Bongo Fury

I've bought a 97 Bongo with the newer face lift. I presumed it was just an early one but the guy i bought it from informed me it was an aftermarket body kit done in Japan. It has all the easily recognisable new parts including the gear selector. When was the facelift done on factory Bongos? Is this just an early one, who has someone gone to an awful lot of trouble to change all the parts?

the official face lift was late 1998 and it is not rare for people to put the new grill and rear on earlier models, dealers actually advertise them as such

I've heard of facelifted front end cars, but not rear. What's involved in a rear facelift - new tailgate and rear lights?

Check out Big Daddy Cain's Freeda to see what can be done. As long as you can get the lights and panels inc bumpers from a donor vehicle, then they should pretty much just bolt in place.

Steve's Freda started out in life as a Mazda Bongo and morped into a Ford Freda.

Tony

Colin H F wrote:the official face lift was late 1998 and it is not rare for people to put the new grill and rear on earlier models, dealers actually advertise them as such

Mine's a facelift Bongo, and the Russian database reliably informs me it was manufactured in February 1998.

Depends what 'facelift' is defined as. The main change round 1998 was from amber to clear lenses on the rear, whereas the new grille & headlamps seem to appear about T / V reg in 1999.

Simon Jones wrote:Depends what 'facelift' is defined as. The main change round 1998 was from amber to clear lenses on the rear, whereas the new grille & headlamps seem to appear about T / V reg in 1999.

Agree with Simon there in this link scroll down to Mazda bong 1995-2005>>>>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_Bongo

OK, no simple answers then! Thanks for all the replies. I guess then the van I've bought will be one that someone has facelifted themselves judging by the dates. Like I say they've gone to town, I'll give them that, all the reasearch (and I've done a lot!) that I can find to distinguish them, they've changed, it looks like identical, internally and externally to one of the factory facelifts. (for those querying, the facelift it has includes the grill and headlights, and the rear tailgate/lights, and the newer style gear selector)

Photos please

Bit belated but here are the pictures, has someone fitted a kit? Another thing I've noticed as I've been working on it is I've had the rear door lining off as the lock micro switch was playing up and the handle release is in the middle where it should be, on the pre facelift isn't it to the nearside? I'm just really curious as it's down as a 97 but all reference to the facelift is 98 online.

Hi, can you tell me what the lights in the tailgate door are? I'd like the newer lights on my Freda but cannot changed the door without a reps ray due to unusual colour.

Churs ta.

There's two additional side lights in the rear panel, but you could get away without wiring them up if you didn't want to.

Diagram here: http://lushprojects.com/bongopartsmk2/c ... 3of03.html

I've been thinking about giving the front end a new look for some time, Looking at the pictures I'm guessing new headlights, bumper, grill and the little inserts under the headlights is enough to complete the front end upgrade??Is this correct?

Are the front wings the same on both the older and facelift models?

That's pretty much it. You'll need the foglights, and if you're going for the HID headlamps you'll need the relevant bits of wiring loom and the headlamp adjustment control for the dashboard. The main beam is a separate bulb too. The wings are identical per and post facelift.

Some photos of the headlights here: http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... 15#p537199