Staff Cars

Mitsubishi Pajero swap – Our Shed

After three years, Glenn Torrens says 'cheerio,' to his four-cylinder Mitsubishi Pajero and 'oh, hello!' to a V6 version

A long-weekend mid-winter trip to NSW’s north coast in my 1989 Mitsubishi Pajero wagon was, for me, a well-earned break after working interstate for several months. It was also assurance the Astron 2.6-litre four-cylinder engine, bought for $500 and installed a few weeks prior, was happy and healthy. Two years after I saved it from an inner-city warehouse, my Pajero was now 100 per cent reliable and – at long last! – making me smile with regular use as a shopping/pub/post office car.

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The paint’s clearcoat is bubbling across the bonnet, front guards and tops of the doors. Eventually I will apply fresh paint above the Pajero’s pinstripe

So why the heck did I grab a fistful of cash and wave goodbye to it one recent Saturday morning?

To be honest, I’m asking myself that right now, while I’m working through some frustrating age- and wear-related problems of the other, also 1989, Pajero that I’ve just bought…

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It has a typical aftermarket front protection bar but I’d actually prefer a standard bumper. I haven’t yet found one so in the meantime I will repaint and retain this

This ‘new’ Pajero somehow popped up as a ‘for sale’ on my computer screen one Thursday evening and by lunchtime Friday, after driving two hours for a look, I owned it.

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My ‘new’ Pajero being trailered home on a borrowed trailer a few days after I bought it. Hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time! 

It differs from the yellow one by being powered by a larger and more powerful 3.0-litre V6 motor and having coil-spring rear suspension. During my short test drive that V6 engine was not very happy, but it didn’t puff any blue smoke, had no blow-by and didn’t have any horrible noises. All the cogs in the five-speed manual gearbox worked, as did the 4WD dual-range hardware. The Pajero was being offered for sale at a sharp price by a bloke who, although he’d had plans to fix it (he’d already bought a stack of new engine and suspension parts) had stumbled upon his dream Mazda rotary so was quickly freeing-up as much cash as possible to buy it.

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My old Paj was a great fun weekend camping rig; my new Pajero will wear hand-me-down tyres from my mate Tony’s Bug, changed when we altered tyre size for better performance 

So, yeah, umm, I crossed my fingers and bought the Pajero, assessing (hoping!) the poor-running engine as being easily sorted-out and the rest of the oily bits as healthy.

Sure enough, after I trailered the V6 Pajero home and gave it fresh fuel and new spark plugs and leads, the engine ran much better. It’s not yet 100 per cent happy; I suspect a possible lazy fuel injector and the choof-choof of an exhaust leak will probably be confusing the engine computer’s oxygen sensor.

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New leads and plugs seemed to get the V6 running far more happily

Once it’s back on the road running well, I’ll install a few accessories – such as a second battery to power a 12V fridge – and use it for fun weekend camping treks, just like my now-sold yellow Pajero.

As you can see, the colour is a nice rich wine but look closer and you’ll see a few areas of the dreaded clear-coat peel and some dents, especially on the bonnet. I’m keen to get my new 4×4 looking as-new again, as soon as possible… No farm-find patina for this one!

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GT flogged one Pajero for another, this one sporting a couple more cylinders

But for now, there is a more urgent problem: front seat belts. Finding and fitting brand new seatbelts to replace the damaged – and decades-old – originals is proving difficult. In the past few years, I’ve installed brand new seatbelts to three VW Bugs, my ‘farm find’ green VB Holden Commodore V8 and my first-gen Mazda MX-5. But doing the same for this Pajero seems a challenge. As I write this, I have been unable to find a replacement set of front belts of the specification/type dictated by my Pajero’s B-pillar. One company did supply a pair of seat belts with an additional fitting kit but – despite its recommendation – the belts couldn’t be made to fit the mount at the B-pillar base. (And yeah, I know what I’m doing so there’s no mistake.)

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The dash and interior is reasonably tidy; the aftermarket leather steering wheel retained from my yellow Pajero will fix the obvious horn pad problem!

It’s quite frustrating because without seatbelts I can’t get the Pajero inspected for safety, nor registered and on the road. For two weeks, I’ve been walking past the Paj, sitting forlorn in my backyard with half the interior’s plastic trim pieces removed, while I play email/telephone tennis with seatbelt companies trying to find a suitable pair.

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The Pajero wheels and tyre sizes were a mismatch. I bought these nice alloys for a bargain price before fitting four 225/75-15 Bridgestones

 

From Unique Cars #461, Jan 2022

 

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