Ok, After months of waiting for the right car to come up, I finally found my new VL Calais. I've owned 3 Calais so far, and hopefully I want this too be my last. The 3 Calais have all been series 2 and asteroid silver in color. First 2 were manual and this one is auto. The first one was overall in pretty good condition. But I had just got my license and wrote it off. My second one was also in pretty good condition, But had major rust in the boot and front windscreen. It was then stolen and recovered. Then I got mayjor defected and rego was due and I owed alot of people money so I decided to sell that and pay off what I could. Soon after that I was walking home and saw a 1988 SL with a for sale sign on it, So I enquired and ended up buying it for $1000. It was a 1 owner with 128thou km's with 11 months rego, apart from paint it was immaculate. After spending an hour at the car was and 2 cut and polishes, the car looked great. I then sold that a month later for $2500 to pay off my remainding debt. So I then started looking for Calais', but with no money I decided just to buy a car to get me from a to b. That was a 88 SL manual. In the meantime, while I had the SL, I was looking around for a silver series 2 calais, as thats what my first 2 calais were, and I loved the silver colour. And it HAD to have a factory sunroof. 6 Months Later, I found this: (http://img132.imageshack.us/i/img0017wy.jpg/) (http://img696.imageshack.us/i/img0020jf.jpg/) So I called the guy up and after numerous conversations we agreed on a price of $5600 as he said it was very clean, had an a8 engine, no rust, body was perfect, interior was immac and all that kind of stuff. The car was located in Warrnambool, so after getting the money sorted and the rwc done, I got a mate to drive me down there. After having a look over the car, I noticed there was rust in the boot seal, the engine was not an a8, the interior was a bit dirty, the body had silicon around the bumper, the black strip on the side skirts and front and rear bumper had been roughly painted over and looked really bad, and all the badges had liquid paper over the chrome. So after thinking about it I pulled out $4800 and said if he didnt take it that I was going home. He took it. So I got it home without a problem and had more of a look over the car, its in really good condition overall, just minor things that need fixing. It had a factory tape deck in it, so I decided to put some alpine 4 inch in the dash and pioneer 3 way 6 inches in the factory holes in the parcel shelf. And then I put a iPod headunit in. I then changed the locks over to Solex and took off the mudflaps and nudgebar. The towbar support is still there, but that will be coming off too. My plans are to: convert it to manual (already have a rebuilt gearbox that hasnt seen the road) fix up the body where it needs it sunroof needs a new seal get a nice exhaust and extractors into it probably change the interior to series 2 blue as I prefer that colour combo I may lower it slightly aswel put my VLHRT plates on it viper transponder alarm (the best one) thats probably it for now, until I decide whether it will be turbo or converted to an efi 5 litre. this is what it currently looks like (http://img811.imageshack.us/i/img0005oc.jpg/) (http://img219.imageshack.us/i/img0003fe.jpg/) (http://img541.imageshack.us/i/img0031xg.jpg/) Let me know what you think Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Looks good Saam bro keep mudflaps on, standard plates, black rear Venetian, polished Calais wheels, lowered and it will be a nice cruiser

na I didnt like the mudflaps, its got quater venetians at the moment, and I might get rear, and Im not a fan of calais rims. are you going c4c?

Fair enuf man well if u wanna get rid of the plates that r on it now I'll take em. And na no c4c I don't think.. When is it?

yea you can have them mate, and this sunday.

looks classy mate, good negotiating too. keep the calais rims incase you they grow on you later mabey?

well, im not sure, for now ill probably sell them to get some money as I want to put a viper alarm in it, but im not sure, see how I go. I really dont think ill ever like them

Love the sunroof... Looks exactly like mine.. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Haven't done much in the past month or so with the car, just little things. I put a genuine HDT stamped grill on, and my manual pedal box and clutch master. Bought a new Exedy HD Clutch kit for $200 brand new so was happy with that. Took off the rear electronic injection and holden badge off of the boot strip and put a new calais badge on the rear garnish as the old owner had put white out over them to make them look "better". horrible job he did. Car will be going in on tuesday for the manual conversion. Here's some photos. (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/148/img0080uu.jpg/) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/827/img0082cv.jpg/) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/268/img0078jb.jpg/) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/811/img0071qq.jpg/) Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

love it mate!! Looking at yours wants me to put my VLCT back to original height. (springs) Put more pics of it mate can't get enough!

thanks mate. here's some more for you. (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/36/img0096uf.jpg/) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/62/img0098zs.jpg/) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/32/img0099igs.jpg/) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/801/img0103tx.jpg/) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/198/img0105sr.jpg/) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/233/img0106gk.jpg/) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/840/img0107xy.jpg/) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/193/img0104ob.jpg/) Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

just got some ve sv6's off a mate with 70-80% tread for $300, so gonna get them machined and put on. Anyone know where I can get them machined? I'm from thomo, so don't wanna go too far. Should have the car back by Friday with the manual conversion done Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Ah man keep the calais wheels, I think I just felt my heart break a bit. VE SV6 rims are so yuck Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

They're not great, but I'm over the Calais rims, so theyre going on until I get vx gts rims ---------- Post added 15-06-11 at 20:29 ---------- I can always take them off and resell them if they look that bad lol Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Got the car back from the mechanics today with the manual conversion done, I'm so happy . I missed driving a 5 speed calais. Just a question, I gave my mechanic a manual yoke for the conversion, and he stuck it on the auto tailshaft, he said he was abit worried because the yoke doesn't sit all the way in the spline, like there's about an inch or so of the silver part of the yoke visible. Is this normal? Or should I go get a manual tailshaft. I was sure that manual and auto tailshafts are the same, just the yokes are different. Anyone confirm this? Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Loving the car and good luck with future plans you have for it. Should have left the Holden and electric injection badges on.

thanks mate. nah they were covered in liquid paper, looked sh!t as. if anything ill just buy some more that are in good nick.

Loving the pics mate! Such a fine example, leave it on the calais wheels will look so much better, ENVY the sunroof.....lol Keep up the good work bud.

thanks, yea i decided to leave it on calais rims. until i get some vx gts' anyway.

Not much happening with the car at the moment, going well, until last week when a motorcycle clipped the front guard, not much damage, but noticeable to me. Just picked up some cv8s or ssz rims, what ever they are called, so they are going on this weekend. Just a question, will 245/40/18 fit on the back fine? Stock height. And 235/40 on the front will be ok?