Mitsubishi 360 screaming "Save me!"

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Sun Feb 14, 2010 5:22 am

Ok, so I fell a little in love today. I was driving around aimlessly when I stumbled upon a group of cars sitting outside some guys place. First thing I noticed was the classic Celica and the R32 GTR. So naturally I had to stop and take a look. The GTR was pretty rough but the Celica was in pretty decent nick. Then off to the side I noticed a car that just had a very awesome presence about it. I ran up to it without a clue as to what it was. Had Mitsubishi 360 written on the side of it. I want to save this car so bad I can taste it. It just oozes with awesomeness!
Pictures speak way more words than I can in this situation, haha!

What got me to stop by.

There she is, almost indiscernible.

Upon closer inspection, pure awesome.

Suicide doors!

Someone had broken a window, so all the weeds from outside have started to grow inside. Through the midst of wildlife a 4 speed column shift can be spotted!

Here you can see the broken window.

I dont have a choice, I have to find the owner and talk to them. If this thing is cheap enough, it will be mine, haha. Nothing like rolling around town in a mini (and I do mean mini) van with a 360cc air cooled two stroke engine resting under the bonnet!

Hope you guys enjoy the pictures!
Cheers
David

Arrow Joe · **Posted:** Sun Feb 14, 2010 10:46 am

Cute! I've never seen one of those before, looks very Mini Cooper-esque.

Hope you get it, I'd love to see more of it!

Eric · **Posted:** Sun Feb 14, 2010 11:30 am

That is a nice find! If you are not buying it yourself you can have it shipped to me

city hunter · **Posted:** Sun Feb 14, 2010 3:34 pm

man that thing is in great condition for its age. Nice find!

RedSunday · **Posted:** Sun Feb 14, 2010 10:46 pm

Oh man, nice!

I often dream of a place where GTR's and other asorted classics are slewn about in paddocks....

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Mon Feb 15, 2010 2:52 am

Thanks for all the comments guys!

It's in pretty decent condition but the only thing I'm worried about is the busted window. It rains a lot in Japan so that means rain water just falls in and puddles up on the floor. So immediately the rear seats are probably shot, not to mention the carpet (although bad carpet is expected from a car of this age). If I'm lucky it wont have started to rust through yet.

I think it's funny cause it's just parked outside some old dudes house so he must be a car nut to have a Celica, R32, and this just sitting out there. Hopefully he will be willing to part with it. Planning on swinging by there every few days until I can catch him outside.

Here's hoping I can talk him out of the car!

Arrow Joe · **Posted:** Mon Feb 15, 2010 9:43 am

Looks like the glass is flat, so it shouldn't be too hard to replace. Check the floor pans next time you go over so you can tell if they're rotten or not.

Eric · **Posted:** Mon Feb 15, 2010 9:47 am

Nakazoto wrote:

Thanks for all the comments guys!

I Planning on swinging by there every few days until I can catch him outside.

Cant you just go there right now and ring the doorbell?

ben · **Posted:** Mon Feb 15, 2010 10:03 pm

I love the old school triple diamond emblems.

torana68 · **Joined:** Tue Jul 29, 2008 10:24 pm **Posts:** 48

complete with optional radio, awesome

hillbillyhector · **Posted:** Fri Feb 19, 2010 9:33 pm

if you can get this thing on a boat to the states, please contact me. I will purchase it AS-IS not problem! I'm very interested, and have a customer in mind who would love to give it the attention it deserves!

that thing is truly cool.

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Sun Feb 21, 2010 2:07 am

Thanks for all the comments guys!
I'll definitely keep you in mind, HillbillyHector, if it gets out of my price range. I asked around and the old man who I though owned the car actually had no idea whose land it was or who owned the car (He might have just been scared of the 6 foot tall foreigner knocking on his door, haha). So I asked a few other people and one guy who lived across the street was kind enough to listen to my story. Told him that I think its an awesomely rare car and that I really want to restore it and he ran back into his shop to ask his buddy in there if he knew anything about that area. He came out with a calendar that was made by a place called "Car Communication Land Pit" (A few pictures from that place here: viewtopic.php?t=8700) and said that that shop owns that plot of land. I ran by the shop but they were closed today. I'll run by there again sometime next week and see if I can talk them out of the car!

In the meantime I snapped a few more pictures.

This is the passenger rear floorboard. It doesn't look too bad. A few more years though and I think there wont be much left of it...

Little sticker on the back listing the loading capacity. Although I imagine if you stuffed 300 Kg's into this little thing the engine wouldn't quite be up to the task, haha!

I'll keep y'all updated! Let's keep our fingers crossed, haha!
Cheers
David

lordairgtar · **Posted:** Sun Feb 21, 2010 4:39 pm

Hope you can get it. Pop open the bonnet and get more pics if you can.

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Mon Feb 22, 2010 5:27 am

Good news!
I stopped by the shop today and told them my story about how I found the car and that I want to restore it and they gave me some more information on it. They had it registered a while ago and put a new clutch in it at the time. Said the engine ran good and was supremely simple to work on. After some talking (felt like an interview, the Shacho made sure that I wasn't going to turn around and sell it to someone who didn't care or didn't know what it was) he decided to let it go at the perfect price! They were all extremely nice and very surprised about what I did to find out about the car, haha. We all stood around and talked about classic JDM fun for an hour or so, was an awesome evening.

As with all things in Japan purchasing a car takes time, but I should have more pictures and certainly more information coming up this weekend! Hopefully she'll be in my garage soon enough!

I'm pretty stoked!
Cheers
David

Arrow Joe · **Posted:** Wed Feb 24, 2010 3:45 pm

Fantastic! Congratulations, you've got a car that looks very nice and is certainly very rare. I'm looking forward to seeing some more pics!

Garant · **Posted:** Wed Feb 24, 2010 5:24 pm

dang that's a cool story

75wagon · **Posted:** Thu Feb 25, 2010 2:06 am

So now you just have to measure up for the intercooler and work out where the turbo is going to fit? :lol:

Congratulations on the find and the buy. Hope you can solve the smashed window problem. Can't wait to see some more pics (especially without weeds in them).

Camshaft · **Posted:** Thu Feb 25, 2010 2:39 am

Great story! Glad you were able to coax them into letting you buy the car. I am eagerly awaiting a build thread!

hillbillyhector · **Posted:** Thu Feb 25, 2010 7:40 pm

congrats!....(and still keep hectors in mind, if/when the love affair dies!).. until I am jealous!

ToyGuy · **Posted:** Sat Feb 27, 2010 2:03 am

Dave is tied up at the moment, so here is a little teaser.

We went to tow the Mitsubishi from the field to Dave's place today.

I expected it to be something of a nightmare, as the vehicle apparently hadn't been moved in 6 years.

We towed it back to Dave's place using the mighty hachi-roku with its lightweight flywheel and 3 puck clutch. The brakes worked, and we didn't even have to add air to the tires!

I drove the AE86, Dave piloted the 360. It was completely uneventful.

Dave's neighbor the hard-core 2-stroke motorcycle mechanic and racer came over to check it out. We washed the car, pushed it inside, and tried putting a charger on the battery. As expected, the charger was not up to the task of reviving a 6-year dead battery.

Dave's neighbor wanted to see the car run so bad that he pulled some pre-mix*1 out of the tank of one of his bikes, and the battery out of his daily driver (a van) and we started it up!

*1 The Mitsubishi runs an oil tank, but we thought premix would be good for a first start.

It started and ran!

Here's a video of Dave and the neighbor: (edit: and the car! )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x9VC71imok

Mitsubishi 360 screaming "Save me!"

Who is online