Hi Guys, My Name is Julian and i'm currently in the process of restoring my 1984 Vk Calais. I'll start with the specs. Make / Model: 1984 Vk Calais Colour:Asteroid Bodykit: Calais moulds? lol.. Engine Type: Was a 3.3L 202 Black motor. But now there's nothing there! Engine Mods: None Power: 0hp Exhaust: Nothing at the moment Gearbox: Nothing, but was a trimatic Diff: Small salisbury Brakes: Standard vk discs all round Suspension:Lowered on pedders springs and shocks Wheels/Tyres: Standard VK Calais 15's, Polished Interior: Cerulean velour Stereo:Not there at the moment. Other Mods: Nothing Future mods: Currently in a full bare metal respray at 2DIE4 bodyworks, getting engine bay smoothed, sprayed all round again in Asteroid. Might do the lower bars in a different tint of asteroid to make it look abit differrent. Boot is also getting resprayed, new stoneguard underneath and under the wheel arches. So here's the story.... It started life as an Asteroid calais, 323 pack. It has power windows. At some stage in its life, it has been resprayed and the lower moulds and bumpers painted in the darker grey. I got it for a grand and it was all good, running fine. Only had one muffler and it sounded grouse. I got it in november 2008 This is how it sat: After an interior scrub up Made this parcel shelf The interior again EFI 202 goodness: After a while. the 202 shat pants and blew a head gasket between cylinders 2 and 3. I took the opportunity, seeing as i had the perfect excuse, to do a 308 swap. And thats where it all began..... Motor came out Engine bay scrubbed up alright. Any normal person would stop here and do the conversion...not me! Found a bit of damage and thought "ill just paint the bay so i can get it over with"... And this is where the fun began: While i had the car on a trailer, i took the liberty of taking it to a few panel beaters. The first guy i took it too didn't look very interested. He gave me a roundabout figure of 6-7000 for a respray, engine bay and all, with me stripping it or getting it stripped. I then went to another bloke, who seemed more interested and does more old cars. I was recommended him by my brother in-laws father, who got his xm done there and was happy with the results. This guy (craig) showed me his brock (i think its a faker) and it looks beautiful, he has done some custom work in the engine bay with cut outs and reworked sheet metal to accomidate twin turbos and it looks fantastic. I want a similiar finish, just without the cutouts but with smooth strut towers, holes welded up etc. He quoted me 4-5000 with me getting the car stripped to bare metal, including the bay. I am quite happy but will still be getting more quotes when the car is stripped. I realised there is no point in getting quotes until underneath the paint can be seen. Being out of work at the time (about a month ago), i decided to strip the car myself, Which i have learnt is not very easy and is very time consuming. . Ive put some photos here, they are randoms, i have heaps more but i cant put them up because of bandwith issues so here are some random pictures of the stripping process: Drivers side, front door was pretty much fine, just a bit bent in the bottom corner. It can be fixed Bottom rear drivers quarter: Bonnet in bare metal: Passengers rear quarter in metal: Rust behind rear screen (very common in early commodores) Rust and bog in passengers rear pillar: Continued.... Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

VT Heads for the injected conversion (with sa carby manifold) Did the roof Stripping: Etched: Managed to get the doors, after much effort and swearing. Drivers side door jambs/ funny bits done! Now i have to do the passengers side....looking forward to it After all of this stuffing around, hand stripping panels i decided to take the lazy way out with the rest I got some bits bead blasted: The rodeo doing its work again The bay and front. note the finish from blasting. Very different to the finish i had doing it by hand: Under the wheel arches, glad i didnt do these by hand! Front Plenum and Scuttle: The Boot: The hanging panels have also been done since then (dec last year) but i havent really taken any photos. Basically i got the insides of the doors done, the window frames, the spare door which i bought to replace the stuffed up one and the reverse of the boot and bonnet. I would reccomend to anybody NOT to ever get the reverse of the boot or bonnet blasted and to do it by hand or choose an operator with care as the guy who did my boot took all the seam sealer off it, consequently rippling the **** through the panel and making all that work a waste of time now. I have to find another bood and strip it, and the bonnet is borderline. Both of which were really good panels before i did anything. ---------- Post added 29-04-10 at 10:25 ---------- Got the heater box/blower box etc off..have been preparing myself for ages and for no reason, because it wasnt that hard! Also pulled out the crappy firewall insulation or whatever it is. It was causing floor rust. Pulled out the WHOLE loom And found some damage, makes you glad you're doing a full resto, otherwise that would bite you in the ass down the track Engine bay final shot Roof lining removed And off to the panelbeaters! Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

The VK is now getting done by Craig at 2DIE4 Bodyworks. Heres some shots I took about 2 weeks ago Some progress shots: And here's how it sitting now, in high fill. Next step is the rust sections and engine bay. Thats all for now! Some original photos have not been recovered yet.