VN Production Saloon

[VNracer34G]

Once the cage was wedged into the right spot, holes drilled and bolted in i had to massage the bracing around the perimeter of the roof to get the cage so sit down far enough everything to line up. I am now pretty certain the old shell was bent/twisted in its previous life as a road car. could be interesting.

Lined up pretty good.

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three little tacks

As it fell! i was "holy shit tack it before it moves"

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you can spot how much i overlapped the pilar cuts and drilled the spot welds between

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Before i cut the pillars i also propped the shell ata 8 spots around , all up it may have been overkill but it hasn't twisted at all going by how it went back together so pretty happy. Its all welded back up, welds dressed and that bloody bracing cut back off - it did its job but was a right pain in the arse clambering in and out and around working on the car. I've had another big cleanup in the car and shed and have made some progress with getting the wiring loom back in, its getting a tidy up while apart - was a bit of a tangled mess from when i built it after too may late nights building the car originally working with the wiring diagram outta a haynes manual - wrong-with the season started - but it worked.

[VNracer34G]

Most of my ugly welding on the outside hidden by factory bits.

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[Holden202T]

shes looking good mate! having the cage in and the roof back on is a fair part of the mission completed!!

[VNracer34G]

True that my freind. Its mind boggling the amount of fiddly bits and peices still to do though.
Right now i'm waiting for my soldering irons to heat up - scored by an ex years ago in with a wooden box of files - all of which i suspect are older than me
when they're hot they're awesome - but........waiting.........

[VNracer34G]

Been a while but been a bit busy.
- I HATE WIRING - eliminated a bunch of wires, come across a few faults that have plagued me due to severe abuse over four seasons of racing and made a few changes like relocating where the starter cable comes through the firewall making the cable heaps shorter and a lot less likely to get melted on the exhaust - again. Having the right wiring diagrams to work off this time is a huge help. I found out the hard way the one in the Haynes manual is a generic piece of shit that had me tearing my hair out for ages ( only thing i bought the bloody book for too ).

When the cage was out i cut the seat mounts off and slightly relocated them and i'm wrapped with the new position although it will take a little bit of getting used to as i changed the angle a bit (arse towards centre) which shoulld take some side impact off my back/neck IF i hit the wall. I'm now absolutely convinced the old shell was bent and twisted before i got hold of it so the handling should be interesting - it'll either be fast out of the box ( yeah right ) or i'll spend most of the season chasing my tail trying to sort it out. Going to fit the FE2 front bar that came with the new shell which should help the mid corner on the gas push for the wall but i might just start with last years setup first and go from there, got a mini spool on its way too, by the end of last season the LSD was fried and slowing me down considerably.

Stoked with the wife and a couple of mates for getting stuck in. The missus did a heap of sanding and some masking, the mate that was only supposed to show her the best way to mask it up took over then sprayed it white while i was at work one day, that night i was playing catchup putting bits on the car, next lunchtime (joys of living close to work) had a discussion about where the red was going, came home after work and it was done =D> =D> =D> =D>

Interior race ready.

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[VNracer34G]

Exterior retro~retro scheme featuring chaser rims - definitely fattened my tyres a bit.
As it was about to go on the trailer for the season opening meeting

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The bootlid is the only panel to carry over into 34G's fifth season, even recycled the number and a certain sticker, tightarse ay!

[VL400]

Looks really tidy, job well done mate Now get out there and beat it up

[VNracer34G]

The bumper irons / towing points got a redesign, the rear has to be stronger than the old cut off towbar tongue and is lighter for sure, ran the idea past the head scrutineer before doing it - had to make a minor change to make him happy but had that up my sleeve anyway knowing plan A was over the top
Also found a new home for the lapscoring transponder, its now tucked up in the gearbox tunnel between the box crossmember and bolt on chassis brace - 5mm behind minimum spec and 450mm ahead of where it was in the old chassis - used to get gutted when i knew i'd won that last drag across the line to lose the spot when results got posted.

Missed all three official practices plus the club meeting that was changed to a practice due to lack of cars 'greensheeted' i wasn't the only one behind the eight ball.
First 'practice run' for my new chassis / front right spring / front sway bar / rear shocks (the old ones were well shagged)/ inch wider rims etc. ---so much for only ever making one change at a time - was in the deep end - straight into the season opening double points meeting of madness that usually ends for me with a DNF and lots of damage

[VNracer34G]

Looks really tidy, job well done mate Now get out there and beat it up

Many thanks. The silver inside is PPG 2K left over from another project so hopefully it'll be more durable having mud stuck to it.

I have a theory that i'll get better results if i do less damage but shit happens.

[VNracer34G]

Found this yesterday, taken from 37G (4AGE 20v Trueno) in the feature race.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym7yF5tx ... ture=share
The car starting beside me is my mates VL 13G
I'll do a meeting report and put up 'after' pics later.