Drew's VB daily runabout

[GypsyNz]

Awesome sounds good to me, i'm about half way through the conversion on mine. Have a look at my thread, got a fair bit done. Just been held up waiting on welding wire to arrive, i buy it online as it saves $24 but it's taking its time getting here worse luck.....

[drewVHSS]

Works been far too busy to do much lately, am waiting for easter rush to die down and this strange hot weather we've been having to cool down so i have spare time to continue my project.
Apart from spare time to do more am also still in need of a VL intermediate shaft (i broke the one out of the VL in a no brainer act of forgetting to remove the bolt completely when i dropped the k-frame)
Will post pics soon of the little details i've done in the last few weeks (parcel shelf etc)
On a side note, easter monday i'm heading to Oberon to pickup a VH and a VK sight unseen for $250 for the pair. Worst case they'll be parts cars. If not future projects.....

[ajvx01]

Wow this thing looks imnensly tidy! Love the interior, just a tidier version of mine
Good to see the info on a vlt swap.

[drewVHSS]

Cheers Ajvx01, Most of the interior will be up for sale soon as i'm trying to piece together a custom interior.

Last sunday i picked up a '91 v8 VQ statesman to use as a daily for $500 (bargain) So I dont care if it rains or not, i'm pulling out the ol red 6 and prepping for the RB30 conversion this weekend.

The biggest problem i had with not starting yet was if i didn't get the car up and running ready for work on the monday i'd be stuffed as I can't leave my SS on the side of the road at work in an industrial area so now i've got the VQ, it's all go ahead.

My replacement VL intermediate shaft and VL Calais electric mirrors also arrived today for the VB (cheers coolngroovy, mirrors are near mint and i'm very tempted to put em on the SS instead!)

[drewVHSS]

Well the running gear finally sold out of the ol gal yesterday so today i dropped the motor, box, kframe and steering rack out today.
I was going to hook in and get the rb30 in but it got a bit too dark to see so next weekend I'll have it in and begin the heacache of wiring.
Here's some progress pics:

[vhgasser]

cool job keep it up

[drewVHSS]

cheers gasser.
Wish i had a full interior to swap for a poison ivy respray (cheap closed door spray)
best i can do is a full set claret door cards, full set leather vk calais door cards, vc brock red jesus handles. Claret fuse box panel (vh sl/e) and maybe might still have a set of claret arm rests.

[drewVHSS]

Well i've been lazy... yesterday I dropped the front struts, replaced the VP v8 berlina springs i had in there with silverline lowered springs and a new pair of nolathane strut tops.
Almost had a heart attack moment when i was throwing away the old stut tops, i noticed they had stamped on them which side of the car they go on... double checked my work and as luck would have it, i managed to get the correct ones on each side....
Would've been a no brainer otherwise!





Fuel lines are going in today along with a quick scan over to re-locate anything that needs to move with the change of engine.....

[drewVHSS]

Well the dirty 30's all in.
The VB now has:
VL K-frame
VL power steering rack
Thicker swaybar
Silverline lowered springs (i wish i cld find info on these.. box just say's lowered....)
Nolathane strut tops
VL power steer intermediate shaft mated to VB steering column (courtesy of coolngroovy)
A healthy RB30 (late block with provisions for turbo later...) with a reco head
Jatco auto
Genie extractors (i have to cut the flange off the extractors and massage the pipe to clear the floorpan)
All the main brunt of it is in place. I'll be slowly tinkering with hooking everything up and making a custom engine harness over the next couple of weeks.
The soundstream battery in the boot will take care of starting duties and I still need to cut out the battery tray and tidy the inner guard for the airbox.

Bit by bit she's getting there:

[*uwishn*]

much better heart plant,save the other for a boat anchor lol.

[drewVHSS]

much better heart plant,save the other for a boat anchor lol.

Old motor sold for $355 on ebay to a guy my mate used to serve at Pendle hill wreckers.
my old motor is now currently in a Lc GTR XU1 in sydney so he can preserve his genuine motor.
It was a gr8 motor but since i had a "free" VL given to me to raid for bits... it made sense to use it for a more powerful smoother refined motor with better fuel economy...
that and the missus whinged about the manual steer so the VL power steer made the decision for me.

I've never done a RB30 conversion before so this will be good to add to my small list of conversions I've done so far.

I'm looking forward to having it driveable again soon so i can see if my efforts have been worthwhile or not! The landbarge VQ stato i'm using as a daily atm while comfy chews twice the fuel of my SS with 1/8th the fun so the sooner it's done the sooner i can sell off the stato.