P R
O G R E S S R E P O R T
Well, well, well…. That was my KUDA a month
ago, not ceper yet; most of the body was original. Now my KUDA is growing more
extreme by the day. I made this page so you can see the progress of my KUDA.
Ok, it first started with those damn 18”
wheels. Once I put them on, my car didn’t look low enuf. So I decided to lower
it more after the pic above to what you see here. Then the front tyre started
to rub the fenders. So I had to make wider fenders, and shaved the rear ones…..
After buying new fender panels, I
decided, ah what the hell, I might as well make another bonnet.
So I ordered
a new bonnet and started to get a little bit more extreme… with the help of my
toy EVO, I started to outline an EVO bonnet for my KUDA…
After I draw an outline of approximately
where I want the EVO bonnet vents to be, I first cut the ‘supports’ underneath
the bonnet (you can see where it was by the unpainted metal at the bottom).
Then we have to beat the shit out of it to make it come out…
What a site this was……
Even my panel
beater was shaking his head… he said he never had to hammer a brand new panel
like this…
He said,
“Man, I can’t believe I’m doin’ this…”
I just
laugh……
There you go… it’s starting to come out…
There is
another way of making this, by cutting out the outline shown and then weld in a
new bit, but there will be too many weld spots… which can cause distortion of
the whole panel… not good……
After a few more (actually lots lots
more) beats with the hammer, you start to get what looks like an EVO bonnet.
I actually
didn’t like how it turned out, because it was too high… you can’t really see it
in this pic. Needs to be more flat…
After making the front smoother… it was time
to do the first bit of cutting… the original EVO design is simply cut out and
put a mesh on top.
I wanted to
be different and I made the bonnet cut out slope down… I think it looks better…
The vent on the left is finished, once I
made sure it looked ok, it was time to do the same to the other side too…
With mods
like this, what takes so long is making sure it looks right (pantes atau ‘gak)…
It takes patience and effort…
Then it was time to make the ‘cold air intake’
for the engine… Oh, by the way… all my mods are not just for looks. They are
all for a purpose. Huh? Yeah baby, I’m going to put in a TURBO engine in! This
intake vent will be used for the engine air intake. And the EVO vent is for
better engine cooling.
Ok, this is what the engine looks like. A
turbo 4D56… same as in the L200-Strada. But this one belongs to my Dad, my one
is coming. He has had this for more than 10yrs now.
I think, the
newer models has got a bigger turbo and bigger intake manifold…
This is what the finished bonnet looks
like…
Ok, it
doesn’t look pretty yet, still raw! Just wait till I get it painted.
Driving it
like this on the streets gets lots of looks and headshakes…
I just laugh!
Here is another view of it from the
front…I guess, you can call it ‘subtle’, but there’s presence. It’s amazing how
much more cooling the middle vents make, especially when the vehicle is not
moving.
This will
help my intercooler later on…
This is how I drove it home today… Just
testing if my front tyres still rub or not… they don’t! Yiipee
In the end, I
decided I will put new Grandia headlamps (so I got to change the grille), and I
decided to make another bumper… itz never ending…
Oh yeah… since the last time, I also installed a new steering
wheel.
It’s just a
simple MOMO Millenium.
I really want
to do something to that dashboard. Maybe cover it with leather? Wot u think?
I also changed the seat covering too… I
used Schweizer (colour 1433) leather. The door trim is coming soon…
What? They
don’t look like Kuda seats? Well, that’s coz they’re not. The headrests are not
on yet.
Call my friend in Jkt if you need leather for your car, his name
is Irwandi his HP 0818477576, say Widodo from Solo sent u.
This is what
the rear seats of my KUDA look like… as you can see also not original. I only
have 4 seats in my car. All fully adjustable, you can even sleep at the back…
or if your imagination goes further, then you can do more things at the back
hahahah……. So much space for any pos’n you like….
Rear seats
have got more space than a limo…
Ok, that’s
it for now…
I will
update you as I do more modifications to my KUDA.