Got a painful RWC list back

[toranamike]

Bought a VP for $800 last year and have been slowly working on it with a mate to try and get it roadworthy.. replaced quite a number of things and finally thought we were close to finishing it... took it to a Tester and the list is pretty long.

Among the main things, 'front seal leaking', 'rear main seal leaking', 'machine front rotors', 'machine rear disks', 'rear shocks leaking', 'speedo sensor leaking', 'engine mount sag'.

Any tips as to what I should do myself and what I should leave to him? He's quoted $1700 to do it all, but suggested I do some first. The only thing from the list that I'd definitely want to hand back to him would be the rear main seal... did one a couple of years ago on a VL and it was a bitch of a job.

There are also some little things like 'Indicator stalk doesn't always cancel', or 'no rooflining' (is that even a RWC component?) which I can probably also take care off.

For the stuff I mentioned above, he's quoted:
Front seal: $95, Rear Main Seal: $350, Front Rotors: $175, Rear disks: $175, Rear shocks: $45, Speedo sensor: $60, Engine mount $200 (both).... do these prices seem okay?

[psycho_smurf]

You could buy new rotors for that price... When you look at these things can you see the faults they listed? Sometimes a good hit of degreaser can hide a few of the faults unless the oil is visibly leaking. Rooflining is definately on the list. I've no idea about the indicator stalk not cancelling being part of it? Maybe there's someone at main roads you can talk to about it?

[GTP 85]

How good are you with the spanners? If you did it on a VL, you can do it on this car.

front seal isnt hard its a $5 part, just need to pull the balancer off. rear seal do it yourself too, $350 is a tad steep.. save a bit there.

I do hope he's quoting the disc prices for new, not machined? coz thats a rip if its machined! fitting discs is pretty easy

For $45 for shocks i assume thats for good 2nd hand? You can do this yourself

speedo sensor is easy, its on the trans itself. maybe look up a 'how to' on here...

indicator stalk... just change it over yourself

Engine mounts are straight forward if you have jacks and spanners, passenger side is a little tricky. mounts cost $50 ea

You can find pointers on how to do most of this stuff by using the advanced search at the top

[Pickled]

You can do most of this yourself mate, rear main being the hardest, you'll have to take the engine out or drop the transmission, $350 sounds okay depending on the amount of hours it takes them to fix it.

Speedo sensor can be pocketed from the wreckers and changed over in 5 minutes?

As RUF 321 said, fitting discs is pretty easy, and with help on here you could easily do it yourself.

$1,700 is a bit much and doesn't seem worth it, you can buy a roadworthy car for that much.

Do whatever you can yourself and get them to do the rest, don't let them rip you off on easy-to-fix problems.

[toranamike]

Yeah I was definitely contemplating doing the rotor disk machining myself.. it cost about $40 for a pair to be machined last time I had it done... the price he was quoting was to machine it and replace the pads (which I got second hand but still have >85% on them...)

Front seal I can probably do, haven't done engine mounts before.. I read another thread where there's different ones for these models? Steel or hydraulic?

Yeah I'll probably do the shocks myself as well.

But I still think I'll leave the Rear Main to him.. even if I can do almost everything else, I'd rather someone else do it :-/


Thanks for the replies guys

[89vn_Jai]

How good are you with the spanners? If you did it on a VL, you can do it on this car.

front seal isnt hard its a $5 part, just need to pull the balancer off. rear seal do it yourself too, $350 is a tad steep.. save a bit there.

I do hope he's quoting the disc prices for new, not machined? coz thats a rip if its machined! fitting discs is pretty easy

For $45 for shocks i assume thats for good 2nd hand? You can do this yourself

speedo sensor is easy, its on the trans itself. maybe look up a 'how to' on here...

indicator stalk... just change it over yourself

Engine mounts are straight forward if you have jacks and spanners, passenger side is a little tricky. mounts cost $50 ea

You can find pointers on how to do most of this stuff by using the advanced search at the top

$350 for the rear main seal probably isnt too steep as the seal comes as part of an alloy plate with a gasket and new bolts. This bolts to the back of the motor and also covers water and oil gallerys. From memory i think this cost around $65 for Holden

[Sabbath']

Wait a couple of weeks, degrease all the leaks right before you take it in for the recheck and tell him you've done them.

[Vp stocko]

I have a vp and bought it for $700 and the same exact things are wrong with it exept the speedo sensor and front seal..