Hey guys here is some pics of my 1979 VB COMMODORE!!!!!!!!!!
I had purchased the car 1yr ago to relive old times because 10yrs ago my first car was a VB and i just had to get another one!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After getting permission from the money handler (WIFE) the search was on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I placed a wanted add in the paper and was searching for car in good condition after 3mths of searching
i was ready to give up then i had a phone call from a guy saying that his elderly mother could not drive anymore and had a all original commodore to get rid of? He said he had called many wreckers but no one wanted it. So i went for a look and it was pristine could not believe how good it was!!!!!!!!!!!!
He only wanted $1200for the car i handed the money over straight away and took it home!!!!!!!!
Here are some pics of it as i purchased it!!!!!!!!!!! PICS A OUT OF FOCUS!!!!!!!!!!
I always wanted a MIDNIGHT BLUE car on BLACK RIMS!!!!!!!!! so the transformation started!!!!!!!
1. Prep for paint!!!!!
The prep work took about 3mths to do i had smoothed over all panels inc,DOORS,BOOT,ENGINE BAY i had done all the work myself in the garage at home.
the car was painted in high build primer then sanded down ready for paint!!!!!!!!!
2. PAINT
I chose a MIDNIGHT BLUE acrylic lacquer and CLEAR COAT to paint it!!!!!
To save money i thought i would paint it myself,(NEVER PAINTED BEFORE) I read a lot of books and searched the net then purchased a compressor and gravity feed spray gun too
Time to paint and the paint came out real good straight from the gun and after CLEAR COATING it was even better.But when i buffed it i was !SHOCKED! it was great it had a real shine to it AMAZING i did it!!!!!!!!!!HA HA Saved money on that all up buying COMP,GUN,AND PAINT cost $1000 CHEAP
3.MOTOR
I phoned up a mate that had a holden 308 sitting in his shed on a stand for the last 2yrs he rebuilt it to fit into his 2 DOOR HQ MANARO but ended up gettin a worked 350chev instead
so after a bit of messin around we cranked it over and it fired up FIRST TIME . so i handed over $500 for the motor but the 308 was a turbo pattern block so the old trimatic i had woluldn't fit so i bit the bullet and purchased a rebuilt TURBO350 and stage 2 shift kit from down south which set me back $1400 but when the box arrived it was 90mm longer than the trimatic so i had to shorten and reballance the tail shaft and also the speedo cable did not fit had to change the ends of my cable to suit the new box... ALL SORTED TIME TO DROP IN THE CAR !!!!!!!!!!! the chassis rails on the car look crap so i covered them with stainless pieces to tidy it up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4.Interior
I always wanted a BLACK interior so i gave that a shot too and retrimmed it all in black suede and bought some black bucket seats,and my boss had some RPM racing harnesses he bought for his drag car but did not use them and i bought them for $100 (SCORE) the shifter had to be a B&M mega shifter so i got 1 of those and then fitted a kenwood head unit
and 4" speakers in the kick panel and 6"ones in the rear too. I ran into a bloke that had a CHROME OLLY HALF CAGE and bought that from him for only $400 (STOKED)
Ordered new carpet from KNOX auto in black superplush.......AND CUSTOM SCUFF PANELS I MADE!!!!!!!!
5. DRIVETRAIN & SUSPENSION
I bought a second car for parts that had SL/E parts on it and a 10BOLT diff with disc brakes under it. So i raided bits from it and fixed it to my car inc SL/E bumpers.
The suspension on the car are pedders super low springs front and rear and adjustable rear panhard bar,Nolethene bushes too on sway bars,
6.RIMS
I wanted black rims with a chrome lip and to my surprise a bloke over the road had some sitting in his shed when i went over for a garage sale. My lucky day he only wanted $600 for them.I just had to have them so more money parted and a set of 18"SPEEDY INFERNO RIMS BOLTED UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!with a new set of 245/40/18 on the rear & 235/40/18 on the front......
7.VISUAL appearance
I am a refrigeration mechanic by trade but now doin a second 1 as a SHEET METAL WORKER
so i started to make custom things for the ENGINE BAY inc,STRUT COVERS,RADIATOR COVERS,WASHER BOTTLE & OVERFLOW BOTTLE.I purchased a Gilmer belt drive setup too,
Also to cover up the ignition coil i wrapped a MOTHER can around it...(HA HA HA )
The rear of the car needed a better look so i decided to make up a DROP TANK for it!!!!!!
But its just a cover that slips over the original tank and is bolted up through the boot,
HA HA it looks real though and has fooled heaps of people!!!!!!!!!!!!!
]I have to say the car visually looks awesome, MIDNIGHT BLUE,LOWERED ON BLACK RIMS,HALF CAGE,AND DROP TANK,,,,,,, SO AFTER A YEARS WORTH OF WORK MY DREAM IS COMING TRUE
Mods still left to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1.LOWER DIFF GEARS
2.MINISPOOL
3.SLOTTED ROTORS FRONT/REAR
4.BUG CATCHER THROUGH THE BONNET
5.EXHAUST SYSTEM ,TWIN INTO SINGLE 3" TO THE REAR AND DUAL 3"TIPS
BELOW ARE SOME PICS AT THE CAIRNS AUTO SPECTACULAR WE HAD IN CAIRNS LAST MONTH
To my surprise i won a encouragement award for the car!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HOPE YOU GUYS LIKE THE PICS LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!!!!!!!!
Last edited by chrisso 82; 26-10-2010 at 07:39 PM. Reason: RE-DO!!!!!
Engine bay all smoothed over and custom made washer bottles and overflow bottles !!!!!!
Here is my ride next to my mates original VL BROCK commy in original condition too!!!!!!!!!!![]()
Here is the interior with custom stainless scuff panels and bucket seats and RPM harness,B&M megashifter,black suede door skins!!!!!!!!! All work carried out at home!!!!!!!![]()
Here is a pic of the new alloy drop tank fitted over the weekend!!!!!!!!! Cant wait to fit the alloy half cage soon too!!!!!!!!!!![]()
Nice work mate.
nice vb, very nice. is that a can of mother in your engine bay in the 3rd pic?
Hey guys thanks for the comments and yes there is a mother can in there it's covering my ignition coil cause they look so plain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey mate good work there...
Make me one of them drop tanks for my vk![]()
It looks great mate but I am a one eyed VB fan.
What did you do to your rails? That is finished of very neat.
Pete
Hey thanks mate when i had the motor out i just built some stainless covers for rails to tidy it up a bit!!!!!!
Here is a pic of the door scuff panels i made up to get rid of the plastic ones!!!!!!!!
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Backed the car out and took some pics of the new gauges and ofcourse it started to rain bloody cairns weather!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This a a pic of the grill with the OIL COOLER for the tranny behind it made it look like a radiator HA HA HA ....
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I trial fitted a hornet scoop today and did not like it at all !!!!!!!! Did not suit!!!!!!!!!!!!
What do you guys think of a bug catcher scoop fitted to the car???????????????
No. Go for the VH SS group 3 scoop.