Micks 1983 VH SL/X Commodore

[MickStephensParticipant MickStephensVH SL/X View build HERE Member since: November 25, 2015 Posts: 24]

My story…

13 years ago I was walking around the “Holden vs Ford Car Show” at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre (Jeffs Shed) enjoying it like any other car show, when I spot a VH SL/X which catches my eye. Walking up to it I notice it has an information board with the specs on it. I stand and read it for a while. “HDT Modified. 253ci. 4 speed Manual. VX SS Brakes. Koni suspension”…. Not a powerhouse by todays standards, but when I have a closer look at the car, I fall in love. Immaculate paint work, interior looks new and the amount of polishing and detail just has me staring at it. I turn to my then girlfriend and tell her, “If I ever get a car, I want it to be exactly like this. This is so nice…!!!”

Fast forward 12 months to once again the “Holden vs Ford Show”, this time held at Sandown Raceway. Who do I bump into, the very same VH SL/X. This time its sitting on grass outside and I get to have a closer look at it. Still blows me away. Paintwork like glass. Brakes and under the guards look immaculate. I take some photos and notice on the spec board there is a “For Sale” sticker with a phone number. I was in no position to buy a car, but I thought to myself “Meh, you never know.” So I took a photo of the phone number and didn’t think anything of it. A few weeks pass and both my girlfriend and I are in a position to buy her a car. We buy a copy of “Auto Supermarket” and flick through the classifieds. I spot the VH for sale in there and read through the specs and price. Without even asking, my missus says “Just buy it. You love it. Just buy it and we will get my car later”…. Long story short, I tee up a day to go look at it, pay the asking price and take it home. 

I cruised the VH as is for about a year or so. Turned plenty of heads and kept her clean all the time. being young and stupid, I gave her a bit of a hard time and banged first gear. Driving without first gear for a while and then the engine started to miss a bit, I got to thinking another engine and driveline might be called for. Just so happened a friend of a friend had a 308ci Holden V8, TH400 and VL Turbo Diff for sale out of his VH. A deal was done and in no time the 253 was yanked out along with the M21 and standard diff and the 308, TH400 and VL Diff where installed. Big thankyou to my cousin Fred who did all of the work on it for me. After some teething issues, I had the car running sweet and dyno tuned by Lakeside Automotive. Made 199hp at the rear wheels and turned the tyred pretty easily. Enjoyed the car for a few weeks before loosing my licence for 1 year for speeding. In that time the rego lapsed and was cancelled…

The next year or so is a blur and after getting my licence back, I had the VH go through a roadworthy and re-registered. Enjoyed it for a while and loved driving it. Used heaps of fuel and bagging the rear tyres at every set of lights and corner pretty much. All was going sweet when the engine started missing and sounding really rough. Rocker covers removed and the issue was clear. A pushrod had pushed through a rocker arm. The decision was made to remove the engine for a freshen up.  Removed the engine and while that was out I decided to do the bay also… Then due to a break up and some unforseen circumstances, the car sat without an engine and under a cover for almost 10 years…

Fast forward about 10 years. I haven’t used the car and its been sitting with no engine and half finished engine bay. Looking very ordinary as the body has been knocked around by people walking past it and some rust has set in. Living in a new house, new missus and new area, the time to get the VH back on the road is decided. The engine I had ripped out is sent to KANARIS Engines in Reservoir. Its freshened up and some new parts are used. Engine is run in on the dyno and makes 330hp at the flywheel. Not bad. While the engine is being done, the car is sent off to a panel shop for a coat of paint in the engine bay. The car comes back looking great and now sits in the garage with the new engine on a stand beside it for a few months…

Working out a plan of attack, I get chatting with Matt from West End Motorsport in St.Albans and we come to a deal to het the VH back on the road and registered. Huge credit goes to Matt for installing the engine for me and getting all the gremlins out before sending it for roadworthy and getting it registered again…

UPDATE 26/11/15: Have been using the VH as a daily driver for a while. Still some gremlins to sort out and its currently off the road with “Gearbox noises”. I will be trailering it home (Currently at my parents house) and having Matt from West End Motorsport have a look at it. If need be, it will be taken to a transmission shop for diagnoses and repair. 

I’ll upload some photos of when I got it, progress photos of when it was off the road and current photos shortly.

• This topic was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by  MickStephens.

[MickStephensParticipant MickStephensVH SL/X View build HERE Member since: November 25, 2015 Posts: 24]

This is how the car looked before I purchased it from the previous owner… This is when it had a 253ci Holden V8, 4 speed M21 and stock diff. 

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[MickStephensParticipant MickStephensVH SL/X View build HERE Member since: November 25, 2015 Posts: 24]

This is how the car looks today. From the outside the main changes have been the wheels and ive also removed the mudflaps. I cant find the mudflaps now and want them back on…!!! haha

 

• This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by  MickStephens.

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[VRSenator065Participant Adelaide SAVR Senator LSx454 1960 Kombi (project) 1921 Nash Hot Rod (future project) View build HERE Member since: February 17, 2015 Posts: 5 777]

Bloody fantastic, always love reading a story like yours of how you see a car, eventually buy it, all enthused, has some mechanical issue, falls in to neglect for a while due to changes in personal circumstances, then you get the time and enthusiasm back to get stuck into it again.  There early girls are starting to really ramp up in popularity and collectability.

