My 89' Delica Chamonix

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ericpmasters

Active Member
Finally getting around to posting some photos and saying hey to ya'll!

I recently purchased an 89' Delica Chamonix from Duncan Imports, down in VA. The buying process with them was super easy, even going into it fairly green, they were very helpful and informative and honest. I had a third party shop pick it up from Duncan and do a full inspection which all came back good. After making my payment, I expected it to be a few days or even a week before the car shipment would be set up and then delivered, I got a call that following Monday that the car was on a truck that morning, and I would have my car by 6pm that day! The van showed up on it's own little trailer, and I officially owned my first Delica.


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1989 L300 Delica Chamonix
P35W HSNXT9
5-Speed Manual / 4D56T Turbo Diesel
130KM / 80K miles

More pics of my progress soon!
 
First things first, the tires were extremely bald and dried out, so I ordered some new rubber from Tire Rack and had their Mobile Installation Service come install them while I was at work. Super awesome service if you've never done it!

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Got some new Firestone Destination All-Terrain's 215/75/15

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Even Homeland Security stopped by to check it all out

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Next was replace the crusty decal on the back, the glue was so dried out and hard, I actually thought the previous sticker was ripped off and took the paint with it. Luckily after some heat from a hair dryer, and lots of scraping with soft plastic cards, I was able to remove all the glue without scratching the paint underneath, and fitting the new sticker to replace.

I got it from the link below, in the Metallic Anthracite color

Sticker from https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mitsubishi...116615?hash=item41d27a7b87:g:9VYAAOSwL9paWKhp

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some quick before pics of everything, needs lots of cleaning!!!

Not sure of this vent/dome light situation, but seems like a cigarette air filter of some sort. & they DEFINITELY smoked tons of cigs in here, look at said headliner to see evidence :)

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Original Flare

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After even just a little cleaning on the dash you can see the difference taking off the layers of soot/grime that have been there for years

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same with the grime coming off the shifter

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Here is the rear dome vent, has a nice little slider for how much cigs you are smoking

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The absolutely disgusting headliner, you can see towards the front seats where it seems they had their windows open so less smoke soaked into the fabric. Wasn't as noticeable until I laid down in the back and looked up to see the difference. Very gross! Haven't tried to clean this yet, but am thinking a steam clean might be my best option? Any idea's are welcome!!!

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Welcome to the group! Awesome van, I like that decal. I remember the airports in Japan had little tables out in the open you could smoke at with fans/filtration systems back in the day when I smoked. In my experience the best way to fix a headliner is to replace it. I think steam cleaning would cause the adhesive to let go but I've never done it, I have put new fabric on plenty of headliners and it was cheap and easy. Keep the pics comin!
 
Thanks for all the welcome's! Glad to be part of the Delica fam.

Have had some clanks and clunks over bumps, so up next is all the front end bushings and support

Here was my worst culprit, the lower shock bushing. With the car jacked up, and the weight taken off the front control arm assembly, I could shake it pretty good to see the bad bushing


Got all my parts and in they went, then off to an alignment!

Front Shocks
Sway Bar Bushings
Upper Ball Joints
Lower Ball Joints
Inner & Outer Tie Rods

Checking out some wheel movement to see if it's bearings, ball joints, tie rod's

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LOL at the swaybar bushings. barely hanging on

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old bushing vs new

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If you're in the Philadelphia area, I spoke with DelicaUSA and they recommended me to their usual alignment spot, Tire Baron. They got me in quick, and had no issues doing my front end alignment and have all the specs for the Delica.

