Hi guys. so its getting silly but I bought another. Sep 1987 NA Auto Formula pack Phoenix Red (VN SS colour) Grey "Limited Edition" interior Owners manual shows it to be sold by GM Dandenong and sold to "D38" GM Dandenong. The car is tagged as a Vacationer pack (XW4) which it obviously isn't. the trim code 9999 151 is an oddity (the 9999 part.) and phoenix red to my knowledge was NOT a VL option. (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20151226_200729.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/mms_img168234328.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/mms_img-191814638.jpg.html) Now its an odd car that I could tell from the start. so lets follow the timeline. I saw the car on Gumtree. it was 1800 big ones and had a crap photo so it didnt get much attention plus it was a few days before Xmas. (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/Screenshot_2015-12-23-22-00-26.png.html) the car had been stored under a carport outside and was dirty and photographed with crap all over the seats and floor. the car has a blown head gasket and came with an extra engine but the owner was a Gemini guy who dreamed about a VL Project and gave up. story is he purchased it from Epping but couldn't tell me a lot more. He understoofd the car to be an all original formula pack. the car showed little rust and i snapped it up a tad cheaper than the asking price. I then started to follow up on some leads! at some point its been owned by a young guy. It has a cd player, different rear speakers including an MDF parcel shelf. Tapout seat covers also indicate a bogan owner. upon getting it home I photographed it extensively cleaned it then a few daysafter Xmas got stuck into pulling it down for a closer look. (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20151226_200723.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20151226_200735.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20151226_200749.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20151226_200802.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20151226_200821.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20151226_200829.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20151226_200921.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20151226_200951.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20151226_200926.jpg.html) The car has some broken bits and some wear but is generally good. paint on the bonnet is thin but elsewhere is salvagable. when we started pulling it down we found the boot is in great nick. the boot seal has a few bubbles however can be saved. rera window from the outside and underneath looks OK. the rear beaver has had a hit on the passenger side at some point. (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20151229_140818.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20151229_140851.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20151229_140851.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20151229_131252.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20151229_131256.jpg.html) I couldn't find a build sheet and have been advised by VLTWhite1 that this is the norm for late 87 melbourne build VL's I can however state what I can see. seat bolts dont appear to have been out before. rear seat is stamped 22 sep 87. v similar to the vehicle build date. bumpers show no silver under the chips, no overspray and are all GMH. with the formula pack what I can gather is it was a dealer fitted trim package. at the lower end they colour coded bumpers and added headrest inserts. infact ive recently seen one without colour coded bumpers just the sticker kit and headrests. at the higher end ive seen colour coded mirrors taillights garnish and boot garnishes. even VK Calais door handle plates colour coded. dealers were meant to be in charge of fitting and arranging the painting and most cars were taped and sprayed leaving overspray behind bumpers. If this is what i think it is it may be the only ever FACTORY made formula. its also i believe a test mule for the VN colours and i havent figured out what build dates the Limited editions wereut i know the opera house cars which had the same trim but in blue was an 88 runout model. The front window which looked OK externally was removed recently and is hammered. Plans at this stage: replace head and gasket fix rust detail and then probably stick it in dads shed to store. what a cool car! definately worth saving from the scrappers! (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20151229_173508.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20151229_141010.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20151229_213258.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20151229_141035.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20151228_183923.jpg.html) Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Mint! What a very interesting car Mitch. Love hearing and seeing cars like this. Keep us updated!

Mitch all you seem to do is pull cars totally apart and then leave them forever to collect dust lol

I'd love to find something like this! Ever since I sold my old berlina back in 2014 I've still kept an eye out but so hard to find stuff like this in Sydney. Managed to track down my old car to try and buy it back but it got written off! I always like how detailed your threads are so best of luck!

Excellent find! Considering the price of some VL parts nowadays you've got a whole decent car for the price of a few bits and pieces lol

@deano the berlina is in parts but the corona and the vn v8 are together and driving!!! the calais wagon doesnt count its just hanging out Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

front screen (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20150929_220748.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20150929_220757.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20150929_220729.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20150929_220711.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20150929_220718.jpg.html) Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

That's not good Mitch. Was that the original screen?

Oohh yuck

Craig - had the foam but dont believe it was the original screen (not a "pilkington") but ill grab a pic of the screen. (i had it removed properly aka not by me) Deano - yep grrr. its a nasty suprise for sure but hopefully i can fix most of it and cover up the repairs with the factory trim kit (eg no paint or minimal paint needed.) annoyingly it looked perfect from the outside! ---------- Post added 13-01-16 at 11:37 ---------- I'll know more when i start grinding. The local wreckers has a good section to repair however they dont allow power tools i think. maybe i can take in a battery setup.

