VH SL/E 5L Blue over silver

[TUFGMHParticipant SydneyVH SL/E & VK Calais LS1 View build HERE Member since: March 2, 2015 Posts: 96]

Here is the new project/restoration ;) Plan is stock standard besides the engine mods already done and possibly a stock looking free flowing exhaust.

Model: 1982 VH SLE
Engine: Original 308 with ported red heads, Holley, manifold and a 286 cam
Trans: 5 speed Supra box
Diff: Factory 10bolt
Options list: Cruise, trip computer, power windows and central locking, air and lazy steer
Colour: Mercury Silver with Indigo Blue upper
Trim: Indigo/Dark blue velour in ok condition
Run down: Previous owner had had it for a decade or so and did the respray, engine work and 5 speed conversion, then sat it since 2011. He kept all the parts removed besides the trimatic which was a bonus for my plan with it. The trim needs a bit of work, the seats and carpet are ok, the parcel shelf has 6×9 holes, crash pad it cracked and console is loose. The paint is better than standard with only a guard and apron needing some new paint. There is rust in the rear passenger dog leg that needs new steel, but there are two spare shells here to source “rust repair panels” from. All the chrome is neat, grille has broken tabs, headlights are old TYC chinese ones, otherwise no dramas. Considering I nearly bought one for $10,000 more than this based on falsehoods, I reckon i’ll easily have Coke and Hookers money left after getting this one to a better condition ;)

Trip: Just got back from a 35hr/2750km solo driver trip to pick this up from SA ;) It is a factory 5L resprayed in the factory hue. Although I had been chasing one for a long time, this was only spotted at 10am Sunday during a gumtree search, rang the bloke and asked for a run down on all blemishes and history and quickly weighed up the options of a fly down and load onto car carrier on lastminute.com.au, then decided to road trip it instead. Hired a trailer, picked up another VH from eBay that was won at the same time, offloaded it, threw a mattress, sleeping bag, pillow, tie down ropes, and some jumper leads and hit the road at 2:30pm. The BA coon wagon loved the trip besides being a little more thirsty than usual due to the trailer. With a few meal stops and a 1.5hr sleep near Mildura, we were able to get into Mannum SA from Sydney at about 6:30am SA time. We turned up on the door step at 8am as arranged, and spent 10 minutes looking at it, another 10minutes loading it up and driving it onto the trailer, then turned around for a straight trip home. I should have stretched it out another day and enjoyed the trip a little more, but took my 13yo son for the run and promised the wife id have him home for school the following day. We got home 10:30pm after a quick detour to a mates place and slept well ;)

Pics from original ad:

[TUFGMHParticipant SydneyVH SL/E & VK Calais LS1 View build HERE Member since: March 2, 2015 Posts: 96]

Edo spec pic of inside. All electrics except fan work. Some issues to rectify are dashtop is cracked, usual vinyl lift on console, carpet needs to be refitted to cut out slack and seats need a clean. The tint has some scratches, so that will be removed as well for now. I’m tossing up whether to source best of old parts or get Pro-Stitch in Carlton to do a proper job and be happy with it straight up and save all the road trips etc that come with sourcing crap from the SLE mecca of Melbourne. I did the green car at the same time, and it is tidy. It puts this thing to shame..

[TUFGMHParticipant SydneyVH SL/E & VK Calais LS1 View build HERE Member since: March 2, 2015 Posts: 96]

Facebook buy,swap,sell score. SLE rims with decent tyres and caps, no rash $100 ;)

[TUFGMHParticipant SydneyVH SL/E & VK Calais LS1 View build HERE Member since: March 2, 2015 Posts: 96]

Not much of an update at the moment ;) I’ve done about another 1500kms sourcing bits and extending the collection to 5 VH’s :S
Another SLE was sourced for blue velour trim in better nick, but it may stay in the garage as well and replace the green SLX. It is a 253 single tone in Tahitian blue ;) It even had some “Reebok inspired” pump up lumbar support and a pair of 1984 spec Pionner 6x9s in the parcel shelf.

