1963 AP5

Did some digging through old junk and also found this photo. This car belonged a good friend of mine sometime in the mid 90's. I will include it here because I did drive it on occasion when I was single (usually when he was too drunk to drive it himself). I remember this car being very low and at one point in time it had inside out rear leaf springs and the front coils cut to match which all seems very stupid and dangerous to me now. It may have a slightly more legal spring set up in this photo. I think the wheels were off a Mazda.

21 minutes ago, igor said:

A guy I knew at tech in the '90s had one of those lowered on cutties. Changed back to full height springs for each wof. First time he did it he took all day. Got down to a couple of hours with practice.

I believe my mates one got the old pink sticker in the end and had to go back onto full height springs 

I'll bet the ute was good fun with a 308 in it!

I have long been a fan of shitty old Mitsubishi's, one of the lads that helped me out with the Torana build used to get around in this fine example. It was lowered the proper way with a 4 inch grinder and wire to keep the springs from falling out.

9 hours ago, sleeektoy said:

Ford Consul Capri ... this was taken the week i sold it

and an Auto avenger GLS .. I treated it rather poorly and it just kept on going

Oh wow I love the Consul Capri and I also had a Hillman that got a fairly hard life. Mine was an old blue Hunter Wagon, must have changed the diff 3 or 4 times before deciding burnouts and Hunters don't mix. 

Yep I sure remember minis, my mate had a mini van for a while. I remember being at a party and lifting one side of it up with a whole bunch of lads while my mate was trying to get friendly with a girl in the back. Good times! Although as I recall he didn't think it was quite as funny as we did.

4 minutes ago, kyteler said:

Everything I own now,  some of which have seen several partners. 

 

Now there is a mighty fine answer!

1 hour ago, chris r said:

Why not get a running/driving car? I've seen a few for around 1500. Yes they may be higher km but for that price I feel it's fair for what you get 

Yea a couple of members have suggested this and that's actually what I think I will do. I did some looking around online and I am surprised at what you can get, there are even some very tidy, well looked after, low mileage cars for sale for very reasonable money.

I will probably post something up in the tech section around dealing with the conversion, electrics etc when I make a final decision on engine choice.

Thanks to everybody who has posted here, I appreciate you sharing your knowledge, views and good humor. 

Oh wow , that's ridiculous.

Thinking about this conversation with my wife now:

"You know how you wanted the VK to be a nice hassle free daily runner with enough power for easy overtaking and scaring the odd Camry driving soccer Mum. Well that would all be very nice but how does running 7's sound?"

I wonder how that would go?

2 minutes ago, mjrstar said:

modern, 6 cylinder, australian - have you considered a turbocharged barra.

Boy that would get the Holden purists wound up. 

Done the hot 202 thing before with a 9 port Yella Terra head, roller rockers, multi carbs and all the rest. It was a whole lot of fun and it made a bit more power than a std Ecotec V6 but in reality not a whole lot more. I was very proud of my effort at the time however it would never match the newer engine for all-round driveability, fuel economy etc.

The 12 port Yella Terra head package for the Blue/Black 6's is nearly $4000 by itself so it could get very expensive.  

Here is a photo of my previous effort 

Thanks cletus you have summed up my thoughts at the moment very nicely. I know the hardcore may mock the V6  but all things considered the VS V6 is a very reasonable option in this case. I can get the benefits of a slightly more modern engine at a reasonable cost. What I am really looking for is fuel injection for ease of starting, improved fuel economy etc and I really want an transmission with overdrive for long trips. Of course some added power for overtaking etc is also high on the list and believe it or not those are her words not mine, she drove a 200 Kw Nissan for quite a while and the old 202 is kind of weak by comparison.  

Thanks heaps for your input I do appreciate it & yes I think you are correct about added value , actually I am quite confident that the V6 could de-value the car. The car  would probably be more valuable if I kept it original and rebuilt the 202. 

I'm an electronic technician during the day so I have no fear of wiring, that part is easy. I am a little concerned that the LS option is a more difficult conversion and my limited fabrication skills will prove to be costly. I can put the 3.8 in myself as there is very little fabrication involved.  

My daily is a VY Calais so I am very familiar with the 3.8 V6. Also been behind the wheel of a friends LS powered Monaro (same year)  and there is no comparison in terms of performance. However I have been told that fitting a LS into the little VK is not as simple as some would have you believe, although I know it's a common swap these days. 

