A/C good to go. Next!

Quick one. Had the sparky check the system with his UV light and all looked good. We lucked out this time!

We found though that the front condenser fans need replacing (there are two, one is burnt out - it's a single unit). Apparently this is a fairly easy job so I'll be looking to tackle this before the summer brings the too hot weather. This is not to mention the other things that still need work on the underside of ol' Sammy.

Still on the lookout for roofracks and will hopefully start designing the interior somewhat soon. Any designers out there that can help with blueprinting this in software? And can offer your services for free? :)

A/C fixed! Bring on the Summer

I hope I didn't just speak too soon. It might be premature to make that statement.

A few weeks ago we climbed in ol' Sammy (yes, S.A.M. has naturally become Sammy) but he refused to start. Not even a promising noise indicating that he might. I turned the ignition on and...nothing. Not even a click.

Enter RACV roadside assistance. I tipped him off what the problem could be after searching around the 'net and on the Delica Club site: the starter motor (as if he wouldn't have known that anyway). He grounded his test light and stuck it on the little wire and asked me to try starting the van. Bingo.

The pressure he placed on the wire must have made the connection. He said it probably just needs a mechanic or a sparky (that's Aussie lingo for auto-electrician) to put a new connector on the wire.

Never trust a dealer

Maybe that a huge understatement. I called up the local Mitsubishi dealer to ask how much this would cost. He seemed certain though that it was an internal problem with the starter solenoid and it would probably need repairing or replacing. He looked up the last time they replaced a starter motor for one of these imports and his quote to me? $800!

He assured me though that it could be repaired for much cheaper. Maybe $400? I asked him again about the connector theory. He told me that it's not connected with a connector but is soldered. I found this was untrue later on.

Using WOMOW (Word of Mouth on the Web), we found a sparky to take a look. In about 20 minutes he had fitted a new connector on and every start since then has been perfect. Problem solved. He charged $30.

Back for the A/C

After striking up a nice little relationship with Alex, I felt very comfortable bringing the Deli back to him to check out the A/C. Since we bought it last December, it's never worked. We had no idea what was wrong and were prepared to find out it would cost in the thousands to fix. In the end it cost $150.

After putting a vacuum on it to test if it was losing pressure (it wasn't - a very good sign) he re-gassed it with some dye. We ran the engine and tested it out. Worked like a charm. He had a look around the engine with a UV light to check for leaks and nothing. I do still have to go back in a couple weeks after running it more so he can check if it has leaked at all, but so far the signs are all good (knock on wood).

Alex Gottschalk - a man you can trust

If you're in Melbourne and have a need for a good auto-electrician, go see Alex in Moorabin. Not only does he know his stuff, he's a solid guy. He's an independent tradesman who works mostly by himself and believes strongly in customer service. If you treat him well, he'll treat you very well.

Just checking in

It's been quite a while since the last post, so just wanted to check in and say yes, this is still an ongoing project! In the last few months we drove to Sydney to check out the big Super Camper show to hopefully get inspired for ideas. Shortly after, we went to the Melbourne version. Between the two shows, we gathered some creative ideas which we will try to implement.

We've bought a little 3-way fridge (12 v, 220 v, gas), which wasn't so little once we put it in the back of the van. Man, that van is smaller than we thought! But we think we've got it figured out. It will be a tight fit, but we can make it work.

We also just bought a rooftop tent a couple of weeks ago off eBay. I'll post pics and give details later. It's the lightest and most mobile tent we've seen, weighing a slight 18 kg. Most are 50 kg and the lightest we'd seen up to that point was 25 kg. It saves most of it's weight in the base/floor. Where the heavier ones have a stiff and rigid bottom, this one folds into thirds and the floor is kind of like a trampoline. Hard to explain, but we opened it up and gave it a test lie-in and it's pretty cool!

We've figured out the roof-rack situation, just shopping around right now. We're also in the midst of planning the power considerations (solar panel? dual battery? how much power do we need?).

We have about 6 months left to finish this thing, so it's time to start moving. It will be a very busy 6 months. Stay tuned!

Music soothes the savage beast

One of the things I love about Yvonne is that she makes me do things. Lemme explain.

I am lazy. Lay-zee. With a capital L and a drawn out aaayyy. If I had my choice we'd be paying people to do all sorts of things for us. Terrible, but just being honest.

We've been staring at a big hole in the dash where the stereo is supposed to be for quite some time now. With the stock stereo being useless -- Japanese FM frequency range and cassette player (haven't had a tape since Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet) -- we ripped it out while cleaning.

A road trip to Sydney at the end of this month (for a massive camper show no less) has given us some incentive to get our asses in gear. So we found ourselves at Autobarn yesterday, picking out a cheap, decent CD/MP3 player.

"How much do you charge to install?"

"A hundred bucks"

"Is it easy? Can we do it ourselves?"

"Well, this is how many wires there are" (at this point he held up a mess of wires).

"So you guys solder and shrink tube it all?"

"Some places do. We just use tape. If you know how to twist the wires they don't come apart"

That about did it. Yvonne decided right there and then that I would be installing the stereo.

