How to install VZ Flutes, molded into standard gaurds...

[Zeussy]

Hey Guys and Girls,

Here is a DIY guide to install VZ Flutes into pretty much any commodore, I have recently done them on my VY, but the same principles still apply whatever model yours happens to be.

This may not be the 'Best' or 'Correct' method, but it is the method I have used to install them onto my car, I am yet to see if it will hold up to the test of time - I feel it should though. Feel free to stray from the steps, if you feel the need - or can see a better way to do something.


Well, pretty much remove the guard from your car, if more info is needed on this step, I can/will do a run down on how to remove and replace a front gaurd?

Once the Guards off, mark out where you want to fit your new flute, you can use the standard placement, or where ever you want them!


Photo curtosey of danja!! LEGEND!! lol,


Take your time, to get the positioning correct, by tape measure/ruler, and more importantly by eye!!

I originally was going to make it so the flute would actually clip in - like a standard guard, but didnt make the metal tabs long enough, they would probly need to be two inches long, or so.
After doing the first one, I think it would be a good idea to keep the tabs how I have them marked, or there abouts, just as a bit of reinforcement for the flute to sit into. But I will go into this more later on.

If you're happy with where its marked grab a grinder, with a thin cut off wheel, the ultra thin ones, and "carefully" cut out whats not ment to be there. The grinder will have a tendency to want to grab, and make a huge cut striaght through your gaurd, lol!

BEFORE cutting exactly where the line is marked, go around the line and mark it inwards about 5mm, all the way around. This will allow you to bend the edges back inwards; for two reasons - to give some strength back to the guard, and (once the flute fits in there nicely) allow you to 'gently' bend the 5mm edge back towards the flute - outwards, towards the outside of the gaurd.




^^^ After that, you should be left with something like this. After leaving the 5mm or so extra metal around the edge, grab a pair of bull-nose pliers/combination pliers, and bend back that extra metal, as neatly as possibly. Bend it back to abot a 90* angle/perpendicular.




^^^ Basically it should look a little like this, just with more 'big' tabs around it. I originally was trying a different way to install them, but after doing this one, found an easier/better way. So leave all the 'Tabs' marked in the first second picture.



^^^ Check that the Flute sits nicely in the guard, at this point you should check the alignment with the chrome strip/indicator.
The Flute needs to be recessed into the guard, towards the rear of the Flute, about 4-5mm, and at the front/wheel arch side of the Flute, around 3-4mm. But clip the chrome strip in, and figure out how deeply it needs to be recessed so that the chrome strip sits nicely on the gaurd.



^^^ Once you have found out how deep it needs to be recessed, tape over the whole flute - front side, you dont want fibre glass resin getting all over this bit! and mask the back up, a strip through the middle to stop the resin filling the holes that the chrome bit clips into.

AND make sure you rough up the surface of the flute and the gaurd, I used the grinder - because I cut off all the original mounting points. Just run the grinder over the whole inside of the flute, and use some really rough sand paper, i had 40 grit, so thats what I used, lol, on the inside of the gaurd - to help the fibre glass stick to it.

Once its all roughed up, and ready to go - installed with the correct offset into the guard, grab a small punch/bar and gently tap (the 5mm edge, and the big tabs, that you folded back) back onto the flute - gently if you do it too hard it will push the flute too far forward into the guard. This helps give the flute some support to hold it in place when fibre glassing.



^^^ Cut the fibre glass mattng to size, either the shredded glass type, or the woven matting, either is good. About 3 inches wide, and long enough to go down the sides of the flutes - long enough to hang over the edges by about 2-3inches.
Mix up about 100mLs of fibre glass resin, to which 1mL of hardener will need to be mixed in, that should be enough to do one layer, I was fairly generous with the resin, lol. I did 3 layers of fibre glass. I'm not too sure how much you need? but it was starting to fill over the flute altogether!




After the fibre glassing is complete, un mask the flute - if some resin got onto the masking tape on the back - just trim it back with a stanley knife, then remove the tape.

At this point it should be starting to take shape, I chose to fill the front with just resin - there might be a little lne where the guard meets the flute. But I got it all over the flute, and its a pain in the A** to sand off, so maybe leave that part out, or wipe it off with your finger while its wet. lol.

