Project Calais - Mums drowned genuine 5LTR Calais Restoration - lots of pics

[shaunington]

Hey all,
In addition to my VL, over the next year or two in my spare time, we're undertaking another Project.
Backstory:
In 2002, Mum's blue VL Berlina (5LTR, lowered, cammed, grumpy thing) was stolen from our house and never recovered. This is the only picture I can find of it from when she got it (before work done):



As a replacement, mum splurged on a low-k, fully optioned (minus leather) Calais, with some sort of bodykit.

She loved it to bits and did some work on it over the years of having it (lowering, bigger wheels, mild engine work, took out the Gas stuff, did some mild head work etc.
Here are some scanned photos from the film days of what it used to look like, scannedback from the film days:
When we bought it:





Lowered with bigger wheels:







She moved up to Queensland and took the car with her, and put some Monaro wheels on from her partners 2004 Monaro. This is the last photo we have of it before things went pear shaped.



At the end of that year, we went to the Summernats and left the Calais at home on the Gold Coast. It just so happened that while we were away, we had absolutely ridiculous flooding and rain.
We returned to find our property as a big sludge pit, and Mums pride and joy (which was by this stage a weekender) completely drowned with mud, sludge and debris. The car was almost totally submerged in water (approximate max water level pictured below from the ‘dirt’ line)

Here are some photos of the car when we got back to it:













The car sat for a while and the insurance deemed it a repairable write-off. We got the pay out and bought back the shell and moved it to higher ground where it sat for 2 years.

Last year, we decided to do something about it, and started slowly compiling a list of all the things wrong with it and that would need to be fixed, and slowly gutted the interior and anything else easily removable.

Today after a few months between drinks we headed up there and finished gutting the interior, took a few documentary pictures and 2011 will be the year we get this thing back to its prime.
This is how the car looks today.


Smashed quarter panel from a stone thrown by the whipper snipper























It’s sad, but we’re optimistic that with some TLC, money and time, we can get it back to its former glory, and perhaps even better.
Our plans are in no particular order:

-Repair all surface rust and body blemishes, rub back and paint
-Respray (Maranello red over silver, original scheme)
-Put injected 304 in (from VS SS Donor car that we already have)
-Pair with a suitable manual
-redo basically everything about the car (from wheel bearings to power window motors)
-big brake upgrade
-Stroke and/or mild blower (TBA down the line)
-lotssss more down the track.

This will be the progress thread that we will periodically update with.. well, updates. Any suggestions, ideas, comments etc. Are welcome here

Shaun

[detox_nath83]

Hey Shaun What a shame in what happened... Very Nice looking Calais B4 the sludge Days....

But keep your head up as u know the potential it has.. Future Plans sound good.

Ill be keeping an eye on this one, as u progress only But forward now :P

[VLC86]

shame to hear about the misfortune your mother has had with cars

Good luck with it all, keep to it

[Adds_05]

good to see your going to fix it up,alot of people would have just taken the money and ran,good luck with it.

[HOLD3N]

Sorry to hear of the misfortune, shame to see such a beautiful car like this. Huge thumbs up for deciding to restore her, will be worth it all in the end.

[NickVR]

Let's hope you get it back to the way it was. It looked mint back then. Keep us posted.