History
Well I guess it would be no surprise to those of you that have seen my Ute before that the Maloo has undergone more and more changes each and every year since the day that I bought the Ute back in '02, actually the whole idea of buying a Maloo was really a spur of the moment thing, it all started when Jo a great mate of mine bought over a brochure of the then new Maloo and after flicking through the brochure all I could think was how tuff, anyway she said she was thinking about buying one and she asked what I thought, my response was simple “If your getting one so will I” so that was that and we did after a lengthy wait (Oct 2002 and delivered May 03) they turned up not without a number of mix ups along the way. My Ute had Jo's interior and she had mine, they had the wrong build numbers, they'd been mixed up at the factory mine was hers and hers was mine oh well.
As I stated earlier for the past 8 odd years the Ute has seen many changes, some people would be happy with the quality of a HSV Maloo worth in excess of $60k and I was, but I also saw there was potential only small mods at first but that soon changed and with obviously a lot of time, money and effort being put into the build of the Maloo that all changed, it’s had revamp after revamp, the whole Ute has been evolving you could say and really it’s been done for one reason, and that’s simply because I love to modify stuff............well in this case a Ute. It's great to see what can be done with a bit of time and money and the difference from a standard one to mine. I guess from the start I planed to do some mods like put a set of rims on it and lower the Ute but as time progressed so did the mods and then the list of mods to mods I’ve done has really been way more that I first thought but I enjoy building cars and while its fun I’ll keep building.
Some of the mods under the bonnet that have been done are:
Pace maker extractors, Custom twin system exhaust, Supercharger and intercooler, Custom grind Crow cam, Crow valve springs, retainers and double row timing chain, custom remapping of ECU, modified HV fuel system including injectors and fuel pump, modified intake system, Billet throttle body, Billet caps, Strut brace, Earth cable upgrade and twin engine covers.
The mods to the body of the Ute:
House of Kolor green to purple Kameleon paint, Debadging of most of the badges, Removed fuel filler and antenna positions, Repositioning of fuel filler to behind RH taillight, Clear taillights and repeater lights, HP design 20" rims, Kings springs with Ultima shorter shockers and Custom fitting of reversing camera into rear bar.
The Current stereo system inside the cabin:
Clarion in dash CD/DVD player, Clarion TV tuner and glass mounted antennas, Clarion 5.0 surround sound processor, Clarion multi Av switch processor, Clarion 4 way splits fitted into custom fiberglass enclosures, 2 x Clarion PFW series 10" subs fitted into custom enclosures, Custom fiberglass dash fascia colour coded, Clarion mono block amp for the subs and a Clarion 4 channel amp for the Splits, VDO navigation system, Integrated steering wheel remotes, Stinger wiring, Stinger Sound deadening materials Road kill and Overkill.
The Current stereo system in the back of the Ute:
4 x Clarion PXW series subs in custom fiberglass enclosures, HX series splits, Stinger wiring, 15" LCD screen fitted onto the hardcover, 2 x Clarion Mono block amps for the subs, 1 x Clarion digital 2 channel amp for the splits and a Totally trimmed out tray.
A bit more in depth info with mods I’ve done I’ll start with the stereo system, a total revamp of the stereo system this has been the 3rd time, the first system had 2 sub's and a set of splits along the back wall of the Ute this was a fairly basic yet time consuming job mainly because the box had to form with the front edges of the hard cover this was done with fiberglass and also because the mass amount of wiring that had to run into the back was a hard task to do without any cutting, the next system was again a total change unfortunately the whole old system had to been scrapped (which kinda sucked ‘cause even though you wouldn’t believe it I actually hate working with fiberglass) this system had the subs and amps relocated in the back to being inverted in the box, the system in the cabin changed as well. It’s unreal the time it takes to design and then to build something from start to finish, something that’s a one off, it’s bordering on ridiculous but these things have to be done I suppose since the end result has a lot more shape and character than something basic and square looking like some of the off the shelf products you can buy, you can actually make the exact design or shape that was in your head that’s why fiberglass is the only way to go for quality and attention to detail matters.
For the last system I decided to use the whole of the tray for a bit more ‘wow factor’. It consists of 4 x Clarion PXW series 1000w 12” subs, 2 x DPX series 1500w mono sub amps, HX series splits running off a DPX series 400w 2 channel amp and the 15” hardcover mounted screen.
The subs are mounted in 4 custom cylindrical enclosures rather than the usual rectangle box design that I’ve done in the past and now all face backwards which give’s it a cannon type look. The splits are mounted in the front section of the tray and the amps have been mounted on a panel at the rear of the Ute with a painted fiberglass panel that hides the wiring and that is easy to remove if needed.
