What did you do to your truck today?

Okay, so I rolled up the truck bed tarp/tonneau cover to see how well it would store next to the cab.



I have the tarp tied to the headache rack with rope. I'm going to replace the rope with paracord eventually.

You can also see that I have two folding InstaCrates in the bed of the truck held in place with bungie cords. Anyone who's owned a truck knows that putting groceries, etc. in the bed of the truck without some sort of containment is a problem. The InstaCrates are light, plastic (no rust) and if they "walk away" they are only a few $. The ends of the tarp fold nicely between the carts and the bungie cords, which should hold them in place when driving and when windy. Need to test that theory.

 

As you can tell from previous photos, my truck is an everyday working truck. I have no plans to make it a show truck. That being said, I decided to install seat covers to cover up some small rips in my seats. I purchased the below seat covers, but at approximately 2/3rds the price going through 500 Yen Shop.



*below are advertisement photos, NOT of my truck





To be polite, they are Okay. The seat material is thick and appears durable, but two of the straps to hold the covers in place ripped off before I could even put tension on them. There is a lumbar adjustment lever on the left side of the driver's seat, but the seat cover does not have a slot for it, it just goes over the lever. The passenger side back rest doesn't fit so well, there is a lot of loose material. Plus, the seats sit directly over the engine and these covers have hanging string and straps that if not addressed would drop onto the motor. I held them in place with metal tape.

Bottom line: for a work truck these are fine, but if you're looking to customize your truck I'd look elsewhere.

 

Tire rotation and brake inspection. IDK, my front tires look really low if I use the info on the door jam sticker. I feel better running at least 32 psi.









Front Tire - Light Load 1.8 kgf / 25.6 psi
Front Tire - Maximum Load 1.8 kgf / 25.6 psi
Rear Tire - Light Load 2.2 kgf / 31.29 psi
Rear Tire - Maximum Load 2.6 kgf / 36.98 psi

 

I can't help but notice how nice and clean your garage is... sorry, I know this is a truck forum, but wow! Very envious.

Your truck looks great also.

 

It's a property I'm currently renovating. I still need to put the ceiling up and run electrical and lighting so I'm trying not to move too much stuff in it yet. Thanks for the compliment!

 

I watched mine float through the Panama Canal! Very surprised that it came through perfectly on-time, no delays. Oh, and I recorded it all for you folks to enjoy, too.

 

THE BEST UPGRADE EVER for my 1998 Sambar. I have done lots of upgrades and replaced lots of original parts but this $10 upgrade is a game changer.

Original Spring Vs New Cut Spring #2 by Honeyman posted Oct 9, 2023 at 11:25 AM

The absolute BEST UPGRADE I have made to my 1998 Sambar, for reference I have upgraded suspension, tires, rims, added wheel spacers, LED light bar, LED lights, new bumper with hitch, etc. Less than $10 and it changes everything about the driving experience. HUGE IMPROVEMENT!

Original Spring Vs New Cut Spring by Honeyman posted Oct 9, 2023 at 11:25 AM

Engine Bay Throttle Return Spring Removed by Honeyman posted Oct 9, 2023 at 11:25 AM

Engine Bay New Throttle Return Spring by Honeyman posted Oct 9, 2023 at 11:25 AM

Go to the local auto parts store and pick up the Dorman 59002 - Universal Throttle Return Springs. There are a bunch in the pack and all are way to long, so you will have to cut and bend into the shape at the length needed. Get the stiffest spring in this pack, cut it size and bend the ends and replace your current spring. Make sure it is exactly the length of the one your replacing.
Pull the panel in the bed and the back plastic over that covers the throttle return spring.

Dorman Universal Throttle Return Springs 59002 by Honeyman posted Oct 9, 2023 at 11:25 AM

Your sambar will drive like a totally different vehicle, this one change elevates the entire driving experience now. This now feels much closure to the driving my wife's 6spd BRZ.
This is the single best thing I have found that changes the feel of the truck and it was a cheap fix.

Engine Bay New Throttle Return Spring Close Up by Honeyman posted Oct 9, 2023 at 11:25 AM

It isn't only about stiffening the pedal, it is quick power down. I have found that, at least here in Central Virginia with some hills and old animal trails we eventually turned into roads (curvy), that the throttling down quicker from the new spring makes going into curves and going down small hills - something that I can just take my foot of the gas now without needing to hit the brakes. I find that I'm not using the brakes going into curves and coming out of them better as a result. Additionally, at 50mph-ish I find that I settle with the pedal about 60% depressed to maintain speed and I can maintain constant speed much better, it also has about 40% more travel, which feels better as a driving experience. Where as before it seemed like the gas pedal always stayed more on the floor and I stayed on the breaks to compensate.

