This is what my 1997 Holden Calais used to look like. It ran a 3800 series engine with an Eaton M90 blower and FIT power upgrade package. It had 19" ROH Fury rims bolted in front of a set of VT twinspot brakes and a SS body kit. I built it myself with the help of my mates.

 

 

The interior has a VS Statesman Dash and Centre console. WH Statesman Velour Seats (Front and rear) and VT Parcel Shelf. The doors skins have had the leather redone to match the dash colour. I installed a pillar mount for my boost and air/fuel gauges which I trimmed to match the rest of the pillars and roof.

 

 

My car has been off the road for 13 months now. It is getting a full rebuild, from the engine to the interior. The three areas I am focus on are the Drivetrain, Body and Interior.
The plan is to:
- install a RB25DET engine from a skyline
- get 350rwhp with bolt on mods
- build the auto to handle the power

- hide the components in the engine bay
- smooth the bay
- full respray (same colors)

- reupholster the interior
- sound deaden the car (get rid of most squeaks)
- reinstall sound equipment
- lighten the by a few hundred kilos

 

 

 

The engine is installed. We used a VL subframe and engine mounts and the cross member for the Jatco transmission bolted straight up. we used the front half of a VL tailshaft and the rear half of the VS tailshaft.

 

 

 

 

The engine bay was stripped of most unimportant components and the new GReddy manifold was fitted. The ABS unit has been removed and the battery to be moved to the boot. The intercooler has some new heavy duty mounts and the new turbo has been bolted in place. The turbo housing had to be rotated to fit in the bay and a new mount had to be manufactured for the wastegate actuator. The new brake lines have been run as have most of the vacuum lines. The Skyline gear selector has been installed in the cabin.

 

 

 

The car was looking like a bit of a pig at this point, covered in dust and grease. It had been 12 months in one place, so I thought I would buy it some presents and give it a wash, before it went to the exhaust shop for the cooler plumbing and, ofcourse exhaust.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A morning with a soapy bucket of water. The car now wears a 19" Advanti Karla rims. I decided to keep them 19" as I had tyres for them. I also cleaned alot of the engine bay out, wires and lines that did not have to be in there are gone. I also bought a Blitz Blow Off Valve and GReddy Emanage Ultimate mangament system.

 

 

 

The exhaust has now been finished. 3 Inch mild steel with Race Muffler and Twin Dumper Exhaust Tips. The intercooler plumbing has also been manufactored and has been sent off HPC coating. I have the surge tank for the car now. And have pulled the old looms out of the engine bay ready for the new engine loom. I got a set of HSV Coulson headrests from Ebay and bought some Genuine Trim to match my existing trim. They look pretty good and are comfy too.

 

 

 

I have started piecing Loretta back together now. The workshop is having a dyno day tomorrow and I wanted her to be dressed in her best. I never thought she would be making her first public appearence unfinished. Here are a couple of pictures as she sits now.

 

 

 

 

Fuel system is almost complete, here is a photo of the surge tank and external pump in the boot. Also you can see the fuel reg mounted to the front drivers strut. Fuel tank has also been removed and sprayed black and clean out.

 

 

 

 

Today I bought some RB26 engine covers which I will get resprayed. I think they will make the bay look a little smoother than the standard covers look. The car cranks over via key now. I wanna get it to a point where it starts so that I can do the brake lines and power steering and other accessories. Installed twin thermo fans. The radiator lines have been run as have the trans cooler lines.I have also run the false floor in the boot to mount the fuel system and start to lay out the sound system.

 

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_E7OfFPzE4&feature=channel_page

Above is a short video of the car running at idle to test the fuel system works and make sure it doesn't leak. I have also started to carpet the boot, I have done one half and will try to get the other half carpeted today. But it is looking nice and sounding even better.

 

 

As you can see above, the boot carpet is finished and the fuel system is mounted in place (without spilling any fuel!) I can get to the battery by removeing the panel on the Left side of the car. The car is running, its slow and sluggish, but I am hoping that when I change the diff ratio over, it will improve this.

  

 

Car has been lowered a little in the rear, 20 inch Zenetti Heir rims are on and I have been tinkering with the wiring for the headlights and indicators. The front bar is off so that I can reach the fog light wiring. I have test fitted the gauges to see if the look any good, and wil get these instaled this weekend, if I get the time.

