The interior is not faded at all and mint as except for the glovebox lid which has a scratch and the center consle lid which has a chunk out of it for some reason. Both easily replacable. ------ Any who, I got bored after tea last night so decided to remove the bonnet with my son before finishing off 90% of the engine stuff. Now onlyy have the mounts themselves, the exhaust and the 2 fuel lines (which I forgot to depressurise but whats soem spilt fuel between friends). Got a busy next 2 days including picking up a hoist and the wifes birthday, but should be able to get into it again saturday night to finish off the last engien bits so that come monday I can work on the gearbox/tailshaft and get her out. Then I need to do it all again with the donor vl. Happy happy joy joy Q

this is nice as. great combo of colour, wheels and ride height. i've always been a fan of the blacked out garnish and tail lights with the calais moulds. i also love the red trim

Thanks guys for the good words ... Last night I picked up my engine hoist and on monday the 15th I hope to get the old RB30 from the engine bay. So yeah , over the next 2 weeks I hope to remove the rb30 from my walky, the 304 from the vl donor, swap the kframes and looms, refit the rb30 in the vl donor and hock that off. Then use the money to tidy up / upgrade the 304. At this stage it will come down to the compression test on the 304. If the 304 compression test comes out fine across the board I will just change the oil seals, welsh plugs, water pump, plugs and leads etc and refit with a better coil/dizzy and some new oil etc etc. If the 304 compression is all over the show I will whip the heads off and give them a plain while replacing the head gasket and valve seals, check the bores and replace rings and maybe some highcomp pistons if the bores need reboring, install a twin row timing chain and kelford 170C cam (216 @ 0.49 & 112 LSA). Along with the required springs and lifters I will grab a mace 70mm throttle and of cource some sort of memcal/reprogram. I have broken the later to the wife and are kind of hoping that the compression is all over the show but guess we will see early next week so watch this space. Q.

super tidy VL! loving the amount of work being done and mostly all at home! looks the business and will surely have the go to match, plus a nice build thread to go with it

Thanks ZOO222, thats how I like to do stuff. all myself and out sourcing when I cant do it. Today I finally got a chance to remove the old RB30 Holden engine that had sat in the engine bay for the last 25 years. Unfortunatly while pivoting the hosit out I knocked the oil pan from the trans over but other than that it went hassel free Then in come the donor VL and prep started for the removal of that. First on the books was a compression test and the resuts were pretty good. First I forgot to open the throttle and I got results of about 128-130 across the board. Then I retested and ended up with 145 across the board with 2 up at 150 and one down at 140/142 but those were obtained while the engine was cold as there was no water in the radiator Tomorrow I start on removing that , yay. ---------- Post added 16-07-13 at 21:16 ---------- Got bored. Nothing on TV tonight so back out into the garage. Managed to remove the bonet the intake pipe and filter box the fan and shroud the radiator and pipes the oil cooler pipes the battery the alternator and wiring the coil pack the accelerator cable makes for a good start tomorrow anyways. Q Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Well tomorrow is the day for the 8 to come out of the donor. After fixing a blocked drain at home and taking the dog for a run I managed to get everything detached apart from the engine mounts and the drivers header. Rather than do the trans oil out the tail shaft like normal I decided i would go down the remove the oil pan route. never again. wreckon there was more oil on the ground than the spilage caused when removing the RB30 2 days ago. Did notice that there is about 2mm clearance between the drivers header and the steering rack lines so I guess the donor doesnt have a VN rack after all. Is there an easy way to tell the difference by looking or measuring only. Anyway, so amped right now but needs must and I have to come inside to cook dinner for the famdamily. ---------- Post added 18-07-13 at 16:30 ---------- As I mentioned earlier this is the clearance between the drivers header and the power steering rack. Will need to look into the VN setup before install in the Walkinshaw me thinks. Today, removal of the 304 V8 was more than I expected. I had to removed the brake booster on the drivers side, the starter from the passengers side and both headers to enable the engine to finally wiggle free. now for a quick tidy up before reinstalling. Random pick of the headers. I noted that the oxy sensor has been plugged. Do the VN 304s not need an oxy sensor? It was good having the donor shell also as it has also shown me where the knock to the inner drive tunnel to clear the trans. Mental note to self ... must get VS booster and VT master for after install. Q Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

New Zealand didn't have unleaded fuel when the first of the VN's landed in NZ. Hence no O2 sensor. A VN V8 power steering rack will help with your exhaust clearance issues.

