INTRODUCTION I’ve been a member of this site for a while now (since 08/04/04) around 4 years and thought I would finally post a write up and some pics of my V8 VL Calais. I’ve been holding off as I have always wanted to do just one more thing to the car before I was happy with it. Well, I can see that I am always going to have one more thing to do – so I have decided to just post this up and then update it as things progress. I bought the car as a N/A Calais with Group A front bar and 16” mags. The car had all the rust removed and a new VT type rubber on the front windscreen to replace those crappy VL plastic things. It had been re-painted in a multi metallic maroon/burgundy colour and was generally very tidy. SUMMARY OF CAR Here is a summary of the car as at 05/04/08 – for a more detail on the things I have done to the car please continue reading down the page for a chronological list of changes. Model: VL Holden Commodore Calais V8 Year: 1987 Colour: Multi Metallic Maroon/Burgundy Engine: Mildly worked 308 – Edlebrock intake, Holley 570 Street Avenger Carb, C.O.M.E Racing cam, engine balance, ported and polished heads and extractors. Exhaust: 3” cat back mandrel bent exhaust with a single ‘superflow’ muffler Gearbox: Stage one shift-kitted TH400 Diff: Standard 3L single spinner 3.45 (soon to be replaced hopefully) Suspension: Front: Dobi superlow coils and Bilstein performance shocks – Rear: Dobi superlow coils and Bilstein Performance Shocks Wheels: VY SS 18” – with matching spare Bodykit: VL Group A front bumper and rear spoiler– VK Director sideskirts and VK Group 3 rear bumper. Interior: Custom bucket seats with number plate stitched into the top of them – rear seat, door cards, parcel tray, console lid, and glove box cover all upholstered to match and a Sportline 330ml steering wheel. Stereo: CD Player, 6’s mounted behind VR speaker pods on front doors, 6x9’s on parcel tray, single 12” sub in boot – 6x9’s run off Sony 222 amp, sub run off lightning audio amp. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF CHANGES Here is a list of things I have done to the car over the years I have owned it – starting from when I purchased the car through until when I wrote this * Lowered the car – took the springs off my old VL Royale * Fitted a new exhaust 2 �” mandrel bent exhaust with dual mufflers * Crashed and buggered the driver’s side front guard – so I fixed that and while I was at it fitted some VK Director side skirts. * My girl friend bought me the VL2DY4 number plates for my 21st Birthday * Fitted some silver VK door Handles my mate polished up for me. * Got some tints put on, as my last car had them and I was used to having them. * Totaled the front bar – which was riveted and bogged and was generally a bloody rough job – so I replaced this with a new item * Got a Group A grille to replace the standard Calais item * Fitted some bonnet struts (wagon tailgate struts and VR ball joint brackets) * Got some VY 18” mags and resurfaced them to top condition. * Purchased some new VZ SS calipers and discs. * Tracked down some adaptor hubs, braided brake hose, and a 1” master cylinder. Then completed the brake upgrade – 296mm rotors and twin pot calipers. * Added some more sounds – 2 amps, 6x9’s in the parcel tray, sub in the boot and 6’s in the front doors – mounted behind VR speaker pods * My friend helped me acquire some custom made bucket seats for the front with the number plate stitched into the tops of them – also got the rear seat re-upholstered in the same material * Got the door cards, rear seat, parcel tray, glove box and console lid re-covered in the same material * Purchased another VL Calais that had been converted to a carbied 308, with minor mods – edelbrock intake, holley 600, extractors etc. This car was running a shift-kitted TH400 trans * The next BIG step was to swap everything that needed to be swapped; engine, trans, trans shifters, trans cooler, drive shafts, cross members, power steering rack, steering columns, battery trays, radiators, brake discs, fuel pumps etc etc. Then the really fun job – swapping all the wiring looms & computers – this took a long time but thankfully as the V8 was originally a RB30 then I was able to use some of the existing loom that was left in the car. I just had to adapt some looms and change some plugs here and there – either way, great fun – not * I then wired up some more accurate gauges for water temp, oil pressure and voltage. * A while later I proceeded to completely recondition the engine as there was some blow by and the engine was just running rough in general. The