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they even had a cute shop cat

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92_talon_awd said:
Welcome to the group! Awesome van, I like that decal. I remember the airports in Japan had little tables out in the open you could smoke at with fans/filtration systems back in the day when I smoked. In my experience the best way to fix a headliner is to replace it. I think steam cleaning would cause the adhesive to let go but I've never done it, I have put new fabric on plenty of headliners and it was cheap and easy. Keep the pics comin!
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Thank you! That is too funny, I remember a lay-over I had in small airport in Thailand and they had those small side rooms for smoking, where the smoke just billowed into the normal area since it had no doors haha

92_talon_awd said:
Those sway bar bushings were toasted! You'll have to let us know how those Bilstein's work out for ya!
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jpmustblaze said:
I am running Bilstein front shocks and I love them.
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So far the Bilstein's ride great! I am very happy with them, I still have to get into the rear components to bring it all up to date and see how she feels as a whole, but so far the front end is feeling so much softer and tighter. I still have a hard time not cringing over bumps, the roads in Philadelphia are nuts, and I am still finding myself being overly cautious over bumps or potholes because I have never had a car where you sit over the front suspension, so maybe it's the difference in physical travel I experience over bumps that fear me vs the actual impact. Also I have a bunch of small screws in the glovebox that rattle around so that probably adds to my " impact anxiety " haha

Going to re-index the torsion bars shortly, and install my front rotors, pads, wheel bearings.
 
That headliner looks just like mine did! I borrowed a friends carpet/upholstery cleaner (basically sprays soapy water out then vacuums it up). It worked great and took basically all of the staining and smell out. I took my time to not saturate the headliner with water and allowed it to air dry with all the doors open when I was done. A washing machine works great for the curtains also. I'm still trying to figure out if there's an easy way to remove the rear vents to soak them and clean inside.
 
Patrick said:
That headliner looks just like mine did! I borrowed a friends carpet/upholstery cleaner (basically sprays soapy water out then vacuums it up). It worked great and took basically all of the staining and smell out. I took my time to not saturate the headliner with water and allowed it to air dry with all the doors open when I was done. A washing machine works great for the curtains also. I'm still trying to figure out if there's an easy way to remove the rear vents to soak them and clean inside.
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SO glad to know there is hope for it, thank you for your info. I was looking into little steam cleaners but was also scared of it over saturating the fabric and loosening the glue, a clean headliner doesn't do me any good if it's falling off the ceiling haha. Will check out some upholstery cleaners and take my time to not soak it too much like you mentioned. Didn't even think of the vents holding onto any grime/must, will be looking into that as well.
 
Took the curtains out to clean and rid of the smoke stains and grime. Some of the fabric clearly had not been opened in years, and some of it was quite dry and brittle, so I wanted to avoid the washer/dryer and do it by hand. I let them soak in some detergent for a while, and used a toothbrush to gently work the fabrics a bit and irritate the dirt. Then did a semi-warm rinse, and then I let them soak in a tub of hot water/Oxi clean for whites.

Hard to see in the pictures, but the difference is night and day. or brown and white shall I say

Before
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After! Will still probably do one more round, but all in all a big success

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Can kind of see the clean one on the left and dirty on the right

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Nice van! I am a little concerned you went so small with the tire size. The manuals already rev so high on the freeway
 
13mclean said:
Nice van! I am a little concerned you went so small with the tire size. The manuals already rev so high on the freeway
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Thank you! I wasn't too sure what to get for tire size so I just based it off of the tire size that was on it.

What is recommended? From what I remember, usually 5th gear at 100km/h i'm a small hair above 3k. I can double check that once I get back on the road next week. Is this fairly normal? I definitely feel like i'm riding out 5th gear a little even at 3K, but I also have never driven a car with this gearing so I had assumed this was fairly normal.

I think I tried to step up my game one day and bring it up to 120kmh but wasn't comfortable staying there with the RPM. I am usually doing light city driving, so my shifts are early, and I keep my rpms low, so getting onto the highway and maintaining a 3K+ rpm makes me uncomfortable a bit. I also think my speed chime has been disabled because it never came on going to the 120kmh marker.

Thanks for info!!
 
ericpmasters said:
From what I remember, usually 5th gear at 100km/h i'm a small hair above 3k. I can double check that once I get back on the road next week. Is this fairly normal?
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This is normal. I just accept that I'm not getting anywhere fast and cruise at 60 mph the whole way. For what it's worth, if you move up to a 31" tire (you'd need to lift to get that in there) your speedo will read 100kmph but your true speed will be closer to 110kmph.
 
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