2008 Holden Special Vehicles Grange Static LOOOOOOW

[broadz]

Hey guys, this is my '07/'08 WM HSV Grange.
I was in the market for a late model HSV GTS/R8/Senator and saw one of these barges cruising around and new it was love at first sight... I had to have one.

It currently ride on Pedders XA Extreme Coilovers and sits just 60mm off the ground. Surprisingly, it still retains "almost" the comfort level of the factory Magnetic Ride Control suspension meaning after long trips up and down the highway I can get out and still be able to walk without being in a world of pain.
Sadly, the practicality of being able to get in my own driveway or garage wasnt considered and as such I now need to lift it back up so I dont have to park out on the road.

It currently sits on the factory 19x8.5 and 19x9.5 wheels but that will be changed in favour of a set of custom offset/pcd 21" or 22". I'm not completely sure exactly what I want yet but after a look through the work wheels range, could be a set of work 21s to be different to every other holden/commodore owner (who opt for the mandatory 20" or 22" combination)
Other thoughts are a big set of custom intro billets. I have a few months to decide (and save up)

This is going to be a car audio demo car featuring some very rare and very high end equipment.

Headunit: Factory BOSE running through ARC PS8 processor
Speakers: (F) Morel Supremo 6 set, (R) Morel Supremo 6 set
Subwoofers: 3x Boston Acoustics Pro 10.5LF
Amplifier: Soundstream DaVinci 7 channel

[superturbodiesel.com]

Oh yes, pretty sick!

[hakhawk]

in for more

ps. saw you at the roundabout the other day, didnt get time to wave :p

had a quick peek at the car after the coilovers were done, looks good!!

[timmy201]

Looking good!

For those not in the know, these came with a 6.3L LS3 putting out 325*kW (436*hp)..

[broadz]

Finally started on the A pillars..

The original idea was to buy a matching set of black WM Stateman/Caprice/Grange trims to cut up fiberglass and retrim in matching rooflining material. The reason i specifically wanted black even though its being cut up and retrimmed is that there is a small vent that blows air on the side windows and that wont be getting trimmed.
After searching high and low for the black coloured trims, I retired to the fact that black A pillar trims were too hard to find (holden have no drivers side a pillar trims in australia at all). I ended up buying a pair of beige trims from a wrecked VE omega with the intention of just painting or flock coating the vent section prior to retrimming.
It turns out that luckily the holden design department made the grilles interchangable so I am able to reuse my black vents with the beige VE omega trims.


I started with a pair of carefully cut and countersunk routed rings with only a 1.5mm outer ring for a very sharp edge.
The already painted tweeter faceplates with be sandblasted and painted a contrasting aluminium silver to match all of the highlights inside the cabin.



Tied some string on the opposing side b pillars at ear level and using a simple protractor played with the angles until it was almost perfectly on axis. The closest I could get was 10 degrees off axis which based on seating position will come damn close to perfect.

Used some long screws to dial in the same angle on both sides pillars as drilled lots of small holes in the trim itself to give something for the hot glue and then fibreglass resin/filler mix to hold onto.
I bought some stretchy material and hot glued it into place at the top and cut a smaller round disc to hold the stretchy material in and around the speaker ring while I resin it.











Supremo tweeter disassembled and sanded back smooth and ready for new colour.



Painted in spark silver (leftover paint from navara) and blends well with all of the brushed aluminium accents on the dash/doors


Finished and reassembled tweeter

Finished resining the pillars. Surprising these came out very smooth first go so not much minor touch ups with filler before trimming

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j12/broadz/B968AB04-974E-4E88-84A1-D87790C0112D-1180-0000021917E1366F.jpg

Did some minor filling and sanding to get the final smooth shape prior to trimming in oem rooflining material




Both trims are completely smooth and currently at Sew Fine Auto Interiors being trimmed in OEM rooflining.

[broadz]

New exhaust:



Thanks very much to Tim Parsons from Sew Fine auto interiors for the terrific trimming job on the A Pillars!






