Picked these up from Elliot at hangs on Thursday, after Ben dropping them off to him. They’re a little rough but I’m excited to bring some life back into them!

Have driven this car more in the last month than what I have in the last 3 years.

When someone messages you asking if you’re still looking for some billet wheels, you reply with “hey sorry not atm as I need the money for other things” but then you get a photo of them, so you buy them anyway. That’s exactly what I did. I shouldn’t be buying more wheels but when Ben from bennys custom works sent me a photo of them, I couldn’t say no.

Theyre boyd 10 fluted spoke billets, measuring up 17×7.5. Theyre not the best condition but it doesn’t bother me, they’re getting dropped off to barrel bros to get re drilled. Hopefully have them on in the new year!

Owning a modified car can be stressful, luckily I’ve been pretty lucky to have this car be pretty trouble free, mechanically wise, defect wise not so much. Its been red labelled two times so far, with the last time being almost 3 years ago. Since then I’ve been slowly cleaning the car up, making it a whole lot more presentable, but even after all that I would constantly get this anxiety every time I would drive it. So in those 3 years I’ve only ever driven it to work and back which is about 10km from home.

I recently had an encounter with a hwy patrol, where I came to a roundabout intersection with him pulling up to the left of me with a clear view of me, to which he turned right, away from me. I felt this huge sign of relief which had me thinking maybe he thought it wasn’t worth pulling over? or he was on his way to finish his shift haha, either way I felt this wave of anxiety leave me.

With this new found invincibility, I thought it would be good to head to J_hui’ Friday night t way meet in Kellyville. Ive known Joe for a long time, back from jdmst forum days, almost 15 years ago. He hosts these nights every Friday and his goal is to replicate the feel of Daikoku PA in Japan on a Friday night, which I think he has. If you haven’t been there, there’s always a diverse group of cars.

I didn’t take my camera which I regret, I got caught up talking to a few people too so I didn’t take many photos on my phone either, met a whole lot of good people too! the 120km round trip was worth it, and a drive that ill remember for a while !

Had the day off today, decided to finally get around to fitting my chrome rear bumper. Since putting on the te71 lights on, the rear has always looked off with the black bar. I was prepared to make some mounts for it, but I thought I would see if I could make some mounts work that I had.

I got these mounts when I bought my hilux, the previous owner had a nice ae71, after selling it he had some spare parts left over, so when I bought the hilux, he gave me the mounts with it. After some cutting, welding and hammering, all of which I didn’t take photos of 🤣

Still waiting on end caps to get here, and will source some black number plate lights!

The main reason for starting this blog was to bring some nostalgic feels back, from the days of everyone having a blog before having instagram, posting up photos with a few paragraphs detailing new parts, photos from events, or just anything really. I always feel like you get more out of a blog rather than just photos.

Most Thursdays now i’ll meet up with Benny a bit earlier before everyone arrives, just to shoot the breeze and have a chat, I find it therapeutic, pretty much every week there are updates on the soarer, but this week was the week it would be at hangs. I was stressing a bit as the EPA had run a blitz just two days prior so there was some heat out throughout the week. It was 6:25 and still no Ben, being his birthday I thought he would be on time, but also had me thinking he might have got pulled over.

Seeing it roll past was something else, it. has a huge presence on the road. The weather wasn’t playing ball so I did most of these images in black and white, I want to get some photos of when the sun is out to really show the blue its painted in!

I forgot to take photos of the caps I did for the Strusse, came out really nice, I enjoy the little details on drift cars, I think ill be laying a simple pinstripe down the side of it eventually, nothing over the top but again, a little detail.

It was great to finally see this car completed, its been a long time coming, and if you know Benny, you know how talented he is with his fab work, and this car is the perfect example. Now with the restrictions easing, drift days are coming back, and this is ready to go. We’re only here for a short time, so enjoy your cars !

-A