The Cohort has gone vanning too, with a couple of interesting finds. Davo shot this Mitsubishi Express 4×4, all outfitted for some serious outback traveling (this is in Brisbane, AUS), with a serious bull/roo bar. We got a variation of this van in the US, but it wasn’t 4×4, and its protruding five mph bumpers were more suitable for parking lot bashes than kangaroos (CC here).
My brother went to Australia a few years back, and bought himself a similar older van for peanuts, although I can’t remember the exact brand. He made a few minor repairs, and traveled all over the continent with it, and sold it for more than he paid for it. And the folks he bought it from had done the same thing, as well as the ones he sold it to. Passing it along, for another tour of Australia.
These 4WD L300/Delica vans used to be everywhere here once – we got them as the L300 new (rare) or, a few years later, as Delica used JDM imports. This early shape is virtually gone from our roads now, but its Delica Spacegear descendants are still popular. Given the sheer numbers that have turned up here ex-Japan, they were clearly popular in their homeland.
Serious paint oxidation there.
Agreed – this reminds me again why I never wanted a red car.
Drove a similar one in Tasmania quite capable when the road is gone. That one is on Hilux wheels.
Don’t remember seeing one of these before. The box is shaped similarly to the waterboxer IMO. I like it and could have probably been talked out of my money.
A friend had a 1964 Chevy van – the model with the flat windshield. The van was raised and had one of those gang-buster front “bumper” apparatus similar to the photo, but his was made of 1.5″ square stock all welded together and painted white. Wish I had a photo.
That van was perfect for driving through the brush or through the woods – on level ground, more-or-less – to a campsite or to his brother’s cabin on weekends. On the highway, it was an experience.
Lots of funny stories to tell about our ordeals with that van in the relatively brief time he owned it, but we still laugh and recall each one in all their detail, whether it was a 9 hour odyssey(!) from Jennings, MO to St. Joseph, MO to move his brother home from college, an 8 hour experience to bring him home, or several other interesting excursions!
While not the case here, vans like this are fitted with a bull bar as often as not for a bit extra frontal protection.
Believe it or not this is in the National Motor Museum (as one of the first people movers, launched in 1980)