Been slack again ... Just got the turbo 700 back from the shop - he said it looks like new inside so new gaskets and seals and filter and we are ready to reattach (when i get around to sorting the engine). Have gotten the banana manifold off and the rocker rails & lifter rods out (all labeled so they can go back in the same place). Started on the head removal only to find some stupid 5/8 hex key was needed for 2 bolts. What a dumb idea that is. Just went and got that so I should be able to get the head off tomorrow (buzy at work). Have every thing apart from the front cover off as well and lined up on the bench to go to the blasters for a tidy up. Just got my quote for gasket sets (top and bottom) twin row timing, water pump, dizzy and high power ignition. Got him to add rings, bearings and oil pump just incase. progress ... slow but steady

Picture time - 30th July After dismantling the donor car she got taken to the metal man for recycling. 31st July I started stripping down the engine even though the compression was fine. There was heaps of oil build up around the front cover and sump so I decided a quick strip down and tidy up was required. Once I put the engine in I dont want to be pulling it out again. Apart from the intake bolts being a bit rough everything was pretty tidy. Bores look good as do the pistons and there was no sludge in the oil pump or sump. Regarless I sent the heads off for a skim to ensure trueness and installing valve seals I like nice clean things that are shiny so all the following items were sent off to Kevin at Vapour Blast NZ. Great guy, great work, highly recommended. 1st August 2013 Still need to give the K frame a waterblast before install to get it clean but its ready with all the other parts down the side of the house. As for power steering I now have my new VN powersteer rack. The top rack is the VL Rack. You can see where the extractors have actualy been rubbing on the top pipe. The bottom rack is from a VN Commodore. The only difference is the pipes come out the side not the back which will aid in clearance with the exhaust 3rd August 2013 Time to purchase some new bits, New valve grind and lower engine set, thermostat, water pump, coil, dizzy, frost plugs, and oil filter should do to start with Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Some good progress there mate! Hopefully I'll be moving along that quickly...in a few months!

Excellent work mate, good to see a v8 in a VL as well

Another couple of days getting into it. Just a couple of comparison pics from the vapourblasting (more on my website). Banana manifold Front timing cover I also decided to repaint the metal parts gloss black to offset all the silver now present. With all my parts back the engine re assembly / pre assembly has begun. More to come. Q Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

slept in, felt like sheit today and decided that a little contrast was needed up top. I decided that the bananas needed to be gloss glack so I set to primering and painting them. Tomorrows list of things to do ... (in no specific order) Dizzy reinstalled Intake re-fitted Injectors and rails reinstalled Waterpump front cover torqued up Rockers torqued down Valve body covers reinstalled Throttle body installed Engine covers installed photo time Q ---------- Post added 13-08-13 at 12:53 ---------- Hopefully get my inlet back today with the broken bolt drilled out. While I was waiting I took the dog for a run and come home and assembled everything else that I could, dizzy, valve bodies, oil pump, alternator brackets, front pullys so now it looks like this. Q Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Forgot to send the throttle body off for vapour blasting (was thinking of getting a 70mm Mace one) but must get this beast going to keep the wife happy first. As of Thursday the 15th I considered the engine rebuilt/reassembled .. not to shabby if you dont mind me saying so. Yesterday I dropped the RB30 K frame and p/steer box and primered and gave the v8 Kframe a quick black spray too. Should have a little time tomorrow morning to get the v8 k frame to the hole with the VN power steering rack. getting closer Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

I sorted out my power steering issues today. Here is what I come up with. As you can see on the first pic below the VL power steering rack (left) has a round head and the VN power steering rack (right) has a square head. The VN rack also sits higher so you cant join the rack to the intermediate with any sort of custom holder as they cross over about 10mm. Heaps of people said get a VN intermediate and use the top universal section on the vl lower section. While this looks like it would work I found an easier way. Simply unbolt the head section and piping (pictured above) and swap them over (pictured below). This will give you your original VL rack with a head section that has pipe coming out the back to allow clearance for any type of extractor you want to use No other mods and you don’t even need to remove the rack or upset your alignment. Q Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

good to see you decided to part out the donor instead of re-assemble and sell. much easier and more proffitable aswell. and better yet you get a shed full of spare nuts and bolts and jazz you will one day need!

kept some bolts and bits all teh relays and fuze bits but didnt keep a lot else. Wont be any more profitable really bu will take a little longer to sell the bits every few weeks. ------------- Figured out today that the above post wont work as the VN rack runs a really funny looking pipe fitting and its not compatable with the vl steering rack fitting. That was when I took it all to PG Hydraulics and asked them what was going on. In about 2 minutes I was shown what a VL/VN/VP-VS power steering rack looks like and what I bought. It appears the VN rack i bought was actually a VP-VS rack. The difference being the input shaft on the VN is round and the vp-vs square. So i took it back to where I got it and asked for the right rack (which they didnt have) so now im on the hunt for a new rack. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

did they give you the dosh back and take the rack? everything takes time and it pays to do it properly first time round. i just watched a video of a guy replacing a front 1/4 on a capri and he didn't even touch up or pressure wash the grit and surface rust below the panel. shoddy work will cost the owner of that car a lot long term.

yeah got my money back and actually found a vn rack for $10 buck cheaper .. score. While I am waiting for the new power steering rack to arrive I decided to spruce up the engine bay ... The factory red wasnt close enough to the Xirillic red on the outside so that means im going gloss black baby. should look sweet once the engine is in. While I was at it i removed the battery tray (going in the boot) as I plan to install teh cruise control system in its place. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Why didnt you just get it color matched?