- Dodgy Dave & The Blue Beast -

[Dodgy_Dave]

Hi Guy's & Girls

Here's my very first commo, A 93 VR Executive. I purchased it about 2 months ago with 215,000km, 10month rego, Pedder's lowered springs, Cat back exhaust, New tyres on VT SS 17" rims.

And I am going to set it up to use as a tow car for my race car.

I am mechanically minded but I'm not too familiar with working on a commo which is why I have joined this forum. I've been lurking about checking out what other people have done, getting ideas and doing search's but I thought might as well join up.


The weekend after purchasing the car, I had to get my priorities straight. I can't drive around without a stereo
I scavanged my old 12" kenwood sub, dusted off the amp, speakers, wiring etc out of the shed, I purchased a new Kenwood mp3 player and hooked it all up. The parcel shelf had a hole where the previous over had 6x9 speakers with spacers installed, to cover the hole and to use my 6" speakers at the back, I used a spare pair of front door speaker pods, a few squirts of black spraypaint and they look aftermarket.

Then I gave it a new lease on life.
It's amazing how a major service can transform how a car runs and feels. Simply by replacing fuel, oil and air filters doing a "my style" of engine oil flush (Drain old oil/fill with new oil/Add Nulon oil flush/drain/change filter/fill with quality oil, Alot of sludge build up and old contaminated oil is removed by doing this) and of course I replaced the sparkies. I laughed when I saw It still had the original spark plugs in, It had about 1.8mm gap and 2mm of electrode left!!
The transmission kicked back into life after replacing the filter and fluid.
A bottle of injector cleaner and premium fuel, helped clean out the fuel lines.

I am usually use to driving small cars, so stepping into this feels like an absolute tank with obscene body roll. To help this I have replaced the almost non existant rubber sway bar and link bush's with Poly bush's. I have the rear upper trailing arm ready to be installed this weekend.

2 weeks ago the power window regulator called it a night and decided to scratch the tint. It was bloody cold that night, and the heater is on the fritz too. So I had to learn how to replace power window regulators. 1 hour and alot of swearing later, I managed to figure out how to take off the door trim :lol:

Next area of attention were the brakes.
Keeping in mind it will be used as a tow car, and besides the fact that the standard brakes are ****, I originally wanted to replace the standard rotors with slotted and decent pads.
That was until I read that VT twin piston caliper can be fitted.
I bought the calipers for $80
Bendix ultra premium pads ~$50
A customer from work had returned a front pair of VT slotted rotors under a warranty claim. They were glazed, but a quick machine sorted them out. I saved them from the rubish bin.
Castol response Brake Fluid $7.15

Twin piston calipers and slotted rotor upgrade TOTAL $137.15 Cheaper than getting standard replacement rotors!!

Before someone say's you need the master cylinder, I do have a VT booster and PBR cyl. here, But I wanted to see how the VR one holds up. It seems fine for my grandpa style of driving. I'll see how it handles while towing, So I may change it later.

A mate gave me a 1250kg tow bar which he had stashed in his garage, but It turns out I would need a heavy duty tow bar, I was about to bust out the welder and strengthen it, but while scouring ebay, I picked up an absolute bargain 2500kg Hayman Reece tow bar for $35 !! RRP ~$700

I havn't forgotten about a Transmission cooler. At work I managed to get the last kit to suit V8 for only $40. And is ready to be installed this weekend too, well after I figure out how to take off the front bar.

Last but not least, a 7 pin flat plug trailer socket will be hardwired in. I saw the plug into tail light setup up available. But having it hardwired, I won't lose the lead. And all the lights on the car and trailer will be working in perfect harmony. I'll just have to figure out what wire is what.

A mate of mine gave me a heap of parts from his old VR, Amongst the junk is an Intake manifold with injectors, T/B etc and a set of heads.
I'll be scraping off the carbon build up in the intake manifold, having the injectors properly cleaned and maybe adding a supersized throttle body for good measure.

He also gave me some standard height heavy duty rear springs which will be put in when it's towing time.

Well that's where I'm up to so far. Time for some pictures.

[Wagon_Wheel]

Sounds like you got a bit of fun ahead of you.
I would recommend upgrading to the VT master and booster as well with the calipers

[Dodgy_Dave]

Most of the fun stuff is already done.
I installed the brakes last weekend, I made the shims from some old intercooler piping I had lying around. Flushed the brake lines of old fluid and the pedal feel is not bad, but not great.
I know the VT cyl. would be much better, but the standard one will have to do for a few weeks. In the meantime I'll do a few topic search's.

All thats left is the trailing arm's, towbar and oil cooler. Maybe some performance modifications.

[GTP 85]

nice car mate, commos are easy as to work on!

I'll be doin the twin piston setup soon, but i'm goin all the way and fitting 1 inch master, spacer rings and braided lines. I give the old stoppers a bit of a work out though haha

[Dodgy_Dave]

What size is the VT V6 master cylinder? I've done a few search's but I can't find a how to remove it thread.

[Dan VS 231]

1 inch as apposed to the 7/8ths (I think) from the the VR-VS series. Looks good so far and should be a decent tow car but as we all know things can spiral pretty quickly with cars.

[Dodgy_Dave]

Tell me about it, Most of my money is poured into my other car so I am trying to keep costs to a minimum, But I have mates and customers with VR's being a bad influence on me.
I did a few search's and found more answers and ideas. Thanks for your reply

[Dodgy_Dave]

As a preventative measure I replaced the top and bottom radiator hose's, ran Nulon Radiator flush through the system, reversed flushed and replaced the coolant and radiator cap. Judging from the condition of it, It seems that the radiator and water pump were replaced not long ago, A quick degrease of the engine and now it's alot prettier.



While sorting out the cooling system, might as well fit a transmission cooler. On the box it say's to suit V8, but meh, bigger the better right?
I have a large fan at the front of the air con condensor which stops me from pushing the cable tie thing through it, So instead of removing the front bar, and fart arsing around. I made a small bracket and attatched it to the front bar, behind the numberplate. Put some of that dodgy fake braid crap mainly for protection, so the rubber doesn't rub on any corners, Topped it up with Lucas Auto trans treatment. It definitly shifts smoother and is reccommended for towing vehicles. and job done.

Dodgy, but Good.


I've replaced bush's that needs replacing, I've upgraded the brakes, Sorted out the cooling system, Now let the quest for more power begin. Any tips besides the usual CAI, Exhaust tricks?