Nah it's not, you can still see the old one with the piping running to the bonnet visible in the corner of the 3rd last pic. And you can read it on the bottle lol

thats the windscreen washer bottle i think, no kangaroo bag here

What's the radiator overflow bottle on the firewall mate? Haven't really seen them before lol

webber definitely neatens things up in the engine bay. and placement of the washer bottle free's up some space on the passenger side, i like it mate.

A few months ago I read a forum on how to paint your car with a roller and foam brush. For me I thought this would be a novel idea since I don't own a paint gun or compressor and I can't really spray in my garage anyways since I don't own it. I started by testing out some black stripes which I had always planned to do ever since another member tried them out on his green coupe. So I bought a roller and some thinner and made a super thin wash of gloss black and layered up about five coats on the hood. It was more a test than anything but the stripes stuck because they added about 10 hp to my ute. At least the hoons here around the Gold Coast think so because I've had a a ford hatchback, a black supra turbo, and some dodgy white van all try to race me on separate occasions when stopped at a light since the stripes went on. I don't participate in that by the way. With the hatchback I pretended like I was going to race them when the light turned green, but I didn't move on purpose and sat there watching them fishtail across the intersection very stupidly.

What did add a few horses instead, I hope, was the installation of a Weber 32/36 DGAV and oval port intake which I bought from bert. Decided to upgrade the carb because the existing one had a dodgy air cleaner that would pop off every once in a while and cause me to stall (hence the duct tape in the photos). Had a friend help me install them because I didn't feel confident enough to do it myself. Makes the A15 alot louder thats for sure, and the throttle is definitely more responsive, and I even reckon the engine idles alot better than before. I do have a slight hesitation once in a while that carried through from the original carb when the engine's running cold but I'm not sure what causes it. Makes the engine bog down when I accelerate but if I let go the slightest bit or floor it instead the rpm's come back and it takes off again. I've been told by other members it could be my distributor or coil or the accelerator pump in the carb but I don't have the experience to troubleshoot these items. Changed the air filter element to a red one also because it looks nicer and I thought maybe the old one was causing the problem, but no it wasn't. Mini breather installed as well.

Lastly was refinishing the sports bar in gloss black as well. Not sure if I'll put the bar and tonneau cover back on though as I like the slim look with them off so they are currently for sale if anyone wants.

The idea of painting the whole car with a roller fell through. I decided to go the traditional route and sand/prime/paint the ute myself with a spray gun which the next post will be about as this takes my build thread to present time.

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wow how mide were the old rear wheels? 7s ? they would look so good on the back of my ute !

nice work ,keep it up!

More pics added from progress during the rest of the year up until a few months ago. Trying to get my build thread updated before I paint this weekend so there may be a few posts tonight.

First off was simply changing out the old rear view mirror which was severely aged. Fitted a new one I bought on ebay from Thailand for 25 bucks all up and its been great so far...not genuine though for you die-hards. Next was the purchase of some 14 inch wire mesh rims that came off a Sunny race car in Warwick. Drove 3 hrs up there from the Gold Coast on a weeknight after work and picked them up for $200 then drove back, kinda crazy I know. Spent a few weekends refinishing the inner parts but the chrome dish was in pretty good condition already. Thought about sanding that back and refinishing the chrome like some other members have done but I'll get to that someday. I basically sanded the hell out of the inner parts by hand...wish is a mission with that wire mesh pattern, then primed, and painted with some Killrust gloss black. Probably would have skipped the primer or bought a better paint in hindsight but I think they still look good. I've seen other members with similar rims and I think they will go nice with my overall paint scheme - orange/black

With the help of my girlfriend who sows really well, we started refinishing some interior parts including the door skins and the sun visors. I found this faux fur type fabric, that's not too fur like which shimmers quite nice in the light and we decided to put some orange piping around the visors to make them pop a bit and match the rest of the paintwork. Also added the piping to the door skins which I made out of 8mm MDF sheet, but I don't think it turned out as good as I imagined...may do something else to highlight the orange somehow since it came out a little wavy...suggestions? Also bought and installed a bright 5-ball orange shift knob from Rocknobs for $20 to go along with the overall theme and I love it. 8-balls are overrated.

About 6 months ago I found some round mirrors at Supercheap and put them on, they were fairly inexpensive too. Originally planned to use them as fender mirrors. I drilled out new holes and screwed them in...stood back and said sweet! That was, of course, until I tried to open the hood and couldn't because it wouldn't clear the mirrors....doh! Must be a rookie mistake. Still was quite happy with the way they look in the normal position on the doors as plan B.

Lastly was refinishing the grill and handpainting the original logo to restore it to a near original condition. Masked up that grill really sharp and sprayed it gloss black. Did the same with the logo, that was a tricky one to mask. Then I got some blue and red enamel paints from a hobby shop where you buy those paints to create model cars and planes and such. Carefully hand-painted the logo with about 6 coats of the enamel and it came out pretty fine.

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Thanks for the comments guys. Its definitely a great way to learn but I always have this fear that I'll stuff something up and cause a few grands worth of damage somehow...so there is some hesitation to just dive in and go nuts. Shopping bags work great unfamilia...you aren't the only one hehe. Oh and I'm keeping the witches hat orange, it just makes such a statement I think...purchased 4 litres of matching 2 pac to recoat it...official name is "blood orange"

Some more quick info that I left out about the ute when I purchased it is that it came with a fully working A15 engine already installed (sweet!). Transmission was also converted to a 5 speed, dunno what type though; Disc brakes installed on the front; 2" exhaust system; Custom horn (sounds like that annoying one you hear at a football game from some dude in the crowd); Custom over-sized aluminium glove box; older style CD player + speakers; Supercheap Auto type wood steering wheel and floor pedals; Sports bar and tonneau cover with attachments; some spare parts left in the tray. I believe the rest of the ute came pretty much stock. Ute was unregistered.


Okay fast forwarding about four months after purchase with this post's pictures. By now I had grinded most of the rust back to bare metal with a hand grinder, lightly bogged where it needed it and put a quick coat of primer over to make it passable for RWC. The more serious spots I hit with rust converter and patched them with a fiberglass reinforced filler, then sanded and lightly bogged over. In order to get a RWC I also needed to fix some electrical items (with a mates help) including a faulty wire at the reverse light switch which took us ages to try and switch out. Found an access panel under the interior carpet after three or four hours which I'm not sure was originally there but it made it a bit easier to work on that area of the transmission. Dash lights were fixed due to a faulty wire. License plate lights also rewired. Dodgy headlight also replaced. New spark plugs (first time ever installing these myself) New battery and a few other things. Fingers crossed and it passed RWC first try, but I think the inspector had a few datto's of his own. He really didn't like the play in my steering wheel though. Several weekends of work invested I was glad to finally get her on the road.

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does look like your ute colour jesse.....


good luck with your build champ
look forward to seeing more pic's and progress

Looking good there ,im liking the orange colour kinda looks like vermillion fire from the back ,same colour as my ute !

Good to see another ute being brought back to its former glory !