Btw mate there’s a better way to post up pics so they are larger if you can, I did a post describing how to here http://www.commodoresplus.com.au/forums/topic/posting-images-using-photobucket-attachments/

[sands vsParticipant vs commodore View build HERE Member since: March 1, 2015 Posts: 619]

What a great story nice clean car too. Notice a fair few sneaky sl/e bits on there too. Any plans for a sle interior to make it way in there one day seats wise?

Hows the new 308 perform?

 

 

 

 

• This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by  sands vs.

[MickStephensParticipant MickStephensVH SL/X View build HERE Member since: November 25, 2015 Posts: 24]

<p style=”line-height: 19.2px;”>

VRSenator065 wrote:

Bloody fantastic, always love reading a story like yours of how you see a car, eventually buy it, all enthused, has some mechanical issue, falls in to neglect for a while due to changes in personal circumstances, then you get the time and enthusiasm back to get stuck into it again. There early girls are starting to really ramp up in popularity and collectability. Btw mate there’s a better way to post up pics so they are larger if you can, I did a post describing how to here http://www.commodoresplus.com.au/forums/topic/posting-images-using-photobucket-attachments/ 

</p>
<p style=”line-height: 19.2px;”>Thanks for the kind words.

I usually use photobucket but havent logged in for years. Will upload some photobucket links soon.</p>

sands vs wrote:

What a great story nice clean car too. Notice a fair few sneaky sl/e bits on there too. Any plans for a sle interior to make it way in there one day seats wise? Hows the new 308 perform?

The last owner had plans to make it look like an SL/E. I have no intention to make it a moke up. Id rather spend the money on performance instead but who knows, I might change my mind as I tend to do so. haha

Yeh, the car goes ok with the mild 308 in it. Needs tuning and some gremlins sorted but sounds nice enough and spins the wheels pretty easy. Will stay with this set up for a while.

[MickStephensParticipant MickStephensVH SL/X View build HERE Member since: November 25, 2015 Posts: 24]

Below is a photo of the push rod which made its way through the rocker.

The cam came off second best. Cam lobe was ground…

 

[MickStephensParticipant MickStephensVH SL/X View build HERE Member since: November 25, 2015 Posts: 24]

This is how far I took the car back. Stayed like this for many years and lost motivation at this point due to lack of funds and other issues.

[MickStephensParticipant MickStephensVH SL/X View build HERE Member since: November 25, 2015 Posts: 24]

When I removed the engine many years ago. Sat on this stand for years…

[MickStephensParticipant MickStephensVH SL/X View build HERE Member since: November 25, 2015 Posts: 24]

On the road to recovery…

[MickStephensParticipant MickStephensVH SL/X View build HERE Member since: November 25, 2015 Posts: 24]

Off to the painters for the bay…

[MickStephensParticipant MickStephensVH SL/X View build HERE Member since: November 25, 2015 Posts: 24]

Back from the painters…

 

[MickStephensParticipant MickStephensVH SL/X View build HERE Member since: November 25, 2015 Posts: 24]

The block waiting to be prepped…

Decked block…

All parts prepped before assembly…

Heads stripped and rebuilt…

Re-surfacing heads…

CC’ing heads…

Heads copped the full treatment…

Inlet manifold got some treatment also…

Almost ready…

 

[MickStephensParticipant MickStephensVH SL/X View build HERE Member since: November 25, 2015 Posts: 24]

At West End Motorsport getting the engine installed…

Engines in…

Tight squeeze with the TH400…

New booster and Master cyl…

All finished…

Broke down on the way home…

[MickStephensParticipant MickStephensVH SL/X View build HERE Member since: November 25, 2015 Posts: 24]

The engine bay…

[sands vsParticipant vs commodore View build HERE Member since: March 1, 2015 Posts: 619]

Would you consider running efi/ stroker?

 

What was “hdt” about the 253?

[MickStephensParticipant MickStephensVH SL/X View build HERE Member since: November 25, 2015 Posts: 24]

sands vs wrote:

Would you consider running efi/ stroker?<span style=”line-height: 21.8182px;”>

</span><span style=”line-height: 1.5;”> </span>

Possibly go stroker 355 but will leave it carby. If I ever went big power combo I think id join the LS + Turbo brigade.

<span style=”line-height: 21.8182px;”>

sands vs wrote:

</span><span style=”line-height: 1.5;”>What was “hdt” about the 253?

</span>

Apparently the vehicle was modified by HDT originally. 4bbrl “Brock” manifold, Quadrajet Carby.  I got the plates with the car and have just kept them. They have been personally signed by Peter Brock and id love to sell them, but no one wants to buy them haha

• This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by  MickStephens.

[sands vsParticipant vs commodore View build HERE Member since: March 1, 2015 Posts: 619]

Ah yeah interesting thats cool. So did it have the smoothed out base on the manifold and the two large ports rather than the four?

 

 

Yeah bang for buck ls1 is the way to go.

 

 

We have a worked 253 here thats stroked out to 310 ready to go in our vh something different.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by  sands vs.

[MickStephensParticipant MickStephensVH SL/X View build HERE Member since: November 25, 2015 Posts: 24]

sands vs wrote:

Ah yeah interesting thats cool. So did it have the smoothed out base on the manifold and the two large ports rather than the four? Yeah bang for buck ls1 is the way to go. We have a worked 253 here thats stroked out to 310 ready to go in our vh something different.

Never looked down the manifold to check it haha…

Yeh, LS is the go, but a tough 355 carby just screams tough. Depends. This may stay as is and ill work on another project for all out power.

Yeh, 253’s can get up and go if modded right.

[MickStephensParticipant MickStephensVH SL/X View build HERE Member since: November 25, 2015 Posts: 24]

VIDEO: Start up…

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