My Slow VH SL/E Project

[YMY-88U]

FIRST OFF THIS IS A SLOW PROGRESS BUILD!

Hi People, This is my VH SL/E...

Its started life as:

MODEL: VH8VX69-381
Basically denotes VH, SL/E, sedan.

381 pack consists of:
L36: 253/4.2L
M40: trimatic auto
AS9: Rear headrests
AU3: Central locking
GU7: 2.78:1 rear axle ratio
N10: Dual exhaust

BODY : XXXXXX-A
Sequnetial body number assigned during production. A on the end denotes Adelaide assembly plant (Elizabeth)

TRIM : 4004-79Y
Interior trim is Dark Claret velour

PAINT : 2J 011-D
The trim combo code shows it's a factory shadowtone Venetian Red Metallic over Mercury Silver Metallic.

BUILT : MAR/83

ENG : L36
TRANS : M40
AXLE : GU7

ADR: 1,2,3a,4c,5b,6,7,8,10b,11,12,14,15,16,18a,20,21,22 a,23,24,25a,27c,
28a,29,31,34


Now the day i recieved it... needs a litte tlc (photos dont do justice to the interior)













Then a spring chop and threw a set of wheels on it i had lyin around, used it as my daily driver for about 6 months as i sold my vy ss ute, bought and sold a landcruiser ute, and now have bought my old mans wh stato as a daily, so thats when i decided its time to get a move on and pull my finger out and over the easter weekend ripped the motor, box, seats, carpet, seatbelts, parcel shelf out and started welding up engine bay holes etc,













now its currently in the process of being stripped down keeping all the good parts and sourcing new or better parts, currently the only rust i can find besides surface is the rear window sill where it meets the boot, that needs replacing, aswell as bad damage i have another front drivers guard, and need another sle bonnet as its all warped and not worth repairing

[50LTRv8]

Looks sweet in photos with the wheels on, good luck with it

[ari666]

you know what will look awesome on this car?... my engine and running gear ... which will be on ebay tonight ...(shameless plug)

[vk.jonno]

what out of ur vk ari?
why? what are u dropping in it

[ari666]

im getting rid of the whole thing, best part about it is the driveline, and what better car to put it in? my favorite commodore is a blue and silver one of these, but maroon and silver is a really really close second.

[vk.jonno]

what car are u getting?

[excalibur]

Burgundy and silver are the best always wanted one of these
have fun with the build mate

[YMY-88U]

what driveline you got for sale exactly Ari?, at the end of the day its gonna have a turbo 304/355 in it with a T400, and using a vlt diff i already have, but i dont want to spend a dollar on that untill i get the whole thing cleaned up and painted, ive already got a decent collection of brand new and some second hand bits n pieces like chrome trims, new badges, interior trims just anything that might look ratty id rather replace, oh and also scored a new oem fuel flow sensor!! its complety unused still in original box! gotta love ebay

[Zeussy]

That looks like a pretty nice starting point right there

But why would you go to all that effort to make it slow just pull off two ignition leads, and voila

What colour are you going? Original two tone?
Keep the pics flowing, keen to check out the progress as it gets done

[2DIE]

Looks pretty sexy man

[immortality]

awesome. i have the Blue over silver model sitting in my garage but with 308 built to Brock spec's

[ari666]

But why would you go to all that effort to make it slow just pull off two ignition leads, and voila

lol, i was thinking the same thing "thats got a 308 in it... why would it be slow?"

[kane88]

Did you say spring chop?

[YMY-88U]

That looks like a pretty nice starting point right there

But why would you go to all that effort to make it slow just pull off two ignition leads, and voila

What colour are you going? Original two tone?
Keep the pics flowing, keen to check out the progress as it gets done

yeah mate keeping it original 2 tone.....but undecided on the colour, im leaning towards mazda's copper red mica on the new rx8, cx7, 6 and 3's only because its dark colour but then in the sun it has a real candyish metallic look too it, my mum has a nickel silver VE GTS and was looking to use that as the bottom silver as its full of metalic and looks $hit hot in the sun and i have repainted my beer fridge and my spare vh front guard in those exact 2 colours in a similar 2 tone style just to get an idea of what the colours look like together
So ill dig up some pics and post them if they look alright on the computer

[YMY-88U]

just the front, 2 coils which was almost 3 inchs, the rears are sl outta my brothers old vn berlina, also same for the 30mm front sway bar, and a rear panhard rod, all shocks etc are stock rusty peices of crap

[ari666]

all shocks etc are stock rusty peices of crap

i am dissappoint...

the only fallings down of early girls is the owners, im sorry to say. this girl deserves better than to ride on crappy shocks. please please do the right thing by her. i can score you lowering shocks for the rear for around 70 bucks each. small price to pay for keeping an old girl behaving.

sorry, but i love these cars and one as nice as this should be road worthy.

