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sands vs 9 years, 8 months ago.
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Hi Guys,
Just bringing my thread over from SC so may take a while to bring my content
I started this project in 2009 and currently it is in hibernation getting all dusty. It’s been 6 or so years and its still not finished.
It started life as an asteroid silver VK calais with a 202 EFI motor. Cerulean velour interior, all options except sunroof.
202 and auto have been removed, I have a newly built motor, diff and trans waiting to go in.
I took the car back to bare metal myself mostly, having some difficult bits plastic bead blasted. Once stripped completely, the car was taken to the panelshop where it spent the next 2 or so years waiting to be finished. I was a bit worried with the time taken but it was done for a good price and seems pretty good.
It has been sprayed in House of Kolor “Orion Silver” which is 2k and has better metallics in it. It retains the asteroid look but looks richer/nicer.
The bottom moulds were originally the same colour as the rest of the car so I also got them sprayed in the same colour.
The engine is based on a 308 Blue motor. It has had the original top end removed and replaced with a Harrop low rise dual plane manifold. The heads were changed to VT stlye ones, with a very basic porting job (they are already oversized for the cubic capacity anyway). A EFI Crow 4651 cam , heavy duty lifters and valve springs have been installed to help her breathe and perform better. I had a Rochester Quadrajet rebuilt instead of going a holley as well. I have yet to run in/start this motor.
The trimatic was taken to Bayswater Automatics and rebuilt by Grant, I have a piece of paper somewhere with exact specs but basically it has been heavily modified, the valve body has been modified as well to give it a stage 2 level of use (can select gears but still drive in auto) Stall has not been chosen yet and will depend on power/torque
The Diff has also been built but not replaced. Originally a small sals, I sourced a VL Borgwarner single spinner that had 3.08:1 gears and had the centre changed to a 28 spline LSD one with 3.9:1 gears
The brakes have not been swapped yet but i plan to swap these for VT brakes with a VS Booster and VT master cylinder (i think that was the popular combo, lol) reason for VT instad of VE was to allow me to run the original calais 15’s. If I decide to go the VE brake direction, i’ll get some 19″ polished aeros but that depends on future budget…and taste.
Having just built and moved into our house, i dont have the time/shed space/money to put it back together yet but i can’t wait. The car is still stripped to the bone with no wiring loom/interior/lights/moulds/glass etc installed. The plan is to purchase a dunger $500 vk to use for parts because its been so long since i pulled it apart, I’m lacking some confidence putting her back together.
I’m going to put the posts from my original thread under this post, so prepare yourself for alot of photos lol.
This is the car as it currently sits:
Cheers
Julian
(OLD POST)
(Jan 2009)
Thought i would add this proper specification listing:
Name: Julian
Model: 1984 Holden Calais VK
Colour: Asteroid over dark grey- currently being restored, hand stripped to bare metal and plan to paint in 2K HOK silver over silver
Bodykit: Calais moulds? lol
Engine Type: None (Was injected 202, making way for vt headed blue motor 308)
Engine Mods: Going to have a medium hyd cam, harrop dual plane low rise manifold, vt heads (near standard, deburred
port matched manifold to heads, hd lifters and matching springs, efi sump and timing cover, blueprinted rochester (or get drilled for EFI), extractors and i think thats it!
Power: ATM=0hp
Exhaust: Will make to suit final engine choice
Gearbox: Will be toughened trimatic
Diff: Standard single spinner (soon to change to large salisbury, to be fitted with modified VLT borgwarner type LSD centre)
Brakes: Standard 4 wheel disks (To be VT or VE upgrade)
Suspension: Lowered by pedders (previous owner so unsure of specs, but it is hard to put your head under (might refresh)
Wheels/Tyres: Standard polished VK Calais wheels (the way the general intended) on Simex 215/60 R15’s (will change if brakes do not clear standards, thinking of Calais internationals or VT GTS rims).
Interior: Standard Cerulean velour interior with a momo steering wheel (which i need to change for roadworthy.
Other Mods:None so far
Stereo:Ripped out, ready to start again, thinking of going orig spec
Build Period:Since November 08 and will be going for my whole life.
Cost: I got this car for a grand! but it has already cost me 10 times what i paid for it!