6 minutes ago, kyteler said:

Mayte,  if you even contemplate the LS,  fuck the 6. The LS is better everywhere. 

Been giving the LS serious consideration as I know it came from a good clean car. It is however a lot of engine for a little VK, or do I just need to man up and take a couple of brave pills? 

12 minutes ago, smokin'joe said:

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyttttttttttteeeeeeeeeeee. , can do early V6 if that tickles you. have both 6 and 8 bolt manual motors, ECU's, looms 5-speed T5 and spare bell, driveshaft, radiator etc etc.

Maybe, MRT1TRD has got me thinking now.

Cost of shipping a motor up from CHCH may be prohibitive but thanks all the same.

4 minutes ago, MRT1TRD said:

Since they tend to blow gaskets at high kms the engine sell well at $1k so a minimum buy in would be more than that for a low kms car

there is also reasons why you normally only see VN 3.8 conversions #1 they are cheep wrecked or not. #2 no security key locked ecu(no extra $$ to chip ecu) #3 more chance to find manual trans fitted #4 less chance of blowing up

Yes theres more power & less weight to a Ecotec but is it worth the extra cost

I think I would like an Ecotec version although your point about the additional cost when compared to the VN engine is certainly valid. I expect low Km cars are harder to find and I expect they would be more expensive so I guess I need to decide if there is value in that additional cost.

I have played with Holden 202's in the past and had good fun but the reality is that it is difficult (and potentially very expensive) to build one up to perform as well as a standard Ecotec 3.8 and this is the main reason I am considering the conversion.

I have been offered a complete 150,000 Km LS1 conversion including, loom, computer, &  brakes for 4K but I am aware that this is a much more difficult and expensive conversion. Although the LS1 would be awesome I didn't intend to build a high performance car, just a nice daily runner and a 3.8 Ecotec would be adequate.

1 hour ago, kyteler said:

They might not be cheap because they're plentiful,  plentiful means lots of people wanting parts means more lucrative for wreckers. 

Yea I did wonder about that, it's kind of hard to know sometimes. I guess I just need to check out some auctions as members here have suggested to see what is available and how much they sell for.

Thanks heaps for the advice. I am not after anything fancy just a simple 2000-2004 Holden Commodore 3.8 Ecotec. I am sure they are being written off in large numbers at the moment and I don't expect they would rate very high on the desirability scale.

I have a tidy old early model Commodore with a very tired old 202 and I am weighing up the pros and cons of trying to build up the 202 to perform well or doing the conversion to the much newer and better V6 engine. I know the conversion is not all that difficult and assuming I can pick up a decent donor car for reasonable money it may also be an economical option.

I am looking at doing an engine swap project and I will need a donor car. I understand insurance write offs can be purchased but I don't know how to go about it. Do you inquire with the insurance company's directly or do they use another party to sell off the junk? Has anybody done this before and can anybody point me in the right direction?

Sure hope that sorts it out, new mounts made a huge difference to my car.

I think the whole engine was trying to turn around the crank with the spongy old mounts fitted.

On 2/9/2017 at 09:36, 64vauxhall said:

He'll yeah ill be there with the world hating on my beetle. It's going to be great.

 

Can

 

Not

 

Wait

 

I know you love the haters and if not you can always take the AP5. I will be taking mine this year.

Had a fairly similar problem with one of my cars and it turned out to be the engine mounts. The rubber had gone kind of soft and spongy, probably through years of being soaked in oil that somehow found its way out of the engine. The soft mounts allowed the engine to wobble at certain engine speeds particularly when accelerating through 55-60 Mph. Changed the mounts and the problem went away. Not sure if this would be the problem with your car but might be worth considering. 

I also agree with the post above and correct pinion angle is very important and changing the springs can upset things. I think you can fit wedges between the diff and leaf springs to correct these problems.

Pretty sure you could get it cheap. Bit of a sad story on this car it was actually stolen from my garage and the dirty rats who took it did some damage to the interior and took the nice wheels etc. At the time I foolishly took the cash from the insurance company and let the car go. The chap that has it now purchased it from the insurance company and I understand he has another 2+0 donor car with all the required interior parts but he has never done anything with it. It hasn't been officially on the road for ages but I understand the rego is on hold and it's still a runner so could and should be saved. PM me if you would like more info and I would be happy to go and knock on his door as I drive past it most days. I would be very happy to see this car find a good home.