Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Hey guy's, today I looked at a MQ/GQ ute that I guy wants to sell, deal is it's a 88 model, it looks like an MQ, no flared gaurds, round headlights, but it has a 4.2 diesel, 5 speed, the shifter for the transfer case is on the left of the gearbox shifter and the rear diff is bloody huge and the centre is in the centre, not to one side, the interior is grey GQ, so the question is, what is it??, is it the first of the GQ's with MQ panels, or the last of the MQ's with GQ interior and mechanicals??, the owner know nothing about them.
Cheers
Hoppy

when the released the utes around that time, they had a mix of shit going on, its as if they had excess MQ bodies, and no interiors so they threw it all together,

the ID plates will tell you what it is.

Cheers, so would that mean that the chassis could be a GQ, wider than the MQ??, I was hoping to buy it for parts for my MQ wagon, i may have to check more to see if the parts are interchangable

ummmm.............not sure about chassis, depends what parts your after, the 4.2 diesel and 5 speed could be adapted to you purpose with a bit of work dependind on transfer

If the cabs OK, you'll get good money for that as plenty of people wanting to convert wagon to ute.

I thought the Chassis from ute to wagon was different???

Who cares, MQ/GQ are so similar it's not funny.

You've already said it has the good bits (engine/5sp/diffs), there isnt much you are missing, and if you are that padantic, you can swap the flared guards over and it will look like a normal GQ ute.

Got any pics?

foad
I hear ya, but I dont want the ute, I just want the bits for my wagon, So does anyone know if the chassis for a ute is the same as a WAgon???

I am thinking they might not be cause of the tray - get under there with a torch and have a look, compare it to yours in the same sections.

Screwy did put ute body on SWB chassis, so it might be very similar.

What do you actually want to ? Ute body on wagon chassis, or steal the chassis for your wagon body ?

I actually want the mechanicals for the Wagon, but if the chassis are the same, except for the tray mounts, then I could maybe drop the wagon body on the ute chassis, that is if the ute chassis is actually an MQ not GQ, I wont know till I roll under it.

So you have an MQ wagon and you want the GQ ute mechanicals ?

I see now - best bet is to just get under there and look.

I have a feeling the tray mounts are different to your wagon chassis.

Can put ute tray on a swb/wagon chassis, but not the reverse without some modification.

from my understanding they MQ and GQ chassis were different but not sure about the early ute body GQ's.

The ute and the wagon are the same length.

There is not much you can't do if you have fabrication skills but if you are looking at bolt over you may be in trouble.....

HTH

The early GQ ute's were more or less an MQ with a slight face lift - a lot of it is the same / bolt on.

So it wouldn't surprise me if this was one of them - but I still doubt you could put wagon body onto ute chassis without some modification/hassle.

Does it have a flat back on the cabin or does the window bubble out a bit??

If it is flat it is interchangable with MQ/MK but if bubble back cabin the mounts are different and so is the chassis.

But as I said there is nothing a handy fabicator wouldn't be able to overcome.

If a daily driver though you would have to go to the expense of engineers etc.

At the end of the day sell the MQ and go and buy a cheap GQ as it will be a whole lot better package for the outlay.

yea the body swap idea was thought up last night while on this forum, when i first saw the ute yesterday it looked to be an MQ, so I thought it could be good for parts, then up close it appeared to GQ in MQ clothes,, as i said, further checking today will let me know what it is

From what I can remember (the farm had four in-a-row before the first GU):

GQ leaf-spring utes always had a different, heavier chassis to the MQ and GQ wagons/coil-cab utes, along with a larger rear diff (with drum brakes), which allowed them to get a higher load rating on the rear axle.

The early leaf-sprung GQs (up to early '90s, can't recall exact year) had the narrow MQ-style guards, and the cabin had the bump only from tray height upwards. With the change to the flared guards nothing changed mechanically, except to use steelies with more offset to compensate for the extra width. At the same time (I think) they also extended the cabin "bump" down to the bottom of the cabin, giving more rearwards seat travel and room behind the seat.

Overall, the leaf-sprung GQ ute was quite a different vehicle to the wagons/coil-utes, designed for heavy load carrying. The GU leaf-spring, in comparison, is a Nissan Australia designed mongrel with the old GQ rear diff and leaves attached to a standard coil spring chassis, giving a narrower rear than front track and necessitating the use of different offset wheels front and rear if you want to fit decent rubber.

Like I said, all from memory so feel free to correct me.

Well after looking at it today, It has the bump in the window from the tray up, so it would have the wider chassis I wouuld suspect, I gave it a measure but have not compared it to the MQ yet!, The guy who owns it does'nt know what amount he wants to sell it for, he says"make an offer" all I gotta do is figure out a price, he told me today that it is no longer registered and that the rings may need "doing", (very hard man to get info from), It has about 220 k's on it.
any ideas!.
HOPPY

so how do you add pics?

AHH that how!

definatly won't be a straight swap.

Offer the guy anything between $2000 and $5000 as long as there is not a lot of rust in the cab......

A GQ 4.2 with 200,000 is only just run in and at most may need the injectors and pump done.

If he wants something around or lower than $2000 you have a bargain and should not take any time to think about it just buy it.....

You'd get $1000 for the bare cab alone......

Cheers, i will see what he goes for