[TUFGMHParticipant SydneyVH SL/E & VK Calais LS1 View build HERE Member since: March 2, 2015 Posts: 96]

Got all of my trim back from the detailers in the last day or two. Had 2 sets of carpet/front seats/kickpanels and 3 rear seats/sets of door trims shampooed and detailed, come up great. The best will be fitted to the 2 tone when dry and the second best is already reinstalled into the 253 not in the picture. Now just have to offload 1 set of door trims and 1 back seat lol.
Hoping to get a fair bit done next week so I can cut the collection of VH’s from 5 to 3 or 2 and have all the best bits in the 5L ;) The green SLX will be up for sale once tidied up. Just need to detail, find and fit a new green indicator stalk, get a pin hole in radiator tank soldered and hopefully blue slip.

[TUFGMHParticipant SydneyVH SL/E & VK Calais LS1 View build HERE Member since: March 2, 2015 Posts: 96]

The wheels are turning, even though slowly. Here’s a quick update on progress

Specs when bought:

Engine: VT prefix 308, ported HQ heads, Crane 286 or similar spec cam, Redline Maxitork manifold, Holley Avenger 570cfm auto choke carb, Moroso air filter
Upgrade: 355 stroke, B cast heads, Brock inlet manifold and air cleaner with snorkel. Modded quadrajet, paint it in GM blue two pack and make it look original. Aim is for a stump puller more than grumpy and rev happy like my last stroker

Gearbox: Supra 5 speed with heavy duty clutch and flywheel Upgrade: manualised trimatic with around 2800rpm stall dependent on engine builders recommendation

Exhaust: Genie headers into single 3 inch Upgrade: debadged Pacemakers with a twin system with SL/E style twin tip rear muffler

Diff: Salisbury 10 bolt 3.08 LSD Upgrade 3.55 gears and 4pinion conversion

Mods so far:
-remove and sell black venetian $120
-remove and sell Supra 5spd for $1000
-remove and sell VB SLE rear bumper $120
-have trim removed and shampooed $200 for 3 sets of door trims and 2 sets of seats and carpet
-remove chasers and fit VH SLE “family2” wheels, buy a spare set to mirror polish (free after stripping car for one set and $100 for the other with 75% tyres)
-buy a better steering wheel $150
-Source missing air con, fan shroud and clutch fan (free thanks to another Commodore enthusiast and brainiac known as Commodorenut)
-Buy brock inlet manifold, air cleaner and snorkel $450
-Buy a clean but non running SLE 381 pack for trim swap and other parts, will end up with cammed LS1 ;) $1500
-Clean undercarriage and sills of red dust from its life in country SA $5 worth of petrol in the high pressure cleaner

Parts needed to source: VH/VK long range tank in great nick, another 10 bolt housing, Pacemakers, recoed side strips

Current idle:

New air filter setup

SLE bought with clean trim for trim swap, this will be painted up the same as the two tone later on and fitted with a cammed and headed LS1 and built into a tough streeter

Some highly recommended purchases

Engine bay loom is a bit of a rats nest. I will install a good one once engine is freshened up

[TUFGMHParticipant SydneyVH SL/E & VK Calais LS1 View build HERE Member since: March 2, 2015 Posts: 96]

There is a little bit happening now that the garage is free of excess parts and there is some room to move. The interior has been cleaned of 30yrs of bull dust, trim has been reinstalled, dash is yet to be pulled out and replaced but will be next on the agenda.
I pulled the engine yesterday ready for the heads to be removed and sold. From there it will pretty much be a recoed top end and new lower gaskets and a respray in GMH blue. All black parts will be off to the powdercoaters, the engine bay will be getting blasted and resprayed then the puzzle will be put back together for rego ;)
Some of the goodies collected:
B cast heads

Recoed Rotty

Old manifold off, a tiny lope in cam and a deburred valley hidden underneath

[TUFGMHParticipant SydneyVH SL/E & VK Calais LS1 View build HERE Member since: March 2, 2015 Posts: 96]

The car come with what i’d class as a bodged up diff being a wagon 10 bolt with sedan shock mounts welded on. After going through the hunt for a replacement diff housing and being dicked around by two pricks who couldn’t take pics but were “sure it was a sedan 10 bolt”, one was found at a mates place I had forgotten about. Another item for the powdercoater.

Also bought a “NOS” cruise control transducer as a backup from the US. Surprisingly, the 77-80 Corvettes had the same setup.

[TUFGMHParticipant SydneyVH SL/E & VK Calais LS1 View build HERE Member since: March 2, 2015 Posts: 96]

Last update as of a week ago was I got a set of VL heads cheap to save molesting the B cast set. VL heads are identical in valve size, already have hardened valve seats, and are only missing some light porting to make them the same as Brocks offering. The dash is out, just have to swap over the air con setup as mice have lived inside of it and the smell isnt great.
Next job is to paint strip the engine so it can be painted GMH blue.