Contacts: (no contact number, addresses or web sites to be put here – just the name)
Future Mods: As above, currently doing the whole 308 with inj top end (running carby) thing, new paint, new brakes, new suspension, dash plastics restoration, tasteful audio system and maybe an interior retrim in standard cerulean, with venetians
Basically, going sleeper style
(November 2008)
Hi there guys, the time has come and i finally have myself a VK Calais.
After searching high and low for a VH SL/E for 2 years, i found this baby and knew straight away it was mine.
It’s a 1984 VK Calais, Asteroid Silver over a dark grey colour. Its been resprayed before, not the best job but not the worst either. Its good enough for me to drive around for the moment and it looks good from a few feet away, just has abit too much orange peel for my liking.
It is a 3.3L Black injected, Trimatic backed car which by the sound of it has a cam, extractors and a very loud exhaust (which im beginning to really love..) but at the end of the day its abit of a lucky dip and i wont really know whats in it until i dig deeper. It goes alright, i just serviced it but it runs richer than bill gates so there must be some sensor thats stuffed or maybe its just the cam.
I think this engine was rebuilt recently as its number doesn’t match the tags and it has NO oil on the block whatsoever (but could have been cleaned i guess) but the rest of the engine is clean apart from me being to keen to do an oil change without a funnel so yeah…wont be doing that again but i will get a compression test done to see the overall state anyway.
I got this car cheap, and the original plan was to drop in an injected v8, then i thought maybe a v6 and now im thinking maybe just put a turbo on it as the motor seems very fresh and its abit different to what lots of other people have. But before i go changing engines i want to get it resprayed in the same colour (but 2pak) as i think thats all it really needs at the moment.
Im concentrating on the interior at the moment though, i have just installed a new carpet (cerulean, same colour as original) and am in the process of changing all the pieces of plastic/dash that have cracks etc. I thought it was just going to be simple to change the head unit but i got abit ahead of myself and ended up pulling out the whole dash because I’m the kind of person who likes to do things once and do them properly.
I have prepared the audio system which consists of a set of 6×9’s on the parcel shelf which i made out of mdf and carpeted in cerulean also. Ive got an alpine 4 channel amp in the boot running the speakers and plan on bridging the remaining channels and running a basic 12″ sub. The only thing that worries me is that somebody in the past has cut the speaker holes in the metal under the parcel shelf abit bigger and also cut a section of metal from behind the rear passengers armrest.
The wheels have no shine at the moment but i have gotten myself some replacement Calais wheels which are polished so i will just get them swapped over. I love the look of the old school Calais wheels and don’t plan on changing them any time soon. the only thing that might cause me to change them would be if i had bigger brakes in the future.
All i need for this baby is to get the interior back together and im ready to rock and roll….cant wait to start going on some cruises.
Anyway that’s enough of me talking, here’s some pictures of the beast.
Still have to get some engine bay pics and interior pics (once i get it back together).
(OLD POST) 16/12/2008
Making some progress. The car is nearly registered.
I got a list of items required for roadworthy.
I need:
1 Tyre (done)
1 headlight assembly (done both)
Rocker cover gasket
2 Rear upper control arm bushes
2 Tie rod ends
and a stock steering wheel
I also had a radiator leak so i got the whole thing re-cored.
Put the radiator back in but the guys at the shop forgot to put my transmission cooler hose fitting back on the rad so i cant run the car till tomorrow so i started to do the rocker cover gasket
I was also wondering if i should use any sealant on the rocker cover gasket or not? i have heard mixed opinions.
I’m starting to wonder whether i should spend money on the 202 or just do a conversion. Is it worth it? The only thing stopping me from a conversion would have to be that i want to keep the stock trimatic shifter. Has anyone done a v6 conversion while retaining the trimatic?
I have also thought of the rb30t like a vl turbo engine (do these use a trimatic) or using a black vk/vl trimatic 5L block and injecting it.
Thats all for now
(OLD POST) 26/12/2008
Thought id add some more photos….of interior, boot and engine bay.
enjoy.
The Interior is now back together, with the head unit. But i cant get the head unit to go all the way. RCA’s are stopping me, even with 90 degree adapters. It has been suggested to get the head gun out, to reshape the heater box but this sounds abit dodgy to me.
I made this sleeper parcel shelf out of mdf and used the correctly coloured carpet (cerulean) to make it look stock, which is how i like my interior
My Basic boot install
Sunlight was abit better this time, you can see the colours abit better (being a wierd colour combination with the dark colour being at the bottom.