Next, the painting of the Ute, this was something that wasn't needed as the original Hothouse green was in perfect condition but was the next step in the Maloo's evolution in getting closer to a Street Machine/Show car standard which now is the main goal. This has been a massive job more than I probably first thought and a lot more expensive once I found out the price of the colour I’d chosen, but once I found a colour (and that took months to decide on) the last thing I could do was settle for my second choice in colour based on price ……… now I’m absolutely stoked with the colour since it’s on a larger area not just looking at a small sample sheet.
Anyway it all started with a nine hour cruise to Bathurst Custom Paint and Panel on a Thursday morning, arriving in Bathurst mid arvo and deciding to kick back and relax as there was a huge weekend ahead of me. 7.30 Friday morning in ice cold weather the Ute started to get stripped the plan was engine out, engine bay painted, engine in and all going again by Sunday………… and as unusual as it was it all went to plan, then Monday arvo across to Sydney to catch my plane back to Mildura for work on Tuesday. How stoked was I, I couldn’t believe it, it all happened and no real dramas. The Ute was left in Bathurst for around 4 weeks while they preped the body and had the Ute painted. Then I went back to Bathurst to help with putting the Ute back together.
The other major idea I had was while the Ute was being painted was to shift the fuel filler to behind the RH taillight and remove the electric radio antenna which was on the LH front guard this was all just to smooth out the sides of the Ute’s paneling rather than having lumps and bumps down the sides. This in my head was quite an easy job to simply just run some stainless pipe through the guard from the original site to the back of the Ute then hinge the taillight out past the body of the Ute, but as you might have guessed that soon changed once I started the task at hand. It took just on a day to modify the inner section of the RH rear guard and then another day to make up brackets bend the pipe and get the basics of the filler functional to use.
Something else I think that's important and I think is important for any build up is the difference between many show quality Ute’s and Mine is that most of them are professional built, the owner has an idea of what he/she wants but cannot actually put their ideas into action so it’s left for someone else to build so in the end they have very little input into the production of the Ute whereas with my Ute it’s the opposite, virtually everything has been done by me from the making of the door trims, the re-fiberglassing of the hardcover, pulling the engine apart to fit the cam, fitting the supercharger and intercooler, and even down to pulling the engine out and back in again for the painting of the engine bay, really the only things that I haven’t done myself is the stitching on the door trims, the pipe work for the intercooler and the actual painting of the Ute.
Over the past few years I've competed in many Ute shows and have plenty prizes from Overall Champion, Best Holden, Best Street, Ute of the show, Best town, Judges choice, Peoples choice and many other prizes. The best results I've had has been that I've made Top 10 at the Deni Ute Muster 5 years in a row and at the first actual Car show I've entered I came 7th out of the judged cars.
Modifications
Some of the mods under the bonnet that have been done are:
Pace maker extractors, Custom twin system exhaust, Supercharger and intercooler, Custom grind Crow cam, Crow valve springs, retainers and double row timing chain, custom remapping of ECU, modified HV fuel system including injectors and fuel pump, modified intake system, Billet throttle body, Billet caps, Strut brace, Earth cable upgrade and twin engine covers.
The mods to the body of the Ute:
House of Kolor green to purple Kameleon paint, Debadging of most of the badges, Removed fuel filler and antenna positions, Repositioning of fuel filler to behind RH taillight, Clear taillights and repeater lights, HP design 20" rims, Kings springs with Ultima shorter shockers and Custom fitting of reversing camera into rear bar.
The Current stereo system inside the cabin:
Clarion in dash CD/DVD player, Clarion TV tuner and glass mounted antennas, Clarion 5.0 surround sound processor, Clarion multi Av switch processor, Clarion 4 way splits fitted into custom fiberglass enclosures, 2 x Clarion PFW series 10" subs fitted into custom enclosures, Custom fiberglass dash fascia colour coded, Clarion mono block amp for the subs and a Clarion 4 channel amp for the Splits, VDO navigation system, Integrated steering wheel remotes, Stinger wiring, Stinger Sound deadening materials Road kill and Overkill.
The Current stereo system in the back of the Ute:
4 x Clarion PXW series subs in custom fiberglass enclosures, HX series splits, Stinger wiring, 15" LCD screen fitted onto the hardcover, 2 x Clarion Mono block amps for the subs, 1 x Clarion digital 2 channel amp for the splits and a Totally trimmed out tray.
