About to buy a Jimny in Japan

[fella]

I originally made a post on the bigjimny forum then remembered that they do not go by that name in the UK and discovered this forum quite quickly!
Were going to pick one in the next week or two so any info is greatly appreciated.

My wife and I are about to purchase a Jimny in Japan to roll about in for a couple of months in the snow where we are working, and then are planning on shipping it home via RORO ship. We have sourced a person who can organise the shipping side of things for us, the next step is settling on a vehicle!!

We viewed about 9 today in various places nearby and will view 3 more this week, all aged between 86-94, either the 550/660 turbo intercooled engine and a mix of raised, re-sprayed and overpriced! All are less than 100k and in general are rust free compared to UK cars. They have the odd bits of scab on the wheel arches, and the main concern that I have raised is on the body mounting points in the front of the rear arches, the battery tray and the body mounts just behind the front struts.

I know a little bit about cars but am a mere tinkerer at this stage as I've been travelling for ten years and never stayed put that long! The aim is to keep this one for a long time, and keep it with us in the french alps as our town wagon, i have a diesel passat estate to do the long boring toll roads.

My questions to those in the room would be the ease of sourcing the body parts that need replacing, the edges of the arches seem easy to source through googling, however the cab sections looks like a bar steward of a piece and i haven't had as much luck finding any info yet.

the link following is best opened in google chrome with the translate add on, its our favourite so far we have seen in the flesh

www.goo-net.com/usedcar/spread/goo/14/7 ... 12001.html

price on the road with 6 months of the japanese mot is £2400 roughly. bonnest/3 doors are perfect, the arches are a touch scabby, and some rust is showing where the cab mounts to the chassis. its got a decent interior, power steering hi/lo diff locks all worked well. it would just need wax oyling and the bits of welding done to get an mot i expect.

alternatively we spend a bit more and the following 3 look great but are too far for us to view at the moment..

green one is

www.goo-net.com/usedcar/spread/goo/14/7 ... 25001.html

white one is

www.goo-net.com/usedcar/spread/goo/13/7 ... 14005.html

and the last one is black

www.goo-net.com/usedcar/spread/goo/13/7 ... 26003.html

these are a fair bit more money but do look sorted rust wise and general condition!

any advice, tips, put downs and reality checks are greatly appreciated.

many thanks.

[fella]

After much time and effort we have purchased a '98 ja22 jimny and should arrrive in a few months to grimsby! Will update with pictures once i get them, i only saw it for all of 5 mintutes before i had to go to work.

[fella]

Due into Grimsby around the middle of June.

Sj platform that has coil springs, the kei emissinos 0.6l turbo engine and in pretty good nick! Couple of small rust spots on the body to be sorted, regularly treated underneath to prevent rust. Was the last yea of producion of this body type before the Jimny came to be as we know it in the UK.

[timwilks13]

Oh very nice indeed! Be a rare one over here will that, looking forward to seeing it in action once it arrive!

[Ju]

Nice, I hope you enjoy it.

[blxxp]

After much time and effort we have purchased a '98 ja22 jimny and should arrrive in a few months to grimsby! Will update with pictures once i get them, i only saw it for all of 5 mintutes before i had to go to work.

Hey Fella,

The jimny looks sharp!

I've been looking into this on and off as I'm struggling to find the exact model of car I want in the UK (SJ413 hardtop and as standard as possible).

Any advice for someone thinking of doing the same? Could you recommend a point of contact out in Japan?

Many thanks in advance.

Cheers.

[dominic]

Nice one

[fella]

After much time and effort we have purchased a '98 ja22 jimny and should arrrive in a few months to grimsby! Will update with pictures once i get them, i only saw it for all of 5 mintutes before i had to go to work.

Hey Fella,

The jimny looks sharp!

I've been looking into this on and off as I'm struggling to find the exact model of car I want in the UK (SJ413 hardtop and as standard as possible).

Any advice for someone thinking of doing the same? Could you recommend a point of contact out in Japan?

Many thanks in advance.

Cheers.

The company was called Royal Trading Co. and they are in a town called Matsumoto, easily found if you search online.

You will be spoilt for choice in Japan for the smaller engines version like we bought and hardtop as standard is the norm. Slightly harder to get one with a 1.3l

We had a bit of an issue with where it got unloaded this side due to us being the only drop off in Grimsby, so they lied it wouldn't start so it went to Southampton instead. And we used a RORO ferry rather than container to keep costs down.

we had to find our own clearing agent in the UK as well but it wasn't tricky from start to finish.

Just get a budget in mind and do the sums, there's a wealth of knowledge online and in japan these things have a cult following and many instagram pages!

Also our arrived and is with family whilst we are overseas all summer.

will start a build log thread thing too.

[blxxp]

After much time and effort we have purchased a '98 ja22 jimny and should arrrive in a few months to grimsby! Will update with pictures once i get them, i only saw it for all of 5 mintutes before i had to go to work.

Hey Fella,

The jimny looks sharp!

I've been looking into this on and off as I'm struggling to find the exact model of car I want in the UK (SJ413 hardtop and as standard as possible).

Any advice for someone thinking of doing the same? Could you recommend a point of contact out in Japan?

Many thanks in advance.

Cheers.

The company was called Royal Trading Co. and they are in a town called Matsumoto, easily found if you search online.

You will be spoilt for choice in Japan for the smaller engines version like we bought and hardtop as standard is the norm. Slightly harder to get one with a 1.3l

We had a bit of an issue with where it got unloaded this side due to us being the only drop off in Grimsby, so they lied it wouldn't start so it went to Southampton instead. And we used a RORO ferry rather than container to keep costs down.

we had to find our own clearing agent in the UK as well but it wasn't tricky from start to finish.

Just get a budget in mind and do the sums, there's a wealth of knowledge online and in japan these things have a cult following and many instagram pages!

Also our arrived and is with family whilst we are overseas all summer.

will start a build log thread thing too.

Nice! Thanks for the feedback.

I've actually been in contact with Royal in the past but the stock at that time wasn't exactly what I was looking for. Good to actually here of someone using them. I'll contact them again.

Looking forward to seeing the build log.

Cheers!

[fella]

Look on goonet, and yahoo auctions.jp. Royal will charge a fee to buy at auction for you if you tell them what you want. Ask for Moacir and tell them sophie sent you!

Build thread will start soon. The two pressing issues to sort for mot are fog Light and speedo in mph.

if anybody is looking already I need a rear fog light and a speedo to nick the mph graphics out of!

I would love to see how the oem fog light switch looks also too if somebody wants to take a shot of their dash!