 

Today was just a bit more than one year since I put my truck to work. Since October 5, 2022 I've driven the truck 383 kilometers, or 244 miles. Most of that has been in 1st or 2nd gear on trails in the woods. The dirt road out front is part public, part private with almost no traffic since it's a dead end. From time to time I'll get out there and get up to speed in 3rd or 4th gear. The truck has done great, no trouble at all. The truck stays outside. My amateur paint job is holding up fine with just a few scratches. I used Herculiner in the bed and some here said it is useless, but I disagree. Yes, the stuff was soft when I first applied it but it has hardened up quite well and gas spilled from the chainsaw no longer seems to affect it. I usually just ride around the property but sometimes I haul dirt, concrete rubble for fill, etc. Today I hauled a load of firewood out of the woods. Overall, I'm very pleased with the truck and it sure beats the hell out of a golf cart.
Kevin in NC

 

I had no idea that painting the Hijet would be so labor intensive. After three weeks of intermittent and seemingly never ending prep work, I worked on my Hijet mini truck again all day today and managed to finally get the body painted on the outside... with only one of the two coats of Medium Gray Monstaliner bed liner, and I didn't paint the tailgate, bed sides or headache rack. Tomorrow's forecast is scattered showers after 3 PM, so that's out. Every day for the foreseeable future is isolated showers or a chance of showers, so I'll need to wait for another rare nice late October day to paint the parts I didn't paint today, roll the second coat on the outside of the truck, and then a second coat on the parts that I painted a couple of hours earlier, which is not optimal. At least I now have a good understanding of the Monstaliner cure schedule and working properties.



I pulled the masking off the truck this evening before the paint sealed it to the truck, so I'll need to mask everything again, but that won't take as long because I won't be cutting in close on the second coat so I can over-mask onto the first coat of Monstaliner. I have some areas under the truck that need some more paint brush trim work on the frame. I may do that when I paint the inside of the truck as it won't use an entire gallon for that. I'll do a lot of touch ups at that time.

Next time, I'll roll the Monstaliner on first, everywhere I can, then follow with the brush trimming. It's difficult to know what the roller can and can't reach. I wasted time brush trimming places the roller could reach and didn't trim places the roller couldn't reach. It'd be easier and better to roll where I can and then finish by brushing wherever the roller can't reach. It's also better to roll the fresh Monstaliner first, before it starts to thicken because it covers better and the thicker Monstaliner can pull chunks off the foam roller and ruin the finish.

The darker it became this evening, the better that first coat looked. It probably looks great from 30 yards away, at dusk.

I'm sure I'll see the defects in the morning.

I came into the house, sat down, and suddenly felt like a ton of bricks landed on me. I'm getting too old for real work.

Still to do to prepare the Hijet for it's second life in the USA:

1. Paint the inside
2. New brakes
3. Powder coat the rims and install the Yokohama Geolander tires
4. Install the double DIN ATOTO stereo and backup camera with DVR
5. Reupholster the seats and install the heated seats
6. Install a 20" LED light bar on the front
7. Install four LED pods on the headache rack - two for the bed and two for behind the truck
8. Install two modified 20 mm ammo cans on the headache rack as tool boxes
9. Install the remote keyless entry system
10. Yada yada

 

Just got mine in last week. Was a bit disappointed when I got home to find that it was completely empty of coolant on further investigation, found it to be leaking fast from the connection from heater pipe to hose by the engine. Hose itself looked fine, so I pulled the bed with the help of a friend and got to removing the pipe. Sure enough, looks like it got crushed in the bracket and then corroded the rest of the way through in time. This leak was clearly known about, as it had RTV all over the area trying to seal it.

The replacement part is still available and cheap enough, but I didn't even bother to look up a shipping quote to send a 5ft long pipe overseas. Looking into some raw material sourced locally, I think I was able to make a pretty decent replacement that I suspect will last the rest of the life of the vehicle. Also looking to preserve the other two lines, I preemptively cleaned and coated the other two lines at the same time. I picked out a coating that was rated for all the materials I'm use, the temperature, and the exposure to oils and solventa. I think the bright green will be a pretty cool accent under the truck that only a few will get a chance to notice!

Once these cure, I'll test fit them and pressurize the system with distilled water to see if everything works fine. Meanwhile, I'm working on prepping the frame and underside of the bed for a KBS rust seal coating. With those off, it's just the right time to cut the rust short right here and now before the weather is too cold to apply any coatings.

 

Somebody else on here replaced their coolant pipes with a DIY option they made with copper . Yours should be fine, looks like you handled that well

 

Been a busy few weeks... Coated the frame and back of cab while I had a couple of warm days. It's not perfect and certainly not full coverage, but it's better than nothing. I do also intend to paint the underside of the truck bed before reinstalling it, very soon. My friend is about ready to move his engine out of my garage, so I'll have a space I can heat long enough to apply and cure that coating. Maybe in the spring, I'll be able to pull the engine and do the rest of it totally correctly. After the bed is back on and the weather is back to painting season, I'll paint the top of the bed and back of the cab to match.


