Our Shorty..

[Southo]

Bought this just over two years ago for $29,500

we were looking at a brand new one at the time but were reluctant to spend the $49K they wanted for a new one. I looked around for a bit longer and found this '07 model that was advertised for $33,000.

It was a one owner, no non-factory mods and was bought as a company car for a director who never went off road in it. In the end we talked him down to just $22.90 above what the lease payout was.

this is what it looked like when we bought it..



It's a 3.8L V6 Petrol and had 55,000km on the odo. It was optioned up with the Side and Curtain Airbags as well as a Power Sunroof

We have been slowly modifying it and adding bits to make it better off road and a more capable touring machine.

So far we have added...

Factory Towbar
16x7 Mangel Steel Rims with Goodyear 245/75 R16 MT/R's
Bilstein Shocks and Lovells Springs
ARB Bar with Warn XD9000 winch
Lightforce XGT lights
Dual Battery System with rear outlets for 12V & 240V power
Bushskinz underbody protection
GME TX3340 UHF
Better tinting on the front glass
Rhino Roof Racks and Platform
Side and Rear Awnings

We swap the muddies with the road tyres when we are not heading away for a trip, so get the best of both worlds

This is what it looks like now





Still on the list to do..

Snorkel
Auxiliary Tank (65L)
Bushskinz Side step / sliders
Bushskinz Rear Bar
Rear drawers/storage and fridge slide
Exhaust System - once the tank is installed, it means the exhaust is swapped from the Drivers side to Passenger side, so we will probably change the whole system.
*maybe a rear diff lock - still undecided

[peal]

Good buy mate!

[elfturbomax]

Nice choice of car and colour. Take the OEM sidesteps off before you do any serious offroading. The sidestep frames are about $500 each and the plastic steps are slightly less each.

Thread hijack over, back to yours.

[IBOOST]

You dont see many of these in a Short wheelbase.
I like. Has it had a lift at all with the new suspension?

[x]

SAS it

[nine2nine]

Love the pic of the shorty at glasshouse?! crunching the side step.

[rowdytoot]

looks tough Southo, I like it.

Are you going to provide a babs style step by step of 'tetris' before your next trip?

[Southo]

Nice choice of car and colour. Take the OEM sidesteps off before you do any serious offroading. The sidestep frames are about $500 each and the plastic steps are slightly less each.
Thread hijack over, back to yours.

Yep, Steel Step / Sliders are on the way - going with the bushskinz ones (same as the underbody protection we already have)

You dont see many of these in a Short wheelbase.
I like. Has it had a lift at all with the new suspension?

The Shorties were overpriced, (compared to the LWB models) so never sold as well as Mr Bishi wanted. I have owned 4 SWB's prior to this one ('85, '86, '88 and '94). In order to make them more attractive, they stuffed them full of extras and upspec interiors (ie, ours is the "X" which is effectively an Exceed model) which made them even more expensive.
They are discontinued again now.

The ride height went up about 60mm with the new springs and shocks, but has settled back down to about 50mm now with all the bar /winch and dual battery etc. The rear will drop about 5mm when the tank goes in we expect.

looks tough Southo, I like it.

Are you going to provide a babs style step by step of 'tetris' before your next trip?

ha ha - nah but it certainly makes you think about what to pack and how to pack it. Once we get the cargo barrier in for the big trips we can remove the rear seats and that will give up about 40cm more depth to pack. We are going to eventually make a false floor and storage shelf / drawers too, so that will make it eleventy times more practical than it currently is.

[Suscunt]

I still miss mine

[Southo]

jesus titty christ....

my last one was an NJ model, never had that much travel though :P

[Suscunt]

Should never have sold it







Was Fully engineered rear locked winch 35s 3inch body lift the lot..

[Southo]

Here are some pics of my older ones...

[floody]

Wow, I like this, looks like a great tourer!

[Southo]

Had our annual club khana last weekend up at Rydal - had a great time - even with the rain on the Sunday...

nopics did really well considering it was technically only the 3rd time she has been driving off road and the first time in the car by herself without instruction.

[itsnotagsr]

Cool car Jase. Needs more chrome wheel action.

Say hi to JD for me. Hope all is going well with you guys.

[Southo]

Thanks Chris - we are desperately looking for some cool 22" that will fit...
Will do, yeah, all going well..

The weekend prior we did a day Trip with a group form the Vic Pajero club Forum that was being covered by Overlander Magazine - I think it comes out in December, so I can't show all of the really good photos from that trip unfortunately.

[IBOOST]

Good updates.

SusCunt that thing of yours was an animal!!

[Southo]

I just finished the underbody clean up (remove all bash plates etc) after that last mud hole...



that was just from one of the bash plates - the smallest one below the sump....

I knocked out all the dry stuff I could before hitting it with the Karcher underneath.
I weighed all the dry stuff just for shits and giggles - 27.9kg. That was AFTER I'd spent 30 mins at carlovers on the way home the day it happened...

Fuck that - I'm going around all the mud holes now.....

[HoonBoy]

That's why the mud is never fully removed from my Hampton cars!

[Southo]

I got tanked today....











LRA 65L Auxillary....

[RotaUte]

Nice nice!

[nine2nine]

Nice. Whats that bring your total capacity up to?

[Southo]

Thanks - yeah slowly taking shape..

134L total - Factory is 69L and Auxiliary is 65L

Snorkel next, then we start on the rear storage and drawers.