Good news on the tranny. I can't believe the price you got it for - I can't find anything for that coin, just busted up old hacks for 5k. I'll keep looking! Looking forward to seeing how this progresses.
1985 VK Commodore Berlina
Started by
_UglyDuckling_
, Oct 19 2016 06:45 PM
48 replies to this topic
#26
SmacT
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Posted 29 January 2017 - 11:18 AM
#27
_UglyDuckling_
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Posted 30 January 2017 - 04:56 PM
Good news on the tranny. I can't believe the price you got it for - I can't find anything for that coin, just busted up old hacks for 5k. I'll keep looking! Looking forward to seeing how this progresses.
Another case of mates rates - bloke I went through primary and high school with was selling it, he had $1800 on it. I spoke with him about it, put $1500 on the table and he said okay, but when I went and inspected it I found a bit more than what I was expecting to be done and got him down to $1350 and a carton of piss - basically $1400 but every dollar in my pocket gets both cars a step closer to being A1.
So many people have told me to dress it up like a Group A (both here and in person) and I just won't. I'm not the kind of guy to lie, and to me dressing up a Berlina like a Group A is a 1.35 Tonne lie. I suspect part of the prices being so high around your area is people wanting to dress them up like Group A's and things they're not.
#28
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Posted 30 January 2017 - 06:59 PM
Another update: Took it for a run down the road today to confirm it shifts. Does indeed shift, albeit a titty bit high - original spec for 1-2 is 3500rpm if I'm not mistaken and it currently shifts around 4 grand. That said, no transmission cooler at the moment so it may just be pissing fluid before it can shift. More will come to light when I install a trans cooler. I don't trust the one in the radiator.
Edited by UglyDuckling, 30 January 2017 - 07:00 PM.
#29
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Posted 30 January 2017 - 08:55 PM
Not sayin the shift points are wrong but they did change some things along the way ! , sounds about probably close enough if we were to compare it to a similar engine with a manual trans. give or take a few rpm , as long as it dont clunk or slip , she be right .
VK EFI ...LR code
VK EST ...LP code
The EFI version had according to the paper work a full circle bellhousing , the EST had open housing with sensor/s.
Valve body part # on EFI is 92017837...trans plate ... 92009405
Valve body part # on EST is 92020828...trans plate ... 92017838
#30
_UglyDuckling_
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Posted 31 January 2017 - 10:06 PM
Going to start chasing vacuum leaks tomorrow either after work or during lunch - yet to decide which.
#31
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Posted 31 January 2017 - 10:53 PM
I have had a bit of luck in the past by spraying aerostart around the vacuum hoses. When it gets sucked in through a dodgy hose you hear the motor pick up a few revs. I am a farmer though. I also fix a lot of things with big hammers and fencing wire!!
#32
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Posted 01 February 2017 - 07:14 AM
Another case of mates rates - bloke I went through primary and high school with was selling it, he had $1800 on it. I spoke with him about it, put $1500 on the table and he said okay, but when I went and inspected it I found a bit more than what I was expecting to be done and got him down to $1350 and a carton of piss - basically $1400 but every dollar in my pocket gets both cars a step closer to being A1.
So many people have told me to dress it up like a Group A (both here and in person) and I just won't. I'm not the kind of guy to lie, and to me dressing up a Berlina like a Group A is a 1.35 Tonne lie. I suspect part of the prices being so high around your area is people wanting to dress them up like Group A's and things they're not.
Yep. I get the replica thing, not everyone can afford the real deal, but I'd love to do a Holden version of Mad Max's rig, with the VK a cool base. Anyway, when I can find a neat VK for the cash you did, I'll get it started! :-) Enjoy this beast!
#33
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Posted 20 February 2017 - 11:22 AM
Trip out to the wreckers yesterday.
Picked up bumper reo and a few other odds and sods. Installed an external transmission cooler and she's now shifting happily between 2500-3500rpm - yay!
#34
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Posted 20 February 2017 - 11:25 AM
I have had a bit of luck in the past by spraying aerostart around the vacuum hoses. When it gets sucked in through a dodgy hose you hear the motor pick up a few revs. I am a farmer though. I also fix a lot of things with big hammers and fencing wire!!
Maaaate, big hammers and fencing wire are my two favourite things for working on cars!
#35
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Posted 20 February 2017 - 03:35 PM
With you being from Tassie, I would have thought a chainsaw and broad axe would be more your style! 
#36
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Posted 20 February 2017 - 07:20 PM
Is that Venus red????
#37
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Posted 20 February 2017 - 08:14 PM
Is that Venus red????
Be buggered if I know, it probably is. Haven't read the paint codes tbh.
With you being from Tassie, I would have thought a chainsaw and broad axe would be more your style!
Chainsaw and broad axe are for more extreme issues 
#38
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Posted 20 February 2017 - 09:46 PM
If your can that would be awesome! 
#39
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Posted 23 February 2017 - 12:18 AM
If your can that would be awesome!
Every time I'm out the front with my head under the bonnet I forget to pull the bloody paint code! Sorry Dave! I'll get onto it first thing tomorrow morning, pinkie swear, jam a needle in my eye, all that fun stuff.
#40
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Posted 23 February 2017 - 10:11 AM
Cheers mate no massive rush. I'm restoring this thing and I'm 99% sure the red section is Venus Red!
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#41
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Posted 23 February 2017 - 01:26 PM
Funny looking Commodore.
#42
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Posted 23 February 2017 - 01:40 PM
Ha Ha Ha some one raced a Gemini. I know that they did it just funny, they were gutless standard.
