Hi there, I'm Jan Pieter from the Netherlands and I just bought what may very well be the only 360 Sambar Deluxe in my country. (And definitely the first one)
So rather than starting my own Dutch 360 club with myself as president, treasurer and only member, I thought I'd join yours. Just forgive me for not coming to any meetings, ok?



It's a 1970 right-hand drive imported from Japan by the Dutch Subaru importer (possibly via Sweden?) who sold it to "Bij d'r Mathieu", the very first Subaru dealership in my country. There it spent it's whole life (on dealer plates) as a driving advertisement for the dealership... until now, that is. I guess that makes me it's first owner! It only has 11000 km (7000 miles) on the clock, and hardly any rust. I bought it from mr. Mathieu himself, who is long retired now. (He made it clear his mint condition SVX is never, not EVER for sale though) Ah, but enough bragging, time for some showing off instead.





I've cleaned it up a bit since these pictures were taken. When I first started it a huge cloud of shredded newspaper and grass exploded out of the aircooling shroud. I think I evicted a family of mice. I also took out that janky electric fuel pump on the left there. Replaced it with something a bit less... intrusive. But now my carb is overflowing. Don't know if the new pump is to blame or if it's my float. Does anyone have any thoughts about fixing the original fuel pump? That would be ideal, of course, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Maybe it's best to take the whole engine out, get all the dirt and rust out of the engine bay? What do you guys think? Good idea? Bad idea?



What's with that headrest tho? Is that lost or was it optional?



So there it is! I'll post more updates when I have any.

Welcome nice Sambar Van.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention: As you can probably tell from the pictures, at some point in the van's life some flapdrol thought it would be a good idea to cut 4 great big holes in it and put some big orange Volkswagen Beetle turn signal lights on it. So yeah... that happened.

Welcome to the club. That's a really nice Sambar. Great history. The most common problem with the Org Fuel pump was the check valve springs broke & it fail to pump fuel afterwards. The pump is easy to remove & dissemble, I have had new stainless steel springs made. Most Elec pumps put out too much pressure for the float & needle& seat to control causing flooding.

Welcome to The Club! We are here to help.
One advantage with the Subaru is NO DRIVE BELT (unlike DAF)

Ed

Welcome to the Club - from "downunder" (Australia), Jan!

We run some parallels - I also joined the USA Club instead of starting up my own one-man show here (plus these guys know what they're talkin' about and are true enthusiasts), and someone also cut holes in my sedan to fit rear indicator lights!

Don't have an answer to your question about the headrests - but someone in the Club probably will.

subaru360nut wrote: ↑4 years ago One advantage with the Subaru is NO DRIVE BELT (unlike DAF)

Ah, yes. Thank goodness it has a proper gearbox and clutch with a dozen readily available moving parts that never break or wear out after 50 years, rather than some weird $100 rubber band that you have to replace every decade. Really dodged a bullet there

And I've been meaning to ask, what is that thing that looks like the choke, but on the opposite side of the steering wheel? The knob's missing so I can't tell from that, and pulling it doesn't seem to do anything obvious.

Previous Owner made an "improvement" that only he/she understands

Ed

Also that model van is newer than those imported to US,
nicer dash & steering wheel, top lites moved back, doors
open from rear instead of front, etc.

Ed

Hi Jan,

Welcome to the club!

I am also not local to the USA but rely on this great forum for support:)

I own Marshmallow (1969 360 Van) and live in Munich!
We will have to meet in the middle sometime

Once Lee gets his van up and running that will make 3 known European Vans. There are several more in Portugal but very rare and I don't think anyone from there is on this forum.

Let me know if you need a hand with anything. I have had to fix a few things this year. Luckily nothing serious.

Andrew

Ted494 wrote: ↑4 years ago Once Lee gets his van up and running that will make 3 known European Vans.

Coincidentally, a few days after I bought my van I met another Dutch Subaru dealer vacationing in Germany, and when we got to talking it turned out he knew my van from the dealer Mathieu, where he also got most his cars. He drove a Sambar pickup for his own dealership for the longest time until it finally got sold on and probably scrapped, according to him. So there was at least one pickup version in the Netherlands at one time.

TheDutchJP wrote: ↑4 years ago

Ted494 wrote: ↑4 years ago Once Lee gets his van up and running that will make 3 known European Vans.

Coincidentally, a few days after I bought my van I met another Dutch Subaru dealer vacationing in Germany, and when we got to talking it turned out he knew my van from the dealer Mathieu, where he also got most his cars. He drove a Sambar pickup for his own dealership for the longest time until it finally got sold on and probably scrapped, according to him. So there was at least one pickup version in the Netherlands at one time.

That's cool. I was close to buying a truck in Portugal but it needed a fair bit of work. I've also heard that the trucks aren't as spacious for the driver as you cant out the seat back.

Welcome to the club. Nice van

Welcome to the club
From Southern California U.S.A.
Nice van
I make misc.parts for all the Subaru 360's
So if you need anything I may be able to assist you
I usually ship international USPS
But put items as gifts /sample parts to cut down on customs or at least save some money