Steve's Hilux

[Steven]

Finished air con panel controls, repainted dash using 3M stuff instead of the VHT, and wired up a rocker switch for turning on the stereo without needing to use the key.

Regarding the steering wheel, it turned up over a week ago however I ordered the wrong part by mistake which meant my current airbag wouldn't suit. Found the proper wheel and it's on the way but the woodgrain might need to be altered to more closely match the dash pieces.

Interesting note about the VHT spray, even though it was fairly patchy when it came time to try get it off in order to prep for the 3M stuff it was extremely durable - tried using wax n grease remover, thinners, turps, Ajax... in the end I was only able to get so much off. I found the same "problem" with the 3M stuff, that once it's on it stays on!

Good news is that the 3M stuff goes on far neater and uniform though.

[Steven]

2 new additions, an Easydeals aftermarket DVD/GPS stereo, and LED upgrade to the Air con panel (temperature knob changes color depending on hot/cold setting)

Had the same headunit in my Aurion and I was happy enough with it to get another to suit the Hilux.

I did the A/C controls by making a custom PCB with SMD leds to sit behind the switches rather than the simple way of using T5 replacement LED bulbs (which leave hotspots and don't allow multiple colors as I've done). I felt compelled to do this, even if in just the factory green, as the bulbs create a very pale green and washed out looking colors that when sitting directly below the new stereo made everything look tacky.

Interior is coming along and due to the sale of the Aurion I have a few more goodies coming in the mail. Should also be able to rip off the tray and get to work on fixing it up sometime in the next few weeks as well.

[Steven]

After a bit of thinking I decided to make a whole new tray rather than try to mod the existing one to suit my future plans. It won't be anything fancy, but whilst looking very similar to the current tray the new one should weigh about 150-200kg lighter, due to a more efficient design. Granted it won't be as strong, but for carrying tools etc it will be more than strong enough.

Picked up enough steel to get a start on it and have got the basic layout almost completed today. Hope to get the majority finished on Wednesday but that will depend on a few other factors.

[Andrew357]

Nice! Looking good

[Steven]

Getting closer. Basically just need to finish off the little bits and then it will be ready for paint

[Steven]

All those "little bits" took a lot longer to finish than I originally thought, although I haven't been dedicating as much time towards this project as I really should have.

Either way it's very close to completion now, with the frame fully primed. Just need to smooth some small sections off and then it'll be ready for painting, hopefully even get it mounted on the ute by this weekend depending how I go.

[Steven]

Tray is on and mostly finished. Still being put together to go in the near future are the mudguards and drop sides. Toolboxes should hopefully be here in 7-8 weeks. New tray is probably only half as heavy as the old one, which hopefully will get reflected at the bowser.

Also gave the chassis a quick touchup whilst I was there

[Guest]

looks awesome man

[Andrew357]

That looks really good man.

[SecaBoy]

well done mate. looks fantastic!

[trentmeyer23]

Shiny goodness.

[Cee-Lo]

Looks great, one could think that the tray was OEM!

[SecaBoy]

are you gonna end up painting the tray? or just keep it like that?

[Steven]

There aluminium will remain polished - the entire purpose of it was to have a heavy duty surface in which I can put tools etc and not have paint scratched off all the time.

The insides of the drop sides will also be aluminium.

Also the tray will have one of those heavy duty rubber mats on it once everything is in including boxes, so you probably won't even see the flooring anyway

[Steven]

Getting to work finishing up the ute dropsides - They're fairly solid bastards, complete with hidden latches and checkerplate inside lining. If all goes to plan I hope to get them mostly installed by weeks end

[Steven]

Finally got around to making/installing the mudguards. Making an infill panel/support for them tomorrow.

Dropsides are still in progress, not entirely happy with the paint just yet.

[Steven]

I decided to stop fussing about trying to get the paint on the sides absolutely perfect and finally bolted them on. Now all I need are the boxes to fill the front half of the tray however I just heard this morning they're at least 8 weeks away :(

[Lawz]

Impressive work Steve! I like how you've kept it neat with the hidden latches.

[FRM05A]

Looks good.

I do like your number plate

[Steven]

A few changes. After quite a bit of stuffing around I finally have my new bullbar - sits heaps better than the factory version with heaps better approach angle and underbody protection. Unfortunately when the bar arrived it had been damaged during transit, and the bar itself seemed to have very poor fitting fixtures etc so the bar needed plenty of repairs and modification just to get everything fitting well: it even had heaps of rust inside that had to be cleaned off and resprayed! Not happy one bit but now it's all together I'm happy enough.

