Introduction to myself and my ride!

[iChris]

Greetings from perth!

I found this forum via some googling, so I thought I might as well join up seeing as this site is a wealth of information to newbies like myself! and for me to share (my very limited) information too.

a few days ago I came into possession of my new pride and joy, a VR statesman (Buick 3.8L V6 auto). I saw it and I just had to have it.

Pros:
- 3rd owner of the car, original owner was the shire of Esperance (log book up to date with services, etc)
- odo just ticked over to 150,000
- trans and gearbox in good order
- interior very clean, velour trim and seats all in tact and not torn/ripped
- exterior in very good shape for a car of it's age, no sun damaged paint at all, all trim and badges there
- sports exhaust
- all electrics work! right down to the power antenna and analog clock in the dash!
- not a leak to be found yet (whoah!)
- aftermarket sound system with sony "xplod" 4 channel amp

it's a beautifully maintained car.

Cons:
- sagging hood liner at rear (easy fix, I'll get the whole roof re-trimmed)
- slight exhaust leak
- a few shopping trolley dents/carpark dents/stone chips on bonnet
- breaks need attention
- aircon service - the climate control works but I suspect the aircon may need a re-gas as I can hear the compressor kick in.

all up, I think it was practically a steal for the 5 grand I paid for it.

my plans for the car are as follows (for now), I plan on "restoring" this car to what it was, a grand cruiser, no plans as of yet for modding the engine.

- new rotors and break pads all round/new break fluid - I'm not taking any chance with the breaks as it's a older car. no record of them being serviced any time in the past - my brother and I are doing this on the weekend. (he's a mechanic)
- new ignition barrel (it jams often and it's bound to fail soon) is also being put in this weekend.
- chrome tips on the exhaust pipes/plugging of the leak
- re-trimming of the liner
- removal of the stonechips/trolley dents
- cut and polish, and removal of the pinstripes
- aircon service/regas
- installation of a sub

"maybes" for down the track
- installation of a vr/s caprice interior - full leather and woodgrain
- ecotec conversion

[luke23]

haha some googleing is how i found justcommodores aswell!! and you said 3.6l, the buicks are 3.8l, and yeah the paint looks like its still pretty mint, exept not a fan of that black strip along the doors, goodluck with it!!

[Kernal]

Nice and clean.

I had the same pinstripe on my VT. Used a steam gun to get it off, took about 10 minutes. Couldnt even tell it was there to begin with.

[Bazza]

Good Luck with the project

[HERONVY]

Very clean mate, you got a great buy :-)

Good luck with it all

Al

Sent from my X10i using Tapatalk

[VS 5.0]

Looks in great condition...good pick up.

[iChris]

thanks for the words of encouragement!

it was a great buy, and it's very clean and not too far off being perfect apart from as stated above so I don't mind spending some money on it as I still have about 4,000 left in the kitty to spend on it.

I was looking at getting a late 90's fairlane before I saw this baby, and I just had to have her when I saw it!

[iChris]

a quick update, new rotors/pads and break fluid went in today, and did a full service of the breaking system. drives almost like a new car now (well, breaks like a new one!) the rear pads where worn almost to a nub.

couldn't find a new ignition barrel today, but I'll keep looking throughout the week after work if I get time.

planning on sussing out a paintless dent removalist on monday to come out and pull those shopping trolley dents out sometime next week. (my brother has a BA falcon, XR6 turbo of course that needs some removed too), so 2 birds with one stone on that one. and looking at sussing out a hood re-trim too.

plans for tomorrow are to give it a good clean! she's really dusty right now and she needs a good clean in and around the doors and got some matte black paint to touch up the inside of the wheel arches too.

I'll try to remember to take some more pics of the progress for you guys.

It's all happening right now though!

I'm also looking for a vr/s caprice grill in good nick, so anyone in Perth that has one PM me!

[frogsta]

Just thought I'd say *brakes haha, just gets to me every time you say breaks and I panic :3

[VS_Pete_1]

nice pickup mate.