[vktorana]

nice mate! what do ya recon of that sorta colour scheme for a vk?

[slayer208]

Looks good!. I'm going to do something simmilar over the next few months, but with my tricked up 3.3 blue with triples that is in my VK wagon will be going into a VC SL/E once i've got the manual conversion happening. Really itching to use all my new spray gear too.

Cheers!

[YMY-88U]

righto guys,

ive been getting into it lately, kicked the old ladys gts out of the shed so i could get some progress done, as it gets to dark and cold lately, and i work big hours so i can never find time.

So what ive managed to do is strip some more chrome trim and the interior and 3/4 of the sound deadner so i can check for any rust underneath it, luckily there isnt... only little bit of surface rust ill wire brush off, followed by a rust proof whole floor, and put more sound deadner back in.

Keeping in mind bagging and tagging absolutly everything and using tons of gladwrap to protect everything.
Im in the middle of cleaning up the wheel arches, water blast, rust convert, etch, seam seal then few coats of sound deadner/protector.

I decided to tackle the biggest and possibley hardest job first as then everything else following will be quicker and easier and make it look like everything coming along faster keeping my motivation up hahaha.
i spent a stupid amount of hours on just the two strut towers, sand back anything doubtfull, pop the drivers dent out, weld up holes, grind and sand back the factory seam sealer, bog and fill any imperfections and cleaned up things like the chassis rails, the wrinkles in the guards down near the headlights, and smoothend the strut tower joins, and its looking sweet, i did lay down a coat of high fill primer just to see what needed another skim of filler, so as it showed up some air pockets in the filler im just skimming everything doubtfull that the highfill wont get, so next weekend ill be hopefully getting the high fill out again and laying a few coats down, or wait untill i clean up the firewall and do it in one hit.... umm and thats about it.

ive also changed my mind about the drivetrain choice i had picked, i was going to turbo a 304/355 for it but have now decieded to do something different and go rb30t as there extremely powerfull quick and reliable, also ive got a big dirty cammed head stalled wh statesman as a daily and i want to try out a 6 banger, i want a quieter car that wont be cop magnet.

heres some pics...sorry for grainy photos, iphones take a shit picture in low light conditions.

any bad feedback keep it to your self as im not a professional and this is the first thing ive done of the sort

[Zeussy]

Wow, nice progress!
Looks eeerily familiar though... lol I can vouch for just how much work goes into the bay to get it to look like that
Only thing, did you weld the strut towers to the inner guards? Might crack when the body flexes,

And lol at getting an RB30 because you don't want it to be a cop magnent, isn't it likely to attract more attention when it goes whoooopshhissshhhhh?

[YMY-88U]

cheers mate, rolled it back down the back yard so there wont be too much progress untill i get into the shed again as winter sets in.
i was gonna turbo the v8 so eitherway im screwed i dont think ill bother engineering untill i get defected, ive just had 2 supercharged v8's and want change, also i didnt weld the strut towers as ive done research on here and calais turbo and everybody says its not needed and they have never had problems, either way im not gonna put it around a track as im going auto, if i went manual id throw it around wakefield and weld them........
now to decide what colour to do the engine bay, as im honestly thinking silver as it wont be as dirty looking all the time, and when you picture opening the bay the silver would start at about the same level as it does outside on the guards.....keeping in mind the tops of guards and where they go under the bonnet part will be in maroon so you obviously dont see the silver through the gaps, what are your thoughts?, as i just dont wanna clean it all the time especially cause dust and dirt will get in every nook and cranny and look povo

[Zeussy]

lol, ahh fair enough, either way you'l have the same attention! When I was welding mine up/wire buffing the old sealer out it looked like it was pretty heavy duty steel and the join looked fairly strong... So, you should be right.

Yeah, I get what you mean with the two tone colour choices of the bay, agree with you saying the silver would be a better choice for hiding the dirt. And it would be like everything below the two tone level is silver - inside the engine bay will mostly be under that height, so silver is the natural choice..

Im not too sure to paint my bay satin black, or go with whatever colour it ends up? Probly just do it the same colour as the outside, but was thinking like the HQ's having the black bay could be sweet - leaving future colour changes less work too!

[VK SL 3800]

Are the wheels on that VY SS meant to be silver? otherwise where did you get that thing from top of mount everest?
Looking good BTW.......

[YMY-88U]

The wheels were silver but I sandblasted and powercoated them

[Sabbath']

****ing love the bay man.