I have a Calais passenger side kick panel if you're currently looking for one - probably a long shot since you have a million VL spare parts already lol

ha cheers fleas. I've got a set I stripped, put through the wahing machine and re-glued a while back. there aren't many parts for this car I need but don't have! i mean I've even traced down a ghilbi hdt hornpad haha. all I really neeed atm is a grey calais hornpad which hasn't had the lion wear off and a calais tape deck. that or a smashd one with the 2 bottons on the far edt where the lion emblem is still intact

Might have a mint tape deck for you, if I do we'll just swap for the ghibli centre? haha Cars looking good man, when are you putting the new wheels on? The turbo hubcaps and momo's looked spot on, will be hard to beat.

the non hdt one yes. the hdt one no! i still have the turbo hubbies, 2 sets of momo statuses, simmons v5's and vn v8 hubbies haha. i can't brig myself to sell them all.

its coming together! rx7 adaptor kit turned up thanks Matt aka VHR32 also - and the rims. got em acid bathed and powdercoated after the last guy butchered them (tekcoat bayswater) they look better with the red now better than my rubbish photoshop and this! I had been trawling for a set for a while and i put up an add on gumtree. I had a few offers but all too high a price and not what i wanted (all either incomplete, guttered or polished. I'd have prefered a decent set of silver ones.) anyway guy offers me these over the phone and i buggered around waiting for a bettr set to turn up then he rang u tonight knocked 30% off of the price and said he would bring them to my hose and he could do with the cash asap! Couldn't say no.

Poor cvnt was desperate for money.. His loss, your gain!

yeah i felt bad for him but i couldn't say no and i recon with a clean up if i hate em i can resell at $700 (polish and tyre black maybe a bit more with some cheap 2nd hand tyres) anyway had the week off so far its been hectic and i think i've bitten off more than i can chew so i'm focusing on the front end. I've stripped it, buzzed back all of the painted bits to bare metal and also pressure washed all of the sound deadening. anywhere it flaked off i buzzed with a wire brush on my drill as far back as i could just to get a good clean surface. this was how she looked.... then i taped everything up and hit the wax and grease remover... HARD! it was a big job but it was ready for some etch primer. after the etch primer I sprayed some repco underbody deadener over anywhere exposed to potential gravel and loose stones. The rest was hit with a few coats of killrust gloss black. I've done the same with the rear of the front 1/4 panels or "wings " as some call them. I'm thinking i need some marinello red to just touch up where it will be visible in panel gap... I'll throw on a few coats and gloss it. so back down to repco tomorrow! ---------- Post added 03-07-13 at 17:48 ---------- brake conversion is coming along well. all i need now is the booster and m/c i've purchased to arrive then i'll get them rebuilt and weld up a bracket to install it all. i've got the spare vl bracket, hoppers stoppers adaptors already here vt booster and m/c in the mail and the rx7 calipers are awaiting assembly. the adaptors have arrived and the braided lines will come last custom made by a mate at a brake store.

just went to put n a can of marinello red touch up paint to get a near corret colour in all of the panel gaps.... bad news is i'm back to step one. sooo F***ing stressed right now check this out. I've never seen anything like it in my life and I've done a hell of a lot of painting in my time. ---------- Post added 05-07-13 at 13:35 ----------

What's going on there?

well turns out its the result of acrylic paint on top of enamel. it ate it right down to metal. so i just learned the hard way don't do it! I thought a spray can was a spray can. didn't think there was much to it. interestingly enamel on acrylic is ok its just acrylic on enamel that does this. so its been sanded back again and this time I've purchased some enamel red but it wont be as close a match.

Yeah I figured it ate the paint but it looks like its wrinkle red because of the left over deadener! Good thing you posted it up, now we all know! LOL.. Good work Mitch.

its no deadener its just cracked and started peeling the paint! the deadener is all black it wasnt painted red. the only deadener is where it will get stone chips. i tried to leave it all a smooth gloss finish everywhere else. ---------- Post added 08-07-13 at 17:31 ---------- these! - purchased and stripped down july 2011 finally fitted! mazda series 4/5 4 pots fitted with the assistance of Matt AKA VHR32's adaptor kits. bolted up very easily and an absolute no brainer. the hard part was figuring out how the F*** this setup stuff worked... like this -

Rx7 calipers $200 rebuild kit $50 calipers adaptors $280 braided lines custom made rx7 one ed Vl other $130 vt master cyl and booster $40 hoppers stoppers vt line adaptors $50 au falcon resoviour $6 Vl brake booster bracket to hack up $6 and about $5 of nuts and washers to space it Out.

