Clean and green: VE Ute

[Captain_Slow]

It's not that big a ute mate, I don't think a house will fit in the tray. Sorry.

[Captain_Slow]

Taking a closer look at it this morning, there's a small list of jobs that need ticking off:

Desperately needs some attention to the paint - paint itself is fine but has no wax or other protection whatsoever and would probably benefit from a once over with the orbital buffer;
Passenger side tail light needs replacement - lens is cracked and letting moisture in;
Bonnet gas struts need replacement; and
Plastic trim strips down the sides of the windscreen look like they've spent too long out in the sun. Not sure how easy these are to remove/replace but windscreen guys must do it all the time.

Gave it a good interior clean this morning and it's come up really well. It had a bit of an odour in the interior - same sort of smell you get sometimes when you jump into a rental car, so probably something the car yard used to clean/deodorise it - but a bit of a wet vac clean and wipe down of various surfaces seems to have dealt with it.

Local rego guys couldn't look at it for another two weeks which is a bit annoying, as I'd actually like to drive it, but at least I can get it looking good in the meantime.

[rowdytoot]

Taking a closer look at it this morning, there's a small list of jobs that need ticking off:

Desperately needs some attention to the paint - paint itself is fine but has no wax or other protection whatsoever and would probably benefit from a once over with the orbital buffer;
Passenger side tail light needs replacement - lens is cracked and letting moisture in;
Bonnet gas struts need replacement; and
Plastic trim strips down the sides of the windscreen look like they've spent too long out in the sun. Not sure how easy these are to remove/replace but windscreen guys must do it all the time.

Gave it a good interior clean this morning and it's come up really well. It had a bit of an odour in the interior - same sort of smell you get sometimes when you jump into a rental car, so probably something the car yard used to clean/deodorise it - but a bit of a wet vac clean and wipe down of various surfaces seems to have dealt with it.

Local rego guys couldn't look at it for another two weeks which is a bit annoying, as I'd actually like to drive it, but at least I can get it looking good in the meantime.

Nice one Marco- Mikko loves the colour of your ute nearly as much as he likes my new car!...

I haven't booked the Porka in for rego yet cos I need the tyres to be here for sure.. Hopefully I can jag something next week.

[StupidFlanders]

Those windscreen moulds are very easy to replace, I did a few back in the day. They’re not sealed in or anything.

[BigJonWB]

It has the later SIDI V6 which from my research is better on that front than the earlier cars - have you seen otherwise?

I have heard of VF having timing chain issues, although I haven't seen it myself.

[Captain_Slow]

Those windscreen moulds are very easy to replace, I did a few back in the day. They’re not sealed in or anything.

Goodo. I’ll grab some good ones next time I’m at a wrecker.

[Captain_Slow]

It’s a pity the iPhone can’t accurately reproduce how much this colour glows after some work with the random orbital and Dodo Juice wax:



Totally worth the effort.

Also put a new Holden badge on the back (it had been totally debadged other than the front, which isn’t a look I like), and the new bonnet struts arrived so that’s a job for tomorrow.

[dhs]

These things seem like a super nice, practical daily.

[no13b_Coupe]

Skid pan is calling it's name :D

[Captain_Slow]

You might be on to something there.

[Gats]

The 86 be approximately 9 million times more enjoyable on the skidpan.

Nice pickup Marco, liking the green too

[Captain_Slow]

Life is weird sometimes. Look what I found in my brochure collection, that I must have picked up back in the day but can’t remember doing:



Also, in another “life is weird” moment, remember what I said in the first post about doing car stuff with my Dad partly leading to this? Yeah, well the build date on this ute is my Dad’s birthday.

Anyway, picked up a good second hand tail light for this during the week so replacing that is tomorrow’s little job.

[Captain_Slow]

Tail light done. Much easier than expected. Internet experts - and the guy at the wreckers - said the best way to do it was to undo the bed liner on that side for full access. But there’s an access panel, and it comes out by undoing three screws with very long plastic “heads” - two of which can be done by hand, and the third easily accessible with an extension:



I don’t know why you’d do it the hard way and go around removing things you don’t need to.

It might say something about me that I’ve been reluctant to mess with cars I’ve bought new but I’m totally happy to rip in and do things on this one. Maybe because I know it’s not perfect to begin with. Anyone know a good psychologist who specialises in automotive disorders?

[irsa76]

Funny you should ask, one of my old Psycholocists was into automotive disorders, he owned a couple of MGs.

[Aaron]

Did you clean the recess behind the other taillight as well?

if you didn’t then the problem is the real you had been abducted and there’s a clone in your place.