Hayden's 1985 L200 Tipper

[WhangareiKE70]

Discussion:

So I needed a ute, as I have purchased a house and am diving head first in to renos, and my Lexus wasn't the most practical of building material haulers. My Datsun ute is too many $$$ away from being finished plus all my spare time and money are temporarily tied up in the house. 

It had to be: A) a ute, B ) a flatdeck, and C) preferably a single cab. 

So my search criteria was pretty vague. I jumped on Trademe, and started with a local search, and this popped up:

It fit the criteria, so I went and had a look.

It has had new paint recently, with pictures taken of the rust work (as it needed them for a warrant). Pretty gutless 4G63, but had a tip tray! So I was sold. Haha

It needs a few things:

1) Stereo hooked up- the stereo is there, seems like a good Pioneer unit, but they retrimmed the door cards as part of the tidy up, and forgot to leave the cutouts for the speakers in there. Plan to somehow fit in 4x speakers and a slim active sub, as I like a bit of bass, nothing too major. 

2) Sound deadening/interior tidy- The seats/carpet are tidy, but the rest of the interior needs a tart up. Going to sound deaden and line the roof, and maybe throw some in the doors too. It really needs cup holders as well.

3) Tray modification- It is a flat deck, but at the moment the big bars on the back are solid as well as the sides. While this is good for tipping, it means it cant fold the sides down and load a pallet. I have a flat deck that I can steal the sides off, quickly modify to suit the size of this tray, then cut the big bars off and buzz them on. I may also need to strengthen the tray when I do this as those big bars add a lot of bracing, but it shouldn't be too hard. Also going to replace the ply on the tray, so will have lots of access. 

4) More power (maybe)- definitely won't be doing anything major, as this needs to be driveable at all times, but may look at extractors, exhaust, maybe get someone who knows about carbs to freshen things up. 

 

Have already started using it, have done several loads of scrap timber from the renos, also made a temporary back board and loaded it with dirt pulled out for my new retaining wall. 

 

The ram couldn't quite lift that much dirt, probably had to shovel a third of it off and then it dumped the rest. Dad is going to have a look and see if it he can do anything, but there are no load markings on it so it's all a bit vague. 

I forgot to take a photo of it with the tray up, but safe to say it's a cool bit of kit. 

[WhangareiKE70]

I took some loads around to my parents place to dump on their bonfire, so took some pics of the tray up while I remembered.

I will box the front end of those 2x main rails to add some strength, and see if I can add another cross bar at the front where it is missing. I imagine it was left out for clearance around the pump assembly etc so this may require some creative thinking. 

[WhangareiKE70]

Done a few things to this, but naturally forgot to take photos of the good stuff. But installed a JVC bluetooth headunit I had out of my old van, and a dual USB charging point in place of the cigarette lighter, as well as some Pioneer components in the doors. Also ran an RCA/signal wire for a future slim sub while I was there because why not. And spent a lot of time generally tidying the mess of wires behind the dash.

But now I need some help, the other day (now a few weeks back, but the "other day" makes me sound less useless), the wipers stopped going half way up the windscreen. The motor was still going, so I popped it off and the arm had popped off the ball joint/socket thing, and it looks like the culprit is the plastic bush that has deteriorated. 

I have talked to Mitsubishi and you can't get them any more, does anyone have any suggestions to fix this?