Overqualified

You'd think that, with a diploma in Electronics, this would be a snap for me. You'd think that, but you'd be wrong.

All the right tools

Autobarn doesn't solder and shrink tube, but we sure the hell do. For forty bucks we got all the necessary tools for the job: solder, shrink tube, and my new favourite man toy -- the cordless soldering iron. It's butane powered and is actually a pen torch, but with a soldering tip you screw on at the end.


It also came with a little handheld torch. So now I can solder anywhere at all, and Yvonne can finally make me a proper creme brulee.

The job

The stock stereo in these vans are double din -- that is, they are twice the height of a normal stereo. This meant we had to get a little kit and I had to fumble with the mounting bracket to make it all fit. But I got it.

The wiring was slow. Luckily I found the original wiring scheme, once again thanks to the Delica Club. It took some time to translate those wires to the stereo's wires. After soldering the power wires and attaching the ground, I tested out all the speakers to make sure the wiring was right.

Got it.





In the end, I was of course glad we (Yvonne) chose to do this ourselves (myself). We saved money, I learned something new, and we have those really cool tools now.

Getting SAM into shape

Yes, we're still here. No, we haven't been lazy in updating this blog. It's just that we haven't done anything lately. Since we were able to extend our visas until Jan 2010, we've put the project on hold a bit since the big road trip won't start until early next year. There's a big camper and caravan show in Melbourne this coming May. The plan is to infiltrate it and sneak out with some ideas in how we'll go about setting up SAM. As we've said before, there isn't a lot of space to work with in the van, so we have to be as clever as possible.

We did manage some final prep work this past weekend though. We'd been procrastinating on cleaning the front cabin area for weeks, but we finally got around to it. A surface wipe wasn't going to suffice. Dirt and grime had settled deep into the cracks and recesses of the dash. We made the decision to take it apart, piece by piece, to give it a thorough cleaning. It was addicting. The steering column led to the display, which led to the stereo console and then the vent control area. Plastic was flying out and screws were being jumbled together.

There was no plan. I was scared we wouldn't remember how it all came together. It was back to the tub with the scrub brush and sugar soap. A couple hours later we were reassembling the dash. We did manage to fit it all back together and had no screws left over, so I think that's a good sign. In the process, I broke a couple Robertson screwdrivers from the K-Mart kit. So that brings the casualty count to three tools: one socket wrench and two screwdrivers. We are re-thinking our choice of tool kits (although, I still think that telescopic magnetic thing for screws was worth it).

We also finished ripping all the soiled carpet out, so for now it's just foamy underlay until we decide on the floor.

Given the state the van was in when we purchased it, there is a lot of satisfaction knowing how far it's come. It's been quite a bit of effort just to clean it up, but it's also been a big learning process, seeing what good ol' SAM is made of. There probably won't be much in the way of updates for the next while, but if you need something to read, please visit us at our other blog!

Details, details: Giving SAM a thorough cleaning

We could have saved time and effort by paying hundreds of dollars to the pros to detail our van, but after eating all those Christmas chocolates and sweets, we needed the workout anyway. I have an inkling that our Deli has not seen a vacuum cleaner, rag, or brush since the day it rolled off the assembly line fourteen years ago.

Removing the rear seats

We started by taking out the two rows of seats from the back; a simple task made annoyingly difficult after breaking our socket wrench. Who would have thought this tool, part of a $99 400-piece set from K-Mart, could break so easily? Made in China? C'mon, that just reeks of quality.

To get the middle row of seats out there are six bolts, one each side on the front, and two each side on the back. The rear seats are held in by four bolts (hidden by plastic covers), which secure it to the wheel wells.

We also uninstalled all the rear seatbelts which required undoing a lot of bolts, including inside the paneling to get the assembly out. We will use the bolts to secure parts of our set-up.

Removing the interior panels

Seats out, we attacked the interior with ferocity and tore it apart like lions on a gazelle. We took all the paneling (carpeted or not) and gave them a scrubdown in the tub, aghast at the amount of black water running out of them. It's quite amazing how much you can take apart in a car. Most of it attached with no more than plastic clips or maybe a small screw. It does take a bit of force to pull them off, just be careful not to break the plastic bits...especially on older models as they will likely be a little brittle.

Cleaning the upholstery

Against the advice of a couple DelicaClub members, we removed the upholstery from the front seats and and gave them a vigorous clean by hand (do not put them in the washing machine, and no hot water! or you'll shrink them - also, air dry in the shade, out of the sun's reach). We discovered sugar soap. This stuff cuts through grease like you wouldn't believe, and was safe to use. To hold the fabric to the seat to give a tight, contoured fit, there are a few metal rods on both the seat and the cover. These are held together by hog rings which we pried apart with a pair of pliers.

At first we thought we'd have to remove the plastic headrest guides to get the back cover off. After a frustrating few minutes of trying to figure out how to remove these, we realized you can just stretch the fabric over them. The headrests are easy, just unzip from the bottom and pull them off.

When putting the covers back on we used the same rings and clamped shut with the same pliers. It's a bit fiddly, but doable and not all that hard in the grand scheme of things. Tip to get the headrest covers back on: put them back onto the seat first.

The driver's side was easier, now that we knew what we were doing.

