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Hiace project Day van leaving these shores.


Joey spud

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Toyota on eBay are actually good for parts. Give them your chassis number and they'll tell you the right part numbers, then you can order at half the price from Partsouq ;)

 

I was £300 getting the Granvia through MOT and full service including all belts and £60 of welding to a jacking point. Apparently that's a common fail point but there's not many tbh. Granvia handles MUCH better on Hankook Vantra Lt18 commercial rated tyres, cut down on body roll massively and feels much more sure-footed than the Kumhos they replaced.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The mot is up on the 10th so i'd better get my arse in gear.

 

The rear fog light wasn't working and it seems someone has been there before as the original switch was bypassed and in its place was a new switch and one of these little boxes that just needed a better earth to get working again.

 

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It is a little sva approved gadget that takes a feed from the dip and main circuit to power the fog lamp via an illuminated switch.

The clever bit is it cuts the power to the fog lights if you leave them switched on after turning the lights off so you can't leave the fogs on by mistake the next time you put your lights on (you have to switch the fog lamp switch off and on again to restore function).

 

The sticky front brakes just needed a clean up and free up of the sliders but both front hoses were well past their best so got changed.

 

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Then there was this horrible rear shock that was working fine and i was in two minds to make and weld a new dirt shroud to it but a new one was only £15.

 

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The underslung spare wheel was in a bit of a rusted mess so it got a good session with a wire wheel on a grinder then a couple of coats of red primer.
For a top coat i was struggling to find anything suitable up the shed (too lazy to go and buy some paint) and had to settle on some left over Subaru Brat synthetic beige that took a day and a half to dry.

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Then there was this loose / rotten tail pipe trim that i removed and then found the tail pipe was too short to exit fumes past the rear bumper.

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So i had a dig around the shed and went all ''Max Power'' and did this.

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Cut out a slice from the tailpipe and bend it away from the bumper.

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Then weld up the slice and fit this mother.

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Surely this mod has got to be worth another 5 Bhp.

Oh and i found a bit of a hole under the o/s step.

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I will poke at that tomorrow.

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Ah gotcha.

Right this holed outrigger type thing under the drivers side step is strange as the n/s one is perfect.
Shirley it's the nearside one that gets all the crap from the side of the road sprayed over it and should have checked out first ?




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I trimmed it back to this then thought no lets really get back to sound metal and cut out much more.
I had big ideas to make fancy templates of all the metal pieces required but in the end just winged it.

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1.2mm zintec and the welder turned right up saw a lovely stronger than original repair.

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A couple of coats of red primer followed by rattle can stone chip and it'll do for
me.

 

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Bonus hot welding action shot !! (must finish off my sack barrow welding cart).

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Been under the van and wire brushed and chipped away any loose grot/underseal/dirt.
To be fair there wasn't much bare metal showing so i just brushed on clear waxoyl wherever it needed it.
Yes i know cheap and cheerful waxoyl what a bastard.

The paint on this is actually the same metallic black as my 08 Avensis but some one in the past has just used a gloss black rattle can to touch in around the edges of the windows and doors and it looks rank.

I am a fan of Farecla products and so set to trying to improve things with coarse G3 compound on the offending patches with only limited success so resorted to 1200 grit paper and soapy water to forcibly scrubb the gloss paint off of the surface of the clear coated met black under it.

It took forever but it did remove it but left the lacquer below it looking rather flat and scratched but i have a cheap Silverline rotary Polisher and with its help it was back to the G3 and then the more gentle G10 and it looks quite presentable now.

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The n/s slide door and rear quarter are the only bits that are going to need painting so happy enough with that.

 

I have been out and about in this and it's a happy little van to pilot.

Initially i was disapointed at how leisurely the performance was but i think i was being unfair as i was comparing it to my last van which was a four year old 140hp VW T5

.

The Toyota is only 87hp and turboless but it goes through the gears briskly the gear change is excellent with a proper gear stick and not some stubby vague effort high up on the dash.

The funniest thing with it is 4th and 5th gears are near as dammit the same ratio so dropping into top gear doesn't really drop the revs hardly at all.

But now i have been using it i totally get why Toyota did this and the van can actually tramp along with no problems.

 

The 2446cc engine lifted from a Hilux sounds lovely and is so simple i think it will go on forever.

 

All told i am well pleased with the van.

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Mot day today,normally i use the garage i sold back in 2001 but they have had one tester quit and another one go into hospital so they couldn't accommodate me so i booked into another station that used to do my class 7 stuff back in the olden days.