Some Engine bay pics of the mighty injected 202:
(OLD POST) 4/2/2009
Car is now roadworthy and registered!
Detailed and took some more pics.
Note the vl calais steering wheel which has been recolored to cerulean. I quite like this steering wheel.
One thing i found out at vicroads was that the engine was once home in a wb- its a blue motor and i thought it was a black motor. Prefix is WL which makes it a blue motor, which i am abit pissed off about. Even more reason to ditch the 202.
Thinking v6 or v8 probably v6 because of the cost and power difference plus fuel economy benefits.
Anybody here done a v6 conversion? can you keep the stock shifter?
(OLD POST 1/4/2009) A bit of an update, i’ve been busy in my spare time lately
Engine stripped:
All ready to go:
Coming out:
Dirty engine bay empty
And Cleaned and degreased, as of yesterday:
And found a touch of panel damage, will be replacing:
So now im just waiting till sunday when i will pick up the replacement driveline and in the meantime while i cant drive it, im thinking of taking the whole dash out (again) and respraying it in the same colour with vinyl dye so it all looks new and re-doing the boot install including a new false floor and custom sub box and doing something about the headunit sticking out.
(OLD POST) 15/4/2009
Got some photos of my shopping spree
The long awaited 308
Exhaust (probably get changed)
Carb and stuff
Radiator
Nice clean manifold
Tailshaft
Heads
VLT Calipers for future brake upgrade
The motor is a blue motor, its been decked and reco’d in about 2002 with only 10,000k’s on it. It has a crane stage 2 cam in it so i’m told, and is set up for 10:1 comp. It had 2 head gaskets on it to lower the comp but i will be taking advantage of the higher comp and running it on high octane followed by straight gas in a few months or so.
So now i have to piece everything together, paint it all up, get some new bolts, hoses, etc fit the loom (fun fun fun).
Seems like every time i make some purchase i get alot of rain and cant work on the car plus i sliced my hand open on easter sunday so now i’ve got a 100mm cut with stitches stopping me from having fun.
Buying a gasket set today (acl race series) and might get an ARP head stud/bolt set because im missing some bolts. I can easily see another 500+ bucks just in anchillaries.
The chassis rails in the engine bay had so much oil in them that it ate the paint all up.
I also got sick of the berlina coloured bumpers and moulds so started taking them off to get them colour coded. While i spray them asteroid, i am also going to touch up the damaged paint in the engine bay. Also won some moulds on ebay for the boot so might have a go at restoring them and getting the right badging hopefiully all this will be done before christmas (pretty long achievable time limit).
Anyway im going to get stuck into it, so will try and get the sump off so i can take it, the heads and the inlet manifold to get hot tanked and clean so i can paint them black (except the manifold, which i will leave unpainted). The heads are painted in this hideous purple colour..going to paint the block black too (sleeper).
Also still looking for a 10 bolt diff so if anyone has one let me know.
cheers
Julian
(OLD POST) 9/9/2009
Carrying the VK to its new home
All my spares in their new spot
Got these vt heads cheap
Spoke to a few panel beaters while i had the car on a trailer. First guy said 6-7000 with me stripping the car, the next guy who mostly does older cars said 4-5000 and ive seen his work before. I have to get the car back to metal to get a more accurate price.
So i started bare metalling and found some bog :(
This door is my first attempt at bare metalling – i bought a small Hitachi grinder and a quick strip disc and it seemed to work well. there is a large dint in this door which was bogged up. It took me a few hours to do.
Etch primed to stop rust from coming up:
Found a little bit of rust at the top of the rear quarter, i think the quarter is not original as the spotwelds dont look perfect
Its quite addictive doing this, i just keep on digging deeper and deeper. I plan on doing all the hanging panels and etch priming as i go, then deciding which panels will need replacing etc.
Most of the car is stripped. i just have to take off the passenger side moulds and all the windows.
Looking forward to doing more in a few days, whenver i have time. Its much easier now with a roof over my head and a whole factory to store stuff in!
(OLD POST) 14/9/2009
Done the front door, was pretty straight.
Also managed to do the rear quarter, found a tiny bit of bog and a tiny patch of rust at the bottom there was also bog along the joint, suggesting and confirming that that panel has been changed in the past.
Bare metalled:
Closer:
Rust at bottom near rear drivers side wheel:
Rear quarter joint with other panel:
The passengers side rear pillar was shitting me for a while, rust is now confirmed, looks like it was repaired in the past, but not done properly (just a bog over rust job). Very dudgy, wonder how the panelbeater will deal with that.
