Well all is okay, the Senator pieces arrived today. So I wasn't ripped off! First up, we're going to talk about the WH dash and what can/can't be swapped and changed...
WARNING- If wood grain makes you squeamish, please look away NOW! DO NOT READ BELOW THIS LINE!
For those with a stronger stomach still reading on.... Here we go. So as everyone is probably already aware,
here is what a standard WH Statesman or WH Caprice dash looks like. It has a single hoop of wood grain around the climate controls only, and it has an analogue clock:
(not my car, just a google example photo)
This is my standard WH dash fascia I've removed, sitting in the grass:
People often swap these WH woodgrain hoop fascias into lower spec Commodores. The analogue clock is pretty useless to me, as I have digital time in the HSV navigation screen anyways.
So here is what came in the mail:
This is a Calais/Senator type dash fascia, and it is full wood grain and wraps around the cluster and does not have an analogue clock.
Tell me about the wrap-around woodgrain fascia?
Now, Calais was the first model to have the "full wrap-around wood grain fascia". Then HSV based the Senator off the Calais (in much the same way Grange is based off Statesman) so the Senators got the Calais full wood grain dash too.
Why did I want to do this?
I like being different, and I like a challenge. I was told that the Senator/Calais full wood grain fascia "Will never fit in a WH" as tabs and clips are wrong and it will not physically go in. Me being stubborn, I wanted to see if I could make it work. So I found this full wraparound fascia and bought it.
The other reason I wanted to do this conversion was due to the stereo issues in the stock WH surround. I want to fit a double DIN touch screen in the car, but the stock WH woodgrain has rounded corners in the stereo hole and everyone complains that nothing fits and the wood grain has to be cut and filed in the corners to fit an aftermarket heat unit. Not a problem with the Calais/Senator wood grain, as the stereo hole is square and a double DIN fits straight in. So that was my other reason for wanting to do this.
The Fitting.
I polished and cleaned the new wraparound fascia as it was secondhand.
I removed the old stock WH fascia from the car. I then removed the stock stereo by bending up some coathanger into "U" shapes and unlocking the stereo and sliding it out. Painfully. As the stock wiring was stuck and wouldn't let the stereo come out far enough to unplug the plugs at the rear. With some moderate swearing, and some brute frustration, I got the stereo unit out. These are the plugs behind a standard WH Caprice head unit, for future reference. (One plug is not used from the factory for some reason)
So I began fitting the new fascia. I had to dremel and cut off and move a few tabs and make some moderate adjustments to tab placements.
Then came the seriously frustrating part.
I have the factory HSV satellite navigation where normal cars only have a storage tray and cigarette lighter. This became a huge problem for fitting the lower wood grain piece around the shifter and power window switch block. I had to cut (dremel off) all of the storage compartment and cigarette lighter (about 5 inches of material) off the lower shifter surround to make room to fit around the HSV sat nav screen. Once this was carried out, I then found out the gray bezel around the sat nav screen did not go into place, so more material had to be dremeled off the sides of the lower shifter surround until the sat nav bezel fitted into place. Here's some of what I had to dremel off and throw away in order to get it to fit:
Then after that headache, I thought I was home free. I was still wrong.
The HSV sat nav remote control charge dock did not fit or clip over the side of the new fascia, so I had to modify the HSV remote control dock mount which took a lot more time to get right as I didn't want to rush it and make anything look dodgey or bodged. It all had to look factory.
6 hours later and after some fibreglass and some painting and custom work behind the fascia, I got everything to line up and fit and look like factory, with some swearing.
F$%^&*ing Behold, I have made it work.
I stood back and looked at it, and everything now appears factory. All the buttons and everything works.
The interior is a bit dirty in the photo as I'd been in there cutting and dremeling and working away. I'll detail the interior soon...
What I gave up/ What I broke:
I have given up the WH factory analogue clock. But I never looked at it anyways.
I broke a tiny little cover on the passengers side of the stereo face, which covers the 2 little coathanger-unlock holes. But I later just lightly glued the little cover back into place, knowing that the stock head unit is being replaced with a double DIN anyways soon. If you look in the pictures, you'll see the tiny little cover on the left side of the stereo face hanging over about 1.5mm before I fixed it
What I gained:
I now have a normal square double DIN stereo hole, to easily fit any double DIN stereo I want, with no cutting or filing to the wood grain.
I have more faux woodgrain than before. Some people really hate woodgrain. They say its all 'old man' and they have a real hatred of it. I actually like it when its polished to a high gloss, and it doesn't seem 'old man' to me. It looks luxury, and it reminds me I'm driving a luxury car, not a base model. So while some people may have ripped the wood grain out, I've tried to add more and make the car unique and suit my taste instead.
