This is a read-only archive of the old Madabout Kitcars forum. New posts and replies are no longer possible, but every thread is still here to browse and read.
Is the front panel off a subaru sambar or suzuki every? Ive seen loads of them imported from japanbut they seem to make a lot of money £5k upwards and the engines are only a 0.6! What engine is inthat Scottie?
Yes Danny, I think it is, I got it very cheap off Ebay as it was very flimsy and broken in half. They are quite rare to get hold of in the UK, so I snapped it up. They usually (if you can find one) go for £250 or so.
And you are correct about the price, Subaru Sambars seem to be 5k and upwards.
They do indeed have a rear mounted air-cooled 600cc engine, but mine started life as a Daihatsu Hijet, and they come fitted with a water cooled mid mounted rear-wheel drive 1300cc engine.
This makes them surprisingly nippy. I used mine to collect my shell from Chris, and the long journey was fine with no problems, and it pulled the trailer no sweat.
I'm not sure why but I just really like vans, my Doblo averages 52mpg around the Pennines even going 3 miles stop start to school twice a day it now has 162000 miles on it, I can only do donkey trekking in mine though not horse rides, looking at your front grill cut out now it's finished looks lije all your thinking about it paid off, I wonder if there would of been enough air flow if it where just cut out below the chrome vee? All it needs now is a day on thecsewing machine making a sun awning in a bag on the side and a hob grill sink combo accessed when the tailgate is up and it would probably sell for twice what you have in it on eBay.
Like the skull and cross bones too. Ed
I think they are the same engine as Suzuki jimnys and swifts they are a very good engine can also be swapped for a 1.6 out of an ignis or the twin cam from a gti. Is the roof metal or fibre glass? I'm forming a plan..............
Its metal Ed, and the van has done less than 40,000 miles, and is mostly rust free. Sounds like I'm trying to sell it but I'm NOT!
These vans come with different engine arrangements, there are 900cc petrol ones, 1300cc petrol ones and, a diesel engined one which I think may be 1400cc.
They also do a petrol and liquid gas duel fuel one!
Most of them are vans with no side windows, but I chose the one I have because it has all the windows.
It also has two sun roofs, a sliding door on both sides, and a VW type lift up rear tailgate thing at the back.
Scottie, I have an MX5 soft top sitting in my garage which is free to a good home. The frame is solid but the vinyl needs to replaced. It's yours if you want it.
Thank you for the offer FB, but right now I'm not sure what I am going to do about the roof.
I still have the original Spitfire one, which is like new, and I am sure I could adapt to fit,
but as we all know, once you actually start driving the car, the desire to do any further work kind of evaporates!
Its always the same. Just enjoy the car throughout the summer and sort he roof out in the winter.
I keep looking at that mini van and find myself looking on ebay. Ive been looking at somthing like subaru sambars for a while but living in spain where theres a lot of hilly roads the 0.6l engines put me off and they only seem to comein auto, again not so good on hills! I might have to copy yours! I just think you need some side steps!....
Can't wait to see yours on the road Mick!
Its going to look terrific and old/original too!
Got your Mot yet?
I can't book an MOT until I know which dates next week my mate wants me to crew his narrow boat down from Wigan.
I fixed the exhaust in short order and cut and shut the front wheel arch where it was rubbing so it might even pass.
I fannied about with the slow running today but still can't get it right. I think one or more of the valves might be a bit sticky so a good run is in order once it's passed.
Got my fin fitted at last after much cutting, shutting, glassing and countersunk riveting. It'll need quite a bit of blending in with filler.
Even more of a snip if one uses the screen capture tool Ian!!
I gave the bloke ten quid for mine, and I got four copies, and a blank high res one.
They do tend to sun-fade pretty fast though, but with a blank, does it matter?
Car looks the dogs bollocks on the road scottie, i am certainly envious as i had hoped to have mine on the road by now but it looks like it will be a few more months, enjoy the grin factor and the attention the car gets.
After reading a couple of post on this thread about old tax discs i google 1955 tax disc images, copied one then adjusted the colour and cloned the hand written reg out in photoshop and hey presto it works, only thing is i am not to sure on what the background colour was of that era, the copy i have is a light yellow orange.
That pic I posted of mine Swifty was the right colour for 1955.
P.S. You'll get there Swifty, I had hoped to have mine on the road over a year ago, but I just had to keep working until I got it looking how I wanted it, and of course that takes time!
He obviously used the wrong wording on the form. Much discussed on this forum- you should be able to call the car what you like (within reason) and neither the manufacturer nor the model needs to reference the original donor.
I agree that you should be able to call the car (within reason)
what you would like it to be know as, but it seems it depends who deals with your request at the DVLA and what mood they are in at the time. I think Mick did follow the forum rules, and did things more or less correctly, but came unstuck anyway.
