86 vl exec wagon project
Hi everyone, I picked up this vl wagon in early december last year (2010). It was passed over to me by an old guy who was a customer at work. He was briefly talking about the car and i asked him what he is doing with it and he replied it's getting sold very soon or going to scrap so i said don't scrap it let me know when you want to get rid of it. He asked for my number and said he would call when he was done with it. A month later i got a call and he dropped it off at my door and i gave him a lift home. It's just a stock executive with about 570,000 k's and it had rego until march this year. It has a fairly straight body but some attention is needed in areas and the windscreen may have some rust. (have to remove sikaflex coated panel to check). Also needs a new tailgate which i already have from a previous car. The car will desperately be needing a respray since the paint is old and im using different coloured panels.
I have already stripped the whole car out. So far the whole interior is out and the complete interior out of my wrecked series 200 including all electrics is going in with brand new black carpet (already have and including cargo area) and underlay. Pretty much the idea for the car is just to be a nice daily/cruise car with mods mainly limited to braking and handling as well as reliability.
Here is my list of things to do and fix.
*new shocks, springs and bushes.
*put in motor,auto,diff,steering column,powersteering rack from other vl... done
*put on new front and rear bumpers
*degrease and repaint engine bay
*remove rusty battery tray
*fix bonnet cable
*put in new headlights
*respray whole car in maranello red over silver to sills with black window surrounds and calais door moulds and side skirts or white over silver.
Future Mods.
* LSD disc brake rear.
* VT twin piston front caliper upgrade and VT booster and master. (making up custom vl bracket to suit and modifying booster rod)
* Maybe a calais front.
* put in A8 turbo motor i have once i get my opens.
* Strut brace and larger sway bar. (have sway bar)
* Larger exhaust system.
* New washer bottle.
* Relocate battery to cargo area. (just got the cable, box etc)
* manual conversion
* Decent tint
* Air-con hooked up and re-gassed.
* Good alloy radiator.
Last edited by 88-SERIES200; 21-02-2012 at 09:07 PM. Reason: update
Ok so the new motor is now serviced and in the wagon running. It is so quiet compared the other vl. also has excellent throttle response. The body of the car is really letting it down but it will have to wait till i have the money to work on it and get the rust in the windscreen repaired.
I also took out the valvebody and cleaned it out and put on a new filter while the new box was out.
Last edited by 88-SERIES200; 21-02-2012 at 08:39 PM.
At a bit of a stand still.. can anyone supply pics or information on what aircon lines go where on the back of the aircon switch. all the tags have fallen off so none of them are numbered...
..stay N/A..
looks like it has potential with a respray mate. I hope you really cleaned up the engine while it was out. Great opportunity to if its not in the car
As for the aircon, there is a picture which i thnk would help.I just can;t find it right now. t depicts where each hose should connect to. I'll keep looking
yeah im really looking forward to getting it resprayed. Im going to respray it myself. What colour do you reckon? white over silver or red over silver?...
And yeah i degreased the motor and box first and cleaned all the connections with contact cleaner. the bay is still really bad because it needs paint and rust removed from battery tray. if i can get away with it i'll move the battery and get rid of the tray all together.
Last edited by 88-SERIES200; 21-02-2012 at 08:42 PM.
and if you can get that picture of the aircon hoses that would be awesome man i cant find info anywhere and no one on ct gives a shit. cheers
..stay N/A..
I think a really bright, rich red would look awesome over silver. But i'm still very fond of white/asteroid silver. Good idea priming it yourself, definately worth it.
As for that photo, I havn't had luck yet and I cant remember where i saw it. Are you just after the digram that shows which hose goes into which connector to direct the air?
..stay N/A..
well i couldnt find the pic, but heres as good as I can get for now
Diagram for Vac lines for VL heater / Air con controls. - calaisturbo.com.au
That at least tells you what hose goes where. There is a pic somewhere though. Goodluck with it
I think white over silver would look really clean but red and silver will look that bit nicer because the red being darker will set off the silver more. the silver is going to the bottom with calais door moulds. and that pretty much what im looking for the hard part is know what hose is which number since there is one. might have to trace everything right back. if that guy is still a member i'll contact him and work it out. thanks heaps for that..
Last edited by 88-SERIES200; 21-02-2012 at 08:45 PM.
..stay N/A..
Yeah red and silver is always a nice combo, good contrast between the two.
Tracing each hose back might be the only option
Just picked up these locally this morning for $180. genuine calais pop up front, manual shifter surround, calais grill and a calais centre garnish.
also got a vl turbo 3.45 ratio 28 spline lsd disc diff. (only $50 lol)
Last edited by 88-SERIES200; 21-02-2012 at 08:48 PM.
started the vl today after a month and it still runs good. got to start stripping off the old door moulds and get them ready for paint then angle grind the stripped nut that holds the jack in so i can get a slide hammer in behind the rear bumper to pull out a dent. Not really too much I can do until i have the money for paint and suspension..
Last edited by 88-SERIES200; 21-02-2012 at 08:52 PM.
Just a small update. All the door strips and the rear bumper have been removed. I also removed the whole intake manifold to be replaced with another cleaned and painted one which i have nearly finished and will get pics up of soon. the reason for the new manifold is because the old manifold's air bleed screw holes were completely stuffed (thread damage) and i had a spare.
I also got my tax back from 3 years ago lol! so i have $650 i want to put towards materials to respray the car myself. A mate is lending me a shed for a weekend to spray the car in which beats spraying it out in the backyard for all the bugs to land on. Now I've just got to decide where to buy all the materials and paint from and what brands i want to use. I'll also have to find someone with a big enough air compressor that can at least keep up with spraying sections of the car at a time.
The vl should be getting a full bare metal respray within the next 2 months if things go to plan.. I went a few hundred over budget on paint and materials but it should all be well worth it when it's finished.
Another VL Driver
Sea Dogs Champion!
sweet. ill look forward to it man.
pulled out all the glass a couple of weeks ago and the whole area around the windscreen is rusted out really bad. so bad that there is 6 inch long holes straight through the pillar and the cowl panel is completely gone. so instead of getting a new shell i went out and bought a mig welder and then cut out all the rust and now im buying a new cowl panel and getting replacement sheet metal fabricated to weld back into the pillars. i'm also going to weld up the holes where the roof racks where and also the windscreen trim hole on the roof.
Last edited by 88-SERIES200; 31-10-2011 at 10:13 PM.
Things are coming along but slowly. got all four doors off today which was easy except for the lower door pins on both rear doors. So now i can start sanding the door jambs etc. Oh and got a quote off the metal fab guy today when he looked at the windscreen section and all 3 panels i need to be made will only cost me $10 in total which is awesome since the new cowl panel will be costing me $214 and i still need to get gas for the mig and then pay for booth hire and a few other things. I also just got a new phone with a good camera so when i set it up with my comp i'll get some photos up.
Should have my relacement pillar panels by thursday so i'll be welding them in over christmas
Last edited by 88-SERIES200; 21-02-2012 at 08:55 PM.
Got fvcked around by the metal fab guy big time. other places want too much or arent interested. not worth my money for the result.
This car is now fully stripped an no more however i just purchased a perfect one owner 87 vl executive wagon with only 60,000 original kilometres on it, perfect interior, perfect engine bay, nearly zero rust (surface only on cowl panel), and as straight as new. runs perfect too. So this is the base of my new project.
The plan is to fit a rb30 with a 25 head as i have sold off all my single cam rb30 turbo gear and i already have everything minus a computer for a 25.
So will now close this thread obviously.
Can a moderator please delete this thread..
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