wild_vz
Member
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2023
- Messages
- 13
- Reaction score
- 33
- Points
- 13
- Age
- 34
- Location
- Brisbane
- Members Ride
- VZ Thunder SS Ute
Hey everyone and welcome to my Build thread. Long time lurker, first time poster!
Quick backstory of how the Thunder came to be:
I started back in the day with a VS Equipe, thinking it was the ducks nuts! Since then, I went through a few more Holdens, a VX S pac from VicPol. I was getting bored of the 6's and made the jump into turbo manual space, with a 06 WRX:
Then my dilemma hit with taking a mildly modified WRX to QLD Raceway, to quite quickly find out that turbo XR6's and V8's mop the straights over a 4cyl.
So then came the birthday present of 2018 - my 2006 VZ SS Thunder:
First thing off the rank was peeling the painted wheels back and redoing them with a bit higher shine.
It turned out the rims where chrome underneath but scratched as hell. I polished up the lips enough to be decent and painted the insert black again.
Next was the interior, I wasn't a fan of the silver, so dismantled the interior and resprayed the dash facia, center console and fitted up a double din unit with a slimline sub behind the driver's seat, and amp on the rear shelf, and send my console parts down to Bendigo LED conversions (IIFC) of Facebook, who switched all the green led's out for blue, and sorted me out with a colour changing cluster ( needle changes from blue to red as speed goes above 120, and RPM goes above 4000.)
The next thing off the rank was to get it sounding like a V8. I went at the time with the empire performance 3" engine back ute package, with high flow cats. Got it fitted up at a Midas service centre, where 2 exhaust studs were snapped (common)
Later in the year, finally got out to its first entrant of Power Cruise:
Next off the to do list was upgrading the seats, as the driver's seat has the typical side tear. I did a seat exchange through Carman's Auto trimmers, who hooked me up with the Coulson seats, and a retrimmed console lid!
To match the suede on the seats, I then sourced some Calais parts, and fitted up the suede side panels to the center console, and the under steering wheel panel (fuse cover) and glovebox (it's not purple, it was just a night photo so the flash wasn't playing nice!)
Quick backstory of how the Thunder came to be:
I started back in the day with a VS Equipe, thinking it was the ducks nuts! Since then, I went through a few more Holdens, a VX S pac from VicPol. I was getting bored of the 6's and made the jump into turbo manual space, with a 06 WRX:
Then my dilemma hit with taking a mildly modified WRX to QLD Raceway, to quite quickly find out that turbo XR6's and V8's mop the straights over a 4cyl.
So then came the birthday present of 2018 - my 2006 VZ SS Thunder:
First thing off the rank was peeling the painted wheels back and redoing them with a bit higher shine.
It turned out the rims where chrome underneath but scratched as hell. I polished up the lips enough to be decent and painted the insert black again.
Next was the interior, I wasn't a fan of the silver, so dismantled the interior and resprayed the dash facia, center console and fitted up a double din unit with a slimline sub behind the driver's seat, and amp on the rear shelf, and send my console parts down to Bendigo LED conversions (IIFC) of Facebook, who switched all the green led's out for blue, and sorted me out with a colour changing cluster ( needle changes from blue to red as speed goes above 120, and RPM goes above 4000.)
The next thing off the rank was to get it sounding like a V8. I went at the time with the empire performance 3" engine back ute package, with high flow cats. Got it fitted up at a Midas service centre, where 2 exhaust studs were snapped (common)
Later in the year, finally got out to its first entrant of Power Cruise:
Next off the to do list was upgrading the seats, as the driver's seat has the typical side tear. I did a seat exchange through Carman's Auto trimmers, who hooked me up with the Coulson seats, and a retrimmed console lid!
To match the suede on the seats, I then sourced some Calais parts, and fitted up the suede side panels to the center console, and the under steering wheel panel (fuse cover) and glovebox (it's not purple, it was just a night photo so the flash wasn't playing nice!)
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