I have no idea what happened with the wheel but it's not the only one that looks like it. I'm guessing it was a high speed fail though. Perhaps involving gutter. At least. lol

Damn shame, I don't think there's many of them around anymore. Going to look into getting them re-rolled. Will have to travel north, too technical for 'ol Nowra town.

Know of anyone up that way jughead?

As far as I know there is a couple shops around here, will suss out and post back. I had a set of Azzurros on my Fairlane with the factory Tickford spun alloy centres, sold them with brand new tread for $600 kickin myself now

Also what was the difference changing your front brakes to BA brakes?? Very intrigued as mine gets a bit hard to pull up at exessive speeds.

That would be awesome thanks.

My best advice on the brakes would be, it's a live axle ute get used to it lol

Series2 AU onwards is a direct bolt on as long as you get the caliper mounts will the calipers and 298mm discs. Stops alot better but still nothing flash. I have a feeling this has everything to do with the proportioning valve in the master cylinder, don't quote me though.

finally read your build thread, never realised you had one lol.
nice ute, but your toying with my head again... im still tossing up about the tray back/style side...

but yeah REALLY nice ute... o and for those people wondering about the rims, AU T3 Brembo's... 18"x8" $2100 including tyres from Wheel King. they are very tempting for myself after seeing them on your ute...

just curious, but how much did it cost to build your tray?
im starting to think that a trayback is just much more appealing, less maintainence more convenience (i cant spell - but you know what i mean). plus... well to be honest, yours looks GOOD.

just spotted your car on the TI performance J3 site, what do you recon of the J3 chip on your VCT? worth it?

any progress with the ute? or just being a reliable daily to and from the place of employment...

I just remembered I had a build thread! lol

The J3 went well with a 95 octane tune actually. Just had an AU related air con drama I never ended up sorting out with Jason. The reason I haven't got there yet is I was genuinely happy with the J3 and will get it sorted one day, Jason is a great bloke to deal with & I'm confident when I'm ready and he has the AU's well sorted I'll get it sorted.

For now with 260,000 kms approaching I'm just driving it as is. I sold my BF which still hurts and I lost my GT rims with it to, now I'm left with these piddly 16's that are just ridiculous in the wet compared to the 265's.

So no not alot worth posting hehe It is all toolboxed up now though and I'm probably due for a set of rear springs soon. I think I packed them in moving a big a** machine a few months ago, they haven't sat right since.

Reports on the tray: I think I stopped counting materials at $350 in steel (without wood) and off the street would've charged over $1000 for my time. Not exactly a frugal way to go depending on how you execute it, my advice is to research more, spend less. The more drawing you can do, the clearer you can be and the more confident you can be that it will work will reduce your labour costs. I also did mine in the front yard, on the ute, with no crane, built on the ute, off the top of my head. I calculated it to weight well over 200kgs so it's not by any means light either, keeping that in mind I used thin walled material and have cracking issues. And two people still can't lift it off - proven. Only because of the side steps though, if these were bolt on you could slide it on with two people.

The decking on my ute needs oiling more than I have time for and now all the ally requires more time to keep shiny than I have available. The next one will be steel chequerplate or ally powdercoated.

Also to add: All the parking in industrial fallout zones has rendered my clear coat pharked. It needs a closed door respray so all in all, if you want a nice work ute, forget about it.

Also to add: I hope to finally finish my manifold this christmas as I've decided against the twin cam conversion thanks to troymans awesome efforts with the single. The twin cam is just another hassle compounded by the boost. Also I have to build a tray for my hilux to get rid of it so stay tuned for that if your keen I'll try to post a few progress pics.

Twin cam is good, but more hassle than it's worth IMO.

As for the tray being heavy, the tub isn't exactly light anyway. A mate and I managed to lift mine, but walking with it wasn't happening. When we actually moved it we had 4 guys, which made it pretty easy.

Work utes are generally going to cop a beating, it's just a fact of life. Your options are pretty much suck it up or put 50 tons of clear on the bad boy so you can buff it regularly.

-shrug-

Still it's nice to see good AUs floating about. I never could figurew out why they cop so much flak :/