After scrubbing down what we couldn't remove (e.g. the roof), we brought SAM to the wash and used a carpet shampoo/vacuum to give him a final clean.

The interior looks as it must have when this baby was in the showroom. It's time to start designing...

Back in Melbourne: You're home, SAM!

I'll admit, it could have been a much smoother start. But then again, without trials and tribulations, what would we learn? And what fun would that be?

By far, the easiest way to do this would have been to register the van in my name while we were in NSW. Transferring to Victoria plates once in Melbourne would have been a breeze. Of course, not having an address in NSW would have made it very difficult. We could have found some friends to vouch for us and tell the RTA we lived with them. We just didn't have the time though.

The shocker

As such, with SAM unregistered we had to go through Victoria's version of road worthy, which is much more strict than in NSW. This we found out the hard way. It cost us $88 to have the Deli checked over. At best, we hoped it would pass with no problems. At worst, we expected maybe a few things that needed some attention. What we weren't prepared for was the long list of items he failed it for: rear tires, front brakes, rear transmission mounts, differential bushes, inner CV boot, tailpipe hole, washer jets. The list goes on. In the end, he gave us the itemized quote. Estimated total for parts and labour: $3500. Almost the price we paid for it!

After some asthmatic breathing, cursing and crying, I calmed down. A little. Yvonne was taking it relatively well. It is usually her domain to get really worked up, but here I was, having a panic attack and it was HER calming ME down. There was no way we were going to leave the van with this guy, so we thanked him, collected the tidy list he so meticulously prepared for us, and drove off.

Join the club

The Internet is such a valuable tool. I have no idea how we ever got along without it. We found a site called delicaclub.com and signed up. It is chock full of members who are enthusiasts about this van in the worst way. The forum is overflowing with relevant information, from an alphabetized list of common troubles and fixes, to PDF downloads with pictures of how-to's. If something isn't there, simply post your question. Usually the first response is within minutes. It is through here we found a source for Delica parts - our query revealed a price list of parts that were a fraction of what the mechanic quoted us.

We just might have the record for most posts by a new member within a 72 hour period. We hammered them with questions and they replied in kind, dishing out free advice which we absorbed like a sponge. Most agreed that this mechanic was being pedantic in his assessment of our van.

Auto-repair 101

Now, I haven't gotten my hands dirty and greasy since I was 13 years old, fabricating fireplace doors and heat exchangers - cutting and bending steel sheets and rods, grinding and polishing, and even a little bit of welding (hey, it beat delivering newspapers). To be perfectly honest, I'm a city slicker with delicate office hands. When I say "if I can do this, anybody can do this" I really mean it.

First, tools. K-Mart had a 400 piece (FOUR hundred! That's a lot) tool set, nifty red case with drawers included. $99 later it was ours. My favourite tool? The telescopic screwdriver thing-a-ma-bob that has a magnet at the end for picking up all the screws and nuts I'm sure to be dropping in tight places.

My first real mechanic experience was replacing the radiator overflow tank. Although this wasn't one of the roadworthy items, it was sorely needed as the old one was discolored and had signs of decay. As we read that if this thing goes it can cause real problems, we made it a priority.

The rear tires and the tailpipe we left for the experts. The roadworthy items we were able to address ourselves was the blocked windshield washer jets (nothing a pin and fiddling with the hoses couldn't fix), changing the wiper blades (we also spray painted the arms as they were rusty), and fixing the gear indicator lights. This was the most annoying and required disassembling the steering column and pulling apart the dash. It turned out to be a loose connection behind.

Somewhere in there, the sliding door window came loose and it was able to be pried open from the top and pulled outwards. We called up a mobile glass place and they quoted $140 to fix it, and a weekend surplus of $150! After searching the DelicaClub forum, we found our answer. All that needed to be done was remove the plastic window trim, find the window clips that rattled off and fell in the recess, and fasten them back on. And to think, we could have spent up to $290 just for this!

Next up was the glow plugs (yes, it's a diesel). We weren't absolutely sure this needed to be done, but they did look rather rusty and corroded, so we bit the bullet and bought them. It was a relatively easy job, other than having to position the wrench in tight quarters, but again not something I would even have thought about doing myself before.

With the very obvious road worthy items ticked off, we felt it was time for a second opinion.

On the road again

Instead of paying $3500 to get SAM road worthy, we ended up dishing out about $500. Sure, we haven't fixed everything that probably needs repairing, but at the very least we got our road worthy certificate! Yes, we found a mechanic who wasn't quite as anal as the first one. This was our priority, and this now meant we could register the van with VicRoads so we could legally drive unrestricted. We will address all the other things in due time.

One thing that does need to be fixed now is our alternator. After having it checked out by a couple of auto electricians, we've discovered it is not charging the battery properly. We've already got the part in hand, now it's just a matter of swapping it.

Now that the van's officially registered, we will be starting the conversion process. Depending how our visa situation works out - if we get a new work one or not - the conversion may be quick, or it may be done over the next year. We should know this in the next two weeks. But first, a good thorough cleaning. The previous owner used it for his home landscaping business, so it's quite filthy.

Stay tuned!