whole engine was reco’d from bottom to top and in the process added a C.O.M.E Racing cam, balanced the engine, ported and polished the heads and added some bigger and better extractors. * Added a Sportline 330ml steering wheel – A huge improvement over the standard VL wheel! * Lowered the car a little more – Dobi coils and pedders shorterned shocks for the rear and Lovell coils and Monroe shocks for the front. * Added a cat back (well where the cat would be, don’t need cats in NZ) 3” mandrel bent exhaust running single ‘superflow’ muffler. Click here to listen * I haven’t had the car on the dyno yet as at the point of writing this the engine was still been run in and I have been too busy with my new job. * Purchased and installed new Dobi Superlow coils for front and rear, some new Noltec strut tops/mounts and a Nolathane strut brace. * Some son-of-a-bitch ran into my car at the gas station and buggered off before anyone at the gas station could get their plate. Turns out I parked out of view of the cameras also. Not Farken amused!!! * Ended up paying to fix the rear of the car myself – insurance excess was $1250 so I thought I would be just as well off paying for it out of my own pocket. * When I got it all fixed it was a good time to replace the standard rear bumper with something to match the rest of the kit. The obvious choice – VK Group 3 Rear bumper. * Finally I got my act together and got one of Mike’s (Niche) fuse rails sent over. Great quality replacement and a great price even after shipping to NZ. Installation was easy just time consuming (I wanted to make sure I did it all well the first time). All in all a great addition to the cars electrical system. * After having issues with power supply, especially when running numerous things at once; stereo, heater, electric fan, headlights etc. So I purchased a 100amp bling bling chrome alternator. Installed it and cleaned up all the wiring – also got a bigger gauge wire to run from battery to alternator. * The secondaries on the carby started to flood every few days – not ideal filling up your intake with petrol and spilling it all over the hot engine. I pulled the carb off and cleaned it and reset the float levels – this worked for a while but it was an old Holley 600cfm vacuum secondary carb and it really needed replacing. I had a few choices but after tracking down a brand new Holley 570cfm Street Avenger Carb for a bl00dy good price I went ahead and purchased it. I got it for cheaper than most places were asking for a replacement Holley 600cfm vac sec, so naturally I was well pleased. * Tuned up the new carb – replaced the main jets with one size up as it was leaning out slightly under light amounts of acceleration – before the secondaries kicked in. * Finally got around to replacing all my suspension – well most of it. Sabre 30mm heavy duty sway bar, Bilstein Performance shocks all round, new Nolathane control arms and upper and lower trailing arms, Nolathane on car adjustable panhard rod – bling bling chrome edition and replaced all other bushes with Nolathane. – Please refer this link for more details on my suspension upgrade: http://www.calaisturbo.com.au/showth...17#post1787417 (http://www.calaisturbo.com.au/showthread.php?p=1787417#post1787417) I think that basically brings us up to date – please view the pictures and tell me what you think – it’s been a long time and a for the most part on a tight budget but here is my pride and joy to the stage it is in now, I hope you all like! PICTURES My old Royale and my Newly purchased Calais: My Calais as it was when I purchased it: After Lowering it: After the little incident with the tree: The new [VK Director] Sideskirts: The new mags [VY SS 18's] and new [VL Group A] Grille: Replacement Group A Front Bumper after the last one broke: The V8 Calais I purchased to swap engines with my RB30: Some nice clean photos of my car as it was about a year ago: The result of the Petrol Station altercation: All fixed after the crash - my new VK Group 3 rear bumper: My new carb [Holley 570cfm Street Avenger]: All of my new suspension components [For more details and photos of my suspension upgrade please visit this link: http://www.calaisturbo.com.au/showth...17#post1787417 (http://www.calaisturbo.com.au/showthread.php?p=1787417#post1787417)] A photo from a few days ago: I hope you all enjoyed this little journey, it took me a long time to write this thread! FUTURE MODS * New diff – LSD, not sure what ratio I will go for yet * Other than that I am very pleased with her Feel free to post comments. Thanks for viewing, Jason