This place just does mot's and absolutely no repairs and have a great reputation for honest fair tests.

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While mine was in the brake rollers this giffer owned ldv joined the party.

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The man from the ministry he say "yes"..

 

Using man maths the Hiace including the mot fee now owes me £837.

 

So now its got a years test and sort of looks half presentable i need to think about kitting out the back i just want it simple so i can still use it as a van because her indoors does love an Ebay / Facebook bargain.

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You got an absolute bargain there, well done on the pass!

 

 

 

The funniest thing with it is 4th and 5th gears are near as dammit the same ratio so dropping into top gear doesn't really drop the revs hardly at all.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one to notice this and find it a bit odd, it really wants another gear at motorway speeds and as I have a 6 speed box in the ST170 I have gone for reverse gear after 5th once or twice when I've not driven it for a while.  Loving mine though and hoping I can get a friendly welder to sort out its arse end chassis and floor next year, I don't want to get rid of it!

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That's come up well with a polish. Do you think it might have been an undertaker's van originally, that's the only time I've seen black ones.

The story i got from the seller was the guy he bought it off always painted his vans black.

 

The previous,previous owner was a Garden Centre near Exeter.

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You got an absolute bargain there, well done on the pass!

 

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one to notice this and find it a bit odd, it really wants another gear at motorway speeds and as I have a 6 speed box in the ST170 I have gone for reverse gear after 5th once or twice when I've not driven it for a while.

 

This one is on 65 profile tyres instead of 70 making the gearing even shorter.

 

I was wondering if a Granvia or a later Hiace had a higher ratio diff that would simply bolt in to drop the revs a bit.

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That seems to be a standard thing with Japanese vans. The Liteace I drove was the same, as were my Midi and H100 (both mechanically Japanese). Made little sense to me as both of the latter vans could have easily pulled a higher top gear.

Or closer ratios between 2nd 3rd and 4th ?

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I didn't find the spacing between the lower gears to be a problem tbh - it was 5th which was too short.  The Midi ran out of revs at 80, which meant that it was already screaming its knackers off at 70 - for a relatively light van with a big torquey turbo diesel engine that wasn't ideal.  The H100 was nearly as bad.

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  • 1 month later...

The Hiace or ''Doggin wagon'' as the wife calls it has done around 450miles since its mot pass and it has been a great addition to my fleet of Japanese mediocrity.

 

The third seat has been removed and stored up the shed as the van has been busy helping to do a house move for friends in Welling.

I am fairly certain a 22 year old diesel van is still allowed up that way without collecting a draconian low emissions zone fine.

 

It seems to of become a bit more spritely too.

It had been sitting around in Devon unused since the start of the Summer but now its been tonking up and down the A2 it has loosened up a bit.

I took it to the Kent shitter meet at Detling last week and it positively strolled up the A249 with only the briefest use of fourth gear.

 

The only ongoing gripe was a clonking / rattle from the passenger rear when going over rough road surfaces (so all the time basically) that had been driving me nuts and i had been under it countless times trying to find it.

 

The van was lovely and rattle free when i first drove it and has only started its racket after i had been mot preping it.

I had changed a rear shock beause it had a badly corroded body although it seemed to still dampen ok and it seemed the rattle started after this.

 

The new shock was fitted fine but i removed it and went for a drive around with it on the front seat and low and behold the noise has gone.

I can not get the shock absorber to make any noise by pumping it by hand but think it must have a loose valve inside it.

 

My own fault for buying the cheapest one off Ebay.

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The only ongoing gripe was a clonking / rattle from the passenger rear when going over rough road surfaces (so all the time basically) that had been driving me nuts and i had been under it countless times trying to find it.

 

I don't mind rattles. They only happen if you are going somewhere. A lack of rattles means you're not going anywhere, which is bad.

 

Worst case scenario the rattle turns into a mechanical failure. Look on the bright side, you found the rattle, you wanted to fix it anyway. Although IME they normally just keep rattling.

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As i am furloughed for at least the next month i thought i could use my free time to do the outstanding jobs on my collection of tat.

I still have the £600 Hiace and as expected it has been no bother at all and always starts within a couple of seconds and emits a lovely claggy smell. 

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From this angle it looks quite tidy but the near side paint is still miss matched with a sort of marble effect on the side door.

A while back Mrs Spud was doing a xmas fair with it and failed to spot a wooden post that dented the rear corner so today i decided i should have a go at improving it.

