guessing the last one is the latest. I do think you’ll need to be very careful with loading (or height) so that there’s no chance of the rack hitting the glass sun roofs. It looks like clearance is very tight and any dynamic or shock loading might cause the rack to bend and possibly crack the glass.

I also can keep my van undercover and this is very useful but it means any racking I add will have to be very flat and close to the vehicle top (and mine is a pop-top). On yours, it looks like the front part, the cargo bar is a bit higher than the extractor fan and this makes sense for access to car parks and the like with height restrictions, but I wonder if you’d be able to get a bit more rack bed height (and safety to the glass) by re-fashioning and lowering the cargo bar. I realise this would be quite a bit of work so just my suggestion.

On the awnings, see this post, too:
https://hiace-super-custom.forumotion.com/t4460-replacement-awning-for-cruising-cabin#24915

It might contain something useful, though the discussion was on fitting them to a van with the factory side mounts.

Good luck!

Yeh i agree with the height near the glass.. i have been sleeping with it on my mind & trying to configure the best way to combat it..
Toying with the idea of more reinforcement  bars coming off the last cross beam.. & some absorbent foam/padding underneath aswell... i can go a little higher all around but need to calculate in the smallest tyre profile i get + the offset of running those tyres with 0psi (ha) as would literally just ve to roll in & out of garage before swapping out the offroad setup.
And yes the Maxxfan deluxe is a cool bit of gear..
Added remote for ease of use lying in bed

The awning im not concerned with about the mounting of it...will make up brackets or weld in some more bar.. as il be making a side mount ladder aswell...

Its more the buy once , buy right 'line in the sand' kinda deal.
$800 for a kings (which im not really a fan of) .... but if im gona pay that i might aswell step up to the Darche $1300+...
Want it to be  stress free as possible & not deal with cheap zips that dont work, or hinges on the poles that seize up..
Wanting all the side walls aswell.. so at around 2k for the Darche, its decent money...(my welcome to 4wd life )
Can forget Bushwakka brand... thats ridiculous money.. sure its worth it but we plan to camp in nice weather & if  the wind/rain picks up we can still survive..

Up-level on the camping front...
270 degree awning installed.
After much research... Went with the 23Zero
Spoke with on the phone, answered all my queries  & they invited us out to see their shop & the setups they had on their 4x4's...
Really friendly team.  
Quality, design, material all looking pretty good.
Real happy with the purchase.
Fits over the tail gate when opened so can still cook if its terrible outside.
Opens up a huge amount of space with the walls.....20m2 approx.
And the kids (our 2 doggo's)  love the indoor/outdoor zoomies space aswell.

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Hello

Thanks for the details and pictures. CCMark and I have been discussing something similar elsewhere, see:
https://hiace-super-custom.forumotion.com/t4460-replacement-awning-for-cruising-cabin#24944

I'll look at your choice, too

Cheers!

Awesome awning, and great photos!!

The roofrack, if you could get a company to put a slight curve into the lower part, perhaps 1" up in the middle, it would clear the glass more, and perhaps even allow the rear sunroof to open, a useful feature in the heat. You may have to cut and lower the bit at the front sticking up, but a curve would seem to be one solution.

The maxfan - does that still allow the moonroof to open? How does the inside fit?

A note about the batteries, perhaps you've done it already, but I'd secure them to the floor, as in a car, bar across the top is IMO the best way, and also please add a vent tube and Y connector and put the vent outside, away from the interior space, they do gas, especially when power inverters!

Also on the electric side, a smoke alarm will even catch a loose connection that smokes, so definitely fit one IMO. On my van I fitted an inline fuse to my batteries (in series, a 24V system), if running batteries in parallel consider a 100A megafuse on each one (from +ve or -ve, doesn't matter), which covers all bases of battery and cable shorts, without drama.

Also I'd love to see the inside layout, looks great what I can see!

So.....
Some pics i guess some may have been waiting for....
The front wall has been sound proofed (the best we could) due to our 2 lil doggo's who like to snore whilst sleeping.
Currently building a bigger bed for them that will go over the top of the passenger seat.
Whilst travelling they will be strapped in the back.

Will do a spec's write up later on.
Lots of methods to our madness in this build


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(lens playing up hence outta focus)

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Wow, very pretty woodwork and integration to the skylights
I would have made a route to the cab - but the climate here is different!

The first image with the side panels stripped out, brings back memories too LOL.

1st shakedown completed...
Pretty successful.. note pad was filled after the 3 days away of stuff to adjust, buy & re-jig..


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Todays mission was to mount the temp gauge/engine guard properly after the trip away.
Used some fibre glass off an old side skirt of mine, cut to shape, re-wired & done.

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Thought id do abit of update as a few things have changed since last post.

Managed to score some amazing spotto's from Japan..
1 x pair were still in the original box from 25yrs ago.. remote included. - And all worked.
The 'Super 4x4' pair needed some love so abit of a freshn up, but leaving the hand painted fonts ( I like to think an old 70yo Marlborough red smoking Japanese man did them)

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Next up ...
Some new wheels are & tyres.
Been sitting on these wheels for a while just waiting for the right time & after ordering a new liftkit from Oregon (Vanlife Northwest)
fiqured the time is now.

The wheels:
Enkei 4x4 - 15x8  0 offset.

The tyres:
Falken 'Wildpeak AT3' 235/70
Tryna pick what A/T tyres was ridiculous ... sooooo many opinions ...All i knew was that i didnt want K05's..
Spent way more time than i wanted researching.. haha


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Will continue update later today

Dusted off the caramel wheel & got to work on the decals in prep for the new colour.
Was sad to see these disappear, but making way for better things


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Liftkit arrived & was installed..

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All mounted & now next move was to pull out the hammer & start smashing out the inner arches so the tyres can fit & turn corners

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Colour done!

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Still playing with design layout for the decals which i'll chuck on later.


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Thinking something along these lines

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Quick drive to the end of street to get on to some uneven ground to see where else its scrubbing... Few more areas to 'massage' out..

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Next was to custom up an extended sliding door hinge to overcome the tyre poke.
As sliding door no longer opens... Which i knew was gona happen.. "lifestyle choices" haha

So been a while with updates.. In feb we got married & went roadtripping.. From Melb > Gold Coast > Melb.. following the coastline.... about a 4000km round trip... 1st proper trip in the van.. Didn't miss a beat..Few more things got added to the 'to do list' but very happy with it...
But before we took off had to fix 1 self induced issue which was making the sliding door usable since the width of the tyres prevented it.. so..
Basically, Grabbed another slider, chopped it in half, joined a hinge in the middle & yeh... done.


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Had to cut open a gap so the hinge could swing out


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And the finished product.


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And some roadtrip pics  


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Met a friend


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Trav.

Kia ora bro,

The van looks epic!

Love your solution to the door issue, I have the same thing.

I don't suppose you could upload a video of it in action?

Cheers

Very cool thread. Thanks for sharing!!

Can you post the make / model for the engine temp monitoring system you fitted, please? I'm researching these and it'd be good to know what you've fitted. Thanks!

LH119V wrote:

Very cool thread. Thanks for sharing!!

Can you post the make / model for the engine temp monitoring system you fitted, please?  I'm researching these and it'd be good to know what you've fitted. Thanks!

Thanks... its been a fun build..

As the engine temp system... its an Australian designed/built product... simple but effective...

Im running the 2 sensor option... 1 off the block & the other im yet to mount is off the coolant hose..

$140aud..

https://engineguard.com.au/product/engine-guard-dual-temperature-sensor-kit/

Real simple install