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Project Dajiban


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If you don't know what a "Dajiban" is, look at this, or watch this and/or this...

 

Ever since seeing those things, we have been obsessed with buying/building one. Since Tim recently sold his Econoline van, we figured now was as good a time as any...

 

So about two weeks ago I get a photo texted to me from Tim's potato phone saying "I just bought this"...

 

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It had been parked for at least a year (or more), so he had it towed to the shop. We put in a fresh battery, and oddly it fired right up and ran fine.  😄

 

Thankfully it was low on gas (which probably was a bit stale anyway) so rather than drain the gas we drove the two blocks to the gas station and filled it with 93 octane. That short drive showed us the tires were dry rotted, hard as rocks, and not very round any more. So we got some 17x8s and some 255/55-17 tires for it...

 

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Drove it around a bit today and she does very nice...

 

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Up next is more low of course...  😎

 

And today Tim also got some more racecar seats for it...

 

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Tim found some OEM replacement mirrors for it since his were toast...

 

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Neither of us were fans of the crappy stock air bag steering wheel so it came out. Well, 90% of it did. We kept the clock spring and the metal center of the wheel, then added some locator pins to it...

 

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Then took a Grant 3-to-5 adapter and drilled two holes in it for the corresponding locator pins...

 

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Then we swapped this wheel on. May be a temp, may be permanent, we shall see...

 

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Next we took out the stock seats to see if the stock bases would work with the aftermarket sliders. Drilled a few new holes and in they went. Whole job took less than 30 minutes...

 

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Tim had also taken two exhaust tips and welded them together on an angle so we could see if this will work...  😃

 

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Up next, exhaust, and build a pedestal for a B&M ratchet shifter...  😎

 

Coming soon, more low, and some skids...  😁

 

 

Edited by datsunfreak
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2 hours ago, goes2fast said:

You guys are making quick progress but it needs some Minilite style wheels like the ones in Japan to complete the look!🤔

Watanabe (or Koenig Rewind) wheels would have been my first choice but, even though the kitty for this project was pretty well stocked, I couldn't quite swing THAT much moolah!

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24 minutes ago, dimlight65 said:

Watanabe (or Koenig Rewind) wheels would have been my first choice but, even though the kitty for this project was pretty well stocked, I couldn't quite swing THAT much moolah!

Those are both rip offs of the original Minilite wheels from the 60s. I have seen 15X8 copies for around $220 ea.

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10 hours ago, DaBlist said:

I love this.

 

If you're asking, no purple please 

I just read your roller coaster quote quote, true until your body is as beat up as mine, then they cause too much pain to be enjoyable. I prefer a smooth ride on steel at this point in my life. 🙂

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On 7/14/2019 at 12:18 PM, goes2fast said:

Those are both rip offs of the original Minilite wheels from the 60s. I have seen 15X8 copies for around $220 ea.

 

In a 5x5.5?   

 

Plus, do you know how low this thing has to be to make 15s work?!? 😃

 

We were thinking the 17x8.5s, but they are the wrong bolt pattern. Add to that them being a -10 offset, adding adapters would make them a -35 or so, also known as waaaaay too gangster for this ride...

Edited by datsunfreak
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1 hour ago, datsunfreak said:

 

In a 5x5.5?   

 

Plus, do you know how low this thing has to be to make 15s work?!? 😃

 

We were thinking the 17x8.5s, but they are the wrong bolt pattern. Add to that them being a -10 offset, adding adapters would make them a -35 or so, also known as waaaaay too gangster for this ride...

I haven't checked what bolt patterns are available but they are probably out there if you look.

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This afternoon I dropped it off at the witch doctor... er, I mean transmission shop, to see if the "chicken bones and voodoo" levels were right and in proper alignment with the stars and whatever else makes a damned auto-tragic work.  Hopefully we'll have it back for Saturday.

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I picked up the van from the witch doctor today.  It appears I do need to get the transmission rebuilt.  I'm going to hold off on that until we do a few more things to it though (lowering, zorst, shifter install etc.)  

 
I sat in it and tried out the shift pedestal... yeah, 18" is too tall and it sits too far back.  I played with it a bit and I have an idea which ort to work and be fairly cool.  If we cut the bottom at ~45 degree angle, the shifter can be mounted forward enough to get it in the neighborhood of the steering wheel (same zip code at least).  This puts the Hurst pistol grip is in a nigh perfect spot.  So, I'm thinking about talking to the transmission dude about a full-manual, reverse-pattern valve body installation while he's going through the thing.  The reverse-pattern VB would make it shift PRN123 and then we'd have a switch for 4th/overdrive (and maybe a switch for converter lockup, but I'm not 100% sure of the necessity of that [as in: it may be necessary to do that because... voodoo?]).  
 
Or we might put in a used unit from John's work and not totally destroy my resale value.  I haven't decided.
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3 hours ago, dimlight65 said:

Or we might put in a used unit from John's work and not totally destroy my resale value.  I haven't decided.

 

Does Texas have a safety inspection requirement?  Just wondering if you might run afoul of any government entities when selling the Dajiban with the airbag removed.  (The aftermarket wheel looks loads better, IMHO)

 

 

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20 hours ago, Duncan said:

 

Does Texas have a safety inspection requirement?  Just wondering if you might run afoul of any government entities when selling the Dajiban with the airbag removed.  (The aftermarket wheel looks loads better, IMHO)

 

 

Well... that does bring up an interesting point.  The short answer is: I don't know.  The long answer is : IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII doooooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn't knooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.  But if I were to assume I've already killed resale, I might as well gopher the full-manual, reverse-pattern valve body, right?  In for a penny, in for a pound.  Thanks for enabling me Duncan!

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