Progress so far:
And thats if for now, off to the painthop to get some more strip n’clean discs. Im averaging 1 disk per 1.5 panels, doing the fiddly bits with the wire brush on a different angle grinder. Got some paint stripper which im going to use for the bonnet and boot and maybe front quarters, im just abit paranoid using in in other areas where i may not be able to clean it properly. Id rather use a few more discs and spend abit more time doing it then have paint peeling on me!.
The bood is going to be loads of fun, thinking about getting it blasted.
Any comments welcome, as usual. Looks like the progress shots are a winner by the looks of things
Till next time
Julian
More progress today.
Bonnet stripping:
And etch primed:
Passenger side rear quarter stripped:
And etch primed:
Found some more rust under the rear windscreen:
And the pillar:
The bonnet took me ages, and was the first panel i used the paint stripper +scraper method to get the bulk of the paint off and then when i got down to the highfill layer, i put a light layer of stripper to soften and finished with a strip and clean disc. Using this method, i found that the discs last me longer. I wont be using this method on directly attached panels though, only hanging panels.
The Bonnet turned out to be straight as an arrow, with only one tiny dint in it. The rear quarter is perfect, with not a spot of rust in it.
And thats about if for today….
Only 2 fenders, the boot lid, engine bay, boot and little bits left to do :).
Should take me another 3 years…
(OLD POST) 20/9/2009
Time for todays update:
Did the boot yesterday. Took a while, but i think i have mastered rattlecan spraying now because i got no drips or anthing!
Today i did the drivers side fender, couldnt prime because i ran out of etch primer. I am now going to try spraying with a gravity feed HVLP gun i have lying around, because i can see rattle cans turning into an expensive excercise…
Forgot to take a photo, silly me, do that when i paint it..
Also started under the wheel arch, as usual getting abit carried away and digging deeper. Looked ugly so i fixed it up with the angle grinder wire brush lol…
You can clearly see the difference..
Passengers side (not done yet).
Drivers side (semi done, will finish tomorrow because i have the day off (birthday).
Now looking into a solution for the underbody areas because there are no doubt more i will want to do. Was thinking on that POR15 stuff? anybody had experiences with it?
Pulled out the front windscreen, was an easier excersize after doing the rear, and the rust looks nowhere near as bad (fingers crossed) ill have to get the wire brush on it tomorrow.
Also picked up 2 frond guards (for practive spraying), an electric antenna (gmh part
). chrome bits and a rear windscreen for 40 bucks yes, 40 bucks lol..gotta love ebay wreckers.And thats all for today…feel free to comment it motivated me when i hear positive comments.
VRSenator065
- Adelaide SA
- VR Senator LSx454 1960 Kombi (project) 1921 Nash Hot Rod (future project)
View build HERE
Posts: 5 777
Welcome across mate!
(OLD POST) 21/9/2009
Did some more work today, painted the drivers rear quarter , my first time with a proper spray gun.
Bare metalled the other guard:
Found some more rust:
More work under the wheel arch
Im now looking into using POR15 under the wheel arches, using the whole paint system on bare metal, than appling sound deadener (stoneguard) on top. should keep the moisture outside the car.
Thats it for today
(OLD POST) 29/9/2009
Its been a few days but i havent been bludging. Waiting for a usb cable to arrive so i can put up better quality pics, but in the meantime heres some more camera phone stuff.
Vt Heads arrived and in my garage. Now waiting for more dollars for cam/lifters etc. Marty has worked out a custom grind for me, just waiting for my phone call.
I wasnt happy with the rattlecan finish so i took some panels back to metal again…lol. what a waste of time in the first place. However i have to be happy
Here we go again
And sprayed (took a while masking it all up).
Not sure if i put photos of the passenger side doors yet, but these were done with the gun too.
Some Panels
How its sitting. lookin sad
Thats it for today
(OLD POST) 13/10/2009
Time for an update. Left it a while..theres a few photos
VT Heads arrived, in my possesion now!
Did the roof
Stripping:
Etched:
Managed to get the doors, after much effort and swearing.
