Finally back into a steel bumpered car

[Mighty Mouse]

Mrs Jones, no trees left in our yard after the last incident. I fucking hate trees.

aaron_hogan, im not sure what a scheel seat is? i googled it and all i find were pics of dirty XF 'coon ESP's.?
pretty sure the front seats have been replaced with garden variety VR/VS cloth ones anyway, rear seat is still the original leather item, in pretty bad shape. Did a quick fit into the rear of the HQ and could probably get it to work though - thinking about this currently.

wont go air con i don't think, don't like the clutter in the engine bay. But definitely thinking I might go EFI 304 for now.

[aaron_hogan]

SV90 HSV's should have Scheel seats fitted - sounds like yours were raided already. Scheel is the equal of Recaro. They were also fitted to XC cobras, Escort RS2000's, VL Directors and other high end stuff of the day like that.

You live in the NT and DON'T want air con?
p.s. Take a good look at any HQ engine bay with an efi 304 in there - you can't avoid clutter! (aussiev8 forum might be worth a look)

[Motherfucker Jones]

If you're taking votes I'll put one in for stock interior and big block :D

I guess it depends on what you want the car to do once it's finished. I think injected 5litres and modern interiors suck in old cars but if you want a nice cruiser it does make sense

[GSRman]

so does that mean bidding on the HQ starts at $801?

[Mighty Mouse]

so does that mean bidding on the HQ starts at $801?

sure, i'll let you know when you hit reserve..?

good point re: what i want the car to be when its 'done'...
no idea, just wanna get it rego'd at this stage as quickly and cheaply as possible. Trying to beat my mate in getting his XB coupe rego'd (which hasn't seen the road in well over 20years). After this year is over and I have some spare $ again will look at what I want to do with it.
either way, changing motors/boxes is easy and cheap compared to getting the exterior/interior up to scratch.

[Mighty Mouse]

so tonight I pulled my finger out and got this massive steaming pile of fagotry that is this HSV running.
Sounds good, ran out of fuel while fucking around with it, but appears to run well so will probably slip this 304/th700 in.

some questions - can I use a std. length trimatic tailshaft?
I'm getting conflicting reports of the th700 being longer or same same as trimatic.. i know the yokes are the same.
some say is 3in 'longer' but some others appear to have used the stock shaft?
im confuzzled.

[Mighty Mouse]

ah fun times.. mate and I spent half the day on this today.
out it comes..



turned out the trans looking pretty new, AC Delco re-man. Happy days.

more 5l goodness



so then yeh, blah blah blah, swapped sumps/pickups, engine mounts... etc.
then BAM. in it went.



fairly painless experience overall, except for some imperial bolts on the motor...
few problems to sort out.
1) dip stick.
2) trans crossmember
3) tailshaft
4) steaming pile of VQ statesman shit in my driveway.

[XFJET]

why do I have a soft spot for those SV90's when I hate the holden badge?

skids not far now

[darwinschops]

have a filthy soft spot for vn/q models, get it the fuck off your front yard before it becomes a fixture! i'd advise leaving it somewhere with the keys in it but it looks like it's already had the standard ratfucking (thanks kev!) pilfer treatment.

i'd go for a retrim of standard interior and get that 304 sounding as loud and lumpy as possible while still being able to enjoy efi. and madness for not at least having a go at getting ac working for a cruiser in the Territory...

[dirty_sandwich]

So does the tailshaft fit? How strict are NT on emissions/inspections? Any chance of pissing off the EFI and putting a carb on and passing it off as a 308?

[Mighty Mouse]

have a filthy soft spot for vn/q models, get it the fuck off your front yard before it becomes a fixture! i'd advise leaving it somewhere with the keys in it but it looks like it's already had the standard ratfucking (thanks kev!) pilfer treatment.

i'd go for a retrim of standard interior and get that 304 sounding as loud and lumpy as possible while still being able to enjoy efi. and madness for not at least having a go at getting ac working for a cruiser in the Territory...

Yes I have thought about just pushing it out the front of my house and hoping it disappears but think the wifey will chop my balls off, already not happy "with all these shitheaps lying around the house"
AC is gay. windows down is the go. its not going to be my daily or anything. I have however kept the bracket and stuffs just in case i do change my mind. lol

So does the tailshaft fit? How strict are NT on emissions/inspections? Any chance of pissing off the EFI and putting a carb on and passing it off as a 308?

Nah tailshaft doesn't fit, needs to be approx 2.5/3inches shorter than a trimatic/t350 shaft.. I kinda thought that might have been the case but I wasn't sure. I have a tonner shaft that i'll get shortend to suit.
depends on the day/person you get up here, i'm sure I could get it through the pits if I chucked a carby on it but the prices of decent carby manifolds for VN heads is just crazy.. so until I can find a decent one secondhand this efi unit will stay.

[briney]

the biggest drama with efi in older cars seems to be with the fuel pump. will the vn tank and fuel lines be able to be made to fit ?

[Mighty Mouse]

im still undecided what im doing fuel wise at the moment.. apparently vn v6 tanks basically bolt in but you need to obviously weld on a new filler to suit the HQ (fill behind numberplate).
i may just add a weld-on sump to the original tank instead.

[MartyRX2]

Great effort, will be a very cool car when done. +1 for sticking with the original HQ interior, late model seats just don't suit these things. As for your rust repairs, one bit of advice I learnt from an old school panel man was to radius the corners of your repair patches. This reduces the likelihood of excessive heat concentration when you weld and subsequent shrinkage deforming the original lines of the panel.

[matty12]

when i put a vt engine in my one tunner i unsoldered the filler from a vn and resoldered it into the hz one, couldnt of been easier.