Rig build up - Justin's Petrol 120

[Jus10 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jus10]

Here goes, now that I have learned a better way of uploading photos (Thanks AJ120).

First pic here is off carsales.com - before I owned it and basically the way it was the day I got it.
It is a 2005 VX petrol, 5sp auto. Some things I have done I didn't bother to take pics of but most I did. So far nothing too deep (read expensive) - just stuff that I can do myself. Working for an auto electrical import company does have its advantages!

[Jus10 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jus10]

The very first thing I did was a thorough and complete detail and clean. Previous owners just gave it a once over so i wanted it to be spic and span. I did the interior with about $100 worth of stuff from Supacheap and a full day. Exterior I had professionally cleaned & buffed at about $275.

Then the first addition - the TJM Nudge Bar. Local TJM said they would "look after me" and brought the price down from $695 supply & fitted to $650 supply & fitted. Not much of a 'looking after' I felt. A week later I found a used TJM airbag approved nudge bar for $125 and about 30 minutes (less even) to fit it. A quick run over with some polish and it looks as good as new. I soon came to think that TJM could stand for Take Justin's Money...

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

Looks nice mate, that's exactly what I'm going to update to. I was going to sell mine then decided to keep it but have again decided I will update now. Wife told me to wait and in a few years to go for a 150 but don't want to wait. Getting a good one is hard, plenty of heaps of shit out there, went looking on the weekend at a few, problem is very limited vx's out there. Cheers Steve

[Jus10 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jus10]

Spotlights were the next thing. I want to buy some Nordic HID lamps that the company I work for imports from Finland; but for the moment they are a little too much money - so I put on a set of old PIAA 60 series I had from a previous car. Revamped the bulbs, intrenal wiring and relay assembly once I had figured out that I originally bought them back in 1992!!! Bloody good lights though.

[baggs71 Inactive member. Find all posts View Profile Close baggs71]

Hope you have a lot of cash....your gunna need it.

Welcome to our obsession.

[Palmer Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Palmer]

^^ too true.

[Jus10 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jus10]

UHF Time. After trolling through all the posts on PP and the rest of the web, I decided to do something that no-one else seems to have done. In the VX (and Grande) there is a huge black blank area on the facia of the dashboard between the aircon controls and the ashtray. This has always looked a bit weird to me (but maybe that is just me) and I wanted to use one of those remote head UHFs to fill this gap. I bought a GME TX3520 remote head with hi-gain antenna from a local comms store. The UHF was fitted to the above mentioned 'dash gap' after carefull examination to make sure nothing was behind it. It doesn't interfere with anything else, ashtray or switch access.
Antenna was mounted on a home-made Z bracket off the right hand (drivers side) guard. This is better than the passanger side because it is away from pedestrians when parked on the side of the road and less likely to be vandalised.
The TX3520 has user-selectable backlight colour so I matched the standard green of the other instruments.

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

Geez your low on fuel in that pic, couldn't afford to fill her up eh with all the mods your starting to do lolol.......Cheers Steve

[Jus10 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jus10]

Geez your low on fuel in that pic, couldn't afford to fill her up eh with all the mods your starting to do lolol.......Cheers Steve

Yeah, I sure am... never see it that low any more.

[Jus10 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jus10]

Roof Racks. Since I (the company) has an account with RhinoRack it was a no brainer for me as to what brand to go for. They make good stuff and heaps of accessories. The only decision was which style to go for; the more aerodynamic wing-shaped sportz bar or the heavy duty commercial. I went for the commercial ones as the have a lot more accessories available - plus I already had 1/2 a kit laying around here at work so it was cheaper. I also went for slightly longer cross bars instead of the recommended 1250mm. By going to the 1375mm you get a little more real estate each end of the leg (63mm per end more) for putiing larger baskets, fishing rods, kayaks etc up on the roof. I also went for black cross bars because every other part of the rackes were black.
They do whistle a little but after a few weeks I got used to it.

[Jus10 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jus10]

Next some simple/cheap stuff.
Rear window wasn't tinted so I got a darker-than-normal tint put on to stop people seeing what might be in the back. $85 fitted at Tint-a-Car moorooka.
Same week I bought a genuine Toyota dust deflector for $95 from my local dealer. Fitted it myself about a week later due to crappy unclear instructions.
Forgive the pic - it was a crappy rainy day again.

[Jus10 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jus10]

Latest thing is an additional LED reverse lamp. Since I had the tinting added to the rear window i can't see very well out of it at night. I tried a few different size LED worklamps but they all had to be fitted under the bumper at the rear unless I paid some stupid amount of money for a rear bracket - somewhere around $95 or similar to that rediculous amount for a piece of mild steel. So I found a quality LED lamp NOT made in China that had a supurb output and was small enough to fit into the centre hub space of the spare wheel carrier.


The wiring went through the back door and was sealed into it. From there just run through to the connecting rubber loom from the door to the body, then up to the back of the factory tail lamp assembly. Easy done but took a bit of time.


There is no interference to taking the spare wheel off; the light fits through the centre hub hole easily...


Light output compared to the standard factory reverse lamps is brilliant (pun intended).

[Jus10 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jus10]

Been a while and I have done a few small things. Latest is trying out some Nordic mine spec HID high and low beam lights. I put 3 across the front - 2 low beam and 1 high beam but it was too bright so I went back to just 1 of each.