Thought I should update the evolution of noodle, it's certainly changed over the last month or two.
Since I started working with the timber industry, being bush all day everyday soon showed up a few weaker points of my build. One of those was the piss poor lighting, seeing fatso's great nephew appear 3 feet in front of you at 100 km/h is scary, but for it to happen 2 times a day, everyday is just wrong. So the Hella 4000's were upgraded with 100w hid inserts thanks to a guy from the patrol forums. I'll put up some pics when I can, but fook me I can see!!! There are a few straights that are over a km long and I can see the road clearly at that range, not just the cats eyes. The truck drivers I work with have all commented on the effectiveness of my lights...... Usually from the wrong angle though.
I also upgraded the clutch with one from Brendon at Ultimate Suspensions, this was fitted when Toyota gave me a brand new gearbox. At the same time, I ugraded the front brakes to slotted rotors and bendix pads. This alone had made masive differences to the handling and braking capabilities.
The Toyota Breaker winch bar met it's demise one day early april, thanks to a losing fight with another hilux's rear tray during an "encounter" at a roundabout. So when the insurance replaced the bullbar, a nice new TJM T15 bar now sits up front.
I have also finally upgraded the suspension to something more fitting. After a good chat with crosssport, I fitted a combination of EFS and ironman all round. I now sit at about 3" allround, and it feels sooo much more solid and stable at speed on dirt roads. I'll get some pics up soon. The inner cv boots are just touching but I'll be fixing that shortly.
Recently I went out firewood hunting where I work, and crawled over some pine stumps from where we had clear felled the pine plantation. The Avenger front guard bounced up and over the stump but the Toyo engine plate caved in almost touching the steering rack. A call to Matt from MR soon fixed that with a diff drop kit (to correct the CV angles), and front guard and engine plate on it's way.
The same day I managed to Swiss cheese my factory sidesteps into the ground, so a set of buds sliders are also on the way.
Been an expensive month
I also managed to score a Dept of Interior roof console complete with GME radio on eBay the other week for $300ish, and that will be fitted soon.
So the evolution is almost complete, just new tyres, a chip and long range fuel tank to go. I'm tired of carrying around 80l of fuel in Jerry cans because where I work doesn't have a reliable diesel supply.
I'll get some pics up when I get a chance
Posted: Mon, 18 Oct 2010 9:00 +0000
