Hi guys. I'll firstly start this thread with some personal information about myself. My names Luke but I am known by my friends as Swado. I am currently studying radiography at university and work as a laborer for a civil construction company. I have been interested in cars for my whole life, and consider them a huge passion in my life. I have always had a soft spot for vl's, with one being my first car. I have been on the calais turbo forums for a few years, usually reading everyday however have never bothered to sign up. I have always enjoyed reading various build threads and have drawn inspiration from varying threads I have recently just purchased a 1987 vl Berlina which I am planning to restore and make subtle modifications too. I was originally after a genuine turbo, but after around 2 years of searching, non particularly fitted my criteria, so I finally pulled the trigger on this. My first vl executive (please excuse centrecaps ) (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/vllewis.jpg.html) About the car. Car is a factory s1 mulberry brown Berlina built in may 1987. Was purchased from a man that had little idea about the car, however the previous owner before him maintained the car extensively. Car is in original condition, no modifications undertaken and is in great condition. Car has some slight rust under front windscreen, however will be removed shortly Plans for the Car Install genuine 15x7 chasers (purchased - currently waiting to be painted) VLT Hubcaps Venetians Turbo drivetrain conversion(A8, MX7/R33 Box) Respray (distant future) Overhaul suspension Components (unsure on specs atm) I have an idea in my head to make this car original, as I know an original unmodified vl is becoming rarer and rarer. However have always wanted a mulberry berlina turbo, so may convert this to turbo using a genuine turbo drivetrain Pictures tell a thousand words so here you go... (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4085-1.jpg.html) (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4082-1.jpg.html) (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4087-1.jpg.html) (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4079-1.jpg.html) (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4077-1.jpg.html) (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4100-1.jpg.html) (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4098-1.jpg.html) Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Wow looks in really good nic mate! Seats look like they hardly been sat in lol! Goodluck with the progress

Man thats nice!! Score of the century.... love mulberry and the interior looks to be mint. Dont chop it up just keep it nice and neat!

Looks like a great base to start with mate. Love mulberry as well, such a sort after color. Turbo hubcaps and and turbo drivetrain and will be a mint cruiser

Cleeeean. Love mulberry, goodluck.

Quote: Originally Posted by FLY-03L [View Post] Man thats nice!! Score of the century.... love mulberry and the interior looks to be mint. Dont chop it up just keep it nice and neat! Hey Sweeny, no intention of chopping this. Hopefully will turn out mint, progress will be slow since I'm going to Europe middle of the year. Quote: Originally Posted by priceysVL [View Post] Looks like a great base to start with mate. Love mulberry as well, such a sort after color. Turbo hubcaps and and turbo drivetrain and will be a mint cruiser This is the look I'm going for, will be a while till I turbo it though, funds are tight until I get back from overseas in the middle of the year. Quote: Originally Posted by MUS [View Post] Cleeeean. Love mulberry, goodluck. Yeah its definitely my favourite factory colour, love that it's a rare colour. Quote: Originally Posted by SilverCal [View Post] Wow looks in really good nic mate! Seats look like they hardly been sat in lol! Goodluck with the progress Yeah the interior has been really well looked after, will get more pics this weekend after I detail it. Can anyone definitively tell me the production numbers of a mulberry berlina? I have heard that it was only 200, however unsure of how true this is.

Wow that's clean!

this is a stunner. i wouldn't be concerned about decreasing value by turboing it. just as long as you leave the body and interior untouched and or returnable to stock and you do the turbo conversion with quality parts you will only add value. good luck and welcome along to the forum.