Shes back together with the brakes bled and all the lines in place running sweetly. i pulled the bumpers off because i was told my bumpers would be ready by the end of the weekend. 2 weeks later.... still waiting. slowly slowly. I started to test out some tyres on the new rims today. im happy with how they look. the tyres on there are 225 50 16's however theres slight scrub on the tread. I'm going to try rolling the rears and fitting 215 55 16's. for the record the front is fine. and they look PHAT! ---------- Post added 29-07-13 at 21:39 ---------- drove around the shopping centre carpark going around corners and over seed bumps. figured its a pretty good test and thats with a full fuel tank as well. fronts sit flush and as you can see the 2 pack bars will look good when they all arrive rear with 225's Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Definitely looks phat

slow progress but... all of my 2 pack bumpers are fitted and lined up. cars had its first tub since autumn paintless dent removal spent 2 hours on the car and knocked out 6 dents for me a few weekends back new aerial fitted (broke the original one) when the paintless dent removal guy came i had to remove doortrims and cargo area trims so seeing how dirty the guts of the doors were i decidided to tidy them up. I've also fitted the calai carpeted cargo trim and some calais cargo area capet. now these came with an a9y interior i purchased a while back. I can't speak to their authenticity but they seem legit and the rest of the interior was clean and original by all indications. I was concerned about doing this myself as i always scrw it up but the pinter i used suggested using sockets as weight to hold the mould in place. he also gave me the hint that if i use double sided taoe with a red backing its most likely 3m tape so better quality. seems to have worked a treat! the door inners - before - after - i know cleaning insides of doors is a bit silly but like anything once seen it cannot be unseen. I've also had a few issues like door handles not working well and light coloured dirt n round the corners of the lock and handles on the inside. soing t this way with a hose and a soapy sponge eliminates the dirt, reduces rust potential and allows me to re-kink the door handle rods so they open like new. I'm thinking of spraying some lanolin or fishoil into the doors. any cmments or ideas on this? also theres a guy on eay offloading tonnes of NOS taillight sets. my pair arrived today finally - the old vs the new. my old simmons don't even fit over the new brakes as the hb mounting surface is flat with the spokes. I'm so glad i bought BBS's instead of rebarrelling the simmons. pics of interior coming soon. hopefully i'll be able to fit up a few other small things like the new tape deck, carpet and steering wheel before spring rolls around Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Your attention to detail is amazing. Awesome wagon man

looking good my friend. i need to get a move on for spring/summer. when you start taking off a lot off things from in and around the car, it takes yonks to finish them. as i have done myself and its taken so long to decide what you have to do again before you put things back on :P i think i need to manage a list and do them one by one like you.

more photos! this is the rod between the door handle and the latch. you can see the kink i put in it it opens with a very light pull upwards now. prior to this my passengers always thought the car door was locked because you had to lift the handle all the way then give it a good pull to open the door. oh the things we learn to live with in old cars eh? this is the door with the plastic trim refitted. you can't really see the cavity wax but i got a 500g can from a local auto paint specialty store for $22 and it hapilly did the lower sections of all 4 doors. I didn't do the whole thing just where water and dirt pool. I was stoked at how well they came up! it's good to know that behind the doortrims the doors have been washed and sealed and everything has been refitted properly. when i fitted the winders back on i lined them all up the same ! these are the cargo trims that came with my a9y interior. (also the carpet) I used darker grey plugs sourced from vx/y/z stationwagons wit the anthracite colour interior (the black not the light grey the early vt's came in.) again not sure if they are genuine but i recon they are! Before - (when i purchased the car) now - ---------- Post added 18-08-13 at 22:28 ---------- also wow i've had about 200 views since my last post!

very jelous of the carpeted cards. My wagon only has the SL spec ones that are falling apart. might have to look into getting some dye for the spare carpet i have at home and fiberglass/carpet my trims