BRicks VT Berlina

[hutch892]

Guess it's about time that I put my car up on here. 99 VT Berlina Series 1. It's nothing special, but come along way from what it was when I first got it and even though it screws around every now and then I still love her.

Currently in the process of dropping an L67 in it (don't say anything about put a V8, was considering doing that but it will be much cheaper for me to run and SCV6 at them moment. Don't worry once I finally finish with uni and earn real money I will be straight into the awesomeness of the V8's.

Can't find the pictures of it in the original state, but there were a quite a few dints, most popped out pretty easily luckily. RL quarter was pretty bad, was considering cutting it out and welding a new one in but ended up going the dodge way and beating it out straight as I could and bogging. So anyway did a respray on it, pretty crap (first time spraying a car, and didn't have enough time to do a proper job).

Mods done so far:
- VX SS interior.
- VT SS body kit. (Note don't leave sitting out in hot sun for too long, mine seemed to have deformed a little and not fit perfectly as it did when first obtained)
- Dash fascia, interior door handles, and stuff painted body colour.
- Blue LED conversion, probably pretty shit compared to the ASR ones. (If anyone has found a way to do the ECC easily, please let me know).
It is not as simple as just changing the bulbs to blue LEDs, I have at least 8 or 9 LEDs just for the speedo alone. Also don't go buy them from Jaycar/Dicksmiths etc (massive ripoff). I bought a pack of 100 from Ebay, 14AUD delivered, apart from the few I burnt out from not looking at the resistors properly, no problem. I couldn't believe it when I went to one of the stores and they were charging over $1 for a single LED. (really, they cost less 1c to produce).
- Lowered, on Lows(just Kings and Munroe sport, nothing fancy) that's about as low as I can get without scraping on my driveway all the time.
- piece of crap redback catback exhaust,
- VT SS rims have gone gunmetal grey. Currently running on Kumho 31's, which IMO are pretty damn good value for money. (Still thinking of putting some VE SSV rims in dark colour on).
- Tried out the 2-hole thing, doesn't really do shit (aka don't waste your time). Will probably do a few experimental tests though just to prove this point.
- Polished plenum cover a wee bit, remove casting marks from intake manifold.
- Rebuilt the auto (didn't get shift kit in time so never went in, will do next service). To anyone that wants to do this themselves, it's not really that hard (providing you have a sound mechanical knowledge, and are able to fabricate your own tools rather than fork out the ridiculous prices for legit ones). Biggest problem I found was setting the teflon oil seals which is were proper tools are very useful.
- Pretty much all the bushes have been changed in the last 2 years, bit of a mixture of Nolathane and SuperPro. If I was to do a complete change I'd probably go with SuperPro bushes, I think the Nolathane ones are a bit overrated.
- Re-trimmed the roof lining, (or hood lining as auto upholsters seem to say, even though to me that mean under the hood aka bonnet.) If you're wanting to do this I recommend using proper material with the foam backing attached, costs a little more but well worth it, but wont cost the $140 or so for them to do it. Unless your a retard it's pretty simple, and if you get the material from a good upholsterer they should give you some tips.
- Changed fog lights to driving lights since they are way more useful when driving out on country roads. Hooked it up to switch on with high beam only as the legally should. Wouldn't mind knowing if there is any manufactures that make driving lights that fit the factory curve, have el cheapo SCA ones in at the moment, look shit but still do the job I want them too.
- DIY black headlights
- changed to the series 2 clear tail light and indicators, orange ones should never have existed.

Need to do:
- Complete respray and actually take my time and do it properly this time. Any colour suggestions, it's meant to be quicksilver with blue pearl over top at the moment, (the pearl turned out a lot lighter than I expected) which goes with the black/blue/silver interior.
- change to L67, (would like to go manual but with amount of city driving I do now, keeping with an auto is better.
- LSD, sick of taking off from the side of the road with the outside wheel spinning but going nowhere.
- Need to put in rear camber kit before new tyres get too screwed.
- Tint windows / replace front windscreen
- Probably a lot of other things.
- Front end could do with dropping a bit more.
- VX rear end, not bumper, don't really light reflectors in it
- Oh, and need some alloy foot pedals, look so much better than the crappy plastic stuff, plus my footrest seems to have gone walkabout and not come back.

For those who care, I'm not trying to make this into an SS replica, (if I wanted one then I would go buy one) the stuff just turned up for a really good price and I personally prefer the look of them, but still want the features that the Berlina/Calais offer.

Well that was a bit of a ramble, now let's see if I can work out how to add pictures.