Converting Berlina to Calais

[Calaber]

I want to upgrade the external appearance of my VY II Berlina to a Calais. I can find out the cost of items from my friendly Holden dealer, but some of you guys might know these.

What are the prices for

1. VY 2 Calais grille (bonnet strip, main grille and lower bumper grille.
2. Rear bumper garnish with the mesh finish
3. Reflectors that go at each end of the garnish strip (I assume they are separate parts to the actual strip.
Also, are the garnish strip and reflectors only stuck on or do they have clips through the bumper?

Regards

pj

[evil_monkey]

lowwer front grill is about $150 with chrome fog light bezzels

no idea on the rest

[DUK13Y]

I would like to find out about number 3. I want to put the VZ calais tail lights into my VYII Berlina. The only problem is the reflectors. Be good to find out what the deal is and where i can get the part(s).

[Calaber]

Decided to visit the local dealer today just after posting this thread. Keeping in mind that I get trade prices, this is what I found out. All parts are genuine Holden.

Upper grille bonnet chrome strip plus mounting plate and nuts/bolts

Strip - $105
Mounting bracket - $52.55
Special nuts - 8 at 95 cents each
Screws - 4 at $1 each
Bolts - 2 at $1.70 each
Bolts - 6 at $1 each

Grille assembly - $110.25

Lower grile (housing foggies) - $147 (naturaly, foggies don't come with it)

Rear bumper insert - $22
Reflectors - $26.30 each

Just for the hell of it, I also got the prices of the genuine SV6 rear wing - $416 and the brake light is $215. Remember, those prices are trade. I didn't even want to know the full prices!

That means the total cost for the front end update came to $435.80 and the rear (less the wing) was only $78.60. The rear strip is held on by a total of 16 clips (guess they don't want them to fall off). Of these, I think about four hold on the reflectors.

Might start writing nice letters to Santa....

Regards

pj

[juzo]

Are you changing your rear lights or do you just like the look of the strip on the rear bumper?
Rear lights will set you back around $400 for the pair and look great.

[Calaber]

Nah, costs too much to do that. Changing the taillights involves changing the rear bumper as well. I was thinking of doing something else with the standard tail lights to block out the reflectors. A possibility is to paint the lower section of the taillight in the same colour as the body. That would give the "small light" look at almost no expense, and the only thing to give it away would be the margin between the bottom of the light and the bumper. I haven't committed myself to this one yet, but the changes to the front end are definitely on, because I don't like the design of the standard Berlina grille and lower insert, with the horizontal bars. The honeycomb mesh looks much smarter.

Could be some VY II Berlina grilles on sale soon....

[DUK13Y]

The VYII Berlina can house the VZ Calais tails. Just ask juzo. He did it and it looked great.

[juzo]

Originally Posted by LEDFUT

The VYII Berlina can house the VZ Calais tails. Just ask juzo. He did it and it looked great.

Cheers ledfut, came up a treat.All you need to do is add the reflectors to your back bumper.

[Calaber]

I will have to take another look then. The taillight threads on this forum must number in the dozens. Just how many different tail lights were there between the VY and VZ sedans all up?

[gottavycalais]

i changed the taillights on my vy series 1 calais to a vz calais lights and cost me about $500 all up. when you get the mesh bit that holds the reflectors it has a number of tabs on it that fit into cutouts on a vz rear bumper so i cut them off and liquid nailed it on!
problem solved and looks great too!

[Calaber]

I have to admit that I might be a bit different to many of you, but I don't like the VZ Calais taillights. The smaller circular lights appear to have a white surround set against a black background. Am I correct about the surrounds being white?

[gottavycalais]

no they are chrome surrounds. look much better in my opinion!