My d22 from GO to WHoA

Ok i think its time i posted up some pics and a bit of history of my car since i bought her new in Jan 2003.
Basically a stock 3.0l str just with tinted windows and alarm.

First time i went out was at Barmah along the mighty murray river, i went through some mud puddles and what seemed like an awesome hill decent and climb and i thought i was the best. Ok laugh if you must.









More to come.......

howdy solid d22,

don't think anyone will laugh mate,its all about the journey and the fun you have getting there,cheers

Looking at your avatar pic thingo, i think we're going to need a few more pics of your build up mate!

Yeah im getting there, just been flat out at work working 11 hour days 7 days a week and no time to do anything else, i got some time now so il post some more. Im posting at a slower rate too so it seems like it took some time.

After some talk about how easy it is to kill an engine with water i had a snorkel fitted about 5 months after i bought her. Once again im at the murray river at Torrumbarry, seeking whatever mud there was.



And this is the same place as the above photo a few months later on a melb cup weekend.



It rained so much the place started to flood, my mate only had a vr commodore so he wanted to get the hell out of there while he possibly could



The whole road was covered in water, the pic is taken way later in the day, the next day actually, my mate actually got bogged and we stayed the night, his car got flooded water came up to his centre console on one side and my car was parked high and dry but by morning it was sitting in water up to the side steps. You could not see where was the track or stumps or pot holes or even dedicated concrete barbie areas and this was dangerous especially the bog holes someone previous to us had been through with at least 35s.



Now your probably thinking why i didn't tow him out......simple i almost had to get the tractor to tow me out aswell, had a hell of a time getting out and first thing i said to the misses as we hit the black top "i buy a f#ckn 4b to not get bogged and i almost get bogged, im taking tomorrow off work and buying some muddies", i had always been telling her i am going to get muddies.

more to come....

Ok so i get the muddies virtually the next day and need to test them anywhere possible where there is mud close to home, so i go to my sis house in her backyard (they were building so there was a dirt mound) and no fences, and it went good just had to remove front mud flaps and cut out a little of the inside out of the rear flares, tyres are bf goodrich (der) 265/75/16.



I had to test em out in the bush and my 1 year wedding anniversary was coming up so we hired a place at the grampians and i took advantage of heading out to explore, i dont know the good spots to 4wd in the grampians so i just followed what i had on the map.







more to come...

Is great to see other build ups as my own is so SLOW ie: when funds allow...
So the muds were 31's? and needed guard trimming?

roundy said:

Is great to see other build ups as my own is so SLOW ie: when funds allow...
So the muds were 31's? and needed guard trimming?

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265/75 is equivalent to 32" and it should be just a trim of the plastic mudflap to fit them. Standard tyres are 31" (265/70)

I suppose the first part of the add ons is pretty boring so im just adding the experiences i encountered as to why i got the part.

Ok so im off to the murray again, this time at Cobram and want to test the articulation.





You can see in the first photo im actually holding the car up, nevertheless its shocking flex, such a small mound and a wheel is off the ground.

Anyway i came across a small river basically a creek crossing, so i gave it a go...





All was good going through and back, just a little further up was another crossing it looked deeper and had decent ruts and a drop off on the other side, what the heck i gave it a go.....




What the ol saying always walk a crossing first before driving it.
I lost my number plate, not hard to do as most of you would know, and cracked the front bar, not bad but enough to piss me off.
I tried looking for the plate for ages but couldnt find it but what i did find was a yellow roadwork sign which read "bridge out".
So i did make the crossing through and back but there should of been a bridge, you can just see one of the old trunks on the side.



Sorry dont have a better pic, this is a later pic but while i was still camping at the murray me and my mates were trying to work out a personalised plate for me, we came up with WICKED but it was taken and considering i was ordering from a mob from cobram the phone was cutting out on me a lot and in the end i got WIKEDD, i consider the extra D for diesel.
When i got home from camping i went to arb and ordered a steel bullbar powdercoated to the silver colour, and a month later it was fitted on the car.

Over a couple of years i had an in car dvd system fitted, lightforce 240xgt's and a uniden removable face cb installed in the car and a gme aerial.

I eventually had diesel gas fitted to the car, only had to wait almost a year and when i got it back i was a bit wary of where they put the gas filler so once again straight to arb and ordered a rear steel bar, i actually did not have the original side steps or the rear bar on my car for about 2 years prior to this.



Then i drove it for ages like this..anywhere and everywhere possible with IFS!







No i dont have a scoop on my car its a photo shop job.

I eventually had the arb side steps and guard rails installed and sunraisers at the same time with some new bf goodrich mud terrains. Stupid idea getting the sunny's from arb as they were only 7" wide.








Coming up next post my Solid Axle Swap getting installed.

SOLID D22 said:

Coming up next post my Solid Axle Swap getting installed.

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Good stuff, that's the business end. Hurry up Stef!

So im coming back from a day trip out at toolangi and all us mates have stopped to quench our thirst and we just sat back admiring the dirty cars and looking at tyres, and i notice my tyres are shot, remember they are only 3 months old, the front wheel alignment totally gone, had arb look at it (they did the wheel alignment) and said suspension was shot, the whole lot Shocks, torsion bars everything, so they tried winding up the torsion bars but said the sag is what caused the wheels to potrude outwards and is only going to happen again unless i do something about it. So i did!

Here is the car on its last day as a IFS D22.









Its getting closer.....

I had On Track 4x4 in Kealba do all the installing for me and couldnt beleive how quick it was coming along, if it wasn't for things needed to get fixed or re coed the car would have been done in just 2 days.

where is kealba, and if you dont mind how much are they charging you.

By the way i love how your just doing it ,thats cool.

i need to get me a car hoist.

joshy said:

i need to get me a car hoist.

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And a bigger garage?

Great action shots, its great seeing a build up in progress too, well done.

Hoo Roo