Cleaned up light lenses, electrical contact, dome light switch, and the like. Getting everything refurbished and ready for real use. Lots of oxidation and loose fasteners that appreciated a cleaning and tightening. Also took apart the sun visor, cleaned it, and lubricated it. Now it lines up correctly and operated smoothly.


Many brackets and the battery box parts also looked terrible and weren't going to last much longer without some attention. Knocked off the scale, cleaned them thoroughly, acid-etched, and coated just like the frame. There's a couple of tiny spots that were missed and need touch-up, but they should be able to be installed by Friday with how long curing takes.


Also wanted a nicer finishing touch for the battery box. Decided to 3D print a knob to press an M8-1.25 bolt into and used a neoprene washer to act as both an anti-rotation device and a way to avoid scratching the cover's surface. Some other bonus printing was some tailgate latch silencers. It's the first time I printed in TPU, so they're not very good, but seem just good enough to be functional. I'll run them until they fall apart and then reprint some more with the lessons I've learned printing those.


Last bit...I also got into doing the timing belt. It was an aftermarket belt of some variety and looked to be in good shape, but the area was literally pouring out oil while the engine was running and everything in the cooling system was suspicious at this time. Nothing too exciting in the process of the timing belt/water pump/thermostat, but some of the details around it stood out. The camshaft seal was so loose that I was able to spin it freely by hand. It was removed with almost zero effort with a small machinist pick. Fortunately, there didn't appear to be any damage to the surface, so the new seal was able to be installed smoothly. Crankshaft met my expectations, with a reasonable difficulty in removing it and a clean install. The inner timing cover was something else and could have served as inspiration for a new work from Salvador Dali. The coolant system failure really must have been a hallmark of the end of this truck's life in Japan. New timing cover parts are due to be delivered early next week. Meanwhile, I went ahead and assembled the side back up as best as I could to do some of the other work while waiting on parts. Refilled the cooling system with distilled water, bled, and then introduced a cleaner to it. Fortunately, all of it was working well and circulating, but it was quite a mess inside. After over an hour of circulating the cleaner, I decided to rinse it out and start a fresh batch of cleaner. Really started to come clean on the second batch, so after an hour with it, it was rinsed out thoroughly, then flushed a couple of times with distilled water, then finally brought back into balance with concentrated coolant. No leaks anywhere from either oil or coolant. New covers and then torquing down the crankshaft nut will have this job done. Up next is new valve stem seals, valve clearance adjustment, and new seals all around for the rocker cover. Following that, everything is on-hand for a quick overhaul of the ignition system, to replace the fuel filter, and to replace the air filter.

 

Time to play with a little more paint... Engine parts are due in tomorrow, so I decided to clean and refinish the rocker cover today. Took more than expected to degrease this cover with the years of build-up. Once there, I sanded down the raised lettering to give it a machined look, cleaned it up once more, then started masking everything off. Chapstik made for a neat paint blocker on the raised lettering. A couple coats of primer and about 4 coats of paint went into the cover and once it was dry enough to handle, I took to scraping off the paint on the raised lettering. It came off quickly and easily, but left a lot of little hanging pieces that I had to carefully go through and trim off with a razor. This coating cures quickly, so I cleaned up the cover as soon as I was done, dried it out thoroughly, and went right into getting clear coat on. 5 coats total of the clear has the paint and the raised lettering well sealed and protected.


Also changed gears and worked a little bit more on my sound. I was about to fabricate a custom bracket for my speakers when I had an a-ha moment and realized that if I just ignore the location of the holes on the speaker itself, it fits perfectly with no adapter. With all four screws in, they won't let the speaker pivot out and the friction of the screw head seems to keep them from shifting at all. Only thing I'd improve here is to put a nylon washer on each screw between the speaker and dashboard, as the speaker doesn't sit completely flush to the dash, meaning the screws want to bend the mounting tabs inward to stay secure. Speakers used were the Pioneer TS-G460 4x6 2-way speakers. Since the trucks don't come with a passenger-side speaker, I did also have to source some hardware. I got a bag of them from Napa Auto, but my local Ace Hardware also had them as well. #8 screw "Chrysler License Plate Mounting Nuts" were the perfect size to snap into the square holes in the dashboard, and the #8, 1/2" screws I picked up at the hardware store were also a perfect match to fit these plastic nuts. Some standard spade connectors and some #18 wire I had made for the perfect adapters to fit these speakers to the factory connection. I finished it off with some protective tubing I had available. I still need to add the passenger-side wiring to the factory harness, as those pins are absent. I'm trying to figure out what size of pin goes into the harness to add it without splicing anything-will post when I find that out.


