RX3UTE rebirth - throwback thing build

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Picked up a pair of trailer guards, aka wheel tubs from a solid GC today. 
 

just sat them in place where I think they’ll end up, or there abouts.

stood back and admired the look, quite like it. 
still need to trim to fit snug once it’s all decided.

 

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Got home from Low Key Nats to find a nice package had arrived.

 

 

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It takes a special kind of idiot to take a perfectly good, freshly panelled car, and chop it to bits.

 

boy I need help

 

Cut all the things!!!!!

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Nosecone is fully mounted, rough guards are on for mock up.

 

this ute seems to be longer than the other ute. Probably built in a different factory as they are 4 years apart from memory..

 

im glad I chose to use this ute for RX3UTE, it is the same model and spec now.

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Some goodies arrived from across the ditch.

thought I’d give them a looksy 

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And just like that she’s gone…..

dropped off to fielding

 

 

what a Kent of a drive. Started with a flat tyre on the van, so had to swap all 4 wheels over from the other ute, that was a mission in itself.

then drove all the way to fielding, dropped it off and refueled. As soon as I hit the main road from palmy to Sanson the ECL and DPF lights came on.

limp mode engaged, no boost.

FUGH!!! decided to send it. Hills were fun. 
crawled into the drive at 2am the next day after starting at 10am.

 

van is booked in for a service and dpf delete next week

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So the above teaser was me dropping the ute off to a panelbeater near palmy.

this is his update pics.

i just didn’t have the time or mental energy to grind my way through the stitching phase, or attacking the mint bonnet with a grinder.

he has made up new flanges for the front of the guards , he won’t use the rx3 guards on this set up, all new steel.

have also tasked him to fill over the fuel filler hole as I can’t utilise that once I drop tank it out the back anyway. So now I’m forced to drop tank it now instead of when I bag it.

it means that I can carry on with the tubs when it’s back. 

I will end up using push button bonnet pins, hopefully they’re ok as a bonnet pin for road use. I’ll also fit a check strap as a secondary safety measure

happy days

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*girly screams of excitement *
 

just got these through

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Got the call on Thursday that the ute was going to be ready to go today.

booked the trailer and made the painful 6hr hike to Fielding to pick her up.

got there with 20mins of daylight to spare. Couldn’t get good pics .

made it home in a 12hr trip.

so much to do now, but atleast I can start getting the rest of it all fitted up, wired etc before blowing it apart for paint.

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Can’t resist slapping this booty

goddammmmmmmmm

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Getting the front end mock up all finished.

i made 2 plates that bolt to the factory headlight mounting points, then sat the headlights into the correct position and rivnut provisions in for the headlight plates to mount to. 
 

think I’ll rivnut the plates to the body aswell rather than use the old plastic plugs.

lights are just in there loosely at the moment, but goddammmmm yes boy!!

 

also rivnutted the bumper mount points, bolted the bumper on.

only need to fit 2 more mounting points on each side for extra strength. 

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Was allowed an hour or 2 in the shop today, so I did some things.

 

tacked in the rear rear tubs, great, now I need to do more sanding and filling on the sides of the tray. 

and dropped the motor and box back in.

went to drop the rad in and was wondering why it didn’t line up. Don’t have the body mount rubbers in there, oh well, tomorrow’s job.

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A while ago I ordered a 8” notch kit from air ride nz.

looked at it again today and decided , nope, don’t like it.

so whipped out the MS CAD for dummies and made up a new design.

these will get swapped out for 6mm steel pieces later.

i plan to fit in connecting pieces within the notch before it gets closed in.

for the cross bars where the bags will mount to, i plan to use 50x5 shs that was left over from a trailer axle build. I know this is plenty strong enough and I’d prefer a square edge than round tube.

open to thoughts and suggestions from others.

 

we’re planning to attack this job on Thursday hopefully.

 

oh and the b1600 diff is “IN THE BIN!” .

i have 3.55 lsd disc braked rear coming for it, it’s 60mm narrower too so allows for more dish/friendly wheel choice.

just need to work out the 5x114.3 hub swap options. 

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So seeing as I went to fit the radiator back in the other day and it didn’t fit, turns out it didn’t have the rubber body mounts in it. 
 

and the ones on the other ute are pretty haggered.

 

a quick trip to the old hardmore store to find a length of nolathane, less than 10 minutes and I had the 4 main bushes cut and drilled. Another 5 to fit.

cold cut saw cuts this stuff with ease

need to measure for the mid mount bushes as they are different.

i will need to pack the deck up 5mm to get it perfectly in line with the cab.

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1 minute ago, shizzl said:

So seeing as I went to fit the radiator back in the other day and it didn’t fit, turns out it didn’t have the rubber body mounts in it. 
 

and the ones on the other ute are pretty haggered.

 

a quick trip to the old hardmore store to find a length of nolathane, less than 10 minutes and I had the 4 main bushes cut and drilled. Another 5 to fit.

cold cut saw cuts this stuff with ease

need to measure for the mid mount bushes as they are different.

i will need to pack the deck up 5mm to get it perfectly in line with the cab.

also finished off my notch templates and dropped them in to be laser cut, will be done be the end of the week. Happy with that.

forgot I’m away this weekend anyway.

 

also side note, the “modgies” I have are 15x9s instead of the 15x8s I thought I had. No wonder the front is poking a bit much. 4” back space too.

the fronts poke out about 30mm.

 

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5 stud time 

picked up this falcon diff off the tard 

2.77 gears, lsd and disc braked.

it is also 30mm narrower than the b1600 diff so allows for more dish.

also the big bonus is the 280mm rotors and integrated handbrake in the caliper.

the leaf perches sit outside of the ute chassis which means I can get this set up quickly without having to spend all weekend cutting off and grinding back the perch welds.

 

 

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Just picked up a pair of FD RX7 front hubs to adapt to the front end. 
 

should be relatively easy. I’d do it myself if I had a lathe. 

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The photos just show how terrible the lighting is in my workshop.

 

but anyway I press on..

 

picked up my CAD templates for the notch bits from Wooles, all looks good except somehow the 200mm centres became 195mm centres on the notches. Which means the bar braces don’t fit.

dammit. I can still run the notches at 195 centres and get them to recut the braces to suit.

as it’s mocked up at ride height, the bags fit in perfectly above axle. 
 

once the new braces are made I can carry on with it. Including bracing up the front link mounts etc
 

then figure out if I’m going with a watts link or a long panhard bar.

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Got my pieces back from Wooles.

first pair of braces came back 5mm off centre so had to get them to redo those.

 

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Front plates complete. 
now I can clean up the control arms and slap it back together.

 

these plates are to cap off the crossmember and to mount the bag mount off. 
 

arse end is all tacked in place where it needs to be. Just waiting on delivery if the 70mm strips to wrap the notches