wow i haven't updated for a while!
on a thursday night baysy mini meet my car was running a bit rough. it spat fire and blew the rear muffler open and then stopped. i tinkered and tinkered but the problem got progressively worse.
needing an exhaust and not having the car running at all, i got quotes from jamie @ JD customs in mornington and after gathering the money went ahead and got thge wagon trucked down to mornington.
2 weeks later the car had a new cas and a pretty much hand fab'd exhaust 3" from the dump back with a single muffler and a high flow cat. i went to pick up the car thursday nioght and didn't even get 500m down the street before the intermittent problem returned and the car conked. after a phone call jamie came and flat towed me back to his workshop (well actually i got it running, drove most of the way, pushed and rolled for a bit and then got towed.)
friday jamie did the afm / sparks / coil / and the power transister which is the plug next to the afm. apparently it was throweing codes left right and centre when he hooked it up to the ecu diagnostics.
so anyway more than happy with jamies work and i am off to shepparton tonight in the wagon to put some more highway km on the engine. catch ron!
p.s. i am now broke and further progress will be pretty minor for a whiule eg rear suspension / under car rubbers / detail
well i bought an autometer silver faced boost gauge tonight. it spent minimal time on the last owners car and came with an autometer cup and bracket in matt black which suits the car's grey / black dash to a tee. i will have to get it hooked up by an auto elec soon... or maybe i will have a crack, i do have all of those service manuals so why not?
also got my eye on 2 hsv wheels on ebay. an early imscher 4 spoke and a vn sv3800 wheel.
won this steering wheel -
now need a boss kit and someone to hook up the horn... maybe the boost gauge is easy but i've tried with a horn before and ended up butchering it.
lol done. theres another wheel i am lookin at but will need a retrim i will pm the link tell me what you think (do not talk me into it b/c you want my wheel lol)
also thinking i will do a tech article write up for the boost gauge when i install it. i searched and the info is pretty vague and pictures terrible. i am going to write up something nice and simple and easy to replicate.
wheel rocked up today. has some slight wear on the top face and one scratch on the top of the centrepad. otherwise all is good. it's momo stamped leather and wheel and dated 1994. a vl momo boss kit is proving a little harder to find but again i have my eye on one .
it has to be a momo kit b/c that is the only legal one (collapsable) also it is what was fitted in the era and thats where i want this car to head, era correct with a few tweaks.
Some original photos have not been recovered yet.
appparently they are different tim? however i'd have no idea why seeing as though the front end rack and susp setup is the same as the vl.....
just came home with 4 x ve silver ceptors + 4 tyres. 2 new 205s and 2 used 225s all diff tread patterns. undecided what to do with them??
sold the 16" ceptors after all sorts of hassles.
bought -
link - (http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=200346915598)
well i picked up the status's today... believe it or not they are chrome! theyt are so filthy and neglected that they look like the above. the grit on the inside of the rims was rougher than my sandpaper! anyway i have spent the day rubbing them back with 360 / 600 / 1200 wet and dry. inside and outside.
hey philby,
as you can tell from reading through it will all be returnable and io already have a stash of parts people are asking to buy but i am keeping for future resto.
today i put the big fella up on stands and pulled out the rear shocks / springs / panhard and all associated parts. took about 3 hours including tidying up the shed and sussing out why the soundsystem in the vy wasn't working. also it took me a while to figure outhow to get to the top strut bolts.
everything unbolted really easy which stunned me as i am pretty sure the previous owner didn't touch anything under there. suspension rubbers look pretty good but certainly aged. they haven't completely perished yet though.
s/l springs go in tommorow assuming i can get some rubbers for the springs. (hello repco?) and then the next step will be the front suspension (have a set lined up to buy) and the boost gauge / some new 4" speakers tucked into the dash.
catch people!
sl's, shockers and panhard are in!
tonight i also hooked up the boost gauge and while i was at it decided to have a crack at the instrument cluster lighting. so i pulled that apart thinking that was how you get to the bulbs but then learned you can access them from behind (duh)
so while the cluster was apart i stripped it down and cleaned it all up as it had accumulated a lot of dust backing up the history of this car as a farmers car.
with the cluster all cleaned up and the gauge in i decided i couldn't put it back together with the dash supports being brown from dust! so i gave it a quick swoosh and one thing led to another. the dash is now in a million bits half out of the car and i will give it all a thorough clean aswell as the supports and a quick sus of the wiring loom before it all goes back in.
do it once do it right starts to become a big job!!!! (haven't broken anything yet thank god.)
as the dash comes apart the mystery deepens. it is evident that the passenger side speaker and the dash cluster have been removed before due to a few missing / loose screws... and the suspension rubers in the rear while not nolathane... aren't to bad either.
strange a car that has had some maintenance ended up in such a poor state of affairs.
new pictures
restored rims -
half restored rims -
rims on front -
VZ chasers, metal cap + trim (while i await getting the second set of momo's finished)
cheers to shaun / 88tbo for the michelin sports. 225 / 45 / r17 brand new for $250!