[ajvx01Participant adelaideVC 308 taxi bt1 wanna be! View build HERE Member since: March 2, 2015 Posts: 102]

Love it:) you’ve owned most of vics vb-h’s it seems!

[KroozerParticipant Forbes, NSW91 VN SS View build HERE Member since: February 19, 2015 Posts: 336]

Damm I want a SL/E :(

[TUFGMHParticipant SydneyVH SL/E & VK Calais LS1 View build HERE Member since: March 2, 2015 Posts: 96]

Yet to touch Victoria’s offerings lol. 5L was from SA, 4.2L was from ACT, green SLX was from Sydney. Couldn’t tell you how many VB-VL’s I have parted out since 2001, close to 40. Most were damaged, some i’d wish I kept. Green SLE trim never sells is all i’ve learnt lol

[ajvx01Participant adelaideVC 308 taxi bt1 wanna be! View build HERE Member since: March 2, 2015 Posts: 102]

40? No wonder u usually have the parts I’m after..

[TUFGMHParticipant SydneyVH SL/E & VK Calais LS1 View build HERE Member since: March 2, 2015 Posts: 96]

Took the week off to get stuck in last week and got rained in :(

All I could do was parts runs lol. Work acheived on the only sunny day:

-Fit heads and rocker gear to engine after parts retrieved from Westend Performance

-Bought a 3,000rpm TCI stall

-Grabbed some 16inch polished B45’s which will be sold if I score some Grey 16inch V5’s today

-Bought some Holden “New engine blue” in 2pack for the engine

-Started stripping 10 bolt housing ready for GMH black and stickers

[VS 5.0Participant Perth WAVE SSV Z Series M6 View build HERE Member since: March 31, 2015 Posts: 118]

Keen to see this progress.

Also, V5’s > B45s.

[NickVRParticipant AdelaideVR V8 Exec, VR SS, VF Redline Reserve View build HERE Member since: March 2, 2015 Posts: 264]

Nice looking SL/E you have mate. I have a copy of that black book myself. Good lot of info in there for sure.

[TUFGMHParticipant SydneyVH SL/E & VK Calais LS1 View build HERE Member since: March 2, 2015 Posts: 96]

Not much done of late due to house renos, but the stock pile of parts are lining up for a good weekend to fully redo underneath the car. I sent anything that was black, underneath the car and in the engine bay off to Narellan Powdercoating including the diff. It was all done in gloss black and come back looking sharp. The diff was rebuilt to the original spec besides 3.08:1 gears.

 

 

Bought some 16x8inch V5’s and split them for powdercoating. Only pain was that the little colour chip that looked gunmetal grey in the office ended up having an army green tinge to it:

 

 

Also polished up one of the two sets of SLE rim’s

 

 

Got Westend Performance to tickle up a set of VL heads for me to better spec than the B cast and flogged the B cast ones off. The motor should be assembled shortly and painted in 2pac “GMH new engine blue”

[SLE355Participant View build HERE Member since: April 7, 2015 Posts: 118]

Nice progress, is the powder coating expensive?

Did you go with the color you had picked for the V5’s or change it?

[TUFGMHParticipant SydneyVH SL/E & VK Calais LS1 View build HERE Member since: March 2, 2015 Posts: 96]

Powdercoating should have been around $400, but got it done a lot cheaper, to the point I couldn’t have got them sandblasted alone anywhere for less. After doing the whole prep, prime, and paint previously, this seemed a better way to go, drop off Monday, pickup Wednesday.

The V5’s will be a darker shade. I would have been happy with the original except that the inside of the spokes weren’t cleaned well during their life and the yellow stain was impeded into those parts. Because of the smaller surface compared to FR20’s or similar, I felt a slightly darker shade then Mercury would be needed to contrast.

[dazedv3Participant VIC92 VP Calais View build HERE Member since: March 8, 2015 Posts: 31]

Does your powder coater have any issues doing the 3 piece v5s? I’ve been  thinking of getting some of my Simmons 3 piece done but have been unsure on how to go about it in terms of masking off the mating faces etc so they don’t get a build up of powder where they need to mate.

Will you be re-assembling them yourself?

[Author]

Posts