Sandst4rm's VP Ute Resto Thread

[91SS]

Nope. Clarkrubber isn’t what it used to be. Hardly any foams now. What they have is crap. Good bye clarkrubber.
I originally did all my ducting in the VE with EPDM foam. Then in the VZ I’ve changed to K-flex and far happier. A much better seal that gives better air flow with no leakage.

Sad to hear it, glad for the update.

Didn't realise things had changed.

Used their gear 10 years ago and still going strong.

 

[Sandst4rm]

Update.

Spent a couple hours rewiring a bunch of stuff that I have no pictures of, Deleted the little aux fusebox in favor of inline fuses.
Wired the same as the fusebox with a 60A direct to positive; then split into 3 (1: blower wire 30a fuse - 2: main wire no fuse after 60a - headlight wire 40a fuse)
Basically does the identical task as the box but the 5 point rail is replaced with direct fused wires.

Also replaced the alternator wire with a higher gauge wire, the same gauge as I replaced the starter motor wire with (equal to factory)
as I've heard alternators sometimes have too much amps for the factory wire?? can't remember where I heard that.

New complete coolant hose kit has arrived.

Block situation I have decided will be: Bored out to 4,000cc (34.8cc per cylinder from 3,791), Decked, Hot tanked, Cam bearings and balance bearings done by machine shop.

Crank will be ground to .030 as I may have discussed.

Still waiting on cerulean spray paint, i ordered 1 can to test it out and we'll see how it looks. In the meantime I have redone the decals on my cluster switches with a white paint marker... Take a look tell me what you think.

Done a little lion just for me on the unused button

Not a sticker took me an hour to draw.

I have the inner plastics removed currently as they will be painted cerulean but the shown surround will remain grey.

 

[Sandst4rm]

Update

Spray paint got here, works very well - best spray paint I've ever used in a can in fact.
Dried in like 2 minutes.

One can is definitely not enough to do a whole interior.

Conrods have been ordered however they are on backorder for 2-3 months - They are meant to use the series 2 rod bearings 18.30mm wide rather than my series 1 bearings 16.74mm wide.
They may support both though i am unsure. The crankshaft should easily support both since the factory rod is 21mm wide.

New injectors have been ordered. Crank has been put in for a regrind;; about a 2 week wait on that one $420 (wish it was cheaper).

I have stripped the rest of the interior out except the dash. Carpet was ruined as expected.
Have saved the rubber/leather 2 piece underlay it had to reuse.
Ordered VL floor plugs since they are identical diameter to VN floor plugs (have measured) since some were fked.

New 1 piece carpet and floor mats ordered in cerulean colour to match.

Headliner is out and will be put in for work shortly - hopefully can get something close to cerulean done for it.

Rewire in the engine bay is complete but the loom is not re-wrapped as the tape has not arrived yet.
New power start and earth wires installed with new terminals - All wires have eyelets put on them so i dont have to crush them into the saddle of the terminal; can just bolt em.

It remains to be seen if the thermo fan will automatically engage since i havent figured a way to test it yet.

Polished up the crusty old bonnet stay rod (no pic)
Gonna see if i can repaint the engine bay with everything out - might buy a spray gun for my compressor.

Pics

 

[Draimond]

You'll probably want to decide if it's getting a turbo by the time you set your piston ring gap. It's really something that takes a lot of forward planning. Like radiant heat management, engine bay pipe routing, get the oil returns welded on the sump now etc.
Also, the Harrop LSD is awesome, makes the car feel so much better. That and big sway bars.
Loving your work so far.

 

[NORTI]

I wasn’t sure how the cerulean was going to look from a can. But these photos it looks great!

I might convince beard that he should respray the K interior with a fresh coat after seeing this.

 

[Commo64]

You'll probably want to decide if it's getting a turbo by the time you set your piston ring gap.

A turbo build would be cool

 

[Sandst4rm]

The SV4000 V6 development continues.

I have been to U-pull to look for interior light lenses and have found 3! in total but all were sourced from fords.
Don't believe that the vultures know the lenses are the same in fords and holdens. One has some small cracks I have glued.

Pics:

List of progress since last.

- Crankshaft is complete. Block is up next for machine shop - this will likely be in a few months when the conrods arrive;; so that I can have them order the pistons/pins/rings when they bore the block, then they can balance it and I can remove the balance shaft without worrying about shaking.

- New carpet has been fitted, was a little bit wrong fitting on the front side around the center console. I believe they based it on a VS not a VN dash.
No issue though i trimmed it to shape as i did with the seat bolt holes etc.

- Ended up using 5x full 300ml cans of cerulean paint to do the whole interior with a 6th one that I used a bit of to finish up.

- VL floor plugs fit perfectly as suspected and also fit the rear lower corners of the doors.

- Saved the rubber vinyl underlay from factory and fitted waterproof sound deadener to it underneath the new carpet.

