My VS Acclaim

[Linzi]

Hey guys, had this car for a while now and have done a fair bit to it. have been looking around this site for quite some time just getting idea's and that and decided its about time i started my own thread, wish i had done it from the start! haha. let us know what you think.

Name: Lindsay
My Age: 17
Model: 1996 VS Acclaim Series I
Colour: Botanica Mica Blue
Kilometers: 191 000
Engine Type: 3.8L V6 Ecotec
Engine Mods: K&N Panel Filter, Cold Air Intake
Power: Unknown
Exhaust: Genie extractors into standard cat with Lukey 2.5 inch cat back
Gearbox: Automatic (Reconditioned)
Brakes: Stock
Suspension: Pedders Springs (Unknown Height), Monroe GT Sport Struts, standard rear shocks, Pedders Sports Ryder Strut Brace, and all bushes that get replaced are Nolathane.
Rims: 18" ANZ wheels
Interior: Custom Statesman Dash, custom center console with drink holders (that fit iced coffee cartons!) and VY power window switches, Blue LED conversion, blue foot well lights.
Exterior: Standard
Stereo: Alpine IDA-X305S media reciever, Pioneer 6 inch splits, with statesman tweeters aswell, Pioneer 6x9's, Clarion 15" Sub, old school sony amp.
Other Mods: Power window conversion, Level 3 cluster conversion, painted engine cover.
Future Mods:
- SS body kit with fog lights and boot lip (Painted by me ) - DONE
- Mace plenum spacer and insulator
- 2 12" Subs
- Sunroof
- Darker window tint
- 5 Speed Conversion (Have it, just need to install)

[Bourbonated]

Nice looking car mate. I love the fact it fits Iced Coffee, too :P! I am forever looking for a spot to put mine! Who did all that work?

[GothicKidd]

Looks awesome man Still jealous haha.

[Linzi]

did it all my self mate taught myself how to spray paint and everything haha

[Wombles]

Looks neat as!
Dont like the engine cover colour though.. Doesnt suit it..

[Linzi]

yeah the plan with that it cos the brake calipers and all that are the same colour, that red is the secondary colour. want to get the instrument cluster and all that red as well, i like it against the colour of the car.

[Trayner]

Looks mint mate , the stateo dash looks at home in the car , and little bit of blue sets it off

[tim005]

Very tastefully modded car mate, it's so so so clean.
SS Kit will look so awesome.

[1VSlover]

hey dude,

How did you go about getting the interior all blue?

Is that powder coated?

How much did it cost?

Does it look as good as it does in the photos?

thanks

sweet ride man, love the color so MUCH!

[L67 Calais]

I like!!!! (everything except all the red under the hood.... Black Covers FTW!!!!!!!)

Nice car mate!!

[Linzi]

Hey mate. Na it's painted. I got some acrylic mixed up at the local paint store in my colour, cost about 55 for a half a litre tin which was almost enough to do my ss skirts as well. Then masked it all off, plastic primed it and sprayed it myself. It does look awesome I will admit lol, but I stuffed up with the clear coat and a little section has blistered a bit. It's hardly noticeable, I'll fix it when I get some spare time one day.

[Linzi]

Cheers for the comments guys don't mind the colour myself haha

[Drawnnite]

looking very tidy.

that stato dash looks really smooth and like it should have always been there =P

keep up the good work.
and keep us all posted on the updates =P

[actfst]

awesome job with the car it looks mint, love the vy window switches gave me an idea , i reckon cover up the cigarette lighter hole if you dont use it

[Linzi]

Yeah I just need to get another cigarette lighter for it, put the old one in my VR to sell it

[Linzi]

Well, a few weeks ago, i noticed a ticking noise, turned out one of the studs that holds the extractors on had snapped off in the head, and there was a gap between the extractors and head, and some exhaust gas was escaping and making the ticking. So we took the extractor off and got a right angled drill chuck to try drill the stud and then get and easy out on to it, but of course it was high tensile! so got a different drill bit, and finally got a hole started, but because the aircon compressor was in the way, the hole ended up off centre. So after a lot of thinking and fighting with dad, we decided to unbolt the engine, jack it up in the car with everything still attached, take the aircon compressor off and try drill the stud out, but we couldn't get a hole started in the centre. next idea was to get an old exhaust manifold off of a vs, make a template of all the bolt holes on a bit of flat, and make the hole for the broken stud the size of the drill bit so it would drill in the centre of the stud. Luckily this finally worked. so after we got a hole in there, we used a reverse drill bit and after about 10 minutes of drilling in reverse it just popped out.
whilst we had it all off we noticed that where the exhaust was blowing out, it was right on to the bottom radiator hose, so a new one of them. also we noticed the water pump was about to let go, so a new one of them as well. also we found that 2 of the idler pulleys had crook bearings, so replaced them.
So what should have been a 2 minute job just to screw a new stud in, worked out to take about 10 hours. But it didn't end there. After driving it around for a bit, it was starting to miss and play up. This turned out to be the coil, which also had the exhaust blowing on to it, but luckily that was an easy fix. A whole lot of ####ing around, for one little stud :/

[frogsta]

Looks great man, love the iced coffee holders and lights. How'd you do that?

[Linzi]

fair bit of stuffing around, they are electrical junction boxes, cut the bottoms off and poured resin in there with led's in it. glued them in sanded and painted it.

[UW1SH]

Nice ride…. the color is awesome not one you see everyday on a commodore. how much stuffing around was it putting the stato dash in?? i plan on doing it to mine.

[kory]

nice clean commodore mate.dam that interior looks awesome.big job i bet.would love to do this to me ute,or just replace the crappy dash.but i reckon id just #### it up.10/10 for the interior .top job.

[Linzi]

cheers mate, its a straight swap for the stato dash, if you know how to take them out. i was dreading it but its actually fairly straight forward, only a few hours work.

[UW1SH]

So do i need the wiring from the stato dash or can i use the normal exec loom.. im guessing not since the stato is digital??

[Linzi]

na you could use the executive wiring, just the clock wouldn't work, the wiring loom just unclips. but if you were going to do it, i would do the level 3 cluster upgrade whilst you have the wiring and dash out, theres a thread on here somewhere called trippin' thats all about it. I love having the trip computer and better looking cluster.

[UW1SH]

Yeh i wanted to do all that with the stato dash.. im going to put the stato dash in with a level 3 cluster.. thanks man il have a look at that thread if i can find it..

[Linzi]

ordered some GT Sport struts for the front today, should be here in the next few weeks, and also just won the bid for a level 3 cluster with almost correct K's, very happy