Morton's blue VP Executive

[Morton]

I know it doesn't look much, but she's my rollin' pride and joy

September 1991 Commodore Executive Series 1, 3.8 V6 (194,000km). Former fleet car, driven mainly around country Australia (and behind the dash trim I have acres of red dust to prove it), with full service history up to 160,000.

Custom faded blue paint, designer upholstery tears, optional boot rust, and aftermarket raised springs (not really, but you wouldn't know to look at her.)

She's everything you'd expect for $2000, and a whole lot more ^^


Here's some of the small mods I've performed so far, to give her that personal touch:

Engine: Pod filter, bellmouth removed, throttle stopper ground back, and whole chunks of earth and rust excavated from the coolant overflow tank.

Interior: VS roof light, with two directional map lights, VS gear selector (pictured), centre trim (around the head unit and climate control, down to the handbrake and beyond) sprayed gloss black (pictured), and a cup holder for coffee and maccas coke.

Sound: Alpine head unit (pictured), which I installed myself after painstakingly decoding the circuit diagram from the Haynes repair manual. Thieves be warned, it's mounted and secured entirely with folded newspaper and cloth tape... the previous owner had problems with his installation, and was able to break every screw, mount and bracket in the cluster. 12" Fusion Sub, mounted tightly behind the passenger seat so I can hear all 200 watts being delivered through my equally cheap Fusion amplifier. This also stops the bass being a full beat behind. All my treble is taken care of by two hole-riddled cardboard cones "mounted" in the dashboard atop cracked plastic and rusty screws.

Exhaust: I sprayed the tip black, but it washed off.

Holden Forever


Future mods: 215 tyres on the back (currently running 205s on all four), 2.5" exhaust with straight-through muffler and no tip (because I'm jewish), lowered springs + shocks + panhard rod if a set ever come up at the wreckers, tinted windows, nicer seats (calais ones maybe?), level 2 dash cluster, and anything else I think of that I can reasonably afford.

Peace ^^

[1991_Vn2nV]

"Custom faded blue paint, designer upholstery tears, optional boot rust, and aftermarket raised springs (not really, but you wouldn't know to look at her.)
"

Awesome man. Nice car though, good pickup for the price and amount of k's

[NickVR]

thats gold mate. low k's a bonus. now to respray it, drop it, make it louder and some nice wheels.

[Morton]

Thanks for the comments ^^ I was also pleased to find a receipt in the glove box stating that the auto trans had been reconditioned only 20,000km ago, at a cost of $800. Means I shouldn't be running into any problems with that in the near future.

I'm interested in getting a decent 2.25" or 2.5" cat-back stuck on the car within the next couple of weeks.

Does anybody have any experience with dealers in the Melbourne area, who would be able to recommend a specific garage? I've done a little bit of hunting, but most people seem to want to sell me a redback 2.5" mandrel exhaust for around $470... I'm thinking I could do a little bit better.

I've read the threads about it, and the names "Lukey Ultra Flow" and "Redback" crop up a bit. Any opinions, experiences etc people could add? I'm after more low-end power (2.25" probably?), and -legal- amounts of sound. I've heard the Redback 2.5" system puts out about 89db (just legal). What's the general deal with a Lukey ultra flow system?

I don't want the exhaust to "drone", either. I'm after more of a raw, "unsmoothed" tone. But you know, that's just being picky

All comments and opinions welcomed, as I'd like to get this purchase right the first time ^^

[MarzVP]

It is good to see someone else who loves thier VP as much as I do no matter what stage of thier life they are in. It looks good.

Marz.
Who is jealous cause my VP has 300K

[fu2]

welcome to the faded blue vp club.

not a bad pickup considering the kms.

enjoy her.

[RVN 355]

Looks clean,low km and @ a good price - dont stress over the paint, can be fixed nitta polish / fresh respray/ with ur mods already including the interior and pod i am sure it looks and goes nicely.

Got the VP I recommend the 2.25" system cat back - "Lukey Ultra Flow" Muffler +VTSS Tip and full coolant flush include trans and engine service and you wont know the old girl

[Morton]

"It is good to see someone else who loves thier VP as much as I do no matter what stage of their life they are in. It looks good." - Thanks ^^ That's all they need. A little TLC, and they should give you years of joy. Great cars

"welcome to the faded blue vp club." -

And I noticed you swear by the lukey ultra flows Subdue What sort of sound do you get from yours? And more importantly, is it EPA friendly? ^^

[Christina]

love the vp's without spoilers! nice ass! lol!

