82 vh ss

[Darren_L]

Hi all,

just joined up. Here's my ride.
I bought it about 5 years ago, as a stock VH SS (4.2L 4spd). It was sold to me by a dodgy sort of guy who had performed a quick paintjob on it and obviously wanted to make a few bucks. It was wtock right down to the original SS 14 inch Cheviot alloy wheels. Engine, gearbox & suspension was stuffed, so I basically drove the thing home on a trade plate, parked it in the garage and pulled it to pieces. I replaced fairly much all of the interior - including recovering the dash(previous owner had removed the SS door trims and seats, fitting beige..... door trims & seats..... great match to the remaining SS dark claret dash & roof lining.... . Replaced all the suspension, built up a warmed 304 out of a VR coupled with a T5 and dropped it in.
It now has a HDT Grp 3 bonnet scoop fitted to accomodate the Trickshift manifold, I also plan on fitting a matching Grp 3 rear boot spoiler when I get the chance.


Model: 82 VH SS Commodore
Engine:Holden EFI 5.0L, balanced, ACL pistons, Crow Cam/valve springs, Rollmaster double row timing chain, Y/T roller rockers, Trickshift TTB intake manifold, Bosch 044 fuel pump, Kalmaker SP3 ECU, tuned by Paramount Performance
Gearbox Borg Warner T5 5 speed & RPM H/D clutch
Exhaust: Pacemaker headers, 3 inch single exhaust, resonator
Suspension: Koni adj shocks f&r, lovell s/l springs, whiteline sway bars, kmac camber adjusters, nolathane bushes, Pedders adjustable panhard rod
Brakes: VN Grp A 330mm front rotors & twin spot calipers, rear disc (standard)
Rear Axle: 10 bolt Salisbury 3.08 LSD
Wheels: 16x7 'Walkinshaw', 225/50/16 RE002 Potenza tyres
Interior: recovered dash, re-trimmed velour door cards and rear seat in original 'dark claret', VS front door speaker pods, Autotecnica front seats, Momo wheel, electronic VDO speedo painfully....integrated into instrument cluster
other mods: VN 80L fuel tank, oil catch tank/seperator, fuel surge tank, VS steering rack & k-frame, battery in the boot
power: 275.5 rwhp
future mods: finish connecting up the A/C

[MYVHV8]

Awesome car, motor looks tough with the twin throttles.

The combined weight of the VH with a worked 304 would be fun to drive.

Got any interior pictures?

[excalibur]

sweet VH mate

[Darren_L]

thanks guys.

some pics of the interior as requested

[frosty_82]

Great looking car there Darren i just tyring to think where i have seen this before???lol

[Darren_L]

probably in my garage stranger

[VK SS]

Very nice as always Darren mate

[scottVH]

looks great
love the red paint on the ss

[SLE Lover]

Great looking VH mate well done

[Darren_L]

UPDATE:
the next thing to tick off my list

VN Grp A 330mm rotors & C4 twin spot calipers.
Bought these beauties a few weeks back.


Spent a few hours tidying them up with the wire brush & aluminium cleaner, machined the rotors, ran a kit through the calipers and some paint. Came up looking good.

Had to get another brake hose made up for the r/h/s as one of the hoses that came with the brakes was blocked. I've got to fit the drivers side up yet, but trial fitted the wheel on the passenger side and geez it's a CLOSE fit under 16's!! The outer edge of the caliper just touches on the wheel weights. Might just touch up the fins on the outer edge of the caliper, otherwise the wheel weights would have to go on the outside of the wheel, which I don't want.



I'll put some more pics of the brakes with the wheels on once it's done to show how close they are. They look good though with the wheels on. One step closer to getting it out on the circuit for some laps!

[gazman]

man that looks relly nice good job. the red looks tops

[Jonesy40]

that is an awesome looking vh.

please keep the photos coming

[v8commy]

good work lookin good mate

[VT_II_Calais]

Very tidy mate. Makes me miss my ol VH SS!

[Darren_L]

thanks guys, I'm really happy with the car. Absolutely love driving it. Looking at taking it out on a few track days soon, hence the recent addition of VN grp A brakes.

It's been over 6 years in the making & my list of 'things to do' is almost all checked off.
Want to put it on another dyno as well, to see how it goes. The guy who tuned it said their dyno tends to read a bit low compared to most, so maybe there's a few more hp there yet. Not that dyno readings mean a lot, but makes for good boasting rights Also plan on taking for a few runs down the quarter mile, see how both the car and the driver go lol

[VKCOMMO]

looking good darren

[180sc]

got any pics with the bonnet scoop on yet darren? i havent seen ya in ages to see what it looks like now.

[SLE-883]

thanks guys.

some pics of the interior as requested

Very nice.

What speedo did you use and was it hard to wire up?
I'm looking at doing the same but also installing a matching Tacho.

[v8commy]

thats standard isnt it?

[180sc]

i beleive its a stewart werner cause its pretty close to original looking. but darren will verify.

[Darren_L]

got any pics with the bonnet scoop on yet darren? i havent seen ya in ages to see what it looks like now.

yeah it's been a while! Last time we caught up was at the Munch Inn wasn't it ? Although I don't think you saw my car - it was a busy night!

I haven't really taken any decent pics since the bonnet scoop went on, kind of waiting until I fit the rear Grp 3 deck spoiler before I take photos. But Ben from BCCC is taking some pics hopefully this weekend, so I will post some up as soon as he posts them up.

DRAD 81, the speedo is a VDO electronic speedo. http://aisat.com/vdoautomotive.html#speedometer
I wanted to get rid of the cable driven speedo as it's been a right pain in the arse since the EFI conversion. Need to run a speed sensor (for ECM) & cable, so had to fit a t-piece to the speedo drive. Couldn't stop it leaking oil and breaking the plastic drive pin, so went for an electronic speedo so I could ditch the cable and run just a speed sensor.

I've always strived to retain the factory looking interior, so took some searching to find a speedo that was close to the factory unit, but finally found the VDO (factory speedo is also VDO) The wiring wasn't a big issue, physically fitting it to the cluster was the biggest drama. Had to hack up a brand new $300 VDO speedo from it's housing, and trim a few bits off. And then some serious modification to the instrument housing to make it fit. But it was all worth it in the end. Great thing about these speedos is you can set the pulses per km to suit your diff ratio, so no need for speed correctors etc when running different diff gears etc.

[Darren_L]

looking good darren

thanks vkcommo

[GetToDaChopa]

I still admire this car, looks great. Btw did you have to have the seats sign off by an engineer, if so how much was it?

[VBRED]

Mate

That thing looks fantastic. What a the door side pods from?

Pete

[Darren_L]

I still admire this car, looks great. Btw did you have to have the seats sign off by an engineer, if so how much was it?

cheers mate,
I originally got an engineer to fit up a pair of Autobarn 'el cheapo SAAS seats - the universal fit seat rails that I bought weren't going to fit without some serious mods (factory VH seat rails can't be seperated from the seats unlike later models) So with seats being such a safety thing, I took the car down to the engineer and got him to make up the necessary brackets etc to adapt the seats to the rails. He also fitted up a modification plate.

The SAAS seats turned out to be crap, so I soon ditched them and bought the Autotecnica's - I had to re-drill some holes on the brackets, but nothing major so didn't need to take it back to the engineer.

I can't remember exactly what the engineer charged me to fit and mod plate, but I reckon I got ripped. I think it ended up costing me over $400.......