Well done jason enjoyed reading that you've done way more than what I thought you had done to her and it looks mint now we need to see more of it on some of the NZ cruises !!

Quote: Originally Posted by S1KVL Well done jason enjoyed reading that you've done way more than what I thought you had done to her and it looks mint now we need to see more of it on some of the NZ cruises !! Haha... glad to see someone enjoyed the read - it took a lot of effort to write it all up. I have been waiting for a while for it to be posted and finally it has been. Although i noticed a few errors on the page and now i can't edit them... The two i noticed so far are corrected below Under SUMMARY OF CAR it should say "Here is a summary of the car as at 05/04/06" - not 01/12/06. And down the bottom of the CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF CHANGES it should say "new Nolathane control arms and upper and lower trailing arms" - not upper and lower control arms And as for the cruises... I now need to get her fixed again I was all keen to go on the cruise that is planned for this weekend... however as you know... things haven't gone to plan. Oh well next time i guess. Cheers, J Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Yeah I guess these things happen more to some than others !! What brand are the front seats ?

Nice write up, you surely have done some work to that car! That Calais you purchased looks mint! If you still have the rims on that one I reckon you should put them on yours

jason if you dont mind me asking, what did you part with for the v8 vl?

Quote: Originally Posted by S1KVL Yeah I guess these things happen more to some than others !! What brand are the front seats ? Umm... I think they are Racepro Quote: Originally Posted by NZ EVLHSV Nice write up, you surely have done some work to that car! That Calais you purchased looks mint! If you still have the rims on that one I reckon you should put them on yours Yeah over the years i have done a lot to it... it's just crushing to see it get damaged, but sh!t happens i guess. It was quite tidy overall but the interior wasn't that tidy and the body had a few dents and some faded paint. I was gonna put those rims on but they were only 17's and the offset was all wrong. Even the 16's my car came with (same wheel different size) scrapped like a b!tch, even when no one was in the back sometimes. Quote: Originally Posted by hsvhel jason if you dont mind me asking, what did you part with for the v8 vl? Hmmm... i can't really remember i think i paid $5,500 for it. I got most of my money back when i sold it with my 6 in it though. Thanks for the comments guys. Later, J

nice build up mate .. can i ask what wheels are on the donner car .. ? and what size ( i like em ) Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Fantastic write up mate & looks immaculate as well. Congrats Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Quote: Originally Posted by MUZAVL nice build up mate .. can i ask what wheels are on the donner car .. ? and what size ( i like em ) Thanks The mags are ROH ZS 17s. I don't know if they still make them. Beware that the offset isn't very suitable for early Commodores. You can get a shallower dish which may work better but they look no where near as good!! Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

great write up man and very nice progress wih the car, top effort

Quote: Originally Posted by '87Calais Thanks The mags are ROH ZS 17s. I don't know if they still make them. Beware that the offset isn't very suitable for early Commodores. You can get a shallower dish which may work better but they look no where near as good!! nice nice i am starting to like roh wheels or is the old school toch coming back to me .. i am guessing there normal size wheels on them 17/40/235 btw looks like it was prity low too .. tho.. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

First of all - Here is the latest update, minor accident on slippery wet road: http://www.calaisturbo.com.au/showthread.php?t=138543 Quote: Originally Posted by leb vlt great write up man and very nice progress wih the car, top effort Thanks... It has been a little project of mine - slowly absorbing my money. Just always one more thing that needs doing Check out the link above and you'll see what the next parahraph is all about - I haven't driven it for 3 weeks come this Saturday. Waiting for insurance and suspension/panel beaters to sort their sh!t out and fix her up. It's so annoying not having a car and even more frustrating not having my car. Quote: Originally Posted by MUZAVL nice nice i am starting to like roh wheels or is the old school toch coming back to me .. i am guessing there normal size wheels on them 17/40/235 btw looks like it was prity low too .. tho.. I think from memory the tyres were 17/40/225 and yeah it was very low. It was running modified superlows springs all round, it was actually very uncomfortable and quite a pain in the ass that low - But it looked farken awesome! Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

lol nice plates ! Some original photos have not been recovered yet.