Is my wagon a wagon?

I'm almost sure they are bolted down. That's a good question, since I plan a move and can use the space.
The wiring harness is probably hanging, because of the amateur way of routing speaker wires. I can live with the dash. IMO, it's basically not bad. Only the guages rub me wrong, though. They are in need of personalizing





To start off, if I can get the cluster out without having to pull the wheel, the needles will need a little color tuning, including the speedo which hasn't yet been editted



This is from a Daihatsu YRV. For the money the seller wants, he could have cleared the glass from the crud. I'd somehow have to incorporate my odometer to this digital cluster. Being electronoc, the speedo might even have been calibrated different


The only option I could use is a clock, though


This is my vehicle's bigger brother. It's called a "Gran Move" and, if anything, it's closer to being a wagon:





This is what I had in mind, concerning my guages:

 

That is a very interesting little rig you got there. I am in the "No, it's not a wagon" camp. It's also not a sedan and it's not a hatchback. I don't know what I would call it, but it is certainly a unique people mover.

 

That last picture of the dash looks like a Honda set up

 

Does the "go faster stripes" on the sides improve the speed?
Or is it a design to try to hide the ugly fact? ;-)

 

In Europe "kombi" might be what the dealers sold it as. To me it looks like an old peoples car. In Sweden you see the 80+ driving cars looking like "phone booths".
But, joking aside, I have been starting to look on those kinda cars. They are cheap to buy and to run. No frills whatsoever and that has its own allure. Not much electrical stuff to repair is one other good thing.

 

After having owned one of those loaded up unreliables, I've become aware of those virtues you've stated. If it were possible, I'd collect all of these type vehicles and then put them into storage, since nobody is mass producing stripdowns, except maybe some car maker in India

Actually, Daihatsu is Toyota-owned. If it was back in `98, I don't yet know.
I went and tore out the instrument cluster, today. It was too dark to photograph the paint-up, though



I was thinking over spraying this silver. But, am worried about it reflecting on the windshield. Which is annoying



Here's the removable hitch (Fannie, no puns, please)

 

Here's what I got:



It's not perfect and not even turned aluminum. But, at least there's some life in there. I can now bear driving it





The original lighting bulbs had some sort of what looks to be gray rubbers over them. I suppose that the bulbs themselves have gotten dark, because the rubbers were holding in heat. I compared these two bulbs with all the small ones used for idiot lights. The small ones were still like new. So, I broke out my stash and replaced those gray ones with a couple clear of hopefully equal wattage (the owners manual doesen't specify which wattage replacement bulbs should measure). I suppose that the rubbers were to tone down the brightness, since this stripdown doesen't have a dimmer. So, I left them off and proceeded to paint the replacement bulbs yellow, with bulb dye. Red would also have been cool. But, my Audi had red lighting which did look great. But, being red-green colorblind made it difficult to read the instruments. I went back to see how it lights up at night and discovered that one of the bulbs isn't lighting. Even, after having switched both around. I was sure that these bulbs were tested closed circuit. So, I took the suspected one in and the multimeter beeped. I'm sure that one of my 24 volt bulbs got into the stash. The one functioning bulb did indeed light up bright enough

 

Yeah, with your colorblindness, the bulb covers look grey to you, but bluish-green normally. Yellow's a good choice for someone with red colorblindness, as orange would be too close to red, and blue's too close to green. It'll be interesting to see how the yellow comes out in the dark. Also, painting the mask silver makes it look very good.

 

I wonder what made them think to use bluish green. In any event, the yellow or gold pointers will contrast against the white speedometer markings, making it easier to watch my speed. I mean, velocity
I went to the auto parts store of my choice, Monday, and thought that I ordered a timing belt with tensioner. I went there, yesterday, to pay and he didn't have it, thinking that I was just asking the price. He said something like 76€ for the package which sounds a little steep, considering that I can get both for cheap in the internet. But, these are one of those parts of which I don't like gambling with. The same clerk told me that the following rubber bushings aren't available. The clerk who I usually deal with isn't there, this week. He usually finds everything that the young guy can't. So, I have to get this stuff from the dealer which is about 40 kilometers away. I won't drive the car on a questionable timing belt (it was supposed to have gotten changed at 100,000 kilometers which is roughly 60,000 miles. But, I really doubt that this nutty lady had it done, judging by how the rest of the car was serviced) and bushingless control arm. The constant rattling could damage the control arm beyond service capability. The following illustration is similar to how my suspension's built

 

For eyes not hampered by colorblindness, blueish-green is a very 'reactive' color so it's a fairly common choice in most cars.

Man, I hate dealing with oafs who can't get things done right. I'd rather grab their paper catalogs and look things up myself; when I've had the opportunity to do so, I'm right most of the time (and one of the few times I was wrong was a misprint in a catalog). So here's to hoping you get what you need, without getting your wallet emptied.

 

Over here, parts are mostly on a computer monitor. The kid is young enough to be able to browse properly. When they can't find things on the monitor, the older guy would then browse the catalogs. If it wasn't urgent, I'd wait until he got back

 

It seems like most Jap brands have these types, developped for fitting into tight parking spaces:

https://carsintrend.com/2017-honda-element-a-dog-car-redesigned/

 

If that's an Element, that element is certainly Bolognium.

 

Daihatsu pulled out of the European market, in 2013. This is scary, for customers needing replacement parts, without having to order them from Australia.
Here're 2018 versions similar to mine. These were displayed at this year's Tokyo Auto Show. So, it's yet unknown if all of the following will be put into production or remain prototypes, if they are that. I can't imagine any car maker producing multiple versions of just one basic chassis:

That keeps the milage low and the clutches baked.
Old Fogies like to sit high and enjoy ease of entry and exit. I don't know these cars that well and can assume that the Suzuki and Fiat are that way. But, in the one I have, the seats are mounted low like any other car. In that case, I wondered why they had to raise the roof so far, since there's plent of clearance for wearing a ten gallon hat or for some of those tiny reaching up for the steering wheel nose pointing up types, you could place either a Klucker conehead bedsheet sewn-together or a dunce cap onto their heads and they would just clear. The only use for that which I can imagine is for post office use where stacks of letters and light packages would fill up all of that space

I just picked up my timing belt. Well, at least I know who to go after, if the bearing fails. The belt is made in Taiwan and the bearing is from Parts Unknown. For that price, one would desire more explicity. I doubt that the dealership would have wanted that much more for original Made in Japan parts. It could have been worse, to get a surprise package from the internet, though.
I haven't installed one of these in decades. Back then, I used to use what they call an elbow torquewrench. This time around, I'll try going by the book, if I can find specs

 

The rear foglight is rotten and is of equal design to all old Jap vehicles dating back 40 years. Miraculously, it even still functions