New to the car seen. would love some help. VT commodore 2000 model

[Adatiel]

Okay sorry about being a noob... 18 year ol Tassie boy, bought a cheap as chips VT commodore absolutely ran into the ground.. as my father has built cars and fixed cars his entire life it made it easy to get the parts I needed to fix the internals, only a few things need fixing now... front head light is absolutely buggered, whoever had it before me crashed into a poll of some sort on the left side, he disconnected the sub, got knows why, probably fried it as this d*** had no idea how to look after his car... literally roof screws he had put in to hold the bumper in.... but now that ive fixed most of its issues im struggling to find bumpers, skirts and rear bumper (looking to make it look pretty) where do you guys get your parts? I also still need a non damaged front headlight since the car is white may get some tinted headlights and rear lights but really hard to find half decent stuff in Tasmania that's not already damaged from the wreckers round here. don't know where to look or where to start..... anyone got experience with this kind of stuff?.... I believe the front is to damaged to get it fixed by a mechanic and it would be to costly probably worth more then the car itself as my father wants me to learn everything on my own without his help. Pic of the mistreated girl.

 

[NeddyBear]

Ebay and good luck replacing the headlights but then again you do need to remove the bumper so that won't be an issue.
Whats the sub you mention, surely not the subframe and don't go talking down the previous owner, you bought so it can't be too bad.

How many K's has she done, I like to dig the view and any pictures.

 

[MEANL67]

I find local wreckers, ebay.gumtree and car auctions are the best,

 

[devilly]

welcome i would suggest to grab a workshop book read it your spare time.

 

[mpower]

sometimes it's easier and cheaper to find another whole car to pull those bits off, even something with a shagged engine/gearbox so it has little value left in it but cosmetically better than what you have. Hit up Gumtree imo.

 

[WHCapriceHBD]

Tasmania is notoriously bad for sourcing parts, as what we do have down here are mostly old wrecks that have been beaten around and had a really, really hard life. Its not like mainland Australia where there's a steady stream of cars coming in and out of surrounding states to "refresh" things.

Tassie is landlocked by water, so all the cars (VT VX VY VZ) simply go round and round with different owners and rarely does anything different come along unless its shipped in from mainland Australia (expensive). This leads to some pretty abused cars and "village bike" type cars over time.

Other issue is that sourcing new/replacement parts (lets say Ebay or from anywhere outside Tassie) is more expensive as sellers and companies like to tack on extra freight/shipping costs to get the parts to us because we're more geographically isolated and distant. This makes a set of Ebay headlights or seats cost more. There is no driving from state to state to pick up parts you find on gumtree either. You have to rifle thru the very limited pool of what's already in Tassie. A set of used VL Turbo seats in Melbourne the other month cost us 500 to buy, and then freight was 400 bucks on top, for example.

Building my Caprice/Grange replica, I found that I had to bite the bullet and pay more for parts from mainland Australia. To offset that cost, I often bought damaged or broken parts (half of a smashed HSV Grange grille for much much less) and then restored the parts myself with much swearing, to save costs. My HSV Grange body kit, I had to source individual pieces from all states of Australia, and pay freight on every item as you can't buy aftermarket Grange kits.

My advice is Ebay is your best friend, and also get on Facebook and join a bunch of owners groups/clubs for VT and VX cars like yours, as people often post up some really good bargains in those groups, and then you just arrange for it to be posted down to you in Tassie.
Most of the wreckers down here don't have much stock that's any good but you may find something being wrecked on Gumtree, although Tassie Gumtree is a bit of a joke, full of flaky people and car flippers out to make a dollar off you because they're unemployed and want cash at any cost.

 

[mpower]

if you decide to eBay watch a bunch of stuff and buy when they have the big % off deals sometimes you can save heaps. I bought a pair of new (from a GM dealer) headlamps on one of the eBay promo weeks a while back, they just had a good one running shame you missed it.