Once thats all dry, you should be getting close to smoothing it in with some bog/body filler.
Its kind of tricky to explain, but you need to fill the 'gap' that recessing the flute has left. start by filling the inside of the flute - the soft curves that meet into the gaurd, you will need to build these up a bit. It should only take 2-3 passes with the bog to get it close. Once its looking ok, the fill the flat part of the guard and block flat - you can either use a machine, or by hand with a small block of wood. I ended up doing it by hand, Just because of the curves in the flute. But now the guard is back on my car I will use the machine to make sure its all flat as.



After you have it looking like a guard again, mask it up and spray some primer over it - BUT DON'T spray all the way to the edge of your masking up (like I did!!) - leave like 2-3 inches to allow you to 'fade' the primer out, so you dont have a big line of primer. Because you will have to block sand it flat, and there is usually ripples/imperfections left over, and can only be seen by painting the gaurd. TIPS FROM SEAN!!! Cheers mate!



Check that its all sweet, and thats the job done, ready for a quick block back, then paint!!



I will get a few more photos, of a couple of the steps, where I havent got any and try to explain anything a little better. I will probly end up re-wording some of this, because its probly full of incorrect grammar/spelling etc... but its late!!

[danja]

Nice work! Only two things from the spelling police: "gaurd" = "guard", and "danga" = "danja"

Looking forward to see how she looks when the paint is all body coloured!

[DUK13Y]

Great write up mate. Add one more to the correction list: crome = chrome

Good work!

[Zeussy]

LOL guys thats not too bad then, was expecting to have to do a lot more!

Im keen as to see it coloured in aswell, spoke to my mate today, and he was saying it shouldnt be a problem - to get his cousin to paint it. Soo, hopefully soon!!

[FAT.36L]

Thanks For Them Mesurments No I Dont HAve To Look Like A Dick With A Tape Up Next To Some1's Car..lol

[Zeussy]

Haha, thats what I was hoping to avoid doing too! walking into holden with tape measure in hand..

Thats danja's (with a 'J' lol) handy work there.. helped me out a bit too!

[Weekend Warrior]

**** me dead mate your handy with the tools!! Love the out come and i especially love how you blended in the edges of the flute so it all seems one piece, that was the only thing i didn't like about the genuine ones, how they had a massive outline of the flute in the guard, yours look tops!

[alien]

Just one thing, are you going to paint the "mesh" the colour of your car too? It's black on the VZ's, going for unique? Or going to repaint it black?

[Zeussy]

LOL... Thanks for the kind words Weekend Warrior, they really did turn out good, I'm suprised at how much better it looks without the line around the flute aswell, I never liked it either... Like you said, makes it all flow into one piece - pressed into the steel.

Its been on the car for three days so far, and no cracks... So fingers crossed!! (There's enough fibreglass in there to make a bodykit just about, lol,)

And alien, I'm not 100% sure on that one yet, when the car gets painted (hopefully getting a mate to help me out there, because my spraying isnt the best yet..) we'll probly just do the whole car in blue - vents and all, then if it looks dodgey, i'll just back mask the guard and paint the vent a satin black, or something..
It comes all nice and black and shiney when you get the flute, but when I was sanding the bog it scratched it up pretty bad, (I did mask it up, but must've rubbed through the tape?) so I rounghed it all up and primed it with the guard..



^^^ Thats the rest of my handy work! Half done!

[Calaber]

Heyn Zeussy

Your car should really stand out in a crowd now with its three different undercoats. Which part of the Coast are you from?

[Zeussy]

LOL, yeah I know hey Calaber, it looks dodgey as,
When I get a combination of some free time, and good weather I plan to finish off the front door - it has a few little imperfections, and the guard - it has like two spots that need filling, and check if its flat..

Then I will re-prime the side of the car all together.. probly be a grey-ish colour, theres a few dints here and there so the whole cars going to look like patchwork for a little while!! Till I get enough money for paint! The primers were just laying around in the garage - except the grey I went and bought a can, just till I crack the gun out..

Im just up the road from you hey, up in Watanobbi, but am always driving around heaps, might see me out and about from time to time..

[danja]

You may as well paint/draw some racing numbers and manufacturer logos on your car while it's like that, just to piss the ricer boys off

[needwork2-4fillhabbit]

Nice mate i have the stuff to do this to my vn but have put it off for 3 months now i can do it thanks to your guide! Thanks mate also a great addition would have been a stencil eheh.

