Love a Dajiban. This is no exception!
Love a Dajiban. This is no exception!
I had to look up Dajiban. Never heard of Japanese Dodge van racing. That is extremely awesome!
Love the interior , do the roof Disco lights change colors :)
too late now , but I would have put cubby hole /pockets in the door panels to stash stuff you do not use much ,
Also behind the wheel well tub I made a box to store simple tools , oil, brake fluid , WD40 etc
In reply to californiamilleghia :
No unfortunately the lights don't change colors, just white.
I may cut some holes in the door panels to use the storage in there, that would be useful. They are very plain and just made from the wood scraps left over so no big deal putting some more holes in them. Good idea!
Big Red Pig pen.
I strongly encourage you to put strong tie down points in the back and use them. In my short time as a fire fighter and wrecker operator I responded to two separate fatal accidents that would likely been completely survivable if it weren't for the unsecured cargo shifting.
In reply to APEowner :
Appreciate the heads up. I'm putting down E-track on the floor and a bike and gear will be secured to it. Thanks!
Some more small progress. Found a local Mopar parts supplier 10 min from me. Really cool!
They had the replacement armrests I needed since the old ones were trashed. Got them installed.
Here's what I started with. They looked even worse with the new seats:
And now these:
This weekend finishing up wiring, stereo, and floor e-track for bike tie downs.
I also ordered some new coil-over load leveler shocks for the rear, as the shocks on it are trashed.
And some new Monroe gas shocks for the front.
Wheeler Dealers did an old Econoline Surfer Van and used an old beer barrel mounted at the rear doors as a water tank one could have a shower apres surf. Ryobi makes a pressure washer in the 18 volt cordless collection - give the bike a quick hose down before loading. A RV fan in the roof would give some ventilation when required.
In reply to Rons :
I saw that one, super cool van. I didn't know Ryobi made an 18v pressure washer, I'll check that out. I have a ton of batteries and their 18V tools so good to know! I might add a fan to it at some point, we'll see.
Well pretty much wrapped up the interior over the last 24 hours.
Put in the stereo, USB/12V chargers, e-track tie downs, etc. I'm pretty happy with it for doing on the cheap. Should be pretty damn useful.
Some more pics:
I'll probably build a box or cover at some point for the electrical, but it's out of the way behind the driver seat for now.
Had to use these speaker pods since there is no depth to recess speakers in the walls. Cheap and easy.
E-track with removable wheel chock up front. It gives me 8 feet of length for bikes so I can fit old BMW's in there as well as shorter dirtbikes. Pretty much anything will require compressing the forks and probably rotating the bars down.
Swtitches above the driver seat control everything.
LED interior lights, 12V/USB chargers, and Bluetooth amplifier for stereo.
Will throw some new shocks on it the next few days then it's ready to use!
Nice Work.. I like a good van project, and MoPars, and Slant 6's! Have fun with it.
Does the 3 speed have a synchronised 1st gear? Lots of my old darts and valiants do not.
In reply to slantsix :
Thanks! No 1st gear is not synchronized. I didn't know that was even available on these old 3 speeds.
Put on some new shocks yesterday, forgot to take pics. Go new Monroe gas shocks up front, and Gabriel coil-over load levelers in the back. Should ride much nicer now.
I want to tackle a few mechanical things coming up. I'll change all the fluids in the next month or so.
The transmission works great but is leaking gear oil pretty heavily. Will have to look into that soon, not sure yet where the leak is from.
My main complaint is slop in the column shifter. The neutral area is pretty huge, but it does select gears just fine. Any idea how to tighten up the 3 speed column shift? I read there is some bushings at the bottom of the linkage that likely need to be replaced will look into that. Anybody with experience on these?
Also, steering is farily worn with a big center dead zone. Worn steering box it seems, since everything underneath looks good. I'll try to tighten up the adjuster on the box a little, even though I know from experience that is a short term improvement at best. Will likely look at sending it down to a rebuilder in Denver I've used for my Falcon to get the box rebuilt.
I'm gonna get some miles on it, will keep updating as I improve it!
Look at the linkage connections, if there's a bushing of some sort, replace it with something like delrin.
Well it is offically a fully functional moto hauler!
Love the van!
And that thing has one of the best grills ever. It looks like an electric razor.
I had a 1964 C10 pickup with three-on-the tree. New shifter bushings were cheap and easy, and they made a huge difference.
I loved shifting that truck, even with its unsynchronized first and reverse.
Those linkage bushings are fairly ubiquitous.
Some time the Tubes in the column and the pickup arms / fingers that use the column tubes get really worn and sloppy too, there are also bushings and sliders in the coulumn tubes that can get really worn and trashed.
Here is a mopar specality transmission place that can help if needed:
http://www.brewersperformance.com/
Hopefully you have some future plans for those front Drums. My van is a '78 and it had Front discs standard by then. I would imagine most front spindles from the B vans / D series truck would swap onto your '72.. but I am not 100% sure on that one.
Love this!
Nice!
You'll need to log in to post.
