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Project Dajiban


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As mentioned a post or two back, the HVAC is being... problematic.  We have a blower motor and resistor on the way so we can get tucked in to fixing that issue.  I'm beginning to think that if we can civilize this thing enough, it might become my daily driver.  Of course before that can be, we need to figure out that CEL about the "secondary water temp over-voltage," or whatever, that I think is running me a tad rich.  While 11.6 miles per gallon isn't terrible, it is a far cry from the 35* MPG I get in the Smart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Which is NOT indicative of normal Smart Car mileage because I drive like an asshole!

Edited by dimlight65
punctuation/grammar
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So I replaced the blower motor resistor while waiting for John to show up Wednesday evening.  That was not what was causing the problem.  I got the old fan out and the squirrel cage removed and was grokking how to make it stay on the new motor when John arrived.  We decided a test of the motor was in order before going through the ass-whip of reinstalling.  It didn't spin very fast at all.  "Hmm," we says to each other, "shall we try the old motor?"  This we did and the results were the same.  Then we got the bright idea to hot-wire the motor straight to the battery.  Yeah, when that sucker tries to go from zero to light-speed instantaneously, one had better have a rock solid grip on it.  This was a thing which we did not have. The squirrel cage bit John  while the motor housing caught my finger.  Not much blood was lost, but it sure hurt like a bastard.  So we now know that the fan motor(s) is (are) good and so is (are) the resistor(s).  Oh yeah, swapping resistors didn't make a difference either, by the way.  John begins an interweb search for answers.  Turns out the switch in the dash is a known problem source.  Guess what, go on, I'll wait.  Um hmm, my fan speed switch in the dash, the one which would be a real piece of piss easy to replace, is bad.  I have one on the way to try Saturday.

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I actually went to the shop by myself on Saturday to get the van for a project Sunday.  I was in a hurry when I picked it up so I didn't look at swapping the switch then though.  After driving across town and consulting with the folks involved with the Sunday event, it was decided that the van was not going to be necessary after all.  I decided that since I was halfway between the shop and home, I'd go ahead and return the van to the shop.  This time I did think about looking at swapping the switch.  I didn't do it, but I thought about it.  So, to make a short story long, we will install the switch Wednesday, as John said.

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On 3/12/2020 at 3:29 PM, datsunfreak said:

Got bored... Had a drill in my hand...  So...

 

small.IMG_20200311_193734_037.jpg.9166b9

 

There were questions as to whether or not this thing was going to be sucked into the big bumper hole at speed.  *Spoiler* It was.  So today we added a wee magnet inside the loop to hold it in place.  THAT appears to have worked.  And we (ok, John) washed the rest of the black schmutz off the roof.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I had not driven it since Saturday the 14th so I decided I would drive it to work today and tomorrow.  Dang, I really like this van!  Having said that, we have a problem.  As I was hooning down the Dam Road (shakes fist in the air), I downshifted through the gears coming to a stop and heard a disconcerting "CLUNK" from the rear when first gear hit.  When I got on the gas again, there was a similar loud "CLUNK" from the rear.  I am now convinced that we trimmed too much off of the "black things" that came with the flip kit and now the axle is free to rotate under positive and/or negative torque load.  I'm not sure how we're going to fix it, but fix it we must.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I had this grandiose plan to make the Statutory Grape into a camper.  I bought a tri-fold mattress and designed a "Bofa" (bed that converts into a sofa... or vice versa) around it for the back of the van.  Well, the guy from Colorado needed the van more than I did (and driving the thing in a cross wind was sphincter clenchingly terrifying) so I sold it.  I kept the mattress and now I think I'm going to build the Bofa in the back of the Dajiban.  We took some measurements and screwed some wood together this evening as a "proof of concept" sort of thing.  Yeah, I think it's going to work.  

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Last week I was sent on a mission to retrieve an Explorer rear axle for another project at the shop.  It added enough weight to cause the Dajiban's differential to whang a mighty dent up in the floor!  Today we cut a whopping great hole in the floor above the differential to prevent this from occurring again.  Of course now we have a whopping great hole in the floor of the van.  We took a couple hunks of angle iron and riveted them to the front and rear of the C-notch support thingies, made a cover for the rest of the open area between those thingies, and filled the cavity with expanding foam.  I'll rivet the cover down on Wednesday and hopefully have John shoost some oics for y'all... or, I suppose you could go look at the progress on the instant grams, or whatever it's called.

Edited by dimlight65
"I" to "We"
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On 4/22/2020 at 9:51 PM, dimlight65 said:

We may add three more slats to the extension before gluing and screwing the deck on top.

 

Actually, what I've decided is I'm going to hinge three legs to drop down in those big gaps.  They will attach to the deck and swivel up forward when they slam into the rear box thingy. 

 

I've sat on the rear box portion and it feels very sturdy, but we're worried about the slide out being a bit spindly... after all, it does have to support my 150 lbs* when getting in and out of the van/bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*This number might be slightly under exaggerated.

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The spindliness of the extension is no longer a concern... well, it IS a concern, but it isn't as big a concern.  We are going to do ONE dangly leg near the door edge of the bed so I can sit on that edge without worry, but the rest seems strong enough.  We made the sleeping/seating surface today and screwed the extension part of that to the slats of the extension.  It really solidified the thing.  Now my worry is having enough assitol to extend/retract the thing!  It is one heavy some-bitch!  I have an idea I think will work though.  Stay tuned.  Pics here because I'm too much of a "Grab your pitchforks!" Luddite to learn how to post them on this site.

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Wednesday I realized there was no way in hell I could lift the sofa-back and push the extension in while standing outside the sliding door.  Then I had an idea: if ropes were employed to pull the sofa-back up, that would automatically pull the extension in.  Today I bought some eye-screws, pulleys, rope, and another hinge for the dangly leg mentioned a few posts back.  The first thing I did at the shop was install said dangly leg.  It works quite well.  With John's help, I installed the hinges on the sleeping surfaces next.  Then, when I noticed that in order to finish installing the sleeping surface, I'd need to remove the headboard and cut the holes for under bed storage... well, I removed the headboard and cut the holes for under bed storage.  (Picture on the Instant Grams)  We decided that I really didn't want to know just how much weight I was adding to the van, so the idea of taking it all out and weighing it was abandoned.  I glued and screwed the headboard to the base box and was informed that it was getting late.  We broke for lunch/the day, and will "finish" the build on Wednesday. 

 

Coming up: Bofa gets a nice thick coating of Battleship Grey paint... ok, so it's Rustoleum Smoke Grey.  It's the same thing-ish.

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