50 replies to this topic

[TerrA LX]

Very nice VH, walkies really suit the 1st gen commys.

Edited by TerrA LX, 05 November 2010 - 03:24 AM.

[gtrboyy]

Love the grange wheels lol,you can put them on some cars thinking it won't look good & be surprised how much they suit a car.Had a set on my gtr now they're painted black & on my white vy ute.Love em'.

For vh's the sle rims suit them really well,we painted a blue vh sle asteroid silver,lowered it a litte,fitted up a brock exhaust.I made my brother keep the sle rims on it..the car turned out mint with a perfect interior,too good to be a daily that the damn thing got stolen/recovered twice when he lived in Manly.Wished he had kept it so we could have done a 5l efi conversion lol.

Might try putting up pics of my drag vk if I can get pics off the phone.

[DanWA]

could be wrong but the one in that last pic has a SL rear bumper and strips.. slx?

[Struggler]

Hey Struggler! Nice VH! nice and simple but looks sharp as well!
I have had a few VH's now, they are easily my favourite commo of them all! My last one was a fully option'd SL/E and was running a 304 (standard stroke) and ran a best pass of 11:14sec (with the full original dark green velour SL/E interior...power windows and all! .......

P.P.S : apologies again to Struggler for posting photos in his thread, mild take over going on here

Thanks for the positive comments !
That is a good looking VH SL/E you had there, and speedy as well. I'm sure you posted some info on it back in the day ?
There is definately a thread jacking taking place, perhaps we should start a "show us your VH/K" type thread ??

[Struggler]

Its been a while since I posted anything so I better let you all know how its going.....

The P/Glide I fitted to this car was the damaged one out of my HQ Premier from a few years ago. I got a mate to swap the internals into another case and it sort of seemed OK but continued to break the servo piston and ended up locking first and reverse together to a point it was undriveable in low gear. I dropped the pan off and started crying, it was full of friction material and the oil stunk. I pulled the box out and sent the valve body and converter away to be cleaned out and checked for faults. Both came back as being in good health and not responsible for the problem. I poked around for a while but couldn't find anything I could definately attribute to the locking up problem so kicked it into the shed and skulked off.

About 2 months ago I decided I would fit a manual gearbox. A mate at work had a brand new V8 pedal box and I started looking around for some sort of conversion. After not one but 2 Toploader sales fell through (got sold from underneath me) I read of Nemo355's success with the Ford 6 cyl.T5 and thought I would have a go at that. After a few PM's to and fro with Nemo355 I got hold of a Toploader bellhousing off eBay and a mate gave me his old XH Falcon 6 T5 (He swapped in an auto as he couldn't change gears fast enough to keep up with the turboed 6). I modified the T5 nose cone to suit the 'loader bellhousing and drilled and tapped a few extra holes to hold the box on. I then took the whole lot to Jeff Dellow and got the rest of the stuff I needed (spigot bearing, throwout, fork etc) and the early bellhousing machined to suit the cable clutch fork. I ordered a brass button paddle clutch and machined an old flywheel I had here and put it all together. I made a crossmember out of a length of 75x25 RHS and made an early trans mount suit the later box. The shifter is the OE Ford one with the rubber isolater removed and an old cue ball drilled and tapped for a gear knob. It all fitted nice and the shifter is perfectly located, a toploader speedo cable even bolted straight in ! I needed to get the tailshaft shortened to suit but couldn't find anyone locally keen enough to do it (no-one here has the facility to cut down a 2 pce tailshaft without pulling it apart first). Last week I drove up to Sydney and waited around while Sydney Driveline Service shortened the shaft and rebalanced it for me. I then drove home and fitted it up and took it for a belt around the block, wow what a difference ! With the 3.45 gears and the manual the car is really responsive and a lot of fun to drive. All I need to do now is get it on the dyno to check the Q jet mixtures and get some more rego (I only put 3 months on it initially) and I'll be driving the wheels off it.

Here are a couple of pics of the conversion.....

 P1020239.JPG   141.02K   1 downloads

 P1020244.JPG   143.24K   1 downloads

 P1020242.JPG   146.2K   1 downloads

[TerrA LX]

Sweet. Me likey manual very muchly.

[Struggler]

Thanks for the positive comments guys.

The only reason I put the Powerglide in there first was because I had it sitting here. The manual is a lot more fun for the street and I doubt I will race this car (its too nice !). Once the 'Glide was on the floor the decision to go manual was easy. My only regret was that I didn't do it when I swapped in the V8 !

As for the T5, if I do burst it then another is easy to find, also the T5 can come out of the car without removing the bellhousing, unlike a jap box which bolts to the bellhousing from the clutch side. Also the bellhousing and clutch are the same as toploader so if I decide the T5 is too wimpy I can easily upgrade to the 'loader later on.

[Struggler]

Wow, its been a while !

Dusted off this old girl the other day and put 3 months rego on it. Had to get another battery as the existing one had been flat for ever and wouldn't hold a charge for more than a few hours.

Took it for a bit of a drive and on to the rollers for a tune check.

Purple LC did this Qjet for me years ago. I gave him rough specs for the engine and he set it up as best as he could. Turns out the engine used a larger cam and less comp but his tune was pretty close !

Swapped the sec. needles and tweaked the hanger and it was spot on ! I did initially make some idle screw port enlargements and drilled the throttle discs when I first got it running but if every Qjet tune was this easy I'd be very happy. Thanks Louie !

FWIW it cranked out 149kW on the very pessimistic dyno I use. As a comparison on this dyno a standard VN-VS V8 5speed will put out about 105 kW . It's no world beater but it probably makes an honest Hp per cube.

Now its time for some serious driving !

[TempesT]

wheel it out into the Canberra Sun and get some picks Andrew, also post a vid id love to here it rev!!!

all sounds good

[hainzy]

Top stuff. Gotta love the VH SL/Es. Some sweet rides there!!

Just to join the thread, heres my VH SL/E top 30 dealer special.

[mr5000]

any news with this one struggler im half way through building a 308 for the mrs vh

[Struggler]

any news with this one struggler im half way through building a 308 for the mrs vh

I have been a bit preocuppied with the Sunbird so the VH has been under a car cover for a few months now. I did take it for a drive to charge up the battery (my excuse !) about 6 weeks ago.

Will probably wait for another month or two when the sun comes back out before I put any rego on it and get back into it again.

[mr5000]

yeah i might do mick once its all done n ive got plenty of time to get all the photos together

[Struggler]

Due to a number of factors I am considering offering this car for sale.

It has been unregistered for over 6 months and hasn't been driven for at least 3 months. In the years I have owned it I haven't covered 1000km !

If anyone is keen on a super tidy car with all new running gear let me know by PM. I can put ACT rego on it at any time.

I won't be giving it away but am open to offers.

Thanks.