Side Project 4: Nudge Bar Refresh

When we purchased Digby, we accepted that the front nudge bars would need some work. Not only did they show signs of discolouration and rust, but inexplicably, Mitsubishi decided that the nudge bars of this model of Delica should be white, and odd choice as the rest of the vehicle was predominately black over grey. I had previously seen a few similar models to Digby with the nudge bars painted black, which matched to the bodywork and which I thought looked bad arsed…

I could have decided to spray paint the nudge bars in place, but I thought that I would do it properly and remove them from the front of Digby, sand down the rust spots and flaky white paint, add a coat of rust-inhibiting primer, then respray the nudge bars matt black to key into the majority of the paintwork, and put them back on the van.

As it turns out, the nudge bar assembly is quite heavy and as I was removing it from the front of Digby, I lifted it incorrectly and managed to pull something in my back… Dam…!! At first, it was just a small niggle but I carried on with the disassembly and preparation work, but by the time I finished up the sanding and priming towards the end of the day, it had become a massively debilitating pain and I could hardly walk. There is a lesson here that I should have learnt some forty years ago about lifting from the knees, and after having to take a few days off work and visit the doctor & physiotherapist, it just goes to show that it is never too late to learn.

Anyway, this put that project on hold for about 3 weeks while I recovered, but when I was fit enough I spent a day putting 2 coats of paint on the assembly and managed to put the nudge bars back on the front of the van without hurting myself again. To finish off the work I used the old heat gun trick I learnt from a YouTube video, (here), to bring back the fading black plastic trim that sits over the front of the nudge bars, to an almost new condition. It worked out a treat.

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Side Project 3: Repair the Binnacle and Replace the Inclinometer

The next project on the list was to spruce up the dash-mounted binnacle that houses an inclinometer, a temperature gauge and a battery voltage meter, which had been damaged by a previous owner and no longer bolted into place on top of the dash. I also wanted to take a closer look at the inclinometer, which if believed, indicated that Digby was upside down on its roof..! As the white plastic lugs through which the bolts were was mounted had been snapped off, leaving the whole unit ‘free-floating’, the binnacle was easy to remove by just unplugging the electrics. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that some of the missing parts of the broken white plastic were still held in place under the bolts that screwed into the metal brace at the top of the dashboard, which I carefully removed as there was just enough plastic that I might be able to superglue the parts back to the main body of the binnacle. I carefully disassembled the binnacle housing, firstly removing the clip-off rear surround an...

So why a Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear..?

In late 2017, when we had finally decided that we didn’t want to spend a large fortune on a luxury overland rig, we started to look around to see what else we could consider, remembering that ideally, we wanted something cheap, easy to maintain, and hopefully reliable. Once you have excluded all the medium to high-end vehicles, you are left with either a car, an SUV, or a van, most of which can be purchased quite reasonably. We ideally wanted something with Four Wheel Drive (4WD) that would allow us to go off the beaten track when required and ensure that we can get through all but the most challenging off-road terrain. As Fiona often says, we want a vehicle that “will get us out of trouble, not into trouble”. Modern 4WD’s are generally a sophisticated blend of true mechanical & electronics drive systems that do their magic behind the scenes to get you through or a compromise between mechanical & electronic features that lead to an “All-Wheel Drive” system. Either way, not bein...

Side Project Wrap up

Over the past few weeks, I have been carrying out a few minor side projects while I awaiting the necessary funding to start the camper build proper. These “mini”side-projects are things that I can get done with little fuss & bother, and don’t cost too much to undertake, that will hopefully improve the general look & feel of Digby in an attempt to bring him back to near his former glory. The Grab-Handle – When we first purchased Digby on of the more obvious signs of wear and tear was the fact that the passenger side dash-mounted grab handle was missing, leaving two ugly holes in the dash and the unmistakeable indentations of the former handle. I pondered the fact of how this item could have been lost or removed by a previous owner…? I suppose excessive force of over-use could have pulled it away from its moorings, or the M6 nuts holding it from behind the dash could have come loose, but who knows for sure…? Surely it could not be too much bother to re-mount it…? I ...

Digby's Aimless Adventure

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