MY 4WD
1
Overlanding unlimited Terry Austin’s off-road vision made real in red Terry Austin had been looking for something to replace his elderly and welltravelled 4WD ute. He was looking to switch out to petrol, and to have a vehicle he could use for adventure and overlanding. He was likewise was lucky enough to be able to dedicate a vehicle to the fun drives, and lucky enough to find a wee gem of a ‘shorty’ Pajero. Terry takes up the story: I had been looking around to replace my old diesel 4WD and spied a low mileage 2007 Mitsubishi Pajero NS petrol 3.0 litre. Some might wonder why I would go to petrol? Well having owned a couple of diesel 4WDs for 15 years, I was tired of the extra maintenance required so decided to hunt out a petrol 4WD that would not be my daily runner. The deal was done and I became the second owner of a tidy SWB Pajero with well under 100km on the clock. The previous elderly driver was unlikely to have done any off roading –
24 NZ4WD
AUGUST 2022
well that was soon to change! First thing to arrange was the basics: a complete fluid change, diffs, transmission, radiator flush. I find it best practice to start from the fluids as you then have a base-line to go from with the maintenance history. Then a trip to Scobie Tyres to upgrade to Maxxis AT700s from the HT tyres, keeping to 16-inch rims. The standard battery was replaced with a new one with a bit more grunt. I then went through NZ4WD magazine looking
for Pajero upgrades and found an interesting article about Nigel Collings’ 2008 Pajero project that had been undertaken by the team at Opposite Lock New Zealand in Christchurch. A phone call to the guys followed, with an appointment where we formulated a plan for some modifications to be made to make the Pajero better suited for off road adventures. I also planned to keep any mods within factory specification to avoid having to certify anything that may became problematic down the track so to speak. Luckily Nigel’s Pajero was still in the shop with a few more modifications being made in between his 4WD trips. I got a first-hand view of the extensive mods that the team at Opposite Lock were still working on – well I might use just a few of
