Automatia's GQ TD42 The Black Pearl

[Automatia]

Well, time for an update.

The best thing in my life right now is a little jetboil stove I bought for camping and hiking, but closely followed behind that is this set of cup holders. I still cannot believe there was a time before cup holders. At $40, I'd recommend them to anyone.

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I've been having a bit of fun too, getting it dirty for the first time this weekend past just up near Myall Lakes. The awning certainly got a workout with all the rain we had. The most exciting part, however, turned out to be the drive home. I had a tyre near explode and spew it's tread out down the highway. There was a bit of fishtailing across lanes until I managed to slow down, it was just lucky that no one else was too close when it happened. End result was a quick change and on my merry way with a broken rear light courtesy of the tread pattern whipping around like a maniac.

This incident has greatly accelerated my plans for new tyres. I was hoping to wait until February, but the current Duelers are from 2006 and I just don't trust them, so i'll be looking at changing it up real soon. The plan is 33 inchers, but I may have to just pick up some used 31's in the interim.

Here's a pic from the side of the road back on sunday.

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In other news, the 2 inch lift went in last night. It took around 2 and a half hours, mostly me doing very little while I got in the way of a mate doing all the work, so it went quite well. I forgot to take measurements before we got started, but the difference is fairly self evident. I took note of a suggestion in AB's build thread to try GU springs in the GQ for a little more height, which (I think) has worked out quite well.

Here are the photos, the first one is the same photo from a few weeks back and the second photo is as it stands the morning after. I'll try and get one in a month or so to see how it has settled down (not too far I hope!)

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Note the sparey on the back. And one more just for good measure.

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[DaveGQ]

Great find with such low KMS, probably the lowest in AUS that I've seen. I just bought a stock GQ, too. But with about 4 times as many Kms.

My first thing on the list is also a roof rack, can I ask where you got yours from and how much? I'm in Perth but I know some places do deliver.

[jff45]

Factory auto as well. The autos go well with turbo.

Add an auto trans temp gauge and large trans cooler to your list of must-do items..

[Automatia]

The rack was $409 (not including delivery) on Ebay from a sydney based store called Killa Concepts. They were great to deal with.
I love it and would recommend it, but I am starting to see a fair amount of rust in some of the welds where the powder coat didn't seem to get in underneath it.

It made a great viewing platform on Saturday night when the bucks party camping next to us decided topless waiters followed by strippers were required.

Jff45 your words are music to my ears. Is the trans known for overheating?

[MudRunnerTD]

Oh my!!! That's nice!! Don't wreck it!! Factory Auto too!!! Goodo!! Throw a turbo on it and she will sing sing sing! Talk to AB about his turbo which will be for sale soon as he is going bigger. Could do a deal I reckon for sure mate.

[Automatia]

Today some new shoes went on. After consulting the piggy bank and coming up short, I opted for 4 new 31x10.5xR15 Achilles Desert Hawk, which leaves one of my old Desert Dueler's as a spare. I am still planning on going to 33's, but it will probably be 6-12 months from now rather than in jan/feb as I had planned.

I've got no photo's unfortunately as I'm going through phones as well as tyres, but it all looks more or less the same anyway. (I'm onto my third phone this week, with one lost on the dance floor, and the other in a river.)

I am, however, absolutely loving the suspension change. It all just feels so smooth, and I think having what felt like a lowered 4wd was messing with my chi.

[Automatia]

So it's been a little while between posts, but not too much has happened.

Today I put on my new bar. I bought it nearly 8 months ago for $100, but it was in a fairly shocking condition. Since then, a friend bashed out a major dent and twist and resprayed it for me.

Here are some photo's

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Once the uni semester finishes I have a few plans including making up some drawers, putting in some speakers that won't make my ears bleed with all the distortion and finding whatever is causing the damn rattle in the steering column.

I was planning to go overseas over the break, but that got cancelled, so a turbo kit might be on the cards for christmas, but I will have to see what happens.

Last thing, here's a photo from a slightly different perspective:

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[Makka]

sweet ride there fella love it

[Automatia]

Just another quick update,

Windows were tinted earlier in the week, quite happy with the result. All for looks haha

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That's the good news for windows, the bad news is unfortunately I had a wiper go rogue and put a reasonable scratch down the windscreen. I can't feel it when I run my hand down it and I have read there is the possibility of polishing it out, so I will see how that goes.

A few things came in the mail recently too. My uhf radio is going in tomorrow and I received the brackets so I can start making up my front rack to mount on the bull bar to support the glider a bit more when i drive around.

Next up, hopefully in the next fortnight, I'll finally be getting around to putting on the promised 33's. Hopefully I can find someone interested in my current tyres to make a bit of cash back.

Lastly, I notice nearly nobody has the stock flares. I assume this is because of scrubbing with larger tyres as they slope inwards.
Last year, when I had the tyre blowout I had a bit of damage to one of the rear flares.

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I don't think this part normally gets replaced, but if you have any ideas on what I can do, let me know.

[Automatia]

So I just got back from having the new tyres put on, I went with General Grabber AT2's (33/12.5R15) on a neg23 offset rim.

Here's a look at how it all sits now, and I'm feeling pretty happy.

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It does poke out a little bit, is this a problem? Something I need to fix or at least be aware of?

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In any case, I think it looks great. I managed to get the radio in over the weekend as well.
I really wanted to put it in where the drawer goes and after spending ages making a bracket for it to sit there I test fitted to find it was too long. Doh!
So instead it's had to go under the stereo.

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