New seats

Picked up some seats today which I bought on eBay for $290. These seats have been retrimmed in velour, and are in great condition - one of them still in the plastic.


I figured they would look heaps better than the brown seats which are in the van - and have lost their shape.

Although these seats were advertised for HQ-WB, on getting them home I found that the seat brackets are different. Apparently the WB models have seat runners and holes in the floor pan to suit early Commodore style seats. Next job is for me to see if I can fit the runners from the old seats onto the new ones!

Project: Carpet and Console

Time for a change - I'm not fond of the brown interior, so over the coming months everything will be changed over to black.

Brown Interior

I bought some carpet and underlay a while back from Tru-fit, and also bought a replacement centre console from American Autos. I decided that it was time to install the carpet and console.

Full details and photos of the project can be found by clicking here to visit my old holden shed.

The end result was very good, as you can see from the photo below.

New Carpet and Console

The next step is to find some new seats, or get the brown ones retrimmed.

Project: Statesman Front

Always liked the Statesman fronts on a van and ute, so it was time give the WB the treatment.

If you are planning on doing this, try and get a Caprice front as they are more highly sought after than the DeVille. The Caprice front has a nice grill (all metal) whereas the DeVille has a plastic job. You can't swap them over easily.

I picked up a full walk off front on eBay (again!) for $1100. The whole thing was in great condition, and was still attached to the rest of the car. We dismantled it ourselves, which meant that we could ensure nothing was damaged.

After getting the front home, I checked things out, and realised that even though the radiator support panels are similar, I need the Statesman one fitted to the van to hold the larger headlights.

The Statesman support panel was painted white, so I spent $190 at the local painters and got it blasted, and then painted in 2-pack black. End result was pretty good!


After that, it was a case of painting the nose panel, dismantling the existing front, and fitting the new pieces.

Very happy with the end result!

For the full details of what's involved, click here to visit my old holden shed!

A big thank you to Ed for helping me pick up and
transport the new walk off front.

Project: Adding Flashlube

Anyone who drives and older car knows that in some cases modern fuels can be harmful to the valve seats of your engine.

The solution to the problem is to add something to your unlead fuel to help with the upper cylinder lubrication. Easy if you run petrol, a bit harder if you run dual fuel. Enter the "Flashlube" kit.

This kit is hooked up to a vacuum line on the carb of your engine to "suck" through some of the special lubricant at a steady rate, which automagically mixes with the fuel.

Click here for more info on Flashlube, and what it does.

As the van didn't have any such kit installed, and I had no idea as to whether the heads had been upgraded for LPG and unleaded - I decided to add a kit. After all, the kit won't do any harm!

I picked one up on eBay (again!) for $35. A bargain. The kit arrived, was brand new, and it took a couple of hours to install.

The full kit

For full details on installation of the kit, click here to see the project details in my old holden shed.

Headlight Reminder

Because I'm getting older, and more forgetful, I decided to install a simple buzzer to act as a Headlight Reminder.

Not a difficult job, but it's saved me from a flat battery more than once.

The unit was a very low cost item I picked up at an electronics store, and it took me about an hour to wire it in.

Click here to see the full details of the project on my old holden shed.

Project: Rocker Cover facelift

After the success of the wiper facelift, I decided that things needed improving under the bonnet.

Check out the photo below, and you'll see what I mean:

So, I set to work with a few simple tools, and spruced up the rocker covers. While I was at it, i painted the snorkel - because I could:


If you want to see the full details of the project click here to open the project in my old holden shed. All the instructions are provided to do the job.

Project: Adding sill moulds

I've been on the hunt for some sill moulds which will fit along the bottom of the van.

What are they? The photo below shows the moulds as fitted to a Premier station wagon (they were standard on the Prem wagon). They are the chrome strips underneath the doors:


Sill moulds were also fitted to Statesmans - however for a panel van you need to get the wagon versions, as the Statesman moulds are about 6 inches shorter than the wagon versions. For a panel van, you need moulds which are 2080mm in length!

I bought a pair of moulds off eBay (again!) for about $75, and it cost me another $25 to have them freighted via TNT, as they were too long for Aussie Post:


After they were installed:

Click here to see the full details of how they were installed.

Project: Hole repair

In a recent entry, you saw that I replaced the guard mounted aerial with a roof mounted job. Nice work, but it left a hole in the guard which needs to be repaired. As a temporary measure I installed a plug - ugly plus!


The repair job was a simple fill and paint, and the end result was pretty good.

Click here to see the full step by step details in my old holden shed.

Project: Chrome Door Trim

At the All Holden Day in 2006, I spotted a van which had some nice chrome door trims from Statesman. I took a picture at the time, and I've included it below:


After watching eBay for a while, I snagged a set in good condition for around $40.

Before and After Pictures:

Click here to see the full project details, including more pictures.

There's more to the story - turns out I met the owner of the van (Leigh) at a van get together in Warrnambool. Check the pictures of the All Holden Day here, and have a look at the interior of the van. Wild!

Statesman Mirrors

Not sure if you've noticed, but the mirrors on the van don't sit quite right. That's because they are from a Gemini, which has the same style of mirror as the WB, but a different base.



Not sure why they would have been changed bu a previous owner, but I decided it was time to get something different on there.

I watched eBay for a while, and finally bought a set of Statesman mirrors from a WB - the cable operated types. Good news and bad news. The good news is that the mirrors look great. The bad news is that the cable operated controls are not worth a pinch of s#%t.


The mounting holes in the door for the Gemini mirrors were different to the original holes, so while the Statesman mirrors went into the original holes, I now have some Gemini holes in the door I need to fix....