Mitsubishi Pajero + 4x4 tips - Our Shed

By: Glenn Torrens

Date: 30.10.2020

A late-winter sojourn to my mate Tony’s bush shack was a terrific – if short - break in the Pajero and Tony’s ‘Baja’ off-road-modified VW

Extra tie-down loops are easily installed to the cargo area floor: Choose a position, slice the carpet and screw them down using self-drilling roofing-type screws. Easy-as!

To power the fridge overnight, I mounted a deep-cycle battery (a freebie from a mate) in the cargo area. It sits on an inexpensive universal battery tray. I installed an inverter, too

Sports tiller is comfortable to hang onto on a long run

These old-school Hella driving lights perfectly match my retro-rig Pajero. I bought them at a garage sale for $50, installing them with an also bargain-buy ‘plug and play’ wiring harness

This under-bonnet mounted circuit breaker acts like a big fuse. It’s also the means by which I isolate the battery that powers the fridge so it doesn’t ‘kill’ the starting battery

A fire extinguisher was installed where it’s easy to grab but won’t be knocked around or accidentally discharged… Yes, that’s happened to me and let me assure you; it makes a mess!

Mud and water proof seat cover

My old Engel 12V camping fridge sits just right in the Pajero. For more than 15 years, I’ve camped with the plates, cutlery, frypan, wash-up basin etc carried in that plastic crate

Luckily for me, these A/T (all-terrain) type Toyo tyres came with my ‘spares’ Pajero… they’ll be ideal for the fun touring and camping I plan to do with a few mates

A late-winter sojourn to my mate Tony’s bush shack was a terrific – if short - break in the Pajero and Tony’s ‘Baja’ off-road-modified VW

Extra tie-down loops are easily installed to the cargo area floor: Choose a position, slice the carpet and screw them down using self-drilling roofing-type screws. Easy-as!

To power the fridge overnight, I mounted a deep-cycle battery (a freebie from a mate) in the cargo area. It sits on an inexpensive universal battery tray. I installed an inverter, too

Sports tiller is comfortable to hang onto on a long run

These old-school Hella driving lights perfectly match my retro-rig Pajero. I bought them at a garage sale for $50, installing them with an also bargain-buy ‘plug and play’ wiring harness

This under-bonnet mounted circuit breaker acts like a big fuse. It’s also the means by which I isolate the battery that powers the fridge so it doesn’t ‘kill’ the starting battery

A fire extinguisher was installed where it’s easy to grab but won’t be knocked around or accidentally discharged… Yes, that’s happened to me and let me assure you; it makes a mess!

Mud and water proof seat cover

My old Engel 12V camping fridge sits just right in the Pajero. For more than 15 years, I’ve camped with the plates, cutlery, frypan, wash-up basin etc carried in that plastic crate

Luckily for me, these A/T (all-terrain) type Toyo tyres came with my ‘spares’ Pajero… they’ll be ideal for the fun touring and camping I plan to do with a few mates

To prepare his Mitsubishi Pajero for weekend fun, Glenn Torrens adds some essential equipment

There's an ad on a radio station local to me that sprouts something like: ‘Your 4WD Is Not A Real 4WD Until You’ve Added All The Extras,’ and so it was for my bright yellow shed-find 1989 Mitsubishi Pajero.

Sports tiller is comfortable to hang onto on a long run

With sunny summer weekend camping in mind – and, prior to the virus, the idea of a Simpson Desert or Darling River trek being discussed by a few eager retro-4WD mates – I was keen to make my Pajero better for the bush.

A fire extinguisher was installed where it’s easy to grab but won’t be knocked around or accidentally discharged… Yes, that’s happened to me and let me assure you; it makes a mess!

With the Pajero mechanically healthy, my first modification was to fit fresh suspension, as I mentioned a few issues ago. I’d retained the 50mm-taller rear springs from the second, rusty, shed-find Pajero I’d disassembled to save this one and installed them with four fresh dampers, tweaking-up the front torsion bars too.

Extra tie-down loops are easily installed to the cargo area floor: Choose a position, slice the carpet and screw them down using self-drilling roofing-type screws. Easy-as!

Keeping the tucker and bevvies cold is my beaut old 1980s-era green-and-tan Engel 12V fridge. To strap-down my fridge – and other luggage – nice and tight, I installed a few extra tie-down loops to the Pajero cargo area floor. To power the fridge overnight, I installed a second 12V battery. Extra batteries are often installed under the bonnet however I had another idea: Pajeros have empty space under the seat frames, and I was keen to install the battery there: As it turned out, there wasn’t quite enough space but there was a battery-sized plot of carpet between the back seat and the fridge, so that’s where I installed the battery. That spare space under the seat now hosts a bag of tools.

My old Engel 12V camping fridge sits just right in the Pajero.  For more than 15 years, I’ve camped with the plates, cutlery, frypan, wash-up basin etc carried in that plastic crate

The second battery is wired to an under-bonnet switchable circuit breaker that allows the battery to be isolated.

To power the fridge overnight, I mounted a deep-cycle battery (a freebie from a mate) in the cargo area. It sits on an inexpensive universal battery tray. I installed an inverter, too 

A flick of the switch the next morning has it charging again. The supply cable routes through the firewall and along the left edge of the cabin under the sill trim. It has a fuse at the battery end of the wiring to back-up the circuit breaker. In contrast to the big-buck black-box systems in many late-model 4WDs, this one is KISS: ‘Keep It Simple, Silly!’

These old-school Hella driving lights perfectly match my retro-rig Pajero. I bought them at a garage sale for $50, installing them with an also bargain-buy ‘plug and play’ wiring harness

A voltage display under the dash allows me to ensure it’s being topped-up while driving and to guesstimate the amount of charge remaining. I mounted a 12/240V charger/invertor on the left wheel-arch behind the rear seat providing easy charging of phones and laptops on the move. I can plug-in a solar panel, too, if I wish to camp in one place for a few days. The plastic rim of the Pajero’s standard steering wheel was hard and thin. A fellow car nut, Doug, sold me a large-diameter, chunky-grip leather-bound wheel that is far nicer to hold.

This under-bonnet mounted circuit breaker acts like a big fuse. It’s also the means by which I isolate the battery that powers the fridge so it doesn’t ‘kill’ the starting battery

I also installed an old-school Recaro seat. It was a surprisingly easy installation to the Pajero’s famous bouncy driver’s side spring-assisted seat base as the bolt holes lined up perfectly! An old but top-quality canvas seat cover is the finishing touch: It’s mud- and water-proof and hides the seat’s daggy upholstery.

Mud and water proof seat cover

From Unique Cars #445, Oct 2020

Unique Cars magazine Value Guides

Sell your car for free right here