Drivers side door jambs/ funny bits done! Now i have to do the passengers side….looking forward to it :(
After i do the passengers side, all i have to do is the wheel arches and deaden. Then the car is off to the sandblaster to get the engine bay and inside of the boot done as well as the inside of the front guards, as i have no patience to do these bits by hand and have had little time lately. Once all is done, i will condiser getting the underside of the bonnet and boot panels sodablasted as they are panels which could be damaged by sandblasting. I will probably to the door sides by hand.
I have a feeling the front suspension has to come out to do the wheel arches properly, so i will have to learn how to remove the springs and shockers.
I also have the valve train gear and cam lined up ready to go with a phone call, once i have enough cash and the engine will be sorted.
Thats all for now
(OLD POST) 28/10/2009
Finished the passengers side now.
Thank god..
Thats all, just waiting for more money and time for blasting.
(OLD POST) 1/12/2009
Well im ready for the blaster. Decided to go with plastic bead blasting after much deliberation. Its booked in for thursday this week. Im going to get a trailer and take it there, and bring it back the next day. Getting the Engine bay including the bit where the wiper motor is, inside the boot, the reverse of the bonnet and boot panels and inside the front guards done. Supposedly plastic beads are easier on panels than sandblasting is and dont alter the metal.
Once that is done, its onto the phone where i will arrange for a few panel beaters to come over and have a look and give me prices. Ill try and see some of their work and make my decision based on how comfortable i feel with their work and their price. It’s all a balancing act.
I managed to take a photo although my digital camera doesn’t have anti shake :(
Here it is as a roller again, ready for the trailer.
I’ve been reorganising my shed and bringing stuff home from the factory now, just incase somebody rents it anytime soon. I got some huge plastic bags from work and wrapped up my interior to protect it from moisture and dust.
I have also been doing what i call “part collecting” in the last few weeks. Ive tracked
down some hsv shorty extractors for the efi heads (will they fit straight in without modification?) and a 90LTR VN long range fuel tank. Have also been doing research into a stroker and trying to make up my mind, its either standard stroke, 333 or 355. Whatever i choose dictates my cam decision so i cant get a cam until im 100% but im pretty sure its going to be stroked and im pretty sure im going to get the motor rebuilt instead of slapping a new top end ontop of a questionable bottom end and hoping for the best. I got a quote from raceglides for a trimatic rebuild to take 500hp and its about 1700 which i was surprised to be quite cheap. That was for a full manual trans which i don’t really want but the guy said the vacuum signal is abit iffy once you rebuild them to take that much power so i might have to aim abit lower. Don’t think ill get anywhere near 500hp but it would be nice to have something bulletproof wouldn’t it?
I’ve also been actively selling old bits i dont need on ebay from the old 202 to raise some $$$ for everything so thats helping abit, with more to go on tonight.
Also….pretty much decided to keep the car asteroid silver so thats one decision im glad is made up now.
Till next time…
Julian
(OLD POST) 4/12/2009
Today i got the shell bead blasted. came up a real treat and im feeling really good about the car at the moment. Got my first quote from a guy across the road from the bead blasters who i feel more confortable with than the previous bloke i went to. Will obviously need some more quotes but there wasnt much rust that surfaced. the good thing about bead blasting is that it leaves the metal in a dull looking way where the zinc coating is still intact, meaning that it doesn’t need immediate etch priming. The only areas i need to etch are the areas i exposed previously so i will just use a ratle can to protect those areas. The boot had a touch of rust behind the drivers side light, where i exposed some pinholes on the outside. Glad to have found it. The front scuttle panel was alright and the bay obviously needs work since my epic fail attempt to do engine bay smoothing.
The plan is to take the car to the panelbeaters in two stages, the first being the prep and prime stage where some metal sections will be replaced and everything straigtened and smoothed and the next stage will be the painting stage.
The rodeo doing its work again
The bay and front. note the finish from blasting. Very different to the finish i had doing it by hand:
Under the wheel arches, glad i didnt do these by hand!
Front Plenum and Scuttle:
(OLD POST) 4/12/2009
The Boot:
Next step…the hanging panels
(OLD POSt) 6/4/2010
Some progress shots..here we go
Got the heater box/blower box etc off..have been preparing myself for ages and for no reason, because it wasnt that hard!
Also pulled out the crappy firewall insulation or whatever it is. It was causing floor rust.
Pulled out the WHOLE loom
And found some damage, makes you glad you’re doing a full resto, otherwise that would bite you in the ass down the track
Engine bay final shot
Roof lining removed
And off to the panelbeaters!
Thank god!!
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