coming aboard

[TonyH]

Hi to you all,just a few personal details to start with,names Tony Holland,I'm English,retired and live in the south of France about 40 minutes inland from Biarritz on the Atlantic coast in the south west corner of this beautiful country,our house overlooks the Pyrenees and lifes good!.
Bought the Delica Spacegear,model PD8W 1995 2800 t/d in 2000 when we lived in the UK so am fairly senior in terms of ownership time and find my 'lorry' to be the most enjoyable vehicle that I have ever owned,still get a buzz driving it after 7 years,also got a Rover 75(really a BMW under the badge) and an E type Jag which sits in the garage,to precious to expose to the nutty french drivers!.
I belong to the MDOCUK and must say that this site is extremely similar to the UK site,is there any connection??
Will be asking a few questions soon about the availability of lefthand drive headlights in your country as I must get my lorry registered in France(been here over 4 years and still havn't got round to it)can't do it though without changing the lights to lefthand dip and this has been my (and a host of other Delica owners who have or will be moving to France or Spain)ongoing problem.The Delica was never an 'official'import into the UK and has been brought over from Japan over the last seven or eight years.The numbers on the UK roads have really zoomed in the last 4 years or so but only in righthand drive form,it is for some reason difficult to find out exactly where this vehicle was exported to in a l/hand drive format.
Can anyone tell me exactly which Delica models are idigenous in Canada and from what date they were imported so that I can ascertain the likleyhood of sourcing l/hand dipping lamps.Anyone interested in viewing the UK site,which is very informative especially with regard to technical questions let me know.
TonyH.

[monstabishi]

Hi Tony,welcome...just joined myself looks like everyone else is in bed or at work.



Mick.

[docsavage]

Tony,

Delica's were never imported into Canada except maybe the old petrol L300 vans - not Delica's. We bring them into Canada as 15 year old vehicles due to the Transport Canada restrictions. A few modifictions are required to meet the various provincial inspections required to register and insure them. With these restrictions we can only now start to bring in 1992 models, but still not the models such as yours. That said there must be a few sources for lights, maybe try the Delicaclub or MDOCUK links at the top of the page.

James

[josh]

Tony,

Delica's were never imported into Canada except maybe the old petrol L300 vans - not Delica's. We bring them into Canada as 15 year old vehicles due to the Transport Canada restrictions. A few modifictions are required to meet the various provincial inspections required to register and insure them. With these restrictions we can only now start to bring in 1992 models, but still not the models such as yours. That said there must be a few sources for lights, maybe try the Delicaclub or MDOCUK links at the top of the page.

James

And to add to James points, all of the Delicas being imported to Canada from Japan are also RHD.

Josh

[niekt]

Hi Tony,

Welcome to the club, glad you made it, will keep my eyes and ears open for you.

[TonyH]

Thanks for the welcome Mick? monstabishi,it certainly is a worldwide club ,Perth in Oz eh!

James/ docsavage,I'm already with MDOCUK and you'd be surprised how many of us are trying to find l/hand lights,I'm amazed how many members are relocating to France and Spain,I thought I'd be a unique case trying to source these lights but not a bit of it i'm just one of the crowd.

James/josh,If all the delicas imported are r/hand drive then presumably you all have to find l/hand lamps,I think though they are easier to source on the earlier models,well at least on Ebay Germany there seemed quite a good selection of L300 stuff.

Niekt,
Nice to catch up with you so soon,looks like it might be even more difficult to find Delica lamps in Canada as the latest imports are 1992 and they are all r/hand drive,according to our friends above.
Have had an E mail from,I presume one of the breakers yards in Holland but unfortunately for me its written in Dutch (as one would expect it to be of course)and I'd probably have more understanding if it were in mandarin,anyway I have replied and asked if they can possibly repeat in English,bit arrogant I suppose but I don't have a clue what the content is.
Regards to all TonyH

[BCDelica]

Welcome Tony! If you still don't have your L400 on the road in three years, you'll be able to find some eager buyers here.

And yes, all of our 90's and newer facelift L300's require left hand headlight assemblies. Thanks to the transport Canada ******* ******** *****. Our headlight buying post.

Regards,
Kev

[Adrock]

but yes, we will be in the same boat as you. No headlights for the L400 in canada yet because we have absolutely no market for them. Maybe once the L400 becomes 15 years old and we c an legally drive them on our roads someone will make a lefty headlight available.

[TonyH]

BCDelica/Kev,
I didn't say I havn't been using it over the last four years,just that I've not been strictly legal shall we say(I'm just an old rebel boy EEH! HA!),had insurance cover since I've been here but in truth that might not stand up in law without the french M.O.T,(controle technique),although having said that I was hit up the harris a couple of years back by some female three times over the limit,totalled her Peugeot and put her in dock but French plod never once asked me for my controle technique either verbally or in the written statement.The insurance companys are getting a tad arsy about English registered cars and are refusing to renew cover without French plates,I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will renew my insurance for another year so that I can make one last supreme effort to get some French numbers on the old lorry.I don't know what its like in Canada but the French throw every obstacle they can think of to prevent non French vehicles onto their roads,or so it seems (I'm getting a bit paranoid I think).

Adrock,
I guess its up to me then (well niek really,he's the kiddy on the web)to ensure that we get a good source of l/hand lamps set up for when you fellas start importing modern Delica Spacegears.
cheers TonyH

[niekt]

While searching for Tony's headlights also found some for the L300's on http://www.depo.com.tw :
http://www.depo.com.tw/asp/pdf/R_MB_L300_1.pdf
http://www.depo.com.tw/asp/pdf/R_MB_L300_2.pdf