212 replies to this topic

[mitchg]

You make it sound soooo easy! (guess who wasn't there!)

You are supposed to be apart of your childrens projects...
I gotta let you do something

[mitchg]

As year 11 exams are officially over, some time can be put back into the car. I have just got back to work (to dads relief so i can pay for things) after my shoulder reconstruction, and am seeing some big changes to the torana.

Dad finished making his custom brackets to fit the front seats from the VR into the car and they now sit nice and comfortably and look much better than the original toranas i had before.

Yesterday we got the speedo wired up and working, until we blew a fuse. Got it all fixed and working again today and it is slowly getting closer to an engineers cert, registration and supernats.

Will post pics of nearly finished interior soon.

[mitchg]

Over the last couple of weeks, Dad and I have spent a bit of money on getting the Torana ready and finished for Supernats.
We got the car all ready for engineering. We were sent back with a few things to fix up such as the fuel pump setup had to be repositioned as it was in the rear guard (positioned by previous owner), which is a major safety issue incase of rear end damage. Dad fabricated a compartment in the boot to hold the fuel pumps and keep the fuel lines out of the way of any danger.
Original setup:


New setup:





We purchased a set of alloy V6 Rocker Covers off eBay and began sanding and polishing them up. We ended up sending them off to be polished as they were not polishing up as nicely as we would have liked. In the end, it was well worth the money we spent sending them away.



We removed the Alternator, Idler and Power steering brackets, and coil pack bracket. We sanded them all back by hand and polished them at dads work.
We also removed the Power steering pulley, Alternator fan and pulley, accelerator cable bracket, and water pump pulley. We sent these off to the chromers and received them back last friday.

Over the weekend, we have pulled the engine apart and replaced all the parts we polished and chromed. We painted all the bolts and nuts black to match the engine bay, as well as the strip along the alternator.
Hope you like how my engine looks now as much as I do:





Mitch

[knoath]

Best of luck to you both!
The build is fantastic. The engine dress up has payed off! The chrome and polish really suit the Torry!
Nice job on the interior too... pics of dash would be good.

Cheers.

[mitchg]

Starting to look great there. keep up the good work. Did you sort out the noise from the car?

We Insulated the Floor and Firewall before we carpeted and installed the seats a few weeks ago which seems to have reduced engine noise a great deal. Though of course the engine always had their own rattle which is standard in any VN V6. The exhaust doesnt seem to be hitting the floor as much as it used to, and it is now one of those problems which will get fixed, when it gets fixed.

We picked up a set of XA XB Falcon hotwire rims off ebay. We have no interest at all in the rims, though the tyres have come in handy. Today we swapped the 195/60/r14's from the rear wheels off the torana, and replaced them with the 225/60/r14's from the hotwires and they have really set the car off well. The hotwires will be going back on ebay...
We also bought some dragway centre caps from dragway and put the on the rims. It is amazing how the little things make the car look a million bucks.

Dad has had the car at his work for the past couple of days, getting it ready for the blue slip, which we are hoping to get at the end of this week, or early next week. He has wired up a commodore horn (just so we now have one), and, after much pain and suffering, finally figured out why the alternator was not charging the battery.

More pics soon hopefully...
Let me know what you think so far.

Mitch

[mitchg]

Here is a few pics:

Polished Alloy Intake Pipe installed:


Bigger Tyres on the Rear (225/60/r14):






Pictures of the dash:






Let me know what you think

[TerrA LX]

SWEET
How does it go???

[mitchg]

Picked up engineers certificate today. We have it booked in for a blue slip tomorrow, and hoping all goes well, should be registered pretty soon

[mitchg]

Were those the rocker covers that originally had black on them from ebay.
How much did the engineer cost ya all up?

How does the V6 go as im fitting one to my 2 door LX.

The rocker covers were a really really rough alloy when we got them. They were not black, but we started sanding and polishing them, but the finish was no-where near as good as what we would have liked. So we sent them off.

The engineer cost $660 all up.

The V6 is a great conversion. It is a great fit in the torana, and i think with all the chrome and polished extras, it looks a million bucks and looks like it belongs in there. They go really well too and i am very happy with it. Good luck with your conversion youngy_11, would like to see it when it is finished.

Mitch

[mitchg]

Hey young_11,
We got it engineered by a guy named Richard Grdusiak. He is located in penrith. If you want his number or address just let me know and i will post them up.

Mitch

[mitchg]

Yeah mitch that would be great.

What exactly did you get engineered??

He is on the Corner of Castlereagh rd and Coreen Avenue, Penrith, NSW, 2750 (next to the BP).
Phone - 0418 282 382
Email - [email protected]

We got the full V6 conversion including engine and gearbox, cross member, exhaust, digital gauges, speedo callebration, VR commodore seats, seat placement, commodore seatbelts, dragway rims and tyres, fuel system in the boot, and the battery relocated in the boot.

Mitch

[mitchg]

What headers are you running?

Where abouts have you got your computer??

Does the main wiring harness come through the fire wall near the fan box???

How much did the rocker covers cost ya?

Because i have seen some for over $200 on there.

Headers - extended tubular factory manifolds

Computer and wiring - is located in the glove box with all computer wiring through the firewall just under the heater box (make sure you use the original rubber plug to seal and protect the wiring).

We bought the rocker covers off ebay for around $90. They were very rough. We got them polished and we had to make our own gaskets as the original VN gaskets do not fit. All up around $170.

[mitchg]

Also what did you do with the heater box i see you have a hose leading to it in one of your photos,

Is the chrome pulley on the right hand side the same one as the original power steering one just without the pump???

What were your chroming costs and air pipe as well and who did you get to do them??

What do you think of these covers on ebay???
Thanks mateRocker covers

There is no hose leading to heater box, it is just wiring. The heater box is original Torana assembly.

We modified the original power steering pump so it would act as an idler pulley.

The chrome was done through Blue Chrome here in sydney, and all up it cost around $65. The air intake pipe was purchased through Rares for $60 (i think).

As for the rocker covers, I think they would look great, they are a definate improvement than the standard ones, though the black would all depend on the colour of your engine bay.

Mitch