[PaRaDoX]

nice car saw it today for the first time

[crazywog]

hey morgs nice ride bro its me lil pete u owe me a ride bro

[Jo3_Blo]

Nice car dude! LMAO @ "Custom faded blue paint, designer upholstery tears, optional boot rust, and aftermarket raised springs " :lol:

[LTHL_1]

not bad pretty clean

[Charg'd]

hey morgs nice ride bro its me lil pete u owe me a ride bro

fully sick bro

[Dylan VT]

Seems like a cool car. It's cool you love it so much. Keep us posted with pics and posts when you mod it and tell us how it's all goin'

[Morton]

Alright! UPDATE!

Here's a little listy of what's been going on in the last year:

---------------------------------------
INTERIOR:
---------------------------------------
- sound deadening removed from boot, and under rear seats (10kg saved)
- small oddities like cracked plastics replaced
- level 2 dashboard installed, odometer painstakingly adjusted to correct kilometers

---------------------------------------
AUDIO:
---------------------------------------
- new Alpine CDA-9883E head unit installed ($300), sounds a good bit better
- new 100w Sony 2-ways installed in the dashboard, to replace those cardboard craptastics.
- amp moved to the boot, to save it from sub rattle

---------------------------------------
ENGINE & BODY:
---------------------------------------
- windows tinted by tint professor (darkest legal) ($250)
- rear lowered to Kings Low with Pedders shocks ($50 from wreckers)
- front lowered to Kings SuperLow with Pedders shocks ($250 from wreckers)
- custom stage 2 shift kit installed with corvette servo piston ($150, favour)
- '89 VN chip installed, at greenfoam's advice. Little more topend
- cooler 82 degree thermostat
- custom cold air intake, made craftily from bunnings guttering ($20)
- nolathane swaybar linkpins installed ($50)
- trans cooler installed, keeps things cooler with the shiftkit ($50)
- 2.5" Supercat cat-back exhaust installed ($200)
- headlights opened up and detailed in gloss black trim (free)
- indicators opened up and orange reflectors removed (free)
- installed UHF CB Radio with UHF arial on the boot ($300)
- 15*7 genuine interceptors purchased, and fitted out with 225 rubber on the rear, for traction purposes ($250)
- thermo fan bypass switch installed - instant cooling!

she's running a low 7.3 second 0-100 pass at the moment, and I know she's capable of a high 7.2 - I just have to find the right night to get a good g-tech in. That 7.3 was passed before my exhaust and tyres

and here's a few pics

[hakhawk]

bah u copied me . ive had my indicators for the vp done like that since i bought new ones a few months back. looks good hey. surprised more people havent done it to be honest.

[Morton]

omg, shhhhh! if you make it sound easy, soon EVERYONE will have them

I love the look of the headlights now. Really mixes things up a bit looks even more hardcore without any lights or grille at all.

I'll get some snaps tomorrow of the car with the UHF radio antenna. Looks awesome ^^

[hakhawk]

haha yeh. well, its not "that" easy. mine had to be dremelled apart and glued back together. i was gonna reveal it with a list of other mods on the vp once its painted.

[Wagon_Wheel]

Lookin good mate, keep the effective mods coming.... especialy ones with cable ties and super glue
Cya at next meet!

[statesmanWH]

I used to have a blue VP with cop rims and air intake, was the best V6 commodore I have ever had. It was a freak car, it went hard(better than any other V6 I have driven, including VY's), thrashed every day for almost a year until the trans started to slip, so I sold her. Should have kept it...

[Grennan]

- 15*7 genuine interceptors purchased, and fitted out with 225 rubber on the rear, for traction purposes ($250)

Hahaha, goodbye to retreads? Looks good with a bit of a clean. Where were those photos taken? With that old looking wheel and stuff?

[Morton]

hahaha, go on - you keep on making fun of my cable ties... but one day I'll craft them into a surprisingly effective supercharger - then who'll be laughing!?

grennan - lol, no - the retreads ARE my 225s ^^ rofl!

sif a tightarse like me would buy new 225s for any purpose.

But those photos were taken up in the Christmas Hills on private property, down one of many, many unsealed side streets.

[greenfoam]

It very nice and my favorite V6 on the forums , how's the diff gear schedule going?. What brand retread did you get the highway MAX 225s?

[Morton]

Ahh, you flatter me, greenfoam ^^

The diff-gear schedule has been financially set back by an unfortunate incident involving my water pump bearing and a shredded timing belt. Still on the cards, though. It'll just take a little longer to get the moneys together. It's certainly something I hope to achieve by the start of next year.

I'm also looking for some superlows to pop in under the rear control arms, and maybe, in the future, some roller-rockers. I'll see what I decide about the cost-v-benefit, though. May be worth hunting down second-hand extractors first. But then I think that superlows would look nicer than my current lows, but would really detract from the stock look, so maybe I'll skip them. I have the front riding on superlows, but you can't really tell at first glance. It doesn't look lowered, but it looks nice. I love it

Cheers for your input into the car sofar, greenfoam If it wasn't for your many words of wisdom, and constant praise of the mighty g-tech, I probably wouldn't be running less than 8