Automatia's GQ TD42 The Black Pearl

[Automatia]

Aaaarrgghh,

I'd like to introduce you to The Black Pearl, the name a result of my pirate themed 21st a few weeks back, the day after I picked her up.
Aptly named in my opinion, a crisp black and silver, she floats along the road like a boat and the antenna is perfect for hoisting and lowering the colours.

I picked her up for $7300 at 127000 km's, half of which were done in the last five years, prior to that she has spent nearly her entire life garaged.

A few minor scratches in the paintwork mostly around the locks where it looks like somebody had a bit too much to drink and couldn't get the keys in the hole. Other than that she's good to go. My uncle who has been a diesel mechanic for 20 years took a look and reckoned she hasn't ever been offroad, and is pretty much stock as a rock apart from some sidesteps, lights and a sun visor.

I've got plenty planned for her, but first up is a roof rack and front ladder rack so I can port around my hang glider, then I'll be looking at a 2 inch lift and some 33's.
Could take a little while as I'm a student, but I'm in no hurry.

Here are some photos to kick it all off, I'll try and put one up every now and then of trips I head off on and one for every mod I do.

Cheers,
Auto

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[AB]

That's a good buy with those kms mate, well done, looks very neat!

[Automatia]

Cheers AB, loved your build-up thread, plenty to aspire to.

I know this might seem weird to have put as a separate post when it is on the same day, but I've been waiting a few weeks for this, so it's just to keep things ordered in my head.

Today my roof rack arrived, which is the first tick off the checklist, and I can finally go flying again. It has been a little while since I have been able to cart the glider around since getting rid of the old car and i've been getting anxious to get out for a flight. Unfortunately after a fantastic week the weather has closed in for the weekend in Sydney so it's looking doubtful.

In addition to the roof rack, I've got a 2x2.5m awning courtesy of the aldi 4wd sale, along with an air compressor which from the reviews i've read is quite good, although i'm yet to test it out.

Here are the photos as we stand with rack and awning on.

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[Winnie]

Awesome mate, so clean! Such low kms too, what an awesome car.

[AB]

Sounds anal but think about getting rid of the sun visor if you plan on touring a lot.

I remember reading on here about a significant improvement in fuel economy once removed.

Wind catchers!

[Automatia]

Yeah I've been thinking about it, it looks like my job as of the new year will involve jumping up and down the highway for an hour each way, so any economies would be appreciated. I'm also probably one of the few people that actually want to be looking at the sky, my plan is to install a uhf cb at some point so I can bring along my friends and dirk them with picking me up when i land in the middle of nowhere (I carry a hand held when i fly).

On the other hand it's bolted into the pillars so I'm not too keen on how two gaping holes either side will look if I take it off.

Also, bit of egg on face for the previous post. I just said the weather had closed in and posted photos of this afternoon which was one of the warmest, sunny days in recent memory. In my defence last night I spent my entire evening digging ice out of people's gutters in the rain and it's forecasted to turn back to shit as of tomorrow.

[AB]

I'm assuming it's naturally aspirated, doesn't have a turbo?

After a year or so you may get tired of the sluggish performance of a td42 na but you really did score a good buy mate, reliable engine with very low kms!

If you can work towards saving $1000 that should be enough to put on a ht18 turbo from the gu td42 and you will never look back on how much better your gq performs.

[Bigcol]

Aaaarrgghh, she be a nice one then Laddy


couldnt resist, sorry

nice looking rig mate

[Automatia]

Thats right, I've been dreaming of it ever since the first day when I drove it up a hill on the way home AB! I've got until early next year to get it done because my good mate that's a mechanic (read: do it all for free) is moving away. I had no idea it could be done for that little though, I was expecting in the 3-4k range.

Cheers Big Col

[gazq]

Fantastic score you made there. A turbo will transform the old girl. I went from causing traffic and struggling to keep up on hills to keeping up and occasionally overtaking. I no longer have to drop down to third for the hills here in tassie.

[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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