23-10-04, 19:05 GMT+10#1
Hey all i got this 1988 BT1 n/a when i was 16, it was my 2nd car as i had a VN for about 6 months before that (yeh i still got the vn). I purchased the car for $2800 for a school project (Industrial technology: Automotive) and it had a few ratty little bits that i had to fix up. Work started in november 2003 and over the last 11 or 12 months she has had a fair bit splashed out on her to complete the requirements of the course and to suit my tastes a bit better.
When i got the car it had a cracked rear bar and a cracked tail light so i bought some aftermarket calais lights cos i reckon they look better and they were like $20 more than exec ones, they cost me $150 and i fitted them as soon as i got home. Bear in mind this was the first modification i had ever performed to a car, however small but DAM IT FELT GOOD!
I also bought a new rear bumper (2 out of the 3 parts it makes up) I think this cost me about $200, i fitted them myself also using the old metal mounts from the existing car. At this stage i did not get the bar painted, it wasnt as noticable as you'd think because the car at this stage had gunmetal grey bumpers all around.
With this done, i was now 17 but still did not have my license (i was a lazy ***), i purchased a full redback 2 1/2 inch system with a carline hi flo cat and wildcat extractors for $1050 all up (including the 3 1/2 inch tip welded on the end for $70). I then spent the next 2 weeks fitting these, the process was fun as i did it at school and my teacher used to own and exhaust shop and he had worked on heaps of vl's so he knew all the tricks (drilling brittle studs outta the head etc). At this stage i also bought a $140 k&n panel filter (i ****en hate pod filters, i reckon they are rice decoration and a good panel is just as good and without the wank).
Now the car sounded a little better (personally i thought the old rusted out system was heaps louder and cooler haha) so i purchased a Autotechnica sports wheel and SAAS boss kit for $265 and fitted this myself as well, with some sports pedals.
Now i moved onto the stereo, i chucked out the old audiosound tape pos and through in a nice and pricey sony m630 flip down dual faced cd unit. Then at this stage i just put some pionner 240watt 6x9's in the back and some Pioneer 150watt 4"'s in the front. The system sounded ok but lacked bass as i put the 6x9s in rear spacers to avoid getting defected for cutting the metal below the parcel shelf. To fix this i went out and got an MTX RT404 4 channel amp and ran a ****ty old boss sub i had off it for a while until i got the motherload - an MTX Thunder8500 12 inch comp sub which sounded much much better (i did the whole installation myself). With the stero now as far as i wanted it, i began rubbing back all of the bumpers all around in preperation for a respray colour coded like the rest of the car, this was fcking hard work and next time i rekcon i would just pay someone to do it but i managed to get the respray for nearly 1/2 the original quote at $750. While the bumpers were being painted i managed to get my p's and it felt very good to cruise out of the spray shop in it.
Shorty after this the box threw in the towl and was gonna need an $1800 recondition so i just got a 2nd hand part in with a warrenty for $440 which works fine .
I then got some new 215's on it for $114 each (30 off each or something). Since then iv spent heaps more on servicing etc, to pass rego it needed 6 new injectors and i replaced the spark plugs and leads as well (i got a mechanic to do the injectors), as well as new drive belts etc, all up with pink slip and advanced ignition timing the service cost me $1200
The benifit of this car is that for me it was my baby, it has never done a burnout in my hands at all as i still have the VN ****box for that and i respect vl's to much to smoke up its diff and box.
Im now at the stage where i have taken the car as far as i want to, i dont really believe in rims etc on an n/a, i just dont think it's right so im trying to sell it for $4500 with 12 months rego. All up i iv spent over $9500 on it in the last 12 months (including purchase price and rego). Which is pretty scary lol.
Next car il be looking for will either be a low km's (read, less than 120,000kms) vlt, berlina or ct or maybe a VT 5 lite.
*Currently for Sale
http://www.calaisturbo.com.au/showthread.php?t=27858
Some original photos have not been recovered yet.
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