A casadei panel saw makes life so much easier and enables me to have very precise (and angled) cuts


18mm mdf top/bottom/sides, laminated 36mm baffle (18+18mm)



36mm baffle with subs countersunk 10mm. The inside of the box is now ready for undercoat and paint in spark silver.







Started on the boot install...

Firstly, a few ideas on paper turned into this:




I cut some templates out of cardboard and traced it onto 12mm MDF. I reinstalled the dummy box so i dont have to damage the good one and finished the side floor trim panels.
have decided to use the some Holden Adventra aluminium rails to enable me to mount the spare wheel above the amp for those long trips (like to summernats) The subbox needs to be raised some 70mm above the boot floor to clear a lip behind the back seat. There will be in fill panels to completely seal the front of the box off from the boot itself.




Made the 6mm "spacer" to raise the floor up enough to clear over the frame of the davinci amp


Top trim panel prior to being a round over bit being run over the edges




Amp "window" made from four rectangular strips of mdf joined with a biscuit joiner. Doing it this way enabled perfect straight edges rather than cutting or routering a hole out of one large solid piece.
The finished window piece is then glued/screwed to the 6mm spacer and will make the final trim panel. Once the biscuit joining glue holding the panels together has dried, i just need to run the router along the front to copy the curviture like the two boards below it.






The trim panel and window for the sub box will be identical in construction and the identical width as the amp

Aluminium rails cut down to suit




Boot floor painted black with rails mounted





All hard surfaces that touch have a layer of suede or carpet to prevent any buzz or rattles.
Underside of amp trim panel


To lock the amp base into location I have fab'd a couple of locking pins which sit in between the ribs of the spare tyre well.


Lower amp mount painted and carpeted with the carpetted locking pins mounted



Creating the final template for the sub box trim panels...



Sub box back wall... 25mm MDF with "window" for 14mm laminated glass


Whole back wall can be removed to service the inside of the box and for the initial wiring up of each sub


Lower sub box pedistal is urethaned to the boot floor and upper sub box pedistal screwed in.



Sub box simply clips and latches on to the pedistal to allow easy install and removal


3 finished trim panels dummied up to check clearances




Test fit of subs

[broadz]

Test amp removal... <10 seconds with no tools needed



Another close up of the amp panel locking pins



Panels all velcroed in place and final check to test panel gaps, ease of removal and reinstall



A little bit more work is needed to adjust all the panel gaps and ensure all trim panels sit dead flat and uniformed with each other.

As per the original design criteria, the whole boot install, can be removed in a couple of minutes without one single tool needed.




Progress has now slowed right down awaiting processor so I can finalise wiring and my trimmed boot panels.





Rear sub baffles need to be redesigned to suit the larger morel integra 8s. Not the end of the world but still a delay I didn't need
Small progress: sound deadening complete.. Not the most prettiest looking job for once not all dynamat emblems face the same direction. I didn't wanna go unnecessarily overkill as I ran out of sheets and will have to wait until January to get more. I usually go overboard and have all the dynamat logos face the same way. I have used aluminium flat bar to make the deadening rigid on the large "open" areas which were complicated to blank off.

Off the shelf foam weather shield in perfect size of the Supremo midbass

Speaker mounted and weather shield/gasket trimmed back

Hand sanded speaker baffle is contoured to the curves of the door. Anyone who has done speakers in a VE will know what I'm talking about. 5mm closed cell foam creates an air tight gasket

Drivers side

Closed cell foam gasket on front of driver seals up to door trim


High quality crimp terminals heatshrinked

Finished product


I will eventually apply a second layer of dynamat of this surface when I get more in.

Install wiring almost complete... The complete install (amp power /processor/BLTs/speaker wiring) can all be disconnected by 3 different plugs (600A anderson plug and two 17 pin loom plugs)

Dymo labels show each cables purpose



Front of sub box trimmed in black alcantara with the grange emblem (same as seats) embroided






Test fit of rear speaker mount

A quick spray job



Mounted in shelf

Sound deadening and final fit up

These 8s have actually aided midbass slightly and really aren't distracting from my imaging/staging at all. The car is now fully back together and sounding the best it ever has.

