Ok, now for the carpet install….Today was boxing day (or may have been the day after). I remember most shops were shut, and it was giving me the Shhiits!!

I really wanted to utilise the section of floor under tray, next to fuel tank. On all my previous road trip adventures in this thing, I always packed tools and spares under there. Great for space saving, and you have what you need if you need it. The pain was obviously lifting up the whole thing in the past. Due to the cab modification, the cover had already been cut (not very well either). So I decided to work with what I had. I don’t own a welder, so did what I could.

I always wanted a nice, clean looking marine carpet in the rear. My original thoughts were to get my hands on marine ply, and fit the carpet to that. I couldn’t get a hold of any at such short notice (and I refuse to buy the bunnings crap). I went to 6 carpet shops, all either shut or didn’t stock marine carpet. I ended up going to Clark Rubber, and purchased 4m of their carpet. It had a nice rubber backing and seems good quality. Cost me about $240 from memory. Here is some pics.






I started with the tray first, then the sides, then the firewall. The tailgate was last. In between doing the carpet, I was multitasking on the cavity (I was still deciding all day about how I was actually going to do it)

Ended up cutting it as you can see, and attaching some heavy duty recessed hinges. Pop riveted into place. Welding would be nicer, but I might have to borrow a mate’s down the track to do that. I don’t put heaps of weight in there anyway (maybe the odd fat chick at summernats – that’s about it!!) More pics….




















Excuse the quality, as it was getting late by the time I finished it all. Cutting the carpet was a real pain in the –A hole. Measuring, cutting, measuring….

I wanted to be able to remove the carpet if needed, so I used Velcro strips. The base is not glued or velco’d. It stays where it is with the rubber backing. The only bit I glued was a bit on the tray hatch (with a tad of hot glue) – this stop carpet moving when u open it.

As you can see from the pics, you cannot tell there is a hatch there at all. VERY handy!! Good for ‘storage’ of tools and ‘refreshments’ at certain events!! I am very happy with how it came out. It was actually good having the mini tubs in there. Made that section so much easier. Velcro and glue needs a little TLC right now, as the back of ute got saturated at summernats on the Sunday (ute had no hard cover on). Being marine carpet, obviously the rain didn’t affect it. Best $250 odd I have spent on this thing!!

Haha, great value for time/money/effort! I hope you pull it out and do it properly later though - a car that nice deserves a mirror polished manifold I think

Looks good man! If you can do a good enough job with it in place, why bother taking it off; good move I reckon

I was thinking the manifold would look good smoothed back and polished, but the black actually looks like it works a whole lot better. Nice contrast with the red paint and matches the Trickflow covers perfectly

The next day, I had some more motivation. Was deadest sick of trying to run the sub in the back. It was basically useless. I wasn’t keen on wasting too much of my cab either, so I dug out the old sub box that I had when I bought the ute. I pulled the old dirty carpet off, broke the box down and made it a bit smaller. This allowed it to fit nice and snug in behind my driver seat, without impeding or hitting anything. I used some left over carpet I had from the interior 2 years ago to cover it – held this on with spray glue.

Due to it being a bit of a small box and a 12” alpine thumper in there, I grabbed an old pillow and stuffed the foam in the box – thus giving the sound a bit more depth.

Pics speak louder than words….







Since it was a nice sunny day, couldn’t not take some finished product shots of it now could I?? (put the hardlid back on there too…)























By now, I was only a few days out from leaving for the big trip to Canberra for Summernats 25. Thought I’d load up some tools and spares. I really underestimated how silly I was to get the rear of the ute so low….

As you can see, still parked with stuff all in the tray the thing’s on its bumpstops and I haven’t even loaded the ute fully yet!!! :/ Ganna be a rough ride across!!

Haha I agree....but no need as you will see soon!!



I was the same mate. I always wanted a polished one, but I saw the Streetbuilt guys did this to one of their cars....for $15 worth of paint I couldn't NOT do it!!!

i know what u mean about sitting on bump stops, ive lowered the back of my wagon by 4"ish and its on the stops.


do you still have a center bump stop?





diff to floor aint too good, i took my center stop out tho.

