The Mazda Bongo is a medium size van with both passenger and cargo configurations. This particular van was leased to a cleaning company for close to 10 years, and although the interior is worse for wear, the mechanics are in excellent condition. It's also large enough to comfortably fit a kart in the back with room for passengers, or even a motorcycle if the need arises.

Runs on plain diesel, which in Japan is the cheapest fuel. (about as much cheaper than regular as regular is than high octane)

The latest news on the van, including repair work, beautification details and “modifications”. In contrast to how I managed my previous vehicle, I intend to avoid doing things that would make it difficult to sell off later.

I made the most of the perfect weather today and finished all the remaining major work on the van, including the finishing touches on the carpeting as well as final securing of the rear seat belts. Ready for a road trip!

I picked up a shipment of various parts from a Mazda dealership in Oita today. Included was new weather stripping for the windows, an ashtray (which will stay spotless), internal diaphragm for the shifter, and a new driver's seat cushion cover. I may have screwed up with the seat cover though. If I replaced the current fabric with this brand new shiny white and gray cover, the rest of the vehicle would look so old and faded that I'd have to change ALL the covers for it not to stand out like a sore thumb. Considering my options…

Today looked like it was going to be nice weather, but as usual it turned rainy and cold half way through. :( I did finally finish snaking the speaker and amplifier wiring throughout the van, and all the panels are in now. It's no audiophile's dream system, but considering all I had to buy was a couple sheets of plywood and some carpeting stuff, it's a bargain!

Progress on the speaker wiring has been slow with all the snow and cold weather we've had, but I'm almost finished. Today I completed the covering and wiring of the back panels which include the rear speakers and subwoofer amplifier. If it's not sub-zero tomorrow I might even get them installed!

The first day back at work and there was a present from APU waiting for everyone… A good layer of snow on everything, including snowballs and ice in the water fountain, as well as… Impassable icy roads! Well, not passable without snow tires/chains at least. Car after car heading up the mountain made a u-turn and came back down. I used it as an opportunity to stop by the Autobacs and pick up a set of tough rubber “chains” with steel spikes. They made quick work of the slush. This also was a great opportunity for me to learn how NOT to put on snow chains. Lesson learned.

To celebrate the new year, I went back to Koge town to visit some friends, then spent most of the day dismantling the parts from the old Corolla I could salvage. When I got back to Hiji, I ended up with two car seats, some speakers and radio, a shifter, and some carpeting sitting in my living room. It's more crowded than ever now.

Sunday I started replacing the Bongo's stock stereo and 2 paper cone speakers with the 4-speaker + woofer system from the Levin. The good news is I got the radio in and working by the end of the day. The bad news is, it was the end of the day before I got it working, and I lost my daylight while the carpet, driver's seat and paneling was still off!

I took a day off from the adhesive, paint and solvent fumes and went shopping instead. I was looking for a thick, tough paint to use on the metal carpet trim. It was too rusted to buff back to its former shine, and any normal paint would scratch or flake off as it's in a high-traffic location. I didn't find a paint I liked, so I tried covering the trim in black silicone caulking, then texturing it with a roller. It ended up with a good non-slip finish that looks a bit like spray-on truck bed liner.

The 3 flooring panels are now pretty much complete, with the carpet glued onto the top of the plywood with rubber cement, and the felt tacked onto the bottom surface. This way, I can remove the pretty flooring and seat if I ever need to load cargo/junk into the back of the van. (HIGHLY likely in the future) I had planned on spending the whole day inside my heated and cozy apartment attaching the fabric, until I realized the adhesive was an absolutely NAUSEATING acetone base (like nail-polish remover!). So I ended up working outside again today, though I have to say it's some of the nicer winter weather I've experienced in Japan.

3 cheers for staple guns!

The carpet arrived this week, but I still hadn't finished cutting the felt and plywood, so that is what I worked on today. The floor is made up of separate sheets of plywood that meet up under the bench seat and in the back. They're a bit warped, so the floor probably won't be level until they're bolted down, but I'm very happy with the value for the money. The parts are now ready for the carpet to be attached and felt stapled. The van is MUCH quieter now.

