A documentation about how we build our 4×4 overland camper van based on a Mitsubishi Delica l300 Star Wagon.
Last weekend I joined a group from Delica.ca who made a road trip to the Whipsaw, one of British Columbia most famous 4×4 trail near Penticton. Despite poor weather/muddy conditions and not the best articulation I made it through without any help. It took us two full days to do the whole loop, but I can tell you it was a lot of fun to check out the limitation of Dino Evo offroad.
Finally another upgrade to our van. Converting it from a single piston caliper to dual pistons including slotted rotors and braided steel brake hoses. Main reason for that: We wanted more stopping power. Specially with the bigger wheels you had to press hard on the brake till the loaded van actually came to a stop.
I knew from talking to friends it was possible to upgrade the l300 brakes with the brakes of a l400 respectively Montero. So off I went to source the parts and ended up with Power Slot rotors, Hawk LTS brake pads and Russell brake lines. The calipers were only available as oem parts. Due some stocking issues with the Russell fittings it actually took a few months to get all the parts together.
Anyway we worked two full days to make this modification right, but in the end it was totally worth it. The biggest surprise (at least for me) was as we changed the long rubber hose in the back to a braided steel hose. The pressure point at the pedal felt so much strong and not spongy anymore. Doesn’t matter how loaded the van is, I feel now confident to stop it without any delays.
Challenges:
There were a few challenges during this modification.
First it seems like there is no 7″ DOT braided steel brake hose available which would be necessary for the front top portion to make it a nice fit. We used 9″ instead. Not ideal, but works.
Second, you need to make new metal brake lines with tiny curves on the calipers. So make sure you have the right tools including tube cutter and flaring tool.
Third, it took us a while to figure out the right bracket to attach the hose to the caliper. Main challenge is you don’t want to hit the brake line neither with your bump stop, nor with your wheel.
Fourth, you need to trim the head shield to make the dual piston caliper fit.
Last but not least a huge thanks to “lazygreenfox” and “Golf Cart” for their help on this job. It is great to have such a good Delica community in Vancouver where everybody can learn from each other!
Here are the part numbers I used for this job:
Rotors:
Power Slot 126-46040SR
Power Slot 126-46040SL
Calipers:
2x ’92+ Mitsubishi Montero front left/right caliper semi-loaded
Brake Pads:
1x Hawk LTS HB214Y.618
Brake Lines:
4x Russell 656012 (9″)
1x Russell 656062 (24″, shorter is fine if you don’t have a lift)
Brake Fittings:
8x Russell 641411
2x Russell 641431
Misc:
2x Russell 683942 (90 degree bracket)
2x 3/16 in. o.d. SAE inverted flare metric brake line with 2 pcs. M10 – 1.0 long tube nut fitting
DOT 4 Brake Fluid
One of the most common problems on a 15 years old Delica is the weak tail gate strut. Specially if you add on a ladder, the back door comes done quite easily and sometimes doesn’t stay open at all (in the cold). Apparently these stock struts are from very good quality, so it makes more sense to recondition them than to buy new.
I heard nothing but good about Frank from Strut Wise in Langley who brings all sorts of struts back to life and even builds them from scratch to your specs.
Meeting him was already a pleasure. It seems he is one of the few guys left who understand a real workmanship. No wonder people from around the world sending him their struts. After I picked my rebuilt struts up I was very satisfied with the outcome. They looked brand new and worked like it as well. He even made them stronger than the stock struts was. Well worth the money.
One tip for new l300 owners: Check the lower bracket of the struts. If you read the “E/N” upside right you are all set. If its upside down take both struts off, swap sides and rotate the lower bracket. It will give you an extra few inches when you open the door. You head will like it :)
Even DinoEvo is still in overall very mint conditions, it had a few rusty spots on the mirror rods and front wiper arms. So I took them off and cleaned/sanded everything properly. Treaded the rusty bits and painted the rods with flat Tremclad. The same goes with the two mirror brackets on the car (driver side) and the wiper arms. Just a bit more masking. After everything was try, I reassembled the mirrors. A nice little job for a sunny afternoon.
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