Haha that is LOW mate!! looks nice!!

A quick run down on what happened at Summernats…

So it was all a bit of a rush as per usual in the lead up to the drive over east. My missus couldn’t come this year due to work commitments, so a mate and I made the trip in the ute. We drove with another mate in his hilux, and a mate Gonz with his XR6T ute. A few other boys went over as well and entered, but left a few week s before me to catch up with family. Never the less were all to make the trip home together….


So I packed the ute full of tools, spares, camping gear, a fridge food and beer! We left on the afternoon of new years day. Took it pretty easy going over. Didn’t speed at all, and didn’t drive at night (always pulled up before sunset). Due to losing 3 hours, we ended up getting to Canberra around 3pm on the third day of driving. We were delayed a little due to Gonz having issues with the trailer and his ute being towed. It was moving the cruiser all over the road. We stuffed around with the trailer for a few hours on the second day, but eventually we left them and they sat on 90km/h.

We’d have a fire when we could (mainly to keep the mossies away), and a few beers both nights.

The roads were generally sweet, apart from when we took a short cut just after Port Augusta. Some windy roads, with lots of bumps. Was hectic on the ute, and started to eat the passenger side rear tyre a little. I was regretting not having my guards rolled…!!

Pics….













After we got to Canberra, we unloaded the ute at a mates place and washed ute. We met up with the Proutes guys and joined the line for scrutineering.


It was now Thursday morning, and I could hear the famous loud ‘ticking’ coming from the engine bay, and could only assume my exhaust manifold gasket was gone. I checked the bolts on passenger side, and half were only finger tight. So we went to work, getting the gasket swapped out. We really wanted to get it done to watch the cruise down Northbourne Ave, but it took longer than expected. A small job turned into a s**t fight. Driving halfway across Canberra to buy a new gasket, then buying some gasket goo. When I went to use the goo I then realised it was dry and out of date. I had no choice (and could not be bothered), just wanted to drive the ute, so the new gasket went on with no sealant. After getting the passenger side done, the noise was still apparent. The driver side was also gone in at least 1 cylinder, but decided against changing it… I would have had to remove steering arm etc and the boys were at me to get on with it. While all that was happening, the oil was changed and plugs were cleaned.

Once it was running, I washed it and went back to EPIC. Thursday was more eventful than I have seen in the past, with a highlight being the normal cruising route going through the burnout pad. Couldn’t say no!!






Mind you, the ute didn’t act as I expected, the ute struggled to pop 2nd off the line (and the crowd let me know about it!! Haha!!). I should have put some more pressure in the tyres. Didn’t help the rears were brand spankers, & the pad wasn’t exactly slippery. Excuses, excuses…. Haha!! Here’s the video….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXk3jsiZ ... UQ3hP4zW0=

Somewhere in there, I ran the ute up on the dyno as well. I, like most other guys ran well below expected power. This would be due to the fact Summernats changed from a Dyno Dynamics to a Mainline this year. Probably a lot more accurate anyway!! So in the end only made 250 odd hp (down from 278hp @ Summernats 24). I knew about my driver side exhaust gasket, so I was still pretty happy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nKTbhSB ... q3lkK4KRQ=


We were no into Friday, and the big party began! A big night Friday, and an absolute struggle early Saturday morning to get down to the show n’ shine with the ute all clean and detailed. Did a better job than last year, but it was still painful!!

Saturday arvo I got a phone call to say I won the longest distance travelled again! I don’t know how, as I assumed my mate Dan (blue VY) drove further. They must use google or something to figure it out?? Anyway, got the trophy 2 years in a row so was stoked. This meant I was in the supercruise. Dan’s VY won an award for HP (running a Harrop blower), so we were stoked to have driven from Perth and make the supercruise. Pics speak louder than words….!!





















The last pic was the one published in the Annual Street Machine Summernats special. (Yes, I broke my trophy!!)

This was just plain AWESOME!!




Due to the crrappy weather on the Sunday (again!!), we cut summernats away early on the last day. Went home, packed the utes ready for the big trip early next day. 3 of us drove back (plus 1 tag along in the white VW). We once again just cruised, always stopping before dark. Cooked food and beers every night…was awesome!! Lucky for me, I was the only one not to have dramas this time.