Sweet man! Awesome find, mulberry is such a cool VL Colour Looking forward to see what you can do with her

Quote: Originally Posted by dougall83 [View Post] Wow that's clean! Thanks, still needs some work but I am motivated to make this extremely clean! Quote: Originally Posted by SIroller [View Post] this is a stunner. i wouldn't be concerned about decreasing value by turboing it. just as long as you leave the body and interior untouched and or returnable to stock and you do the turbo conversion with quality parts you will only add value. good luck and welcome along to the forum. Thanks for the welcome, I�m not worried about the resale value of the car, just feel bad to change this from exact OG spec. However I feel this deserves to be a turbo cruiser. Quote: Originally Posted by BigM22 [View Post] Sweet man! Awesome find, mulberry is such a cool VL Colour Looking forward to see what you can do with her Thanks for the reply, have been working on it hard this long weekend. Update: Had quite a productive long weekend, spending it cleaning out the shed so I can fit the vl (safe and sound ) Also spent around 12 Hours on finally detailing the vl and installing the new Interceptors. The detailing process took so long because it was a Five step process Step 1 - Masking the Car I masked up the trims of the vl and other areas, I absolutely hate seeing cars that have been detailed but still have evidence of polish still left on the cars (yes I am pedantic ) I have found that masking up areas that you don't want polish to go on makes the entire process much easier (although it takes time) (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4111.jpg.html) Step 2 - Clay Bar I clay barred the whole car, this is an extremely important step in the detailing process, as it removes any contaminants from the paintwork. It is important to have a clean surface to work with (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4113.jpg.html) Note: the paint looked cleaned, however as you can see the paint was full of contaminants. Step 3 - Cut I used Autoglym paint restorer to cut the paint back (it only needed a slight cut to remove slight swirls) Step 4 - Polish Used Autoglym deep polish (yes I do value Autoglym as a fantastic detailing company) Step 5 - Applying Wax Used mothers carnubra wax to finally finish the process. Waxing a car is important as it seals the paint and all the previous hard work you have done (it also adds a deep shine to the paint and also fills it slight scratches and blemishes etc) Results (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4113.jpg.html) (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4123.jpg.html) (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4125.jpg.html) Paint reflection is unbelievable considering its original paint (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4126.jpg.html) Absolutely love how the wheels look on the car, fill out the guards alot more and just make the car much more aesthetically pleasing. (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4127.jpg.html) Hope you guys enjoy the little things I will be doing on this car, and cheers for all the comments! PS. Hope you guys all had a great Australia Day, and enjoyed yourself by smashing beers and surrounding yourself with family and friends ! Straya (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4128.jpg.html) Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

looking great. SCRAP THOSE INTERCEPTOR TRIMS. PAINT THEM BLACK AND INSTALL HUBBIES. i use a similar series of polishes. I've found some of the claybars can get a bit dirty over time so i use a liquid clay which washes off. same result but theres no room for error in continuing to clay with dirty clay. the autoglym is great stuff and i although i use all autoglym i really like the wet look carbunara wax by meguairs. i recon its the most user friendly wax on the market, great results even with a 10m hand polish. i use it at shows etc. good hubbies would be VL turo or the VN v8. vn ones are a tad cheaper atm but at about 200 a set thats not super expensive compared to chrome trims and caps. but its a lot clssier.

Quote: Originally Posted by SIroller [View Post] looking great. SCRAP THOSE INTERCEPTOR TRIMS. PAINT THEM BLACK AND INSTALL HUBBIES. i use a similar series of polishes. I've found some of the claybars can get a bit dirty over time so i use a liquid clay which washes off. same result but theres no room for error in continuing to clay with dirty clay. the autoglym is great stuff and i although i use all autoglym i really like the wet look carbunara wax by meguairs. i recon its the most user friendly wax on the market, great results even with a 10m hand polish. i use it at shows etc. good hubbies would be VL turo or the VN v8. vn ones are a tad cheaper atm but at about 200 a set thats not super expensive compared to chrome trims and caps. but its a lot clssier. Personally I like how the trims finish off the car, I am still on the hunt for VLT hubcaps but am waiting for some to come up at a more reasonable price. Not a fan of black interceptors, only car I think suits them is PROVLT and I feel as they don't match the direction I am trying to take my car in. Have never tried a liquid clay, I just throw out the clay bar as it begins to get dirty (if you ever drop one of the ground you must through it away straight away). Hopefully pick up some Venetians soon too, hopefully at a reasonable price aswell. (Damn parts have gone up in price $$$ ) Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Wow, tidy as even before you detailed it! With a factory looking turbo set up this would be awesome

