My 1996 VSII Berlina

[VS_Pete]

Nice ride good to see you got the fog lights on.

 

[KrisG]

That is one straight VS mate. (My fav colour too). Engine bay look great.

Cheers man, I love this colour too, however, I think you cant go wrong with colours on a vs, I reckon they're all nice

Looks good mate, I had a 96 Berlina II a year or so ago, I put an L67 in it, was such a nice car.

Thanks mate, that's a nice VY L67 you got there. An L67 in this would be nice too, there are good gains to be made

Mate she's schmick as, nice, just needs some go fast!

Thanks mate, I'm a huge fan of sleepers and I really like the set up you got going. Go-fast bits for me isn't on the cards unfortunately, I'm most likely going down the jap turbo route after my p's and don't see the point in modding the little ecotec.

Nice ride good to see you got the for lights on.

Thanks Pete, It's one of the best mods on a stock VS, it really toughens the front end up.

 

[KrisG]

Update: Replaced the intake manifold gaskets with the AC Delco aluminium replacements, supplied by Mace. The old gasket was blown pretty badly. I also thoroughly cleaned/degreased the whole intake assembly from the air filter housing to the lower intake runners. Been about 3 months with no issues, very happy with that. Also serviced the trans and engine and polished the plenum lid, fuel rails, throttle cable bracket, ABS module, brake lines and alternator pulley. Installed the fog lamp bezels and also some Calais interior goodies.










Calais centre console bin lamp, wired to the tilting switch in the lid itself. I wanted to retain my centre console not just install the Calais one, so it was as a bit of mucking around drilling and filing out a hole with limited space.



Calais rear foot-well lamps. Easy install, just had to tap into the front foot-well lamps



Statesman rear reading lamps. I think they compliment the rear courtesy lamps quite well. Very easy install too.

 

[JTR007]

Nice little touches, would mind doing the same in my ute.

 

[KrisG]

Came back from overseas and started her up for the first time in 3 months. Surprised to see it fired right up instantly, was running a bit rough for a few minutes but a long idle, new fuel and a few hard revs fixed that. Done a few more little interior mods.

Fitted a series 1 VS Statesman rear cigarette lighter socket to the centre console lid. Might need to paint the housing the same colour as the lid as it's a bit dark for my liking.


Fitted door courtesy lights with clear lenses to the original Berlina door trims. I was a bit hesitant to cut out the holes but it went really well after carefully measuring up. All the wiring up to the pillars was already there from factory, just had to add a couple of wires for each door to the plugs at the pillars and replace the door switches with two-way switches.


..and the door courtesy lights also illuminate the ground very well at night, wasn't expecting that.


Also fitted a Statesman/Caprice front vanity mirror lamp. Need to find a drivers-side sun visor with a mirror so I can fit the drivers side lamp. Wouldn't mind some velour sun visors to finish it off too.


I also wired up some illumination to the centre console pocket from the blank switch space above. It's wired up to go on/off with the dome lamps.


Here's a Photoshop of the look I'm going for with my future mods. SL springs, shortened shocks to suit, whitewall inserts, slimline number plates, euro style yellow fog light bulbs. Would look like a nice cruiser I think.

 

[ben315vz]

I love the work you have done to this mate, one of the cleanest VS's I have ever seen!

 

[KrisG]

I love the work you have done to this mate, one of the cleanest VS's I have ever seen!

Likewise mate, your VS is an inspiration, love seeing updates in your thread and the work you put into it. I'm just trying to retrofit most of the Calais/Statesman goodies while keeping the Berlina interior trim, so no leather or woodgrain. The down side with this approach is, I can't fit the statesman clock anywhere haha.

 

[thatotherguy94]

Top work, one of the cleanest vs's ive seen in a while. Are the front footwell laps factory or did you install them yourself as well?

 

[KrisG]

Top work, one of the cleanest vs's ive seen in a while. Are the front footwell laps factory or did you install them yourself as well?

Thanks mate. Yeah fronts are factory on Berlina's, I just replaced the bulbs with led's.

 

[ben315vz]

Likewise mate, your VS is an inspiration, love seeing updates in your thread and the work you put into it. I'm just trying to retrofit most of the Calais/Statesman goodies while keeping the Berlina interior trim, so no leather or woodgrain. The down side with this approach is, I can't fit the statesman clock anywhere haha.

Thanks mate, yeah I fitted a Statesman dash but am trying to make it look like it's not out of a Statesman like by changing the decal from "Statesman" to "Berlina" and I also changed the clock so it doesn't have the Statesman logo at the top (Just posted pictures of it). I also fitted the rear power supply and rear foot well lights like you have, I just have to change them to LED now It seems like we are thinking alike with the things that we are doing haha! But keep up the good work mate, and hopefully once my VS is back up and running again we will be able to go on a cruise sometime!