[DanVN]

Dude ... your door handles are missing! :P

Flutes look much better molded than with the outlines good work!

[delcowizzid]

now you just need to rig the door mechanisms to the mirrors to open the doors like my mate did.

[Zeussy]

You may as well paint/draw some racing numbers and manufacturer logos on your car while it's like that, just to piss the ricer boys off

lol, with white crayon or something?!!

Nice mate i have the stuff to do this to my vn but have put it off for 3 months now i can do it thanks to your guide! Thanks mate also a great addition would have been a stencil eheh.

Cheers mate, good luck with it, show us how you go with them, and just blow up the first photo, then print off... lol theres your stencil

Dude ... your door handles are missing! :P

Flutes look much better molded than with the outlines good work!

Haha, thanks mate, you know I was looking at the side of my car this afternoon, thinking "whats wrong with my car, it looks different"

Thats it!!! Its got no doorhandles!!! LMAO... nah, jks..

I love the flute, still got to do the other one though..

[Calaber]

LOL, yeah I know hey Calaber, it looks dodgey as,
When I get a combination of some free time, and good weather I plan to finish off the front door - it has a few little imperfections, and the guard - it has like two spots that need filling, and check if its flat..

Then I will re-prime the side of the car all together.. probly be a grey-ish colour, theres a few dints here and there so the whole cars going to look like patchwork for a little while!! Till I get enough money for paint! The primers were just laying around in the garage - except the grey I went and bought a can, just till I crack the gun out..

Im just up the road from you hey, up in Watanobbi, but am always driving around heaps, might see me out and about from time to time..

With your car looking like it does at present, I'm surprised I haven't seen it around yet. I'll just keep looking - it won't be hard to spot. I'd really like to do the flute conversion to my car but I don't think the other half would understand why I was doing it. Besides, only one car in the family means it's needed every day.

[Browny_226]

hey guys i want to do this to a VS but i wasnt sure exactly how to do it not so much the cutting and moulding in part but the wiring

so just need to know would the wires from the side indicators on a VS work the same for the indicators on the flutes or do they need to be changed at all lol sorry if the question sounds stupid just that the lights in the flutes look like their LED lights or something were as the VS are just like bulbs

[danja]

hey guys i want to do this to a VS but i wasnt sure exactly how to do it not so much the cutting and moulding in part but the wiring

so just need to know would the wires from the side indicators on a VS work the same for the indicators on the flutes or do they need to be changed at all lol sorry if the question sounds stupid just that the lights in the flutes look like their LED lights or something were as the VS are just like bulbs

They're just standard bulbs, so the wiring should be the same.

[needwork2-4fillhabbit]

I really like the idea of mirrors as the opening handles.. Might look into that a little further.

[Zeussy]

now you just need to rig the door mechanisms to the mirrors to open the doors like my mate did.

How did he do that? got any info on how he did it???

hey guys i want to do this to a VS but i wasnt sure exactly how to do it not so much the cutting and moulding in part but the wiring

so just need to know would the wires from the side indicators on a VS work the same for the indicators on the flutes or do they need to be changed at all lol sorry if the question sounds stupid just that the lights in the flutes look like their LED lights or something were as the VS are just like bulbs

The wiring is easy as, on the VY it was just 'unplug the old' and 'plug in the new' sort of thing, the flutes and the flashers come with 6'' of wire and a plug on the end, if it doesnt plug into your original wiring, just cut the plug off your old ones, and solder it to the new ones, (if you have got two wires there)

And like Calaber said, its just a standard bulb, so nothing tricky there... some might be, but not the 'SS' ones..

[Browny_226]

cool thanks for the info guys

[VSEXEC]

i put a set of these flutes on my vs a few years ago and had them moulded in so there wasnt that outline on the vz but after a few months the paint around it started to crack had the guards sprayed twice till i got oer it and put standard ones back on hopefully yours wont have the same problem

[Zeussy]

Ahh that sucks, lol, hope it doesnt happen to me...

So every one "Don't rush out and cut your gaurds to pieces just yet, lol wait and see if it cracks" I'll let every one know how they go...

This ones been in there for about two weeks, and so far so good?

How did you put your ones in? fibre glass - how many layers?

[VSEXEC]

it was fibreglassed but im not surehow many layers but i think it was the panel beater that was responsible for the cracks