Well today wasnt sunny but it was dry (for most of the day) so I got back out there and did some more work on the tailgate. I put another layer of filler on and once it was dry started sanding it. Thank good I bought a board sander, makes things a bit easier. Anyways after a while I though I had it looking pretty good so I decided to put on a guide coat and sand it some some more. As you can see its not smooth yet but it looks worse then it is. So if the rain clears this afternoon I might be able to get out there and sand it some more.

Well I had a small win on the car today. The rear bar is back on the car. The towabar has also gone and work has begun on a place for the number plate. I am hoping to make a box for the number plate and a hidden LED light strip to sit that I will sink into the bumper. The reverse lights are proving to be a pain as the lights I have ordered have a reflective lense which I can not use so I am currently thinking of modifing the tail lights to have a hidden LED strip in them that hopefully wont effect the outter appearance or the current functions of the lights.

hope thats not your keys caught in the tailgate

the the remote for the central locking was holding up the trim as I broke all but one of the clips that hold the trim on the bottom of the tailgate

Yay. finally progress on the car, even if it was something small. I ordered some LED spot/work lights that were small enough to be mounted into the back of the tail lights. They appear to be very bright when hooked up to 12v but as yet I have not tested them mounted in the tail light which has a defuser type thing in it, but when hooked up to 6v still seem bright enough. So hopefully the rain disappears again and I can get the wiring done and the new reverse lights tested with and with out the indicators going. Hopefully it all works well but I may still have to put a bit of metal in the tail lights just to seperate the reverse and indicator lights a little bit when in use

Well despite the rain I did manage to progress a little more ob the rear bar. I made a housing for the number plate and LED light which I then welded in. As yet its no completely welded in and I havent completed the underside on the bar. On a plus it has all fitted without cuting the re-enforcement. This week I hope that if I can get the time that I can weld it up and start filling in the gaps and smoothing out the bar

Being stuck in the house since boxing day due to all this rain and then floods has given me some time to plan some thing on the car a little better and today it finally dried up enough to actually do some work on the car.

First up was to redo the twin pipes which got damaged when the bar came off when I had to avoid a stupid little truck driving in the middle of the road on a blind corner. Now the first setup worked well and answered some questions about heat but to me it just didnt look right. It basically had 1 90 degree bend and a miter cut, so this time I decided to use more bends as well as a slip joint so the exhaust could be removed without droping the rear end out.

So far it all seems to be coming together nicer the before and being able to remove it easily means I am able to make it stronger and neater then before. Tomorrow I am hoping to get 2 more slip joints, clamps, round bar and some exhaust rubbers which should allow me to finish it again minus the tips.

Here are some pictures. Not all the welds have been cleaned up yet becuse it started raining again





Also while being stuck inside I decided to try something for my reverse lights and this is what I have got



They are the original reverse lights just cut down. I am thinking of mounting them either side of the number plate in the rear bar but I will see how it goes when I try to fit them

while your there, you might want to look at your leaky fuel tank????

and the way exhausts flow. air flow doesnt do U-turns

It flowed fine last time. This time I have opened up the hole more but really the second tail pipe doesnt serve a purpose besides looks so didnt need to be hooked up.

As for the tank, its not leaking and doesnt have a smell. Its been like that for over 12 months and really hasnt bothered me or the car so not worried. Might have a look at it if the tank comes out to be modified but I will see

Leaky tank, fuel lines, hot exhaust pipe, mmmmmmmmmmmmm....................................

I got some info today off an approved person for QLD transport mod plates (blue plate).

The rear end and its lighting is fine because it still has brake/tail light, indicators, reverse light and number plate light and still has a rear facing red reflector.

The indicators on side rear view mirrors are fine as long as they can be seen from the side

The exhaust is legal as long as it doesnt exceed DB limits and it exits 40mm past the last rear seal of the car which in my case is the tail gate. So having twin pipes is fine

The bonnet and shaker setup needs a rubber trim on it to stop any fluids escapeing from the bonnet on to the windscreen. The guy is going to look at photos on the bonnet and inform me of any other work required but as long as its as strong as the original one its fine and legal and doesnt need a mod plate. I did forget to ask him about the bonnet pins but can ask when I speak to him later about what work/ if any I need to do to the bonnet

Well I just got word. Everything will be fine except the bonnet. Basically the hole I have in the bonnet is too large, so it means I scrap my whole custom intake idea or redesign it. So its going to be redesigned and made 100% legal.

What will be happening the my current setup will be made to fit under and seal againt the bonnet. 1 or 2 holes will be cut in the bonnet to suit the placement of the filter and will avoid the supports. The bonnet scoop will then be attached to the bonnet.

Once I find another bonnet it shouldnt take to long as I can use this current bonnet to work out where the supports of the bonnet will be in relation to the top of the intake

Ok I had some issues with my security on my computer and got hacked big time which lead to my system crashing. So I have spent the last couple of days having to reload everything but in the mean time I lost all my login details to most of my web site accounts, hence the name change.

Anyways. I got the exhaust on the car today with mounts so its all solid. I do need to fine tune the positioning of the mounts as they pull the pipe over to the one side. Anyways here are some pictures.





Still try to decide on custom exhaust tips or off the shelf but atleast for the time being its all hooked up and working.

Well the car got the rear wheels on it today and it moved for the first time in nearly 7 weeks. I can now confirm the the exhaust works and despite a small issue with the positioning of the rear mount that is pulling the pipe towards the center of the car and causing the pipe to hit the leaf spring when the passenger side is on a car ramp while the drivers side is on the ground, the exhaust is fine.

I even tried a very rough way of finding out how each pipe flows compared to the other side and surprisingly the flow almost identical at idle. Now as I said I check this roughly by using 2 garbage bags zip tied over the ends of the pipes and when they got enough gas in them the just blew off the pipes at almost the same time. Now the flow will most likely change at higher rpm but I dont really care as the passenger side pipe is more for looks then any sort of performance gain