Mitsubishi L300 Delica start of kitchen fit out

New here so I am posting up my future camper

I needed something that would house for people for 2 or 3 weeks (to start with) and be a 4x4, wife said no tents.

So , while looking on Facebook I stumbled across a Delica L300 for sale. It looked good but did not have an MOT. So I made an offer and it was accepted. Having already got one of these that is very rusty this time I wanted to see it before handing over the cash so instead of sending a transport company to get it I decided to go and get it myself. So I hooked up the trailer to the trusty old transit and set of from Deryshire to Bristol.

When I turned onto the street I was greeted by quite a nice almost shiny Delica, which was nice. After fitting a pair of new batteries it fired up and after a quick look round it seemed solid so we loaded it up on the trailer and headed home.





Once home a quick check over to see if everything was as good as it looked and it seemed to be, It did smell a lot of dog though as the last owner had five of them. I changed a few bulbs and wipers and put it in for an MOT, which it passed.

Then of for a wash and valet to get rid of the smell inside



First real test drive was to a friend of mine for a meeting, 50 miles with some traffic



All went very well made it in one piece. as leaving got to the fuel station, filled up and noticed a lot of water under it, quick trip back 400yrds to mates house to look at it and water pump failure



Que ride home on the big yellow taxi.

So water pump ordered and fitted the following weekend

Start of work



old pump out and block flushed



New pump in and plenty of anti freeze



Job was not as bad as I thought it was going to be, it took about 4 hours start to finish and water pump and stat was £43 from Euro car parts.

So tested it with another 50 mile trip going to a breakfast car meet and everything worked great

Home safe

Next was the lift, I re indexed and cranked the front bars and used spacers on the rear and went up 60mm all round

before




after, it is now about 15mm higher at the front so it sits more level






So the plans are camper rear keeping captains chairs, for the kids, pop top and an awning.

Nice looking Delica. I love the old Mitsis, will be very interesting to see your progress.

Looks like you found your self a good one, be nice to see more when you have finished,

Stefan:

Try Milners for parts, much cheaper than ECP and if you are in Derbys so are they.

Looks good Stefen ... result!

I'd recommend Milner Off Road too, great reputation. Not only a decent guy, Trevor Milner (the boss) knows his stuff too, having raced Jap motors for donkey's years now - knowledge born out of necessity.

I know Milners they are only about 10 miles from me, I used to get bits for my old leaf spring Nissan Patrols from them.

Well I had 3 days off work so decided to do some work to Delica number 2 as I still need to turn it into a camper.

So spare wheel carrier needed making as I wanted to spares and room for batteries were the spare normally goes. so this is what was made.

Without wheels


With wheels on


Hinges, mounted into lock nuts on the inside of the body, that bit was a pain as the lower section was double skinned.


Retaining bracket, will have a lock fitted


And cut out to let the rear wiper still work


That took all of the first day. did not think it would have taken that long but still I am happy with the result.

So second day and the real work started.

I had picked up this the week end before.

Its off a Mazda bongo. Just so you know if you are thinking of fitting one of these to you Delica L300 it is 9cm wider than your gutter so is a real pain to fit, high roofs like mine are even thinner at the top of the roof.

Having found that the new roof was to wide we started cutting the Delica to bits, very scary this bit. All the roof glass smashed. The roof was quite rusty.




So we had to start making a frame to support the new roof



with the frame made and braced to make to very strong it was time to put the Bongo roof on so all the pop top mounting points were in the right place




Welding of the roof started but was not finished as time was pressing on so workshop doors were shut for the night

So that brings us onto today.

Finished welding on the Bongo roof was the first job.

When that was finished it was time to close of the ends of the rame and shape/blend the front.



When this was done it was time to re attach the Pop top and see if it still worked, no photos of this part as it took 3 people to man handle it, we also put a small 25mm rip in the canvas at this point which is a bit of a pain but it can be patched.

Roof fitted and up




And down


Next job was to weld on some brackets for the awning to be bolted to. Paint all the new steel and bolt the awning on.

Not photos of the brackets but the awning fits. here it is up, I also have sides for it





Inside, needs the roof lining out of the first Delica I got so we can trim it out and make it look nice



I am very happy with the result, I need to fill and blend to metal work a bit over the next week or so ready for a final pain, After a mad three days I am now done in and ready for a sit down and relax.

All packed up took about 15min

Sure I have seen this Stefan, if I were to say I was going to a pub called the Jessop Arms, overshot it and turned right to turn round and come back, would I be correct?

Yes you would be correct Assassin the Jessop arms is my local, I tend to go to the French Horn on the junction to go down to Nottingham myself.

Are you based close by

Not that close by, but I have a propensity for remembering numbers and registrations and I noticed it and sub consciously remembered the number, and when I saw your post it triggered my memory.

That's impressive I am hopeless with reg numbers, carn't remember most of mine let alown other peoples

What prompted you to go for a Delica L300 in the first place and not a later model - the cost or do you prefer the L300 to the L400?

A few reasons, l300 rusts less than the latter l300. L400 has been known the crack suspension mounts when off roading. L300 has little in the way of electrics and ecu stuff, the l400 is full of then so harder to fix in the field and last of all I like the looks better.

Stefan:

I was born and raised in Giltbrook and the former dual carriageway, now heavily white lined single carriageway road running from the French Horn was one of our former road racing tracks.

In a mis spent youth we had a couple of memorable incidents, I don't know how old you are so you may or may not remember this one; I built a chassis with a mid mounted ex F1 engine, a Cosworth DFZ which was a fire breathing unit running at up to 1450 BHP which I detuned to around 650 BHP and mounted in my own chassis. A Ford Escort van body with a rotten load bed floor was grafted on and the body was braced and hinged at the front, the rear window glass was removed and two steel covers were fitted, to start the engine you had to lift the body and remove the covers and the airflow came through the non load bed existent floor and out through the window openings.

We would come to the toilets, round them, back onto the bypass and run down to where it became two lanes with a third vehicle behind us who would flash if any other vehicle was coming behind us. Once alongside each other it was hammer time and by the time we hit the bend at Ormonde Fields golf club I was doing over 100 and as I shot round the bend I was well in front. Remember it was before they pushed the road through to the Eastwood bypass and you took the old road past Stoneyford Boat and by the time I got there he was nowhere to be seen so I turned round and went back.

What had happened was he was running an old Zakspeed Capri and no matter what you did to them they never handled well and couldn't corner; and he hadn't, he went straight at the bad bend at Ormonde Fields and ended up in a bunker on the 13th hole (appropriate) and couldn't get out, he had to abandon the vehicle and jump in with us and lost his car. It was in all the papers and on TV at the time.

I think you may have a year or two on me but at the time the bypass was how you describe I was living in Belper. I moved to Ripley then to were I am now 11 years ago

Up your way today Stefan, bloody traffic jams just past the market by that little retail estate and if traffic hadn't moved I was going to come round and tap you up for a coffee.

If I am in I am always willing to put the kettle on.

Awesome job so far
Love the spare wheel carrier.

jamesfuller wrote:

Awesome job so far
Love the spare wheel carrier.

Agreed. If you can do it, carrying two spares in remote locations is definitely the way to go.

So made use of the bank holiday Monday to put some kitchen in.

Trip to Ikea on the Saturday for some units.






The work top across the back will be trimmed down and made into a removable work top.

Removable table fitted, oak to match the kitchen work tops.



Bed in cab area, got to love air beds for easy to store saving space

Coming along nicely,