 

  

  

Started tidying up my wiring so that I can put the dash back in at some point. But I will not be able to put that in until it has been finished either. I have started filling the dash so that is a one peice, and it will be covered in leather and suede. Obviously, I still have alot to do on the drivers side, but the passenger side is looking good.

 

Had the car out today to get some idle issues sorted out, got a few sensors wired up and It now doesn't hunt to much for idle, but will stall after being revved up, as you can see in the below video. Also, has some flutter so, I may have an issue with the Blitz BOV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqdEXn7BBf4

Trimmed up the dash, which was not as hard as I thought it would be. The leather was easy to wrap and I am really happy with the result. The first photo shows the leather on the top of the dash and the second photo shows the top section all trimmed up. The third photo shows the dash in with the leather trimmed door vents. I still need to get the suede to cover the lower gray plastics, which will make the car look so much nicer.

I have been focussing on the engine bay at the minute trying to smooth out the holes and bumps. I used a metal mend to fill the holes and fibreglass over the top of that. Once I sanded the fibreglass down I used a Bog to shape the tower and get it smooth. After I have finished sanding this I will use a fine fill to fill in any pin holes and shape the rid the tower of any shape angles left over.

 

 

Above on the left side is the second layer of filler before sanding and the right side is the tower sanded and ready for a layer of fine fill. Also cleaned this one up a little bit for the photo. After a few more weekends of work, I have ended with the below two photos. The left is before I ran over the car with wax and grease remover and the right is after the wax and grease remover and being masked up.

 

 

Above is the bay with the first coat of primer down, looking good, and the paint is fairly smooth. I am quite happy. A couple more coats to go and I will give the paint a rub back with some wet dry.

 

 

Above is the primed bay after the last few coats of primer, but before rubbing back. I have since rubbed the bay back, to remove the couple of runs I had in the paint. There are a few bits of overspray on the firewall, but nothing that can not be removed later on. All and all I am very happy and it is ready for paint.

  

  

Engine bay is painted and most of the accessories are back on, Still have alot of work to do to get all the pipes shining. Also need a new radiator overflow bottle and have to assemble the power steering resivor and hoses.

  

  

  

Paint waslaid down by Deke @ Sparkle King.
He did a fantastic job and you can contact him on the number below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sDrqyxLO3o

Just adjusted the BOV after rerunning the cars vacuum lines and and adjusting fuel pressure. Sorry for the shit quality video guys. Took it on my phone tonight, I will take a better one later. Intake pipe is being made up now in steel, so it will sound mad as when thats done.

Intake pipe being constructed (bottom middle pipe). Needs to cut down by a couple of inches to fit the MAF but should be nice once down. It will be HPC coated to match the rest of the piping.

Pipe is finished now, just need to get them all chrome dipped as I was not happy with the HPC on the rest of the pipes, so I will have them all redone to match the wheels etc. I now have a new video with the intake pipe on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpvLyfxfVGQ

 

Got the car running today, gave it a quick wash and took some photos and video. Still have alot to do, but so far so good. Running standard boost and 3.08 gears, but will get the 4.11s soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_T6qF-2lAY

 

New turbo Manifold. Sticking with the low mount for the time being but will switch to a high mount when I go with an external gated turbo. I covered the area with sheets to prevent any damage when I removed the old manifold and fitted up the new one. The manifold had been machined flat already and went on quite well.

 

While the turbo was off, I decided to paint the rear housing black. I used a engine enamel to withstand the heat generated from the turbo. Looks alot better than the heat rust brown colour that comes up after 5 minutes of running a non painted turbine.

New manifold is in place and the intake pipe is back form the electroplaters. You can see how bad the HPC looks next to that. The cooler pipes will be stripped down for electroplating in the coming weeks.

 

Firewall copped a layer of fresh matte black paint as did the power steering pump. I also Tidied up some more wires in the bay. Starting to really come together now.

 

I have noticed a small leak in the exhaust, which is annoying the hell out of me. So I tried to rehang the tthing in my garage a few times with no luck. So I gave up and took the old girl down to the local exhaust shop (they built the exhaust for me) and they are rehanging the thing for me today on the hoist. I am also getting them to bleed the brakes for me while its there. Just another thing I do not need to do before Saturday when I take her on the maiden cruise.

Wax and polished, all back together and ready for its maiden run! Was a good day, I have a few bugs to iron out, but the car looked great! Below are some photos that other people took on the day.

New hose seperators on the fuel hose above the throttle body. Keeps the hoses together and looks heaps nicer.

Nice photo of the gauge cups