Also made up a new fuel filler as the previous one was very poorly done and had a few high points beyond the cap that meant I could only fill it up very slowly otherwise the nozzle kept clicking off. A week ago It took me 15 minutes (no joke) just to half fill the tank. Hopefully the new one goes much better.

[Steven]

Well it's been a long while so I felt I had better update this thread, especially considering all the changes.

First up, the custom tray is gone. Long story short I had major issues with the paint sticking to the duragal steel, and was looking at a fair whack of $$$ to get it sandblasted and powdercoated. The tray was built for work purposes, and it got me thinking that I can't exactly use that tray for that reason as it would get banged around, scratched (leading to rust) etc etc.

All our other work utes have aluminium trays, and whilst not as nice looking they're very functional and after about 12 months of rugged use look alot better than how any steel tray would turn out.

With that in mind I've sourced an old alloy tray 2nd hand and some tube racks, cleaned them all up and have just started fitting them to the ute. Pic below shows the tray missing a few bits as I've yet to clean them up to my standard.

Also fitted some big mother spotlights (100w HID), and I've picked up some new tyres (265/75/16s) to go on her hopefully this week.

[trentmeyer23]

WOOT! We have a seats again. :P

[Steven]

Well damn it's been about 2.5 years since I've post anything up in here, figured I'd resurrect this thread.

Ute has gone through a whole heap of changes since my last update.

Starting with the interior, I've swapped the steering wheel yet again for an Aurion wheel, woodgrain, as I wanted steering wheel controls and to make the interior just that little bit more modern.
I've also swapped in an SR5 dash cluster from a 2014 Hilux, along with the SR5 trip computer in the dash. Spent a bit of time pouring over the wiring diagrams to figure them out but in the end everythings running perfectly.
There are also some other small changes to the interior but nothing really worth going into.

For the exterior things have changes considerably. For starters I've finally got the tray properly set up how I want it for work, with a custom rack up top for carrying cladding, a built in 9cfm compressor setup that has the compressor itself top side whilst the space-consuming tanks live under the tray, with the power/air connections sitting on a panel just behind the drivers door. The bullbar has been modified (read: cleaned up) and re-powdercoated, I've buggered off the spotlights and swapped to some LED light bars, a few aerials (1x UHF, 1x FM radio), a monster rides bonnet scoop (BLING) and again some small touchups all over.

Mechanically is where a fair bit of dough has been spent. The diff center has been swapped for a Prado center as a means to regear the drivetrain for the larger diameter tyres (still haven't gotten around to swapping the front diff, I have it but just been slack).
Heavy duty Exedy clutch, Baileys fuel injectors, Provent air/oil separator, Fuel Manager pre-filter, and a brake upgrade consisting of new rotors, HPX brake pads, braided brake lines front/rear, and a Dual-Diaphragm brake booster developed right here in Queensland for the Hilux.
To put it simply, the Hilux stops when I need it to stop.

On the performance side of things, I've added a larger dump pipe and home-made welded exhaust (ie prebought sections that I welded together) that dumps just behind the cab. Measures about 2.75" internally and still runs a muffler and cat (both hi-flow). The biggest change though is I've had Matty from Just Autos on the Sunshine Coast wire in a HKS F-Con ID ecu and dyno tune it, the resulting gains are in the vicinity of 50% power and torque! Has completely transformed the ute, but of course the power bug has bitten again so I'm looking out for a turbo upgrade in the near/mid future. For this it would probably be the GTurbo Grunter stage 2 - not cheap but has been proven to add about another 30% power/torque but more importantly even lower in the rev range where it's badly needed.

[Steven]

So I decided to get a bit more serious in chasing some more power, which resulted in a stage 2 Grunter Extreme turbo from Gturbos being bolted on, high flow injectors from Baileys Diesel (new product) and a front mount intercooler (fabricated myself, so no weld porn lol).

The result? 212.8hp at the wheels!

Not as much as I was hoping for, but despite having an Exedy H/duty the clutch started slipping so will need to be upgraded in future. Tuner also found the factory airbox and/or safari snorkel were causing a restriction somehow, as popping the airbox instantly gave another 15hp. Will have to investigate.

It's now incredibly fun to drive, but I haven't really been able to test it due to the heavy rain that set in today :( . Any kind of throttle just sets the ***** end flying all over the place.

[Defyant]

It's now incredibly fun to drive

WOW i'll bet its fun to drive :D mate that's a very sexy upgrade , pro looking job too very nice plumbing, must give a lotta hoons a shock to see you pull away.