- Wiring loom is fully re-wrapped with the addition of various bits of plastic wire cover stuff from supercheap. Dunno what you call it.

- New seatbelts bought as the old ones still worked but were filthy and didnt retract very fast. Also the clip would always be on the floor since they had no stopper in the middle of the belt.

- Handbrake lever was seized but that was easily fixed with only 8 million gallons of WD40 and some levers.

- Custom sunshade VN-VP specific has arrived and is mint.

- Strut bar has arrived, looks pretty solid and should help structural integrity.

- All new handbrake hardware has been obtained: new pins, retainers, springs, shoes and SH adjuster star from VS along with SH supporting hardware for actuating the handbrake as mine exploded inside the rotor a while back. This was because it had no springs and didn't realize they were needed.

- Rear axle housing has been brass wirebrushed on all the reachable areas with a grinder.

- Calipers resprayed with VHT high heat aluminium.

- Drivers side front wheel arch crack being addressed with new plate formed to be welded in. Caused by battery acid in past most likely.

- Engine bay has been wirebrushed to remove whatever was stuck to it, be that 31 year old oil or burnt rubber idk. Was sticky and filthy and is still inside the frame rails since i cant get in there.

- Passenger door finally resealed with new seals i bought when i did the drivers door.

- Both window actuator sliders addressed but winders are still broken since the gear has excessive play. Too bad i cant get new manual actuators only NOS.

- Surface rust and paint chip on passenger vertical window runner has been sanded and painted black.

- Doorcards removed and ready to be modified to cerulean colour when i find a place and some $ to do it.

- Headliner ready for new material; might do it myself since the cardboard is weak and i cant trust em not to crack it.

Pics of new interior::

 

[Sandst4rm]

Update!

I have cleaned up the headlining board myself and stuck on some new fabric I found at spotlight. Near perfect colour match with my vinyl paint but not so much the carpet. Unfortunately; but is no real issue since the carpet is technically seperate anyway.

Used the permatex headliner specific spray glue so hopefully it works on the one thing its meant to work on haha.

It is wavy because the fabric is velvet. I have been handling it. The fabric install went quite well apart from 4-5 small kinks where it stuck to itself before i could press down.

I have used the same fabric to modify the rear bench cover. I cut it off at the plastic top retainer and had the new fabric stitched to the small lip of old fabric. Overall great result and definite improvement from grey.

I will install the headliner tomorrow along with the rest of the plastic pieces since the glue says to wait 24hrs for maximum sticky.

The doorcards are proving to be a total pain in the ahs. Nobody will do them since they can't seem to understand how to remove it. I'm pretty sure its glue since i could peel a corner albeit with some difficulty. Even if i could find the right coloured fabric.

I have redone the speaker holders in much thinner plywood than the 40mm thick CHUNK the last guy had on em. Gives way more space to avoid kicking the speaker like my regular occupants did before - shortly followed by me screaming at them for being such an idiot.

The battery tray area has been cleaned up plus the guard patch panel has been migged in and is solid.

I have devised some cardboard window covers from a large box i had to put up on hot days, never understood why they don't make sun reflective side ones like the windscreen ones. Cant be that hard ffs.

Have spent a few days recently obtaining all the little bits for the handbrake to work properly on the rear axle since the prev owner took literally every single component apart from the shoes that exploded in my rotor.
I have had to get the dust shields around the rear rotors + the arms and brackets for pulling the shoes + the spring that goes from dust cover to arm to hold it on.

I have started to sus out the condition of my VS statesman seats it had before. I have fixed the rails i reckon (slight dodgy bits nothing serious)
Dunno how to get off the backrest adjusting wheel so i cant paint the side plastic blue yet.
Want them cerulean retrimmed obviously but they have no rips and foam is mint so it would be a shame really. Even tho they're grey.

Thats pretty much it this time. I'm saving money currently for the block which we reckon will be about 2 grand give or take.

- Surface block on heads (maybe sump)
- Bore block to 100 thou oversize.
- Custom pistons, new pins and rings
- Now looking at deleting balance shaft in favor of balancing the rotating assembly.
- Camshaft bearings installed at shop considering i cant get the cam out myself without wrecking it.
- Probably will put a main cap girdle in or something to reinforce the bottom end.

I have to wait until my conrods arrive so i can send them in with the block along with the crank and new bearings.
Have to repaint the engine bay at some stage before the engine goes in too.

Today i have also had to finally say goodbye to my corolla. Its just not gonna get done. Ive had it pulled apart too long to remember how it goes together even with marked bags, plus its got not engine or gearbox, needs about every single component replaced and was FWD auto 4A-FE so basically worthless.

Got it for free but i cant save it.

 

[Fu Manchu]

Bet that leopard skin matches a few pair of sporty jocks too.

 

[ephect]

The door trim vinyl should come apart with hot steam. Try a garment steamer, it just might do the trick