Just bought my 3rd Commodore a 1987 VL Calais Walkinshaw replica. When I got it she already had a body kit on her and was painted in Xirilic candy apple red. While everything else was factory rb30 eng, box, suspension etc, it was even sporting some ugly arse 17" rims Future mods: lowered, 19" rims, 304 V8 Conversion. ---------- Post added 04-07-13 at 21:30 ---------- First thing I wanted to fix was a bubble in the paint between the rear window and the boot. Once we got the boot off it was decided to remove the rear window to really get at it. Once we did that though we spotted the dredded rear window cancer issue (both sides) Passenger Rear Driver Rear A complete rear panel was sourced and fitted, primered back and painted. Passenger rear Driver rear ---------- Post added 04-07-13 at 21:37 ---------- A complete rear panel was sourced and fitted, primered back and painted. Passenger rear Driver rear Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Next on the cards was the rims. When I bought my Walkinshaw it was runnign on some pretty average (read ugly) 17s. About 4 weeks after buying her I also bought a donor VL commodore for its 304 engine, box, subframe, wiring, headers, exhaust etc. It come with 18" Advanti Volts and was already on lowered Cobra springs. Needless to say even though these werent perfect they were better than the 17s so on they went Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Troy - I dont linke doing things by halves if i dont have to ... Got the new rear panel for $250 so $600 to fit and paint = better than leaking in the rain While I was working in the boot area I decided that the factory Calais rear garnish was to sad to repair. It just so happened that the VL donor had a near new one so I set to and swapped the badges over That lead to another issue. The Calais white striped tail lights jsut looked worng with a black garnish. So I went and found some 3mm pinstripe tape and masked every part of the light before giving it a dust with some primer and a spray with some Dulux gloss black. The end result was about 6hrs of my time but worth it Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

About 2 weeks after the 18" Advanti Volts were fitted I was talking to a mate who works at the local Mag N Turbo (he was selling some old 17" toyota rims for me). He showed me a new mag they had just got in. A 19" Advanti S920. I told him to get another 3 and a few days later they were on my pride and joy. While still on the factory springs with the old 18s in the boot and back seat it looked just the right height .... hmmm .... might be time for the donor vl to donate its springs. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

With the 19" Advanti S920 Rims fitted I couldnt leave the Walkinshaw sitting to high for too long so I ripped into it and changed the suspension between the donor VL and the Walkinshaw. The donor VL already had Cobra CHRL-19 rear springs and Munroe GT Gas shocks in the rear so they were first to change over while adding an adjustable panhard rod. This alone dropped the rear of the Walkinshaw 40mm. Next was the fronts which I decided to just do a strut change on seen as I plan on upgrading the front brakes at a later stage. The donor VL already had Cobra CHFL-15L springs which when swaped into the front of the Walkinshaw dropped it about 35mm. Seen as this is a V8 spring I expect the front will drop about 8-10mm once I change the Holden 304 V8 engine in. With a guard-ground height of 630mm (front) and a 620 (rear) I am pretty happy at this stage Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

So yeah Thats been my last 1-2 months of work as well as a few other small things but I am now finally ready to start on the 304 V8 Conversion in the following steps. 1) Remove the 6cyl from the Walkinshaw, complete with box and tailshaft etc. 2) Do the same thing to the 304, box, tailshaft etc from the donor VL. 3) Both engines will go up the side of the house leaving 2x Vls in the garage during which stage I will swap the subframes over. 4) Swap the looms around including ecu's etc. 5) Reinstall the Walkinshaws old RB30 engine into the vl donor and sell it off. 6) Do a quick strip down of the 304 before it goes in the hole. Basic things like frost/welsh plugs, spark plugs, leads, igniter/coil, front and rear crank seals, oil filter etc, and a quick gearbox service. 6a) I would like to do a Kelford 170c/CraneH278 cam as well as rollers, twin row timing, and one of the 70mm mace throttle bodies but funds may be getting tighter by that stage so it may have to wait a while before I do. 7) Reinstall the 304 v8 into the Walkinshaw and cruise. Here is a pic of the my baby as at 01/07/2013 Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Not one to leave things alone today I attacked the stereo. The electric aerial wasnt working when I bought my Walkinshaw. When I pulled the aerial out of the inner passenger guard I kind of figured out why ... The plastic housing was help together with electrical tape. I looked around for a replacement and was quoted all sorts of prices until I found a universal one at the local Supercheap for $45 Once it was all plugged in the aerial would only go part way up. Out come the control box to check it before I moved on to the switch in the instrument cluster. As you can see it had fallen apart (which would also explain why the demist wasnt working). Regardless I re-assembled the switch and with a bit of hot glue to hold the clips in place it worked perfect. The aerial now raises and lowers with the touch of a button While I was at it I bought some new 4" Fusion speakers for the dash and swapped in the rear 6" fusion speakers and Pioneer stereo from the donor VL Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Nice work with the rust. Get some better pics up of the car.

Mus - there are more posts but they havent been approved yet Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

yay - posts approved ... more to come as I start the V8 transplant in 2 weeks time.

hey mate thats a great project. i really rate the walkies and this looks like it will be a nice replica. I'm not super keen on the rims but thats personal taste. the ride height is good! I'd like to see it on som colour coded walky rims and whats up with the front bar lower lip is that a walky one? also get those jack point covers and I'd spray the silver all candy red. also interior is pimp! looking good otherwise and good luck with the engine swap! why not go injected?

SIRoller - might look to get the caps later but I quite like the silver inserts, they are very close in colour to the silver of the rims and helps to break up all the red. -------------- Coupe more things progressed today. Firstly my personalised plate arrived and I started to remove the engine. front panel and bumper gone to save any scratches, battery gone, afm gone, and a few wires removed. Now for the radiator, exhaust and a/c pump ---------- Post added 08-07-13 at 20:02 ---------- p.s SIRoller - I am going injected - I have a 304 from a VN sitting in the vl up the side of the garage at the moment. shouldnt take long as I have 2 weeks off at the end of this week Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

ah very nice and what dash are you using? i've heard runmours only dash clusters from the walkies work with injected 304's in the vl otherwise people seem to use a lot of vn / autometer dash clusters.

the vl come with a VN V8 SS cluster which I have already replaced with a factory one ready for when the RB30 goes into it. I dont think I will use it though as if I can figure out how to wire a 3sge altezza dash into my old kp61 toyota starlet it shouldnt be to hard to get the VL dash to work. From my understanding I need a longer speedo cable from the VN and will need to change the tacho or get it recalibrated to suit the v8. time will see. Q

well god luck im sure its been done before.

Quote: Originally Posted by SIroller [View Post] ah very nice and what dash are you using? i've heard runmours only dash clusters from the walkies work with injected 304's in the vl otherwise people seem to use a lot of vn / autometer dash clusters. My calais 6cycl dash works fine in my inj 355 conversion

Love that red trim!

so do I. the donor has a offwhite/tan colour and I started swapping it over but decided I wanted to stay with the red as with the tinted windows it makes it harder to see inside ... + its retro and everyone wants grey ...

I was only thinking the other day, 'I wonder if NZ got the red trim?' Lord knows it's rare enough over here...

yeah the red is very retro. its sort of the last of an era in red trims. its gorgeous but doesn't age well but hey, clean it up as best you can. it'll be ppreciated in years to come and is now by a lot of people.