Tuesday October 2, 2007

After nearly 6 months, the ute was finally ready to be taken back to Canberra. The wife and I arrived at Castle Auto Electrics just after 8am, having spent the night earlier in Bendigo. As you can see by the image above we parked around the back with a car trailer in readiness to load the ute.

I went through a number of items with the auto electrician (Jake) who wired the car, then I started it. First thing I noticed was how loud the fuel pump was (which I will replace at a later date) and then secondly how the sweet sound of the exhaust was. The 2 1/2 inch exhaust system sounds really good. I reversed the car back and noticed that the steering was terrible and then drove it up on to the trailer. Having a number of these cars it was great finally to be able to drive this up on the trailer rather then winching it. Once the car was secured it was time to leave Castlemaine (The Hot Rod Capital of Australia) and head home to Canberra.

Victoria Police

I drove the first stint and on the Hume Highway just near Wangaratta at the service station the wife and I had a driver change. We started on the road again and was travelling only 5 minutes when we pulled up by Victoria Police. The funny thing being a policeman myself, I know the reason we were pulled up, it was so the Senior Constable could check the ute out. The Senior Constable was impressed especially when he found out was under the bonnet. A friend of mine is the boss at Wangaratta Police Station, and I advised him to say hello to my mate.

Arrived Home

Finally got home and was an uneventful trip, it is so easy towing with a 4 wheel drive.

Thursday October 4, 2007

Had a little test drive and found the steering absolutely terrible. Took some photos of the steering arms (as seen above) and emailed and the called Pat Gardner at V6 Conversions. Pat had advised me that they looked like HQ steering arms on the car. He advised that these had to be changed with HR steering arms. I had some HR steering arms, so I replaced the arms and the car drove a lot better, all it needs now is the wheels aligned so that it is pointing in the right direction.

Wednesday October 10, 2007

Today the vehicle was heading interstate again (only to Queanbeyan NSW this time) to have a console made up to store the 3 gauges CD/DVD player and air vents. This should take about a week to complete, then the console will need to be trimmed.

Monday October 15, 2007

Went over to New Age customs in Queanbeyan today and looked at the ute and took the pics above. Tony is doing a great job of the console and will also be making me a very small glove box for the vehicle. Tony is also installing the sound system, although the wiring was already completed by CAE, Tony is actually connecting it all up and installing two 4 inch speakers behind the dash where they originally were.

This should be finished in the next couple of days and then the console will need to be trimmed.

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