K-Trips 1982 Holden Commodore VH Build Thread

[KKtrips]

Those who know, will know the significance.

 

[KKtrips]

 

 

 

[KKtrips]

That's the panelbeaters 99% done. Now to find a few hours to bolt all the front suspension back in and get it rolling again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[KKtrips]

Just look at the difference...

I am fully stoked - updated 29th December with latest photo to show actual engine bay comparison with subframe etc installed

Before


During


After

[KKtrips]

Made some more progress today, gave it an eyed up wheel alignment, fitted up the new booster and master cylinder, repinned all the door hinges, refitted the cert plate and cut off the old exhaust ends. Also pulled out the pedal box to give that a small birthday while it was easy to get to it.

Back on its own 4 wheels for the first time in 9 months.

[KKtrips]

Not much appears to have changed from 5th Feb to the 10th Jan, just a different truck...

 

[KKtrips]

But I can assure you a lot has changed.

New lockup even... but the rebuild continues at the same glacial pace.

 

[KKtrips]

Have a half day slot booked every weekend to smash some work on the Commy. Ended up spending the last few weekend slots fucking around with moving lockup shit around. But it's all in good shape now and managed to get some more progress this morning.

Stripped the rest of the interior out. Stupid me should have done this before painting the floor (I forgot to take out the sound deadining from under the back seat)
At least I now have full access for rewiring the interior. Going to spend a couple of days cleaning, vaccuming and tidying up the interior before doing anything more in there.
Need to figure out what product I need to use to clean the headlining and glued on pillar trim plus restore its suppleness - if thats even possible.

So that's 2 steps back today. (I think I'm about 573 steps back at the mo)



But 1 step forward, I replaced wheel bearings, refitted the brake rotors and calipers then fitted some new braided hoses with new stainless connections.
Was going to start on replumbing the brake lines, but that's probably most of a full day there, so that's another weekends job

 

[KKtrips]

On 21/02/2021 at 14:47, KKtrips said:

 

Got a week off work for a nice break. Spent a few hours today wire-wheeling back the whole back underseat area, etch priming and then sealing that shit. It was fucking exhausting. #shutupoldman



Also stripped down the 304 to pull the cam to send to Voldo for a new profile and new roller valvetrain. Only broke one bolt, which was surprising, no evidence of overheating and looks top have been fairly well maintained over the years.
Probably just high mileage if anything. But its getting a rebuild anyway so wont matter.

Tomororow I'll hopefully start on sound deadening, but judging from the state my back is in now, I don't think I'll be ripping into it too hard.

[KKtrips]

Been pottering away on this most weekends and stripped down engine etc. Block is at Parker's getting a measure and clean alongside the heads getting a skim and tidy up, Voldo is grinding the cam, I have bought new gaskets and roller lifters etc out of the US.

As usual didn't take many photos.

 

I did take my new headers to the blasters to take off the factory crappy paint and today I applied 2 good coats of VHT flame proof ceramic header paint. Will chuck on another coat next weekend.

Between coats I chucked down a bit of sound deadening in the front.  As an unfit mid 40 year old Rottweiler, that shit is hard work. Me arms are ready to fall off. LoL

Pics for effect. Dunno, might delete later.

 

Also, the keen eyed might notice the motor in the ground fully assembled, that's my old motor. New motor is in the works.  Winkface.

[KKtrips]

Another glacial update - motor is nearly done at the reconditioners, should have it back soon for reassembly

In the meantime, I got all that really complicated sound deadening done around the drivers footwell. SO many shapes to get around.

[KKtrips]

Discussion thread here -

This is like 6 months worth of progress shots, but I figured after doing a few hours today and making a couple of big steps in progress, then an update was due.

All the hard parts of the sound deadening are laid. (never again) In fact,while procrastinating finishing the sound deadening on the firewall I rebuilt the heater fan, heater box, pedal box and column, then after I finished the firewall, I slipped them into place along with the ducting. (yes I spent an hour with hot soapy water and a scrubbing brush to clean all the dust and crap out of the concertinas in the ducting. DON'T JUDGE ME)



Engine is now mostly assembled, needs pushrods and the inlet manifold whacked on and then it should be good to slot in the hole.



The astute members of the audience will notice the gauges on top of the engine, those aren't meant to be there...

The gauges took the best part of a year to finally arrive after fretting over the design, getting them made and a long wait on the freight from the USA. I pulled the trigger on a classic 80's looking design with 270 degree sweep faces. If I could change anything I would ditch the chrome bezels, but apart from that, they are perfect. Slipped them into a 3D printed dash insert that replaces the factory Commy insert and look pretty damn sweet.

They have a full compliment of idiot lights, indicators etc behind the face of the speedo and tacho. They are a pretty freakin neat trick if you ask me.


Gauges Video

 

[KKtrips]

Some engine pics - I stupidly ordered 8 pushrods, when I need 16, so need to get them and installed before I can finally button down the inlet manifold

[KKtrips]

The body is now ready to receive it's heart.

Even though I scratched the shit out of my new paint trying to install the wiper motor. What a cunt of a thing. Will have to touch it up.

[KKtrips]

Heart transplant was a success.

 

 

[KKtrips]

I am genuinely humbled with my amazing friends. @Seedy Al@Goat@JasonK who all turned up this morning to help me do some stuff that my aging body just struggles to do, especially on my back (giggidy) . We did a solid 6 hours work, fitting gearbox, making brake lines, mounting fuel pump and filter plus a multitude of small shit I cannot even remember.

Thank you so much to you guys for the motivation ♥♥♥, your enthusiasm, your getting shit done while I stood there and complained about my aches and pains. You have done in 1 day what would have taken me a solid 6 weeks of nights to do. For this, I am so very grateful. Love you guys and I hope your good ladies squeeze your buns and touch you in ways that I shouldn't.

So now I have pretty much everything done under and outside the car that I need to get done and I move to doing the interior stuff and get as much of that in as I can before I ship it to the sparky for a rewire at the beginning of Feb.

Some pics from today. Doesn't look like a lot from previous pics, but I can tell you that a metric fuck tonne got done. (2 olympic size swimming pools stacked to the top of an elephant on a double decker bus travelling to the moon to be precise)







Dreamy Al.

[KKtrips]

Amazing how much progress can happen with lots of little 1-2 hour bites after work, 3-4 nights a week.

I now have all new engine and gearbox mounts and plumbing is well underway, just waiting on some nice fancy T-bolt clamps to finish that off.
Biggest thing is throwing a bunch of electrical bits and pieces in the car and figuring out the plugs etc for the auto sparky to do their thing.
Also splashed out on a new grunty AGM battery, 850CCA, should spin it over like a sewing machine.
I have a big day planned after Wellington Anniversary weekend to throw the dashboard in. Might even get the windscreen put in too, if I have time.

Its all go now, it has an important date on the 8th Feb with the sparky.

Pic of it on all fours - saucy devil.

[KKtrips]

Long weekend, lots of work. Pulled all the yucky bits of trim out of the stack and cleaned off 7 years of storage grime. It was pretty gross, now its just pretty.
Will still need to armorall it or something when it is installed, but for now its as good as it gets. Oh yeah I installed the top half of the dash and the windscreen magically installed itself too.

At the point where the only things I can do before the sparky gets his hands on it is check the diff oil and plumb up the fuel pump which are this weeks jobs.










 

[KKtrips]

Some progress is a happening... Fingers crossed I can pick it up in the next few days and get it home to finish putting enough in to fire it up.

Discuss here

 

[KKtrips]

So, something cool happened tonight.