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I thought if i took the rear lamp out i could get to the back of the damage and push the worst of it out but alas it's double skinned so instead i drilled a few holes and using a coarse threaded screw and mole grips managed to pull the panel mostly back into shape.

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That'll do me Tommy.

Tomorrow i'll drag the Mig down from the shed and weld the holes up before skimming some P38 over it.

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Bing 

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Bang.

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Bosh.

Both rear corners are already made of a thick skim of filler so a bit more won't hurt.

It has previously been painted the exact same mica black as my Avensis and Daihatsu and i have a can of that but for now i'll just do it in Poundland black.

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Edit. My cheap ebay rear lamp turned up and fits ok too.

I'm going to leave it as is for now as a homage to the 80's where every car i owned had a splash of primer on it somewhere.

 

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  • Joey spud changed the title to Hiace project Day van (mot fail).

The vans mot expiry date has crept up on me and i haven't had a chance to give it a quick look over.

Its ony done 500 ish miles since the last test so this morning i quickly checked the lights,topped up the screen wash and removed the cob webs from the mirrors and chanced my luck at my local tester (Cooling Road Service Station) near Rochester.

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Driving it always feels like it has a dragging brake as its only got about  80 bhp on a good day but today it felt even more leisurely than normal but at the mot centre i had a feel for a hot brake but all were fine.

Anyway 40 mins later the Hiace was backed out of the mot bay and parked up.

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Well what can i say i feel so ashamed i have let the Toyota down and blotted my own copy book.

The brakes are certainly not sticking on in fact the exact opposite the drivers rear is doing absolutely nothing.

So that's what i am going to be doing later,to be fair i've never had the drums off it since i bought it.

I did try once but there is a big lip on them that was catching on the shoes so i gave it a miss and filed it as a job to do another day.

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How hard can it be to remove a brake drum ?

Surely just a couple of well aimed clouts and it will pop off the hub flange (flange,love that word) but no it wasn't having it so i heated it up with a blow torch and tried again and nope not budging.

I then did a smal cut between the edge of the drum and the hub to try and relieve its stuckness and work some wd40 in there before trying again but still got nowhere.

There are two 8mm threaded holes on the drum but these didn't allow me to Press against the hub flange to force the drum off so thoughts turned to making a simple puller.

Trouble was effort no1 was too simple and the thin steel i used just bent out of shape so i had the hump now and crudely added extra strength to it by welding random bolts along its length,it looked crap and deserved to fail but i went again.

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How grim is that.

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The redneck stylee puller was refitted and straight away it  began to distort but...

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It only bloody worked.

The reason i couldn't use the the threaded holes in the drum to push against the hub was because the last person (Spoon) to work on the brakes put the drum on where the two big holes on the flange are.

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The annoying thing is i can't actually find anything much wrong with the brake the wheel cylinders pistons are free to move and everything looks ok. 

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So i have removed,cleaned,lubed (where required) and refitted the shoes and also gave the linings a bit of a scuffing up today.

The drums are in good order but had a small wear lip that i ground off allowing me to manually click up the brake adjusters while slipping the drums on and off each time.

Automatic adjusters never seem to work that great in my experience and once i had finished tweaking them up as far as i dare without making the brakes bind the pedal that was ok to start with was now very impressive.

The retest was squeezed in earlier and i was honest with the Tester guy and said that apart from lots of brake dust and slightly poor adjustment i hadn't found anything much wrong.

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Into the rollers it went and this time the n/s brake pulled 285 and the dodgey o/s a now respectable 248 and they both increased/decreased evenly too.

So i don't know what was going on last time but happy dayz.

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  • 1 year later...

This old girl walked another mot a couple of weeks back without me even lifting the bonnet or checking the lights (there was a dodgy wiper blade though).

I have no need for it anymore now i have the Granvia but have no idea what it's worth,as its cosmetically challenged,cat N and this year i had to bypass the leaking heater matrix.

Then out of the blue i had a call from a guy i sold my L200 to eighteen months back who remembered the Hiace and asked if it was for sale as he had a van sized gap in a shipping container that urgently needed filling.

I asked what was he offering and he came straight back with a £1000 if i can take it this weekend.

So i cleared out my junk swapped the new wiper blades on to the Granvia and it's off to Africa (i assume) tomorrow.

It's been a good van and i've even made a small profit after three years ownership but i feel bad about the fate that awaits it.

Bye bye Hiace.

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