Cargo board completed and trimmed both sides so as to not rattle at all.
Still room for spare wheel and esky

Center speaker baffle

Center speaker sitting in place... Needs a little bit of a play with the axis (raised by 5-6 mm at the back)

[broadz]

Final pics, I had the car ready one complete day early for summernats

After being fully detailed.




Result from Summernats 26: Runner up, Pro Street Class. Unfortunately, some alternator whine destroyed my chances of the win

[GOATGUY91]

You Australia guys get such damn good looking cars! Great work on the Speaker setup bravo, well done!

[andrewn]

amazing job on the audio setup!
can't wait to see this on some new wheels

[93foxx]

dude thats nice and all but this is "Stance" works not pimp my ride.

[Ant]

^ lol. exactly my thoughts.

i imagine the soft pedders coilovers are even more compressed now with the stereo gear. i would either upgrade to some more serious coilovers to get it lower or just simplify and go for air bags since its such a big car. Also the 19s don't look too far off the 'right' size for the chassis, maybe 20s if you want to go bigger and can get them? It is surprising how much difference it makes when you have aggressive width and offset on a set of wheels, it can make them look larger diameter than they actually are so i would look to put a lot of work into the fitment side to maximise that. Not many Holden drivers do :-/

[broadz]

dude thats nice and all but this is "Stance" works not pimp my ride.

Unlike a lot of people on here, I concentrate on ALL areas of the car: not just buy a cheap shit car, buy the cheapest nastiest coilovers available with wheels 5" wider than what fits with tyres stretched beyond recognition and call it a show car/stanced/poked etc.

I haven't bought wheels yet but can assure you they will have fitment and "some" stretch.

Post #1 states i'm looking into Work 21s which are hell rare over here in Australia.

If you want, think of this as ive headed down more the VIP route.

"Pimp my ride" usually does early 80s/90s Mustangs, CRXs, Caddys and does them tacky. This is a high end, all out sound quality stereo install. If you don't understand this audio install, its best you don't ask.

^ lol. exactly my thoughts.

i imagine the soft pedders coilovers are even more compressed now with the stereo gear. i would either upgrade to some more serious coilovers to get it lower or just simplify and go for air bags since its such a big car. Also the 19s don't look too far off the 'right' size for the chassis, maybe 20s if you want to go bigger and can get them? It is surprising how much difference it makes when you have aggressive width and offset on a set of wheels, it can make them look larger diameter than they actually are so i would look to put a lot of work into the fitment side to maximise that. Not many Holden drivers do :-/

yeah it has dropped about another 1/2 inch since I had the installed. I'm quite happy with the pedders, so long as they don't fail, I'll be keeping them. The height it is currently set at is approx 75mm off the ground ONLY because my driveway is too steep and is an absolute pain to get in and out of with such a long wheelbase car. It used to sit 50mm but I had to raise it as I was tearing too much of the front bar and destroying my exhaust on the highways I travel on.

I had thought about airbags but I'm not at all keen on them and with my stereo install dont want to lose any space for air tanks and noisy compressors.

When I enter shows, its only a couple hours work to wind the coils right down and another couple hours on the road in front of my house to wind them back up again.

[NorCalFocus]

Excellent work sir.

[hakhawk]

dude thats nice and all but this is "Stance" works not pimp my ride.

this is a build thread, in the builds section, its clearly not finished yet(as with most builds in this section), i know broadz personally, and hes an audio guy through and through, so thats where he's really started.

try some helpful stuff next time, instead of just trying to get in a smartass comment.

/whinge



broadz, absolutely LOVING the install, saw some pics on your facebook, but thoroughly enjoyed scrolling through the build pics at work this morning :p

you'll have to drop by sometime so i can get a looksee and listen!!

also, lol at the alternator whine, bloody ve's :p