[iChris]

just a quick update + some pics

minor works have commenced, ignition barrel, brakes and general tidying have been done. next on my list is a headliner re-trim and removal of the pinstripes and a couple of trolley dents. I'm also trying to get hold of a caprice grille.

I'm also now thinking of GTS rims and lowering her.

unfortunately I sliced my finger open at work today (kinda badly) so I can't really do much hands on stuff for a few days but I'm sure I'll manage to do a few things anyway.

A few pics! and one showing the generic wheels it currently has, at first I thought they looked ok, but I'm starting to dislike them as the days go by.

does anyone know what the max wheel size would be for this stato?

[vrScotty]

Lol @ coles carpark :P come lay some skids down my street :P also those rims are a bit eh for a statesmen bro, But that's my opinion. It looks mint as ####, Just get different rims

[iChris]

yeah I'm not that keen on the rims now, thy're more the type of wheel you'd expect to see on a commie, but they've got close to new tires anyway so I may have to lay a few down challis rd!

I took that photo coming out of the shop, I saw her and I thought "dyam" and just had to snap a piccy

[vrScotty]

Hahaha choice as man, And nah not challis bro i'm on tambulam we got a house around the corner full of youngins who have a mint as candy apple green VL, And an old dirty VP sitting out the front, They're both skid pigs haha

[iChris]

haha I'll keep that in mind.

went to start the car this arvo and it had a flat battery... for the second time in 4 days, so down to repco for a new one. (the old one looked as old as the hills anyway) and she started fine. the top glovebox light has been a bit funny since I got the car and sometimes fails to turn on, and I would think also sometimes fails to turn off when it does turn on, so I took the bulb out.

[iChris]

another update, some chrome exhaust tips went on over the weekend and the VS caprice grille I ordered came in the mail today so that also just went on.

I also swapped the clear indicators off the commodore and put them on to replace the old orange square ones.

it's all slowly coming together! next to cross off my list is the headliner and a VS series 3 boot garnish and taillights.

excuse the mess, she needs a good wash!

[vrScotty]

I got bored and i've never done this before, But i decided i'd give a chop at your car lowered/rimsize/door handle shave, I've never done any of these in photoshop before but here goes...


And just for shits and giggles

[iChris]

haha dardy as. I'm eventually going to lower the statesman, but not till I've found some wheels that I like.

I'm thinking either VE GTS wheels:



or B Boss Eleanors:



and the wheels on it now can go on the VS or my sister's lancer mwhahaha!

[iChris]

here's a pic of the statesman wheels close up, it's my spare tyre! I'm thinking maybe a set of these cleaned and polished up would look oldschool.

[vrScotty]

Yeah they'd look alright those b boss eleanors wouldn't look half bad either

[antondude]

Hey did you find this on gumtree ?
I saw same car in caningvale if im not wrong, looked great for price you live around there ?

[iChris]

I got the car back at the end of january from a middle aged couple in como and I don't live in canning vale either lol. yeah it was on gumtree.

it's come a long way since then and it's only been a couple of months! but it was already in fantastic condition when I got it. I've got a VS series 3 statesman caprice boot garnish and tail lights on the way to replace the old faded/yellowed garnish on the back and the tail lights have a couple of cracks.

the series 3 style has the chrome edges, no boot keyhole so it will make the back look alot cleaner and the new style holden wreath logo. it also says "STATESMAN" along the clear bit in the middle so I can de-badge the back as it's got the black "STATESMAN by holden" on the bottom right.

[antondude]

Yeah the car looks mint mate good buy

[iChris]

just a quick update, the series 3 boot garnish has arrived today.

believe it or not, it's actually off a wrecked car. I can't find a single crack anywhere on it. the badge is a little pitted but there isn't much that can be done about that and the chrome strip on the top right corner needs to be stuck down again as it's started to lift. just got to wait for the matching lights to come now, but I've got a feeling they won't arrive until after the long weekend

[I8.A4.RE]

Chop looks good. Def lower the car before you change rims. Even shadow them perhaps.