All this wood-cutting wouldn't have taken all day and would have been a LOT cleaner if I'd just gone and bought a cheap electric jigsaw. I'll be happy if I never see another coping saw again!

Today I brought the van and the lower part of the back row seat to a local car shop in Hiji. The owner of the shop was really helpful and loaned me all the equipment I needed to get the seat attached.

I started by cutting the seat legs down to about 1/2 their length, then had the mechanic weld 3mm thick steel strips onto the bottom. This is what the main bolts go through to hold on the seat. Unfortunately, the van's flooring is pretty thin, and needed extra reinforcing to make it safe during a crash. We cut two more large, long plates of 3mm steel, and I spent the rest of the day under the van drilling holes through the frame and up into the flooring. Once bolted down into the floor, these plates could pick up the entire car! A few of the holes went really close to the fuel lines and I had to take extra time to avoid puncturing anything important. The end result however is almost exactly what I wanted. The seat is high enough to be comfortable, but low enough that a tall guy like me has decent overhead clearance.

(The seat back was detached and left at home today because it is HEAVY!)

• Video (640×480 512Kbps Xvid)
  • 2008.12.20-Drilling.avi (3MB)

Today I started work on the flooring of the van, using 1cm thick deadening felt and about 9mm thick plywood. I also put in the wall panels which will eventually house the speaker system and subwoofer amplifier. In the end, the woofer speakers were too deep to fit in the walls, but the box the speakers are in now can sit in the back of the van easily enough, and still be optional if I need the space. This has cut down a LOT on the engine and road noise of the car. Once the carpet is in it should be even quieter.

The first weekend with the car I immediately got started on the flooring. First I stripped off the vinyl covering and all the insulating felt underneath. A few areas where water collects were very rusty, probably because the cleaning company always had wet mops and towels in the back. I chipped away the dampening material and brushed/sanded as much of the rust off as I could. That took an entire day, but I ended up with a good base to start from. The next day I put down a good layer of anti-rust base coat, which will hopefully keep out any more moisture.

The first photo is right before I painted the primer, and the right photo is just after. I also got started on the discolored roofing material and overhead beams, but didn't quite finish painting them. I'll probably get around to that tomorrow.

Today I completed the car examination and finished all vehicle registration, insurance, and tax procedures. An account of the process, and how YOU TOO can save an insignificant amount of money by doing it all yourself, is available on my Vehicle Inspection page. Doing it yourself is a sure-fire way to both memorize how to write your full address, and get a temporary case of carpal tunnel syndrome.

I've assembled all the paperwork necessary to complete the “Shaken” vehicle inspection at the end of this week, including borrowing these temporary license plates from Beppu city hall. This way I can drive the car to the testing facility, while at the same time advertising that I am an avid SCUBA diver! The paperwork was a lot easier than I was expecting. As long as you have the required certificates and licenses things go pretty smoothly. Apparently you can even get these temporary plates for period of up to 5 days in order to drive an unregistered, unlicensed vehicle from one place to another, as long as you can prove that you own it and you have insurance.

The car drives GREAT! It feels like I'm driving an elephant among a stampede of cattle.

Lesson learned today: Always check under the carpet… ALWAYS. I found where the rust was hiding, and there will definitely be some sanding and welding to do, but the good news is the rust seems to be from the inside out, maybe because the cleaning company left wet mops or towels on the floor. The rust is only on the thin interior sheet metal. Another problem though: The Hi-Ace bench is living up to its name. I went to all the trouble of measuring the clearance of the seat with mounting holes, width, length. What I failed to consider was the HEIGHT! The thing would be uncomfortably high if mounted in its current state, so I'm considering cutting the legs off short, or some sort of compromise.

Van arrives! Whoopie! Engine runs great, pretty tires, and the seller even found some air vents to replace the old broken ones.

My new couch for the living room! Just kidding. This is the 3rd row seat from a Toyota Hi-Ace passenger van, and if my van ever gets delivered, will become the new rear seat. Japan still regularly sells vehicles without proper rear seat belts, especially for vans like this. The bench seat came with the sliding track and all mounting brackets, so I can bolt it directly into the van flooring, but will still be able to slide it forward when I need to make more room in the back.

Idea for a possible paint job?

Purchase for JPY 90,000.