Troys 2011 Mitsubishi Pajero GLS now with added muddy mud tyre goodness!

I think 2 inch will be sufficient, it seems to be what everyone does on the Pajero forum without having any further issues.

Picked up the steelies today, I'll get them stripped during the week and then painted. I've decided I'm going to get mud tyres for the weekends and have the set of alloys for city wheels. I don't know whether to get MTZs, KM2s or STTs though.








I'm actually leaning to the STTs purely based on price, they're between 80 and 100 bucks a corner cheaper.

 

I got the steelies stripped of tyres today, cleaned them up and got a coat of primer on them. I should have time to get a lick of black on them tomorrow so I'll put up some pics when I get it done.

Also had a delivery today, I got pairs of yellow, red and blue filters for the lights as well as (fkin' finally) the spreader lens.

 

I didn't think of chassis paint but I've already bought some stuff so I guess it's too late now.

The blue filters are for general use, yellow for the fog in winter and red for dust.

 

We'll looks like it's going to take longer to paint the wheels now. The top coat bubbled like no tomorrow and even though it was hard it came straight off. Obviously piss poor prep produced piss poor painting. So now I'm going to strip the factory paint back to bare metal and do them again. Bugger.

 

After stripping not even half a wheel I had an idea... polish them!



They could look cool but I don't know if I'd be able to put a clear coat over them so they don't get surface rust.

 

Bought an Autometer Cobalt boost gauge. Just waiting on a decent cup to put it in but in the meantime here's a quick photo.

 

I finally got around to (almost) finishing the boost gauge. All I need to do is hook it up to the lights and it's done. I'm running a whopping 18psi of boost lol.

On another note I'm back to the dealer who serviced it in late November to speak to the service manager. While I was finishing off the boost gauge I noticed I was missing a critical piece. The dipstick. Given that the dealers 'mechanic' is the only person to do work on it I think they may have some explaining to do. I'll be hitting them up an oil flush, replacement, filter change and while they are there they can also actually adjust the handbrake, and reinspect and replace the air con filter because that was also obviously missed (see picture).

To say I'm pissed off is an understatement. If I had have crossed water without the dipstick I'd imagine I would have suffered total engine failure as the sump would have filled with water and inundated the motor.

I'll post back tomorrow after I speak to them but in the mean time here is the air con filter which was apparently inspected and deemed still useable.

 

Finally finished the boost gauge install by wiring the light

 

I did a grille swap with a bloke off the Pajero forum today, instead of chrome one I now have a black one! I'll get some pics this weekend but for now here's a generic photo.

 

I'm heading off bush over the weekend with some mates and I'll get a chance to test out my new GoPro. I've been playing with a few mounting positions and here's one I reckon should give some nice footage.



And a still shot from the GoPro

 

Here's a few pics from the weekend. We went from Canberra through Captains Flat, into Talaganda State Forest, down some fire trails and made camp near Alpine Station Homestead on the Deua River. Sunday was spent heading up Mongamula Fire Trail (which was pretty awesome) and then back down Merricumbene Fire Trail and across Dry Creek (about 40Km and took about 3.5 hours), back to Araluen and then to Canberra.

Just about to head off from camp on Saturday morning


Parked at Alpine Station Homestead


One of the several river crossings we did. Most were only just over knee deep but one was a little deeper. I got some good footage of on my GoPro which I had mounted just above the side steps.




Parked by the river. In case you are wondering, I had the red filters fitted for driving at night on the dusty roads. They make a difference, certainly helped.


Saturday nights camp site


These few photos don't do this climb any justice. We came over a rise and the track suddenly dropped in to a gully and straight back up the other side. It was that steep we weren't too sure the old Pajero would make the climb on the loose rock and dust but it managed with ease! It slipped and slid a fair bit and I lost traction most of the way but the only really hairy part was right at the top when I didn't think it would push the last 20 or so meters. I just pushed it up to about 3,000 rpm and she powered up.
At the bottom. It was about 300 meters to the top and steep as heck. Like I said, the photos don't do it justice.

At the top. You kind of get the idea how steep it was.

Adam in the Cruiser and Jack in the Triton making the final climb. You can sort of gauge it better here.



At the top of one of the peaks on the tracks.


I'll post some more action pics when I get them off the other blokes. There's some pretty good ones of me coming down a dusty part of the track which had some pretty decent rock steps. I had to get out and walk a line down so I didn't bottom out and do damage and unfortunately my Japanese safety boots failed me and I ended up on my thigh on a big flat rock. Now I have a sweet bruise coming up haha. If we had more time there would also be some great photos of the rock section on top of one of the ridges that we all had to crawl over. I did get some in car forage of Aaron in his Prado in front of me.

All in all I had an awesome weekend and my car proved to me that it was a very capable vehicle with only AT tyres fitted for performance mods. I've decided I really need a lift kit now just to make it a little easier in the hairy sections. But first off will be muddies which will go on the steelies for weekends. When I get a chance I'll post some videos up after I attempt to edit them.

 

I had to move the boost gauge to the pillar today because it started to shake itself loose on the corrugated roads.



I also finally got around to mounting a fire extinguisher in the back.

 

Car goes in to (finally) get the front windows tinted tomorrow.

 

I absolutely agree! Needs a lift, muddies and snorkel lol. If anyone was wondering, the tape on the fire extinguisher is to stop the handle rattling.