Why remove screen then? Depends how far you wanna go with car I guess but yeah yuck surprise man! Bloody Vls, I doubt many would have original screens?

fark man well worth saving! shame the build sheets were not under the carpet! what a find! a good price too sucks about the rust Just throw a battery powered grinder in the bottom of your tool box and hopefully you will be done before they know what you have done and just play dumb!

hey guys. re the wreckers section i went in and they wanted $100 for the section which wasn't cheap but it was spot on what i expected. we took a hammer and a screwdriver and chiselled away the paint and sure enough found rust holes. i decided i wasnt gunna pay $100 for something that was rusty so i left it. I'll hav to scavenge the best bits i can from my wrecks and then fab up the rest. Deano a little crummyness was visible and I had to get rid of all of the extra glue the owners had added over the years so i thought get the bugger out do it properly. I've had a speak to a few people. apparently the car was purchased "new" (probably as a demo car) by a guy in lalor. he gave t to his son who then blew the headgasket and sold it to the gemini man Matt who I purchased it from. I have another VL head who is going to give me the adress of where he thinks the car use to live. so i'll be writing letters and sending one off with some pictures and a phone number and hopefully I can get some more information!

that's so cool!

so been having trouble finding time to get to this. aust day morning i cracked into it. to grind I had to remove the dash so thats now gone and I was then able to get a wire brush onto the rust. I did the front and was happy to find that the top and sides are A-OK however the bottom is almost non existent. I rust treated the bottom with "Rainex Rustbuster" then pondering i thought bugger if i dont pull the rear screen out now I'll never know. so out she came. there were a few bubbly bits which turned into holes once the wire brush hit them. so that was ground and treated and I spent some time scraping away the window sealer. i did this with a plastic paint scraper. next step will pe to prime and seal what I can then buy some cutting discs for the dremmel and start cutting out the front window cancer and maybe one or 2 bits from the rear. The interior and carpet is all cleaned as is EVERY single piece that I've removed so far. only issue is theres no point putting anything back in until welding has been done. I've prepped and painted a rocker cover for it aswell!

hey guys tonnes of updates. I loaded 67 photos this morning. lets be brief as I'm being distracted from work. I spoke with Craig aka VLTWhite1 who was able to get this from an ex holden employee. To recap its a GMH dandenong sold and owned car with "D38" in the owners name section of the logbook. Quote: I got a response back from the guy on the Holden Retirees page... "My rusty memory is that D38 was code for Design Dept (or Styling as it was called back then) and was used for cars with special combinations for evaluation purposes. Those cars were frequently resprayed/rebuilt before sale, especially if they had unique trim, as they could not be serviced. If it was just a paint colour, it was often easier to sell them out as used vehicles through the closed Dealer auctions." All makes perfect sense. Boom very excited to hear this as it clarifies my thoughts. I've had other facebook "experts" inform me it was most likely an exec's car made to order which didnt really ring true. so where are we? lets have a look at some snaps! This is what came off with the windscreen! (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160126_144917.jpg.html) I taped up the rust so I had a cutting guide for relatively straight edges. then instead of hitting it with a grinder which I suspected I'd bugger up with I went for the dremmel. I used tonnes of cutting discs but i didn't cut anything I didn't intend to thank F*** (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160408_193752.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160408_193744.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160409_145304.jpg.html) front screen - not much left of it!! (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160409_145311.jpg.html) My main concern was Once I started cutting I'd discover that the underside was pretty bad aswell. here we have some samples of what was removed from the car. the body colour chunk is from the rear screen the black chunks are just primer and are from the front screen. they dont show any rust so that tells me the rust was from the top down and there doesnt seem to be any from the bottom up. That means I can get away with not having to remove and prep and seal what is left underneath. (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160409_145245.jpg.html) At this point I bought a wreck and that was it for a bit. The wreck donored a near new 2/.5" exhaust, a cat which has a pipe welded through the middle (stock cat on the formula was smashed out hollow) and a set of motivator extractors. (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160326_121415.jpg.html) The car is also manual MF5 so that may make its way into the car in the future. the walky rims on the car are also phoenix red and they were sourced for i Think 200-220. one has a small bang but theyre colour correct and look nicer than the meshies. while I was doing a wreckers run i found a Limited Edition with the same trim as my car. the wreck was also a melbourne build and I was happy to see the build date! (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160410_144545.jpg.html) the trim was already gone sadly so no spares. ---------- Post added 20-04-16 at 10:06 ---------- Now is where it gets interesting. I decided that I didn't have time for this goddamn car. But i didnt sell it!! I contacted a guy named Briar Pyunbroeck (last name spelling I'm sure is wrong.) He is in S.E. melb and I've dealt with him quite a few times. He has a vl and his head has been off twenty bajillion times since I've known him. He isn't working ATM so I approached him about doing the head for me for some cash. he gets some cash in hand to help his young family and I get cheap labour. So the search was on for a Head. i took the pne in from the above wreck but it was cracked. I was time pressed so put the call-out for a head. some may remember or know Kyle Bourke. he had a blue VLCT. I can't remember his username. He offered me his VLT head which was dipped decked etc. I had it reassembled and all of the rockers set by a head joint with the VLT cam and got it all ready. (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160412_130552.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160412_130640.jpg.html) So Briar is doing the followin: remove and fit new head new head gasket extractors exhaust and cat fit new timing belt drop and change oil K&N air filter few other things aswell. heres the car off to get worked on (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160412_103037.jpg.html) exhaust system (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160412_130504.jpg.html) before (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160412_130404.jpg.html) grot (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160412_130453.jpg.html) first clean (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/IMG_2757.jpg.html) the radiator water! (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/received_10205910312309496.jpeg.html) ---------- Post added 20-04-16 at 10:15 ---------- final lot of photos for now. second clean (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/FB_IMG_1460529319640.jpg.html) (goddamn ugly dirty rusty battery tray!) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/FB_IMG_1460529325878.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/FB_IMG_1460529339796.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/FB_IMG_1460529347807.jpg.html) engine bay teaser (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/IMG_2822.jpg.html) Now. front guards are off and I've noticed something unexpected and something I havent seen before. both front guards hgave the calais sil clips held on by screws. not tacks. so lets assume (safely I believe) that the sils were not a production line item. However in saying that theyre not glued on and its consistent on both sides so its most likely not some young modder and unlikely to be a dodgy smash repair. All i can guess is that this was either done by the styling department or a dealer. (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160419_212112.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160419_214637.jpg.html) Now about the front lip. the lip has threaded lengths sticking up out of it where it is then clampedwith a combined washer / nut onto the bumper bar. I thought that the thread rusted and enlarged causing this cracking. (note the thread is missing as it snepped off) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160412_172545.jpg.html) on closer inspection inside the crack rtheres a significant amount of metal which has all delaminated and expanded causing the sever cracking! so Imagine a big T piece of metal around which the lip seems to be cast. heres the crack. inside is all full of metal chunks as seen in my hand. (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160412_172551.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160412_172557.jpg.html) My thoughts atm are that I'll slice a section of rubber out and take out all of the corroded metal. I'll replace the threaded section and I will stick it all back together with sikaflex and clamps. (i will have to trim the rubber out to allow for the extra space the sikaflex will take up but also to get all of the metal out.) so thats it for now. more photos as we progress! Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

