The restoration of one of Street Machine‘s classic giveaway cars, the VUFORU Holden VU SS ute, continues apace, with Jason Waye and his Tuff Mounts/Muscle Garage crew putting in the hard yards to get this thing back up to scratch in time for Meguiar’s MotorEx!

With Jason being the perfectionist he is, the decision was taken to repaint the car. “It caught us out a little bit; when we purchased the car, it looked really sharp in all the photos, so we thought we’d be able to get away with some blends and touch-ups,” he says.

“Unfortunately, when it arrived, the car was really poor, in all seriousness – the paint was atrocious. The easiest and right thing to do was to repaint it.”

The ute went off to Ryan and Scott at Revive Paint & Panel, just down the road from Tuff Mounts in Adelaide, to start the painting process, with help from Axalta Paint and PPG, both of which chipped in to help with the paint supplies.

Troy and Tara from Nightmare Designs were on hand to help with the airbrush and stencil work required to replicate VUFORU’s original flame work, which was designed by Ryan Carter and laid down by Matt Egan and Earl Webber back in the day. You can read more about that paintwork in our 2003 story below.

The paint process also gave Jason the opportunity for some therapy, righting some of the wrongs that had befallen the ute since it changed hands. The vented Monaro bonnet that had been swapped on at some point was binned, along with the bonnet gauges.

Inside, Jason took great pleasure in removing the monster tacho, and the MOMO three-spoke wheel was replaced by a retrimmed original Holden steering wheel like the ute had originally. The B&M shifter was also swapped out for a more appropriate selector, so she’s now looking just as sharp on the inside as the outside!

Next, Jason and his crew will fit a new gearbox crossmember and engine mounts from the Tuff Mounts range, and the crunch is on to get this thing assembled and ready for debut at Meguiar’s MotorEx in Melbourne, 2-3 May.