VS 2000 ute (ex ambulance)

[CNsylvester]

Hi everyone

I've just finished the young family and baby scene family car routine and decided its time to buy my first ute and live again!

I chose a LWB VS because I need to carry special other vehicles in the back.

My ride is an ex ambulance by Jakab - Tamworth. (much different from my old HJ Caprice - my last GMH). These are 600mm longer than the standard VS and extended in the area between the cab rear and the wheel arches.

I bought it with 89k on the speedo and with the ambulance pod still attached. I've been slowly bringing back to a decent ride, my ride.

Returning it from an ambulance to a ute included:

Disconnection of the A/C and electrics to pod
Purchase of 6 side panel covers and 2 fuel tank covers for the ute tub (removed to reduce weight apparently).
Purchase of rear window
Purchase of tail gate
Purchase of 2 bumperettes
Purchase of 4 tonneau rails (they remove these for fitting of the pod
Regass the A/C
Relocate the number plate lights back to their original position

And thats about the start.

Next is:
Suspension
Roll bar
Tub cover (hard or soft?)
Sound
Tint


The SS wheels helped a lot and the whole unit gets heaps of second looks.

Any hints, tips or comments most welcome.

[nathg]

Any pictures?

[STEALTHY™]

Are you in adelaide, i've noticed one driving around a bt lately!

[CNsylvester]

Yup, photos hopefully attached and I'm in Queensland.

This thing performs so much better without the pod. I just know I'm going to get a ticket before too long.

Regards

[Haydz]

sweet as man..


love the look of the extended ute..

that must be a longer wheel base than the statesman etc.

good luck on your future mods.

from the look of the pictures it would benefit from some lower springs.

[TVR-190]

cool, ive seen one of the long wheel base ones around here also, they definetly grab ur attention

[CNsylvester]

yep the suspension hasn't been changed from when it was an ambo. Thats next on my list. The ride is currently hard.

I had a work Crewman at home recently, the Ambo was still approx 10cm longer in the wheelbase.

The mrs said it doesn't grunt enuff (comparing to the old HJ 308) !!

[STEALTHY™]

sweet as man..


love the look of the extended ute..

that must be a longer wheel base than the statesman etc.

good luck on your future mods.

from the look of the pictures it would benefit from some lower springs.

Considering a normal ute is the same wheelbase as a stato, it would have to be lol

[TUF UTE]

if anyone wants one of these in sa. a mate has a 5 litre one on gas lowered with body kit, and its not thrashed.. hes forty and uses it as a work ute.

gotta love these things though more pics mate particularrly inside the back

[STEALTHY™]

if anyone wants one of these in sa. a mate has a 5 litre one on gas lowered with body kit, and its not thrashed.. hes forty and uses it as a work ute.

gotta love these things though more pics mate particularrly inside the back

Thats probably the one i saw then

[TUF UTE]

lol hes up in the adelaide hills dude :P its tough though.. and 5 litre which is odd

[CNsylvester]

Photo of inside the ute should be attached I hope.

When the ambulance pod is removed, none of the normal ute tub panels were present ( I had been alerted this might be the case). Apparently they are removed to reduce all possible extra weight.

I had to buy 2 fuel tank covers so the body worker could weld them together to make one large one to cover the space. I also had to buy 6 smaller panels for the inside walls of the ute tub. The wrecker guys thought I was nuts.

The inside was painted by a paint shop with an industrial strength skin. Seems ok.

Note the rear window also from the wreckers with the free sticker (I picked that window esp!)

Cheers

[CNsylvester]

If anyone is interested in buying one, there are 5 up for auction this Tuesday 3 March in Brisbane, follow the link and search on - ambulance - and they will appear.

Regards to all.

Car auctions, truck auctions, damaged car auctions | Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Perth Adelaide Hobart | ManheimFowles

[CNsylvester]

Quick question - I was underneath the rear end today, near the spare wheel, under the floor of the ute there is some apparatis (could be mistaken for a wire coat hanger) with a chain attached and has a brake line going into it.

What's it for?

Regards to all

[TUF UTE]

brake bias adjuster. adjust your brakes accodring to the weight in the back

[CNsylvester]

Thanks for that davecunno -

Another question - has anyone tried to put a statesman interior light into a ute? The ute roof curves at the light position and the statesman light is slightly longer.

ThankS!

[boonga]

you should cut it up and make a crewman out of it

[CNsylvester]

I did a quick search and didn't find anything...

has anyone ever mounted a small winch inside the tub of a VS ute? ( to assist moving bikes etc into the ute)?

[CNsylvester]

Well this week I had it lowered, 2 new tyres and installed a woodgrain stato console.

Pleasure to drive + some extra creature comforts now!

[fuzzy2308]

nice Ute man i love the long wheel base ones, it'll look sweet as slammed maybe even bagged with 20's. i would loose the cowboy sticker throw

[CNsylvester]

Thanks for the feedback.

The rear window came from a donor (wrecked) car, I didn't know it was an RM Williams sticker at the time, it may come off.

Attached are pics of my ride

* Lowered (with enough capacity down the back to take my loads)
* Stato woodgrain console.

Still a couple of holes left over from her ambulance days, but the replacement console took care of at least four others. It was really un-nerving cutting into my existing dash to accomodate the top section (sunglass holder area) of the new console but I got the effect I was after.

My red security light now flashes behind the dash somewhere, don't know where to mount / put it now.

[TUF UTE]

good to see it all worked out man, get the rest of the stato dash

[TUF UTE]

imo. paint the bottop half of the dash that light colour like the console

[long_one]

gotta say that stateman dash looks great ...been tinkering with doing the same to mine ...

[seraphic06]

Thanks for the feedback.

My red security light now flashes behind the dash somewhere, don't know where to mount / put it now.

I see you have a spare slot where the demister switch would go on a sedan/wagon. The Berlina/Calais/Statesman had a security light that looked like a switch (due to those models having climate control) and slots into that hole in the dash surround. Why don't you buy the security switch and wire it up?