23/10/2026
HOT ROD FRIDAY
This week we have Bailey’s in the build 2003 VY Storm ute.
Bailey originally picked it up as a cheap Marketplace find, talking the seller down from $5,000 to $1,600. The plan was to make it a reliable daily while his VS ute came off the road for a manual V8 conversion.
The VY didn’t stay standard for long. Bailey bagged it all round, fitted a supercharged V6 and manual, added VE Maloo seats and a sunroof, then ran into a major defect and lost his licence. From there, the build kept evolving.
The charged V6 and manual made way for a Barra, and the ute went through a few different setups. It started with a G42 and automatic, but now it’s running a Gen 3 3584 and TR6060, controlled by a full Haltech system with an Elite 2500, UC-10 dash, keypad (held in by .motorsport 3d printed brackets) and wideband. Bailey’s also picked up a 3.9 diff, with a few more bits waiting to go on.
The VS ute he planned to build was a big part of the story too. Bailey was involved in a serious crash when another car hit the driver’s side at around 70 km/h, spinning him roughly 270 degrees. He was lucky to walk away. He was told that if the impact had landed on the door, he might not have survived.
Now the VY sits waiting for Bailey to speak with the engineer again. What started as a practical daily has turned into a full-blown project, with a story behind it that puts everything into perspective.
