Heron's VK SL Build – LS3, TH400, Sleeper Style

[Heron SSVParticipant Central Coast NSW2009 Pajero Exceed 84 VK SL LS3 View build HERE Member since: May 5, 2015 Posts: 585]

Ah ok. A mate who’s helping me put the motor and box in and do the wiring has a detailing business and he’s looking after that part once I’ve done the prep work.

Definitely aiming for that glass like finish though 

[daveParticipant daveVK, L98, tremec tko600 View build HERE Member since: March 6, 2015 Posts: 46]

Good to to see you are getting a fair amount of progress on the car. You asked me about what i did regarding air box on my thread I had regarding cam and tune on L98. I posted a couple of pics on there of what I did. Just a reminder in case you didnt see it.

[vlsv88Participant MelbourneVL Calais View build HERE Member since: January 14, 2017 Posts: 22]

Good job for the price. Bad paint is worse than bad bodywork! What paint type and brand did you use and what compressor? Looking at painting my VL myself too to keep costs down

[Heron SSVParticipant Central Coast NSW2009 Pajero Exceed 84 VK SL LS3 View build HERE Member since: May 5, 2015 Posts: 585]

dave wrote:

Good to to see you are getting a fair amount of progress on the car. You asked me about what i did regarding air box on my thread I had regarding cam and tune on L98. I posted a couple of pics on there of what I did. Just a reminder in case you didnt see it.

Cheers mate. Seen the pics, only had a quick look the other day and forgot all about it. Did you fab it yourself? Looks pretty neat, I need to do something similar but on the opposite side to cover where the battery tray was. Been looking at the air boxes from Mace, they look like something that will work with what I want to do

vlsv88 wrote:

Good job for the price. Bad paint is worse than bad bodywork! What paint type and brand did you use and what compressor? Looking at painting my VL myself too to keep costs down

I got the Paint from Colortec at Tuggerah. Its Unicolour 660 2k, plain old white. Compressor is a basic one from Bunnings my old man bought over 10 years ago. The guy who last owned the VK stripped it back and did a heap of bodywork on it before he painted it so I had a good base to start from. All the hard work is in the preparation, sanding, masking, and cleaning the surface before painting. If that is done properly, the paint will go on easier and you’ll get a better finish. Garage jobs will always end up with a bit of peel and dirt/bugs/dust etc in the paint, but doing a few extra coats will leave you with plenty of thickness to rub the imperfections out. The end result will be fine for me, white is a very forgiving colour and you’ll only notice the imperfections if you’re looking closely at it.

[Heron SSVParticipant Central Coast NSW2009 Pajero Exceed 84 VK SL LS3 View build HERE Member since: May 5, 2015 Posts: 585]

This weekends plan is to rub it back Friday and Saturday morning to get it flat and throw a couple more coats over the outside (door jams have 3 coats and will be fine the way they are). Then pull the masking off and see how it looks. it’ll sit for another three weeks to cure properly before it gets sanded again and start to get it smooth. In between will be prepping and painting the guards and boot lid, mounting the cowl and bog/sand/bog/sand/bog/sand/swear/cry/drink/sand/sand/paint the bonnet, paint rear bar and remove and re-mount the front bar Group A extension and paint that.

I’ll get around to the actual conversion at some point haha, as usual the small job of a quick engine bay tidy up has turned into a full respray. Fun times!

Found a guy in Syd that does repo decals in black as the original ones from HDT etc. are silver unless I get the Group 3 set which come in black. $350 for the kit

[cava454Moderator 93 VR BT1 View build HERE Member since: February 20, 2015 Posts: 2 390]

Jason ackland from stick this decals does sticker kits. Very good quality

• This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by  cava454.

[Heron SSVParticipant Central Coast NSW2009 Pajero Exceed 84 VK SL LS3 View build HERE Member since: May 5, 2015 Posts: 585]

Sprayed the car over the weekend with mixed results. Rubbed everything back on Friday night and all the orange peel smoothed of really well and without too much effort. There were a couple of runs from the other weekend and they flattened out perfectly. Cleaned it all down with wax and grease remover, same as the first time, sprayed the first coat on and the passenger doors and rear quarter ran like a mofo within 15-20 seconds of spraying. The roof and drivers side came out great, smoother than last time, and my mate who was spraying was spewing. Swore at it several times and let it sit before the next coat. The next coat went on fine, didn’t run at all. Ended up doing two coats all over, and another two on the doors and rear quarter. The additional coats blended the runs in pretty well, I think they can be rubbed out but my mate wants to rub them back and throw another coat or two over that side just to be sure.

Will let it sit for another two weeks and see how it goes when I start rubbing it back again. It’s got plenty of paint on it now, 8 fresh coats over 2 or 3 from the previous owner, and I reckon a bit of time spent with some fine sandpaper will get rid of the runs. Also looks like a little bit of over spray has come up from underneath the car and landed in the engine bay so there’ll be some more rubbing back in there.