Other desired element here is a subwoofer. I wanted to minimize the space used, so I went digging around for this one for a while. I found out that Pioneer has a series of compact subs, one of which (in the original JDM) is specifically advertised to go into Kei cars. I ended up getting the Carozzeria TS-WX010A. Why Carozzeria? It's the JDM brand for Pioneer products. The TS-WX010A is sold in the USA under the Pioneer brand, but they market it as a low-power consumption subwoofer specifically for EVs and price it accordingly. It's almost 3x the price in the US for that difference in marketing. Because of the A/C in the truck, it doesn't fit exactly where I originally planned. With some poking around, I ended up finding a spot that doesn't interfere with legroom, the little bit of cargo space behind the seats, and has exactly enough space for the brackets to mount flat, with maybe 2mm of tolerance. What I don't like about this spot is that it interferes with the latch under the passenger seat, though the subwoofer is designed with a couple of 5mm thumb nuts that allow it to be disconnected in about 15 seconds. Not too big of a deal, but perhaps could be better? It also looks like it might be uncomfortable for the passenger, but with how small it is and the shape of it, my legs don't even touch it no matter how I sit in that seat-they clear right over it. If I run into trouble with this spot, my backup plan is to put it on the floor in front of the shifter. I like having that spot open as a place for a small bag when there's two people in the truck, but I'll give it up if push comes to shove. I did some temporary wiring for a sound test and it's actually very nice, with a very surprising amount of bass output-way more than I need to enjoy my music (and I do enjoy quite a lot of bass-heavy electronic music...). I'll likely share an update about how this gets permanently wired in and the carpet gets trimmed for final installation at the same time I take care of the passenger-side speaker.

 

It's been a while since I posted so here's a list of stuff I did before today:

• Finally replaced my rear CV boots (tutorial post incoming)
• Pulled out a lot of the interior chasing a vibration in the glovebox area
• Replaced only one of the shifter cable bushings (wrong parts)
• Checked the oil and air filter

But TODAY I installed a replica of my truck's original license plate, shout out to customjapanplates.com for digging up the Chi character on the left even though it wasn't an option on their website. And I put a wreath on cause I'm a festive guy.

 

Thanks to Drain (see post above this one), I ordered a custom replica kei truck Japanese license plate. Merry Christmas to me.



HOLIDAY23 is the 15% off discount code that saved me $6.

 

New wheels over the weekend

 

I tidied up the rack, but came up with new ideas for it. I'm thinking about a 45 support from the rear to the center of the long bars to hold a RTT. Also thinking about getting rid
of the front basket and just add a second forward loop to act as a basket.

 

I like the basket. I think it gives it a tougher look

 

Todays work

 

Just ruined my front brake disc while trying to get my CV axle off to replace the boots. I've seen all the videos and none of them show the whole process. Or they are flat out wrong, like the guy taking a sledge hammer to his CV axle when there's an easy wire clip on the other end. When this is all over I'm going to post a mega write-up how to thread.

I realize now that this happened because the lug nuts were still on. The nuts were a bitch to get off so I threaded them on to check that I didn't cross thread something last time I had the wheel off. I am in fact an idiot.

 

I finally designed and 3D printed a battery cover and installed it on Christmas Eve.



Then I installed the custom Japanese kei license plate to spiff up the front of my Hijet kei truck.



Yesterday, I designed and 3D printed a holder for a mighty ThruNite TC20 flashlight. The holder mounts where the road flare was originally mounted near the passenger's feet. Please ignore the ugly slopped paint near the door, leftover from painting the exterior. It'll look much better in the spring when I finish the job by painting the interior.



A more detailed report of these projects is on my Hijet restoration thread, linked in my signature line below.

 

Trying out a Harbor Freight canvas tarp. Fits pretty good, might be a tad longer than the ones sold in Japan for kei trucks

 

I designed and 3D printed custom mud flaps for my Hijet.



A more detailed report and discussion is on my Hijet restoration thread, linked in my signature line below.

 

I am not sure how I missed this thread before now.
I have been adding stuff to my Hijet for 1.5 years.
Mostly basic or forensic maintenance.
Put ammo boxes on for storage, added USB charger and phone clamp.

 

I ordered some stuff from Eastern Beaver.
The owner is an American living in Japan.
I can usually find electrical connectors by matching his photos to what is in the truck.
https://www.easternbeaver.com/Main/Elec__Products/Connectors/connectors.html

 

I swapped in a new carb and exhaust on my van.

https://minitrucktalk.com/threads/suzuki-every-carb-swap.24819/

 

I added a little bit of WRX to my Sambar

 

Splain please.

 

2024 Edition!