Top work mate, Yeah og turbo setup would b cool As for wheels interceptors r ok but og I guess hubbies ,or a set of mint fr simmons haha As long as ur happy ftw

So today I had the opportunity to do some work on the car due to work being rained out. Shoutout to my good friend Brent for offering a helping hand! I serviced the car with the following: 1. oil and filter change 2. Air filter 3. Fuel filter 4. Spark plugs. 5. Replaced oil breather hose Everything was going fine, until I replaced the spark plugs The car was misfiring terribly and sounded like it wasn't Running on all cylinders. So I took all the plugs out, and checked the gap. (Gapped to 0.9mm) as specified and seemed to run worse. Two things I noticed that I feel could cause it. 1. The leads feel **** and don't seem to grip into the plug properly 2. The thread on number 4 cylinder doesn't feel as deep as the others Which may cause the spark plug not to go all the way in. (anyone else found this?) Going to try new leads soon and perhaps replace with new spark plugs. Simple stuff gets annoying haha. P.S cheers for comments guys Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

pedantic is right, the before and after pic of the grass shows it:P (nice grass haha) love this colour, love the car, can believe how clean this thing is, will be keeping a keen eye on this thread

Quote: Originally Posted by bLuj3t [View Post] pedantic is right, the before and after pic of the grass shows it:P (nice grass haha) love this colour, love the car, can believe how clean this thing is, will be keeping a keen eye on this thread Thanks, its good to see people appreciate a clean and original vl still. Little Update: Fixed why the car was missing this weekend, was caused by a dead sparkplug or dodgy lead. Gave the Car a wash as I was keen to get it out for a cruise (Dat Bead) (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4185.jpg.html) Went for a cruise on sunday since the weather was so good! Drove into Newcastle foreshore and met up with a mate that has a very cool & original series 200. Snapped a few pics from sunday so enjoy! (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4198.jpg.html) (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4200.jpg.html) Still on the hunt for some parts, can't seem to find anything Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Update Have recently began to start accumulating all the parts I have been after, slowly ticking off the list off parts that I want to install on this car. First Purchase was a genuine Walkinshaw Momo Boss kit (same colour as my interior), will be installing a HDT wheel in the near future. Also purchased a full set of venetians, will be respraying these satin Black (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4279.jpg.html) My final Purchase was perhaps the most exciting I purchased a Set of VLT hubbies from a Calais turbo member, they have already been resprayed MX grey which was helpful, however still needed some work. This is how I bought them (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4219.jpg.html) As you can see they didn't have the red writing which I was after so I did some DIY painting (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4250.jpg.html) Used this paint which can be purchased from any good Hobby Shop. To ensure I didn't get any paint on the recently resprayed MX grey I chose to tape up the face of the hubcap (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4248.jpg.html) This was a very fiddly and time consuming job which became frustrating (This photo sums up my feelings at the time) (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4249.jpg.html) In addition to painting the HOLDEN text red, I needed to fix areas of the metal ring of the hubcaps which were bent and no longer in contact with the face of the hubcap I used clamps and a ready mixed Epoxy glue to glue the two surfaces together. It Seemed to work really well (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4281.jpg.html) Heres how the wheels turned out (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4252.jpg.html) (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4253.jpg.html) (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4272.jpg.html) Pictures of them on the car (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4282.jpg.html) (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4299.jpg.html) (http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/swado/media/IMG_4289.jpg.html) Personally am really enjoying how the car is turning out, Hope you guys are too Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Looking schmick! Nice work with the hubbies Lol it looks like you're giving the bird to the people in the photo frame in the background!

This is so mint