[VRSenator065Participant Adelaide SAVR Senator LSx454 1960 Kombi (project) 1921 Nash Hot Rod (future project) View build HERE Member since: February 17, 2015 Posts: 5 777]

Oh the joy of cars, sounds like you are on top of it though at least.

[Heron SSVParticipant Central Coast NSW2009 Pajero Exceed 84 VK SL LS3 View build HERE Member since: May 5, 2015 Posts: 585]

Spent the weekend sanding. And sanding. And more sanding. Got just under half the car done, started on the side with the runs so that was always going to take longer. Hit it with some 600 grit, then some 1500. Came up great, can’t see or even feel where the runs were, it’s silky smooth. Going to go over it with some 2000 to get it as smooth as possible before buffing.

Next weekend I’m taking the guards and boot lid to my mates work to paint. Also taking the k frame and tank to clean and paint black.

Getting there slowly. Also, sanding sucks balls.

[SLE355Participant View build HERE Member since: April 7, 2015 Posts: 119]

Sounds good, pics?!

[Heron SSVParticipant Central Coast NSW2009 Pajero Exceed 84 VK SL LS3 View build HERE Member since: May 5, 2015 Posts: 585]

SLE355 wrote:

Sounds good, pics?!

I’ll stick some up when I sort out an alternative to Photobucket haha

[VRSenator065Participant Adelaide SAVR Senator LSx454 1960 Kombi (project) 1921 Nash Hot Rod (future project) View build HERE Member since: February 17, 2015 Posts: 5 777]

Looks like Wraiths copy and paste method out of Facebook is pretty simple if you use Facebook of course!

[Heron SSVParticipant Central Coast NSW2009 Pajero Exceed 84 VK SL LS3 View build HERE Member since: May 5, 2015 Posts: 585]

Test run with FB pic:

• This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by  Heron SSV.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by  Heron SSV.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by  Heron SSV.

[VRSenator065Participant Adelaide SAVR Senator LSx454 1960 Kombi (project) 1921 Nash Hot Rod (future project) View build HERE Member since: February 17, 2015 Posts: 5 777]

Hey mate, see in the command bar above, the extreme right one is “insert/edit image”  click on that then paste the link you copied from Facebook into the “Source” bar on the panel that comes up, you don’t have to enter anything else, then click “OK” – Simples

edit – just added a quick how to in the Photobucket thread for you.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by  VRSenator065.

[Heron SSVParticipant Central Coast NSW2009 Pajero Exceed 84 VK SL LS3 View build HERE Member since: May 5, 2015 Posts: 585]

Great success! ok time for some pics:

So you can just see the runs on the passenger side in these pics, was a lot worse that you can see:

Roof and other parts turned out pretty good:

And here’s what I ended up with after two days sanding:

It’s smooth as running my hand over it, cant tell where the runs were.

Let me know if any of the pics dont work.

[VRSenator065Participant Adelaide SAVR Senator LSx454 1960 Kombi (project) 1921 Nash Hot Rod (future project) View build HERE Member since: February 17, 2015 Posts: 5 777]

Woo Hoo, up yours Photobucket    Good stuff mate, looking great!!

[vlsv88Participant MelbourneVL Calais View build HERE Member since: January 14, 2017 Posts: 22]

You weren’t kidding about the runs! Keen to see how it polishes up I’ve been practicing my 2k prepping and painting on a couple of old doors here and fuck me is it a prick. I’m trying to get the confidence to spray my bars on my car but the cost of just practicing is starting to add up lol

[Heron SSVParticipant Central Coast NSW2009 Pajero Exceed 84 VK SL LS3 View build HERE Member since: May 5, 2015 Posts: 585]

vlsv88 wrote:

You weren’t kidding about the runs! Keen to see how it polishes up I’ve been practicing my 2k prepping and painting on a couple of old doors here and fuck me is it a prick. I’m trying to get the confidence to spray my bars on my car but the cost of just practicing is starting to add up lol

Yep the pics make it hard to see all the runs, it was shocking in person. Surface prep is the key, and the temperature. My garage got to 19 degrees at most while painting, couldn’t get hold of some heat lamps in time which would of helped. All the imperfections will be sanded out, and it takes a lot of extra effort to do, but I’ve saved a shitload of cash doing it at home, $500 bucks for everything (paint, tape, plastic sheets, sandpaper etc.), and that includes doing the bay.

Practice makes perfect, try and get some cheap paint or some excess to use.

[VRSenator065Participant Adelaide SAVR Senator LSx454 1960 Kombi (project) 1921 Nash Hot Rod (future project) View build HERE Member since: February 17, 2015 Posts: 5 777]

Heron SSV wrote:

but I’ve saved a shitload of cash doing it at home,.

 

And learnt heaps, and have the satisfaction of doing it yourself!

• This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by  VRSenator065.

[Heron SSVParticipant Central Coast NSW2009 Pajero Exceed 84 VK SL LS3 View build HERE Member since: May 5, 2015 Posts: 585]

VRSenator065 wrote:

Heron SSV wrote:

but I’ve saved a shitload of cash doing it at home,.

And learnt heaps, and have the satisfaction of doing yourself!

I love doing myself …. hahahaha

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