This is a great read so far! Gotta love solving mysteries like that! Also funny to see a picture of the white VL in the carport and think "i've seen that before" and realise it's from a facebook group!

yeah man too many FB groups but forums live on as a great place for build threads. I prefer the forum sttyle however i just ebay parts now nd i browse facebook for new cars and parts and to see whats going on worldwide eg i follow some us rod builders and some euro magazine editors. then lots of clubs and photographers etc. theyve recently discovered like the earliest beetle known to exist! that sota stuff gets me going!

gees. the beauty of buildf threads - you get to see how far you have come. so in this installment - rust patched rear screen painted and primed. wheel wells cleaned walkinshaw rims fitted vehicle has returned home all work complete inc new head creating rough templates for holes (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160430_171229.jpg.html) dremel sanding around the holes (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160430_171238.jpg.html) so what am i going to patch with? at first i was going to weld. this is something I havent done a lot of before and as im trying not to paint anything I was a bit nervous about blowing holes in the thin shet metal of a vl's body. plus the holes are not something I anticipated as the body LOOKED rust free. :/ then I was buying some inlet manifold bolts at the nut and bolt shop and i found this plastic polymer reinforced fibreglass uv recting sheet stuff. (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160420_142153.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160420_142201.jpg.html) so I cut it up stuck it on and was happy with the results. I've applied pressure to the front cowl which was floppy with the rust cut out and its firm and hasn't cracked the "quickpatch" so seems all good. (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160430_171252.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160430_173207.jpg.html) super steep auto paint match. not bad! (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160430_181750.jpg.html) front screen (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160508_151630.jpg.html) next up I gave the wheel wells a clean up and fitted the walky rims I had. I used black magic wheel cleaner to clean these and it worked pretty well and hasn't negatively affected the finish of paint etc. all of this black crap came out of the 4 wheel wells (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160508_160357.jpg.html) my intent here was a spray of satin black however everything was so original underneath with suspension tags and white paint dabs intact that I've decided i'll just fish oil it all. (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160508_152905.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160508_151645.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160508_151625.jpg.html) as she sits now (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160508_160327.jpg.html) (http://s185.photobucket.com/user/SIroller/media/formula/20160508_1603470.jpg.html) next - spray front and rear screens. fit rear screen spray fish oil in front guards and underneath cowls. re-fit front guards clean engine bay refit airbox nosecone headlights (repair headlight wiring as relays have been installed) Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Mitch will windows not fit/sit flush now cause of that patch stuff? Why didn't you just fibreglass the holes or metal tech? I need one of those dremels