01 Caprice

[wraith]

Would of been easier and less P plater mod style if you went MCAI. Probably work just as good to.

 

[WHCapriceHBD]

Nah, I'm no fan of the Monaro intake setup. I had parts here to bolt it in but it doesn't seem to grab much direct air. Only the small amount around the back of the headlight, which is not even sourced cleanly outside of the engine bay.
I want to source a lot of fresh air directly from the front of the car, not through panel gaps and holes. And have a sealed system that doesnt mix any warm engine bay air in via gaps in any intakes.

Nobody will ever see the ducting behind the front bar or grille (when black) and it will remain stock looking under the bonnet.

 

[WHCapriceHBD]

Well here's the finished intake system in the car. You can't actually see any of it from in the engine bay or from outside the car, and it appears to be working very well. Off a long highway trip, the airbox and maf pipe are cold, whereas the rest of the engine bay components are hot. I logged intake air temps down by 16C at 80kmh, compared to the factory intake system.

In other news... I removed the factory horns under each corner of the front bumper and installed a pair of louder 118Db German-made Hella horns instead. They are a heap louder than factory and so far its been a good modification.

Today I got home from work early and was washing the car in the backyard. I looked at the upright Caprice bonnet emblem and its been bugging me that there's the emblem on the bonnet as well as the emblem in the middle of the Grange grille. It looked too busy. So while I had a spare hour, I managed to unscrew the bonnet emblem and remove it (for reference, the Caprice stand up wreath emblem uses a plastic 17mm nut underneath the bonnet which is incredibly hard to access)
Once I'd got the stand up bonnet emblem off, I set about filling the left over 12mm hole and smaller 4mm hole in the bonnet. I made a steel patch and backed it under the bonnet skin. Then carefully filled both locating holes.

I then primed over the filled holes area (the blue primer patch in the photo below) and shot body colour over the whole thing and clearcoated it, ready to buff tomorrow.

Removing the bonnet emblem badge was a real spur of the moment thing. I just walked outside and ended up doing it. But from start to finish, it only took me roughly an hour of work to fill and paint and sand, etc. It was actually a very quick and easy job- I still had my office clothes on from work...

I don't have a finished photo as it got dark around 8pm when I finished up.
Looks like the stand up Caprice wreath emblem will now go up for sale to fund some more bits to play with. Total cost to fill the bonnet holes was a big fat $0.00 as I had spare paint and an hour of my time.

 

[Skydrol]

Excellent move... I knew that will look way better. Love it and good job !

 

[rch-13z]

Assuming you're using a compressor etc for paint?

Came out mint!

 

[WHCapriceHBD]

Cheers, yep, own compressor and gun. Its very handy to be able to just nick outside and make a change or touch something up when I need to.

Minor update.

The godforsaken exhaust continues to be a saga. I have to check it over after each and every drive, to make sure its all still there and where it should be.
Tonight during after-work routine exhaust check, noticed one of the rearmost hangers behind the bumper is gone. So now need to order a couple of rubber hangers and a retaining clip.

Seriously worst thing I've ever done to the car/any car I've ever owned, is putting this DEA branded junk catback exhaust on it. They never refunded me, just stopped responding. More than angry at DEA Performance. Car will go back in the shop to have the hangers and rear section adjusted. Again.
I feel so bad for the car. Feels like the workmanship in that area lets it down majorly.

 

[wraith]

Not really their fault if they are only the resellers. Think what you have is a Redback system. I haven't had a single drama with my eBay special exhaust but it's Supercat.

 

[WHCapriceHBD]

^ No, it was sold to me as a Redback. I paid for a Redback.

Then it arrived here and it was a chinese no-brand copy of a Redback/Xforce, and a sedan system at that. I went to the seller and told them that they had ripped me off- I expected a Redback and was given a Zhang or Zetti or whatever system. And the wrong length.

They sent out a "genuine replacement" but it was also a no-name brand system, and still a passenger car length. Out of frustration I demanded they make it right. They stopped responding, and its cost me time and effort to put up with something thats very sub par. If you go back through this thread a few pages (page 18 or 19) you'll read the whole thing in detail and see the mis-alignment and the general bullsh!t of the whole thing...

 

[wraith]

Yeah I read all the dramas you had. Everything is made in China now bar I think Manta so is probably a Redback with no stickers. What a bunch of tools. Glad I avoided getting the exhaust from them. Guess customer service isn't so important any more. Did you already give them a rating?`

 

[WHCapriceHBD]

It did have a part number on it which they didn't remove- I scrubbed at the silver paint and found the number and then cross referenced the catback online. It came up with a Chinese website with poor english. Definitely not Redback by any means.

When I called them and spoke over the phone, the sales rep kept repeating "Its a DEA catback.... Its a DEA catback..."

I then mentioned the part number I found on it, and I knew it was not Redback, and it was not made by DEA either... After a pause, he replies "....Its a Zheng/Zetti catback."

And in order to qualify for a refund via a formal Paypal case, they wanted me to remove the catback and ship it back to them at my expense, which was ludicrously expensive and time consuming.
So they never made good on the promise of fixing the issue, and went silent, so I had no real option but to leave very negative feedback. Hopefully people will see what I went through and avoid making the same mistake.
I could have easily bought a Manta or equivalent with the amount of money I've wasted in total on the catback plus having to heat and bend and reweld everything and the time its taking to get it to just fit 'close enough' as it should have done (if it were a proper Redback in the first place). Plus a slightly melted genuine Grange rear bumper thats no longer in production, and having to replace hangers that couldn't cope with the strain from the incorrect bends and placement of the pipes...

That's why I'm upset with the system and them. If it were a real Redback like I was under the impression I was getting, it would have been far less hassle. But no explanation why I was given this system in the first place. They got my money, they were happy....