Vlad's rides thread

[vlad01]

In the spare wheel well the lower hold down point was missed for de-rusting when the car was done and it had a good 1-1.5mm thick crust of rust that was painted over.

I used the corral type wheel and wire wheel to get it all bare and masked and primed it.

Then removed the mask and gave it a light blow over with colour coded touch up can, damn perfect match. I honestly can't tell.

Then I finally got the drain plate covered in the correct seal sealer. Henkel product I believe.

Got out all the felt carpeting except the main carpet (needs the underlay replaced) and washed them all.

First one in and I also got my restored jack with correct repro decals in. I gave it a spray and wipe down with Rem oil to preserve the nice zinc planting.

Aftermarket mirrors arrived, not bad at all. They operate much smoother than the originals. Moulding quality is not 100% but pretty decent. I found later the originals are a completely sealed unit, the mirror and motor unit are plastic welded into the mirror head casing and can't be removed. These aftermarket actually have the unit screwed in just at the corners behind the glass, so you can pull them apart.

Also if you remove the spring on the factory ones, it's one big spring that loops around the length of the inside of head so good luck getting that back together. I sacrificed one good used mirror to find out ahh nope. Don't bother.

[vlad01]

Had my new lining waiting under a cover since 2015! Got it out and it had the plastic side stiffner strips missing, so I got a bunch from the wreckers and trimmed the fabric off to make room for those.

Sika flex'd them on and held them in place with cloths pegs, about 50 of them and let set overnight.

Today I finished off by measuring and cutting 2 holes for the front passenger holy shit handle as this one was missing the holes for them, must of come from a VN I think?

Then I glued the felt padding on as the factory leave them loose on top, but they cause havoc when installing the liner and get caught on the velcro tabs.

Then I installed the rear left and right side trims over the quarter windows but left them not pressed in all the way to give a 10mm or so gap up top for the liner to slide over and into them.


I then put sheets of masking paper over the velcro patches to stop it sticking until I was sure everything was in place and lined up.

So spent the next hour or so getting the trims in place and installing the holy shit handles, dome light and to make sure everything was lined up and then I held the liner up against the roof and pulled the sheets allowing the velcro to stick. Finished the rest of the trims later in the day.

The most satisfying bit was the new 3d printed clips on the rear trim. I bowed the trim and poked the end tabs into the side trims and with 1 finger and light as a feather the clips all 100% located and popped in completely effortlessly and don't pull back out. A massively stark difference to past experiences with trims with the original clips still intact, they were always a shit fight to get to clip in needing force and often breaking or just popping back out.

The guy who designed and made these clips improved a lot in how they function over the factory crap. Very impressed!




So I finished off the day with this. So nice to get to this stage. A lining makes a big difference in how complete a project feels.

The thing I have not mentioned yet as I forgot to get a pic is the rear left door is mostly done. I got a mint quarter glass of the correct type of a 90k VS wreck from NLA parts in Sunshine. I literally called up and they just got a car in that day. They are getting another low k VP in the next few days so might be able to get the other side too fingers crossed. Best bit was this one I got was $45 !!! cheaper than the totally fucked ones on ebay

[HQ355]

I use to watch them out the hood lining in on the line, took about 3 seconds

[Gareth]

[vlad01]

Yeah probably why they all fell down in the first year of life. I will blame you for that, not doing your job properly

[Charlescrown]

I think it is the fact that the original lining was foam based and was doomed to fail in a short/reasonable time.

[vlad01]

I'm referring to the board itself falling down. I bet most weren't even pushed up all the way.

I have done a few and none have come down yet, far outlasting the factory ones. VR and my nephews VP are 4 years so far.

In the VS they seem to be pretty good. Have seen many VSs at the scrap where the boards were still perfectly in place, not the case with any VN/VP and VR are hit and miss.

Yeah excessive heat kills the foam after many years.

[psyolent]

i'll bring my VN lining over you can NOS restore it for me.

[vlad01]

I can do one if you get me all the materials.

[oldn64]

Hello Vlad,

Looking great. I am concerned over one small thing though, that being your drain plug. Every commodore I have had that was in this configuration (ie spare to the passenger side rear rail) the drain plug was only clipped in and had no sealer. Now while in the 6 early configurations I had only two of them were brand new. They were all the same no sealer. My understanding was that the plug was designed to drain any moisture out but nto really let any in. In every commodore I have seen with the hole plugged the spare wheel well has rusted out.

Where did you find the information for the plug to be sealed as I am very curious now.

Regards
oldn64