#43
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Posted 24 February 2017 - 03:51 PM
With manufacture of TG Gemini's finishing in Oct '84, there wouldn't be too many factory Venus red ones around as that colour only appeared in that year. I am guessing it was painted white over the factory red because the the grille and bumper has been painted, and the parts at the back that have been painted red (air vent, back bumper) haven't been colour matched very well. In saying all that though, it looks to me more like the Day-Glo red used on the HDT VK's, with the VK sedan in the carpark of that pic looking more like Venus.
Sorry for the hijack Anthony. Have you got a build thread going for this little beast Dave?
#44
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Posted 24 February 2017 - 11:22 PM
I have a build thread on here somewhere for it, i must update it, though not a whole heap has happened lately
Yeah it's one of the very very last rwd geminis built here, originally a white TG SL sedan bought from Patterson Cheney in 1985 then taken straight to Geoff Conway's workshop in Melbourne and converted into a Japanese spec Isuzu Gemini ZZR to be raced in the ATCC U2L group A class. So it had the twin cam Isuzu 1.8, close ratio 5 speed, 4.22 and 4.75 ratio lsd disc brake diff etc.
It's first race was the 85 Sandown 500. The red colour was painted over the white without removing the front and rear screens, they masked a cm away from the rubbers. I have a mate that had a Venus red VK and if you took a pic first thing in the morning it looked pink, midday it was orange and evening time it looked red!
I've shown a lot of pics to Stephen McIver and he doesn't think it's VK dayglo but he offered to supply me some if i wanted to go that way. But yeah i now have about 60 period photos of my car and its a different colour in each pic! But yes i think it's Venus as that would have been in the showrooms at the time and it was a colour meant to cash in on the dayglo vk's..
PS yeah um sorry for the thread derail :/
Yeah it's one of the very very last rwd geminis built here, originally a white TG SL sedan bought from Patterson Cheney in 1985 then taken straight to Geoff Conway's workshop in Melbourne and converted into a Japanese spec Isuzu Gemini ZZR to be raced in the ATCC U2L group A class. So it had the twin cam Isuzu 1.8, close ratio 5 speed, 4.22 and 4.75 ratio lsd disc brake diff etc.
It's first race was the 85 Sandown 500. The red colour was painted over the white without removing the front and rear screens, they masked a cm away from the rubbers. I have a mate that had a Venus red VK and if you took a pic first thing in the morning it looked pink, midday it was orange and evening time it looked red!
I've shown a lot of pics to Stephen McIver and he doesn't think it's VK dayglo but he offered to supply me some if i wanted to go that way. But yeah i now have about 60 period photos of my car and its a different colour in each pic! But yes i think it's Venus as that would have been in the showrooms at the time and it was a colour meant to cash in on the dayglo vk's..
PS yeah um sorry for the thread derail :/
#45
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Posted 01 March 2017 - 06:52 PM
I have a build thread on here somewhere for it, i must update it, though not a whole heap has happened lately
Yeah it's one of the very very last rwd geminis built here, originally a white TG SL sedan bought from Patterson Cheney in 1985 then taken straight to Geoff Conway's workshop in Melbourne and converted into a Japanese spec Isuzu Gemini ZZR to be raced in the ATCC U2L group A class. So it had the twin cam Isuzu 1.8, close ratio 5 speed, 4.22 and 4.75 ratio lsd disc brake diff etc.
It's first race was the 85 Sandown 500. The red colour was painted over the white without removing the front and rear screens, they masked a cm away from the rubbers. I have a mate that had a Venus red VK and if you took a pic first thing in the morning it looked pink, midday it was orange and evening time it looked red!
I've shown a lot of pics to Stephen McIver and he doesn't think it's VK dayglo but he offered to supply me some if i wanted to go that way. But yeah i now have about 60 period photos of my car and its a different colour in each pic! But yes i think it's Venus as that would have been in the showrooms at the time and it was a colour meant to cash in on the dayglo vk's..
PS yeah um sorry for the thread derail :/
Thread derail? Pfft still on topic because its about old Holdens 
Found the paint code, it is indeed Venus Red (1F086)
#46
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Posted 01 March 2017 - 11:36 PM
Excellent! I'm convinced that's it.
#47
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Posted 30 April 2017 - 01:33 PM
Long-awaited update on the old girl.
She either needs a new water pump or a hotter thermostat. Or both. Temperature barely even cracks a quarter even on long road trips. On top of this, she's started throwing EST lights after 15 minutes of running. Doesn't matter if you're flogging the piss out of her or just idling, 15 minutes, hello EST light. Goes away when you turn the car off and back on, then back after 15 minutes, making me think its a computer issue.
Distributorless ignition conversion or just use a blue dizzy and strategically cut some wires to get the light to eff off? Thoughts?
#48
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Posted 30 April 2017 - 07:40 PM
How do you know it's even got thermostat in it? lol
Think you can somehow get fault codes to show from est but most of us never bothered when vh hei dissy was an easy swap.
#49
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Posted 01 May 2017 - 08:19 AM
How do you know it's even got thermostat in it? lol
Think you can somehow get fault codes to show from est but most of us never bothered when vh hei dissy was an easy swap.
I know it has a thermostat because I put a new one in when it got trailered up here! housing was warped right to rat shit so I took to it with a big file to get it flat because I was broke as hell at the time. Should really consider buying a new housing assembly. As far as EST codes are concerned, there's probably a couple of pins to short and read codes, but it'll probably turn up no codes until it throws the error, knowing my luck. VH dizzy seems like the better way forward at this stage. Just need to find somewhere to pull vacuum on the manifold.
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