Englishy1 First Gen Lwb Pajero

[englishy1]

So about a year ago i brought this 1989 First Gen Lwb Pajero and  its been keeping me busy.

Is a really solid pretty much rust free truck. Every thing work as it should engine rally is strong however as in need on quite some TLC

Didn't take any photo but in the first 2 weeks of owning i swapped on my 31 10.5 r15 Micky Thompson, replace all the brake pads and rotors front and rear, all four shocks, sway bar bushs, rear trailing arm bushs and i full fluid change

 

[englishy1]

Heres a link to the Discussion thread all comments about the Poojero welcome.

 

[englishy1]

The last summer (2021-2022 Summer) was fill with lost of fishing trips and exploring around south Wairarapa and of course red rock in wellington.

the only mode that happen in this time was a head unit, new spot lights and updating the rear seat belts to some that adults will fit in to.

 

 

 

[englishy1]

 Only managed to get it stuck once so far.

Got pulled out by a trusty Toyota Surf

[englishy1]

Fixed about the only series rust on the whole truck, might of gone over board with the under body deader.

 

[englishy1]

I had also noticed that the EGR was leaking a bit and i felt like she was getting a bit lazy to spool up on to boost (all 6psi of it). Decided to make my self some EGR blanking plate. now the Boost hit nicely at 2,200rpm.

To my surprise the intake wasn't really gummed up with any carbon ether.

Also while i was in there i set the tappets and replaced the leaking rocker cover gasket.

[englishy1]

So this bring us to the pain in my ass that happened 4 months ago

So the sunroof, was always the worst part of the truck. It has been sealed up multiple time over its life to try to stop it from leaking (and had pretty much never not leading to it not having are carpet when i bough it). I believe a logging truck passing were i was part deposited a rock in the the sunroof causing the mess above, not helped Im sure by the rust out frame the glass is glued down to below. And i quickly found out that getting a replacement was going to be hard.

Could get a second hand sunroof anywhere in NZ, Mistibushi NZ didn't have a new one. I could only get a new one out of japan witch would of been around $2500 + freight and maybe border tax too.

So i though heck lets see if my insurance would do anything about. First off to the glass shop, they didn't want anything to do with it. So then to the panel beater, after 3 weeks of waiting they got back to me saying what i knew "We cant get you a replacement, but we can offer a steel panel repair to your insurance as an option". I was happy with this so said yes. A full 2 weeks later insurance get back to me saying sorry cant get the part and that they don't want to cover a panel repair, but would pay me out for what a replacement would of cost however they would have to get a price from Mitsubishi NZ. So another week went by, i started getting quote to have in paneled over and they finally got back to me saying that the repair would cost $3570 if they could do it and to expect the money in my account in a day or so.

A this point all the quote for repairs i got were all stupid money (even with me stripping and refitting all the interior my self) the best being at $2500-3000 just for the steel work no paint. So i though fuck that ill just do it my self. and just pocket the money for later mods.

[englishy1]

I did manage to pick up a rolling body pretty cheep (work utes for the win) that had no sunroof but turned out to have a lot of bog and dents in the roof so that was a bit of a waist of time. not its just taking up space in my drive as i strip it for spares.

[englishy1]

So let get in to the repair photos, took my time with making the panel fit really nicely. I don't have an English wheel but managed to get a bit of shape in the the panel by running a bit old hard mallet up and down over about half an hour. Striped out the interior and started to tack it in. This is the point the a realized why the quotes for the panel beater were so high, even with the tyres deflated you have to do all this work on a ladder and god dam dose it turn this in to a cunt of a job.

Of course as soon as i went to started to tack it the gas line on my mig split. Was late on a Friday so ended up tacking it with gas-less wire (never again) what a mess.

Sorted out a new hose for the mig and burned it fully in. TBH i probs put to much heat in the weld and ended up with a couple of warps (both front corners and a pit on the middle of the rear) but not as bad as i though it would be. I think this is manly due to me leave the 90 degree down turn on the factory roof adding support to the weld.

And after a bit of cleaning up with the grinder i found a couple of thin spot where the roof was rusting on the inside between the other skin and the frame the the sunroof rails bolt to.

We pretty much up to the current day fore this now. I have patched up the rust spot in the roof and i have order a snorkel to add to the truck too. My though being that if im going to be painting all the roof i might as well weld up all the other little holls like the, factory and after market aerials holes and get all the painting done at once.

[englishy1]

So the snorkel i order turned up at the start of the week and straight away there was a problem, instructions didn't quite look right

So it turns other that Safari being an aussy company make them all there kits to fit ADM vehicle not jap imports. Ask on a Pajero page how people had got around this in the past and got some interesting ideas as well as some not so great in my mind ideas. One person had modded an L300 air box to fit. this got me thinking what about a L200 air-box. There very similar body shape and come with he same 4D56T and after some googling looking at photos i was sold. Managed to get to Pick A Part and pick on up for only $28.

After fitting up the template and double and triple checking i decided to start drill out the 85mm holes.

Drilled out all the mounting holes and test fitted the snorkel. very happy with hoe it sits nice and tight to the A pillar and gard. Dosent even block much vision form the drivers seat too. This is why i order the Safari snorkel not one the the ebay/trade me one.

Offered up the L200 air-box and after bending and trimming the mounting point as well as welded a couple of captive nut in the on inner wheel well it was fitting very nicely. I ended up over lapping 2 holes in the inner gard to get more room for the pipe to bend in to the intake of the air-box. Trimmed down a random bit of intake piping i had laying around in the shed to Finnish it off in to the turbo intake pipe.

Very happy with how it turned out. Looks almost factory, Also i know that none of the existing holes in the A pillar are need any more so ill be welding them up later this week. Also hoping for a dry day so i can get it out of the shed and give the body a good blow off before i start will filler.

 

 

[englishy1]

So September was busy, started off by finishing up the last of the welding (found the left rear corner of the drip rail was rusted out). Followed by a lot of sanding while on top of a ladder. this is not the most fun of job. Really don't want to do that again any time soon. Got a local guy to paint it as a bit of a weekend job was i don't have the gear to do that pretty happy with how it turned out. There is still small dents in the roof as i don't wont to put to much filler down, but it blended out nicely.

if

I don't think anyone looking at the truck would know what Ive done to the roof, but i guess that the point.

 

[englishy1]

Loving having this thing back on the road.

After doing some trips i noticed one of the soft fuel line were leaking so replaced them all.

I then spend some time fiddling this the pumps base fueling and managed to get a lot more go out of it. Always though it was slow but just accepted it as its only a 2.5td in a bigger wagon. Turns out that some one had messed with it before and wound the base fuel as far out as they could (wondered why it only idled at 650rpm).

This thing feels like a lighting ship now. Only down side its when you step on it im pretty sure you can watch the needle move.  Its still in stock boost (6psi). Very tempting to chuck a boost tap on it a sneak it up a couple of psi.

Also replaced the drivers side hub because the inner bearing the supports the Cv shaft decided to leave the chat about 5kms away from anywhere 2wd friendly.

 

[englishy1]

Has been pretty a pretty uneventful few months of daily driving, a couple of big road trip, Napier and Tauranga.

After the trips up north decided that i was sick of the old muddys sing all the time so i splashed on a new set of 31/10.5r15 Goodyear Duratrac ATs

and while putting off fixing the rust hold that has to be fixed before the next WOF (2 months time now) i decided to make some storage draws for the boot.

Still need to carpet the faces of the draws and put a latch on them so they stop rattling open the 15mm they can move but very happy how they turned out.

Also a senice sunrise photo from one of my latest dive trips