Gonz shattered his centre bearing in the XR6T ute 350kms from home (it could have been MUCH worse – i.e. in the middle of nowhere), and Dan – well every time we stopped for a leak he was pretty much throwing another 20L Jerry in the thing!! A very poor tune, it was so bad you could not even drive behind him. You could literally smell the fuel. I averaged around 10.6L/100km so I was pretty happy. Saying that, my rear tyre was pretty stuffed by the time I got home. I need to have the guards rolled!!

Anyway, here’s pics!!....






















Here’s how the ute drove (rough, as you can see!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fExh5Eef ... gjFBfcHHU=

I’ll let ya’s in on a little secret… I can’t hold off any longer!!




This thread will be kept up to date on a weekly basis now until this is complete!! Watch this space!!

Ok, so now you know what the plans are, I couldn’t go without having 1 last flog session of the ute before the big build!! I went along with Proutes 2 weeks ago for an AHG Performance driving course. I had never done this before, but it was fun!! The instructors laughed at the size of my brakes, so maybe that’s something I need to upgrade soon!!

Video:-
http://youtu.be/njy9pFUGBqk

The afternoon after the skid pan, I thought I’d better get a nice base line for the ute before we start the KB build. Streetbuilt Racing use the Mainline dyno @ Monster Torque, Malaga to tune their cars. The ute rolled off very similar numbers to those at Summernats. Proves that a Mainline is very consistent!!

Video speaks louder than words…

http://youtu.be/EIKAKRlK8cU

This was the last time the ute was to be driven before it’s ‘upgrade’.

Nice choice on the KB. Will be watching with interest!! Are you planning to port the GT40 lower?


Now I better understand your squick spray paint job on the inlet manifold

Won't be porting the lower mate. Leave as it is. I'm not running enough boost to warrant it IMO.

As for the 'quick spray' - you hit the nail on the head!!

its great fun throwing a car around a pan, i know i loved it when i went.

http://youtu.be/62HYrF9kScE

LOVE the car cant wait to see it charged!!

Some more pics from the dyno run @ Monster Torque





So something that had really been piisssing me right off since Summernats…. The problem actually started after the Show n’ Shine on the oval. I went down at lunch time to drive my ute back to our area, and the revs were hanging at 1550rpm, then the car would stall for no reason. It was doing all kinds of random stuff. Apart from 1 burnout, I hadn’t kaned the car around or anything – at first I thought someone had F%$ked with something while it was down there all day with bonnet up.

After this, the car was VERY hard to start when cold (kept stalling). Once the car was warm it was relatively fine. Thought I’d just suss it out once I was back in Perth…..Then randomly, over the last couple of weeks (6 times to be exact) – the car would just stop. I mean completely die at the traffic lights (for example), with no warning whatsoever. No spark at all. I changed the plug on my coil (and changed the coil), this still happened. The car would eventually start again – you just had to sit there like an idiot for 5 minutes, then randomly it will magically fire up again!!

1 time too many for me one day (and it was very embarrassing at an intersection in Joondalup, in peak hour) - I didn’t want to drive car again until it was sorted. From reading, and some advice given, it was more than likely the TFI on the MSD dizzy. If you do a google search, it doesn’t take long to figure out MSD has a track record for selling crap for the 5.0L!! (My MSD coil died last year, it was 6 months old).

I didn’t want to try and tune a Kenne Bell on my engine with an already faulty ignition system….so I replaced the MSD TFI with my original Motorcraft one. And it instantly started and idled 100% better!! Amazing…

I will never buy MSD again!! It’s a bit late now, I already have a MSD Digital 6 box and Blaster Coil for the KB, so I’ll stick with it for now. I have ordered a new high performance TFI from summit to replace the Motorcraft anyway… Hopefully it will run sweet from now on….(even though the MSD dizzy is crap IMO, I still like the nice ‘bling’ it adds to my engine bay!! )

Here’s some pics I took (btw, getting the bolts outta the motorcraft was a deadest pain in the a**!! The MSD had allen key bolts, which was nice)




Some new computer heat transfer compound