Holden VN Calais V8 - Our Shed

By: Glenn Torrens

Date: 21.07.2019

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After more than a year in limbo, Glenn's Calais V8 is roaring again

One year after buying it in Melbourne – and an enjoyable 10,000km of regular driving – I reversed my immaculate two-owner, full-books 1989 VN Holden Calais V8 into my carport, locked it and removed the number-plates. It was to sit there for nearly 18 months, until December 2018, the month before it became eligible for Historic registration in NSW.

Excited at the thought of driving it again, I rolled it from the carport the week before Christmas to get it ready for re-rego. My regular hot-running of the engine and exercising of the air-con and accessories such as electric windows meant I was expecting to do little more than wash the Calais after its carport holiday.

Like any good shed find, my Calais was covered in dust and cobwebs after its year in storage

It passed the pre-rego safety inspection with flying colours… Jeez it was good to drive it again!

My little mates Jess, Mitch and Jordan gave me a Super Cheap Auto gift voucher for Christmas so I put that towards a detergent snow-cannon. This allowed me to easily wash the car-port grime off the Calais and with the number of cars I own, it’ll be put to very good use.

I found the culprit...

On New Year’s Day, I was quite excited that it would only be another day until I could start driving the Calais again. Sure enough, I was waiting for the doors to open at the Service NSW office (where registration transactions take place) before 8.30am the next day and had fresh new H-plates in my possession by 9am!

A Bowden’s Own snow cannon and quality car wash was a good Christmas present

Driving my richly-hued Phoenix Red Calais V8 again is bliss but one thing I have noticed in the weeks since I had the car H-plated is the dampers – more than likely the factory originals – are quite soft. I think I will replace them soon.

After the ‘snow’ job, the car was blasted clean with a pressure washer. No touchies = no scratchies!

And there’s another problem that I will need to fix ASAP. Unfortunately, it’s a result of the way I stored the car for its 17 months off the road, so I’m a little bit devo’ed that it has occurred. But thankfully it’s a DIY fix so I’ll share the problem, and my fix, in a future issue.