2003 VY Berlina, First Car

[luke641]

Hi all, thought I would make a thred and post up some pictures on my first car, a 2003 VY Berlina.

Specs
Model: 2003 VY Berlina
Colour: Delft Blue
Engine Type: 3.8L Ecotec with 170xxxkm, High I know, But serviced regularly every 15000km.
Engine Mods: N/A
Gearbox: 4 Speed Auto
VY/VZ Calais 17' rims with 235/35/r17's
Tinted rear windows, not sure if front are. Unsure of tint strength.
Full leather interior, Factory Option
Lowerd. Unsure of amount or type of spring

Future Plans:
Pay off the money I borrowed for it
Chrome S2 Number plate surround
Exhaust
VY/VZ Calais Lights - Done
Calais Bumper reflectors - Done
Clean up/repaint rear/front bumpers - Done(no repaint)
Amp/Sub - Done
7' Touch screen DVD/CD/TV Player
+ Will add more as I think of it.

No bad for a first car... The paint is in good condition, has a larger amount of scratches then usual, but most will come out with a good cut and polish, wax etc...

Any comments/advise/input welcomed.

Pics




Cheers
Luke

[TMM]

That would be Delft Blue

It's definitely lowered, the VZ Calais rims suit it well.

Berlina's usually have a few bumps and scrapes - mine did as it was a family car.

[luke641]

That would be Delft Blue

It's definitely lowered, the VZ Calais rims suit it well.

Berlina's usually have a few bumps and scrapes - mine did as it was a family car.

Yer it looks great IMO. I looked at a few other Berlina's, all similiar, or worse paint wise, none with leather interior.

The guy at the dealership said it was parked in a narrow, units garage, hence the bumps to the front and rear..

Thanks for the paint name.. Can you buy touch up for it? Any places in particular sell it?

[sweefu]

Keen to see some interior pics mate!

[Rusty]

Love the rims mate! your going to PM me if you ever sell them!! They always look good whitewalled too. May look pretty dam good on yours!

Maybe some chrome window surrounds will suit it if ur going with the chrome number plate surround. Great car mate!!

Edit: I'm a tool, looks like it comes with chrome window surround

[luke641]

Yer ill post up some interior pics when i pick up the car on Wednesday. Its Black leather. With the woodgrain gear leaver surround and coin tray.

White walls is a option. Might do a photoshop of it with them.

But before any major mods, needs a good cut and polish, wax, etc.

And yes it has chrome window surrounds.

EDIT:
Here is a pic of Jbird's Interior in his Berlina. Its the exact same as mine, minus the twin gauges above the center console. (His car is also the same colour.. lol)


Jbirds car:
My sacked vy berlina

[luke641]

Oops Double Post..

But since i have a post... I shall ask a question.

The cleaning up the paint will be the first real thing i do with it. The previous owners had a small narrow garage so there is a few concrete scrapes on the front and back bumpers. As well as a few other scratches. Most should come out with a Cut and Polish,Wax.. Etc...

For touching up the paint.. Can i buy GM touch up paint? Or could i use a product i saw:

http://www.turtlewax.com/main.taf?p=2,1,4,5

Any one tried the turtle wax product?

Also, is the a plate or somthing rather, that tells me exactly what the name of the paint is?

And also, if anyone can tell if its lowered(or by how much) that would be great! (springs look grey like the FE2's?)

Cheers

[TMM]

Look in the engine bay, there's a build plate above the passenger headlight which has the paint code (a few numbers/letters) and will also tell you the suspension the car came with - "STD" for FE1, and "FE2" for FE2. The height looks like FE2 to me.
If you go to the parts counter at Holden they have small bottles of touchup paint in all the standard commodore colours.

The general rule of thumb for scratches/chips is, if you can catch your nail on it polish alone won't fix it. All the polishes that claim to work on certain colours are a bit of a gimmick as they just fill up the scratches with a colour filler which eventually wears off and the scratch reappears.

Using an abrasive polish you can improve the appearance of deep scratches by 'rounding off' the edges of the damage, but you'll never remove it completely unless you bring the rest of the paint down to the same thickness as the trough of the scratch, and that is impossible for scratches that are all the way through the clearcoat.

For scratches that polishing alone won't remove, but aren't all the way through the clear coat you can carefully wet sand them back with 2000grit+ sandpaper (don't sand through the clear!), then polish out the sanding marks.

For deeper scratches/scrapes (through to the color coat, primer or metal) the only way to fix it 95%+ without respraying the whole panel is this:

-clean the area thoroughly with wax and grease remover to remove any dirt or polish residue in the chip/scratch. A claybar is also a good idea if you have one.
-If you have a scratch through to bare metal, first remove any rust (a small engraving bit is handy) then apply some metal etching primer to the bare metal.
-carefully fill the scratch/chip with touchup paint, remembering you just want to fill the scratch not the good paint around it - i've seen people use a needle or syringe to put paint on a scratch rather then the sloppy brush that touchup bottles use.
-You may have to apply a few coats to fill it up just a little bit higher then the level of the good paint around it - remember wait for it to be touch dry before applying another coat, and lots of thin coats are the key here. You don't want to just put a massive blob on because it'll just make more work for you later.
-once it's filled, wait for the paint to harden - at least a week, preferably a month.
-carefully wet-sand it flat with a high grit sandpaper (2000grit). This is the risky part as you don't want to sand through the clearcoat on the good paint around the scratch, as that would require a respray of the panel to fix. You'll want to use a small sanding block otherwise you'll get a wavy reflection in the paint. I use a 1cmx1cm square of balsa wood as a mini sanding block with a 2cmx2cm piece of paper, sand for about 5 seconds, then spray it down with water and wipe it with a cloth to see how i'm progressing. When the sandpaper gets clogged up with touchup paint get a new piece of paper.
-If you've done it right, the damage should be invisible now, the paint will have a matte finish left by the sandpaper.
-Then you can polish out the matte finish left by sanding. I use Meguiars ScratchX 2.0 by hand, it takes 4-5 hits to remove all the sanding marks.
-The repair is virtually invisible, you may only notice it under bright lights or direct sunlight .

Heres a guide for stone chips, the method is the same for scratches:
http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/foru...ad.php?t=20127

[luke641]

Thanks TMM. Champ. Will let you know how it goes

[pempa]

Very nice man, cant wait to see what it looks like when your done, i love a vy slammed on whitewalls they always look tough!

[luke641]

Considering doing some white walls. But DIY with posca pens. Not keen on spending big$$ on something that will fade

[luke641]

Well.. Pick up the car on saturday. Pretty Stoked.

Got my sub out of the garage. Sony Xplod 1000watt 12' Goes alright.


Question on installing it though.

I want to retain the stock Head Unit as i cant afford the 7' DVD screen one yet. How do i install the amp to stock head unit. I read that i need a Line Level Converter? How does this work? could I install this myself with out issue? Where does it go? Or would i be better off getting Strathfield to do it?

Cheers Luke

PS. White Walls Posca Pen Spec are on the way.

[luke641]

I will be posting a 'HOW-TO' on installing a amp on a VY/VZ with stock head unit. stay tuned for some updates...

For the mean time..
Some new goodies


2900 Watt Amp
1000 Watt Xplod Sub
Line Level Converter
Power Distribution Block
Amp Wiring Kit

[sleepa]

Very tidy first car, Keep it classy!

BTW, autobarn sells touch up paint in Delft Blue that is pretty damn close.

[luke641]

Cheers mate.

That the plan, clean classy, and practical.

[luke641]

Well the sub is in. No real issues. Other then a install delay due to a faulty battery on sunday morning.. $180 later and its all fixed.

Here are some pics of the install...

If you look on the RHS pannel, you can see the power distribution block. This allowed me to tap into the power for a sunroof (orange/white striped wire). From the block i connect the other end of sunroof power wire in one of the 4 outlets, and the remote into the other. Remote wire runs to the switch under the dash then back again.



The switch in the trigger/remote wire. This allows me to turn the amp on and off when i choose. So if i want to still listen to music with out loud, drowning bass, i can.



Pic of the sub, amp, Line Level Convert in the boot... Need to be cleaned up, and need to mount the amp onto the parcel shelf, for the mean time its velco'd into place...



Some new pics i took of the car when i was bored...

[luke641]

Well the amp is mounted in its final position.
Here are some pics: (excuse the crap iPhone quality pics)







Will post better quality pics later.

[luke641]

Just a few new pics of my car next to a mates VZ Calais.

[luke641]

Was bored this arvo so i went and took a few pics.. Car is very dirty and it just rained to.. And the iPhone pic quality is very poor.. But anyways..

[luke641]

Picked up the VY/VZ Calais bumper garnish/reflectors today.. Will put them on over the weekend.

[luke641]

Some more pics of amp install..

How i connected the Line Level Converter, connectors heat shrinked

Line Level Converter mounted to body.

Amp mounted to underside of parcel shelf with 12mm MDF. Drove with sub cranking for 2hrs straight, didnt get hot at all.

Shot of amp and sub(yes i know sub is in crooked but screws wouldnt go in and hold is the Xplod was parallel to boot.)


And a pic of the interior

[luke641]

VZ Calais Reflectors and garnish are now on, VZ Calais lights are on the way.

[Calaber]

That looks much smarter Luke. The standard Series 1 Berlina is way too plain at the back - looks just like a VZ Exec without the chrome and garnish.

[luke641]

That looks much smarter Luke. The standard Series 1 Berlina is way too plain at the back - looks just like a VZ Exec without the chrome and garnish.

Cheers mate.

And here is a hint of the next little mod..



After that im going to concentrate on paying off the money i owe on it, and also have rego+service coming up. So no major mods for a while

[luke641]

Got a question out there for all the Exhaust boffins..

Want to get a exhaust on this, and im wondering what the best size is? 2.5' or 2.25'? Im not after a massive, if any performance gain, just a nice note. Dont want it to be loud when just driving normally, just a nice note under acceleration.

A mate with a Alloy tec Sv6 has a 2.25' xforce and it sounds good. But another has a 2.5' redback and sounds good to? So im unsure which is best.

So which size would be better? Also any brands? I have about $350 to spend.

Cheers