VF GTS Wagon

[steedsy]

Subscription done, watching this one with great interest.

This is going to be epic, I'm overwhelmed just thinking about how much work is involved. From one wagon man to another I get the reason why, can't wait to see it on the road (as I am sure you can't either)

[Hos]

Chad a fortnight has passed...how is the build progressing?

I second that!

It is exciting to see a proper 'build' on here again, the blue screen has been quiet of late!

[Micks]

I second that!

It is exciting to see a proper 'build' on here again, the blue screen has been quiet of late!

Too right chad is a "BP" the quiet achiever & sure he has at that!

[JJW501]

Awesome build, fancy someone modifying a car more extensively than bolting ready to fit parts?

JJW

[Cobalt]

OK....

Have been hamstrung by the lack of available body shells.


They have all be going for ridiculous money and I have just been waiting paitently. Had my eye on a 2015 VF Evoke that was at Pickles due to auction on 12th of October. After being pushed back each week it finally went up today.

So a Vf 2014 ute went up and made 19K.. base model v6 with a manual.... ouch !!! The car not smacked is only worth 23k let alone repair cost and no warranty.......Gonna cost him 3k to fix it minimum....

Then a 2014 sedan made 18k ... Light damage but all over......I'm like this is going to be way to expensive... Both had bags intact

Then to my total surprise the wagon 2015 VF Evoke only 2000klms ith bags gone off started at 6k...

To get a ve wagon I was looking at 6500 for the car.... the parts I need that are on this wreck intact are 2k and the modifications to a ve shell to make it work are 2k. Total 10,500..

Got the Vf for 9,250!!!!! Stoked

Now she will be registered as a 2015...... PLUS I get all the bits from the 2015 which are brand new so I will recover some costs there. I have the bits to do an v6 with all ssv interior and suspension if the wife decides she want one too and the daughter gets her p's in 12months

It is in Melbourne so its lucky I have a brother who is in the car transport game and he can bring it up to brissy for nothing in a free sport.... Well Ive called in all the favours Ive done for him.... Should be here Monday

I'm going to paint it yellow..... Giallo Modena Yellow to be precise..

I'll strip it swap the doors and ready the car for paint.. Should take 3 weeks at paint as the guy I'm using is an animal ang just goes at it with three guys....

So I rekon it wil be a pretty good chrissie present for myself..

I also now have chrome and black parts for the trim and I haven't decided what I''m going with.. Will probably put one side chrome and one side black and see which I like.

[Micks]

Just what the Dr. ordered Chad

[Cobalt]

No Keys. Not listed in the auction docs or mentioned during the auction

****ers.

[duke5700]

Jeez that would piss me off... maybe hence the low price/lack of bids?

[Micks]

Chad is it possible to contact the orig. owner using the Vin no perhaps or obtain a key from GM?

[Micks]

Any update on the progress mate?

[Cobalt]

I have been held up by waiting for everyone else. Paint and Panel ...who would have known....

There has been some change in direction. I have got so many parts that I'm going to build 2 Wagons.

1 GTS and One SS. The SS will have the SIDI 6 but with the interior and all the gubbins including Heads Up Display and Lane departure warning from an SSV Redline.

The parts I have left over are just not worth it to sell as All VF's are under warranty and you can only sell crash parts. Might get 3K for all of it

I have sold My VZ Senator Wagon build from years ago and have basically converted that into the second wagon. I was informed that I can't keep them all.










I acquired a VE Omega and have modified that to make the second vehicleas I was orig going to do with the GTS. At $3000 for a complete VE Wagon it was a steal even if the diff is hanging out of it. I only needed the Body anyway. I will wreck all the bits I have left and recover the cost of this car as it has all good panels and engine gearbox leather interior. So body for free

I have stripped the VE and modified it to suit the VF changes. This involved creating a plate for the firewall and spot welding it into the hole in the VE to suit the VF Pedal and wiring assembly. Taking the interior a-pillar sections and grafting them to the VE and modifying the holes where the loom goes to the front doors to suit the later VF Connectors. They aso modded the upper part of the metal where the windscree and dash are to suit vf. I farmed all that work to a local fabricator/panel shop and it looks mint. You can't tell its been modified. They welded it all up and painted it and it is back at the shop now ready for assembly. I have already begun dyna matting it yesterday. Full firewall roof and floor.

I spent the first part of my holiday organising the multitude of parts into some semblance of order. Many buckets of parts and even more of nuts and bolts. I will post a lot more pics as this progresses as it has now started in earnest.





The VF Evoke for the GTS has been straitened and measured on a computer aligner with less that .1mm tolerance from all datum holes. The guys at Logan Village Smash have done an awesome job. These guys are responsible for a lot f the V8 Supercar and racecar repairs were the only guys for the job. The repaired out v8 supercar ride car when it got bent at QR. Was flawless afterwards. They had a 458 Ferrari GT Car in there that has had the entire rear end replaced after the drive backed it into the wall. They are on break till the 18th when yhe vehicle will head to the paint shop for a white base coat and then Lamborghini Giallo Chroma - YELLOW..... who would have guessed.... Only everyone on here who knows my car history.





So Over the holidays I will be assembling the SS Wagon. It has already begun. The SS will be Prussian Steel. I have done the white thing so wanted something different and I can't have two yellow ones.




I got a front bar of a SV6 that was complete for cheap and it will suit perfectly. If in the future If want to add the SS driving lights then I will get the inserts but I doubt that will happen as the harness and bezels and lights are expensive. I would be more likely to do a Clubsport conversion if one became available at the right money. I would want it to be complete though including the HSV dash stuff etc so the likely hood in slim to none really. I also added fog lamp control if I decide to fit those in the future. This is simply a wire from the bcm to the front with power wires to a relay joining it all up. Unsure if the programming is present on the GTS but its there from the ss harness so I have it on both.


For the GTS I have decided to modify the rear wagon bar as the evoke one was damaged and required repair and I really want some custom touches not just a supercharged tourer with mrc and a torque vector diff esp as they now do the Tourer LSA. I have a guy right next to the panel shop who says this mod is trivial. He is going to put the wagon bar on the car and cut the bottom off of it then line up the sedan bar and work out where it looks best. I may have to lower the rear exhaust but that is trivial. He is confident that this can be done even if we have to section the Sedan bar.

I have looked at the GEN-F2 body kit and will investigate adding the front lip and inserts and possibly the side and rear bits but I'm going to wait and see if they do anything with the GTS-R before I change things. I have a m8 with a GTS sedan and he has bought the lower lif but we haven't had a chance to fit it yet.... Nice not to be the test subject for a change. The rear diffuser insert is different but the main part of the bar is the same. You can't get the lips for the side skirts separate so they will be expensive. HSV may wake up and change that. Esp as they will be damaged without needing new side skirts. I don't like the cut outs in the side skirts as they look to boy racer for me. I prefer the cleaner GEN-F look

While I have been waiting for the repairs and paint I have been busy with the wiring. I have now paid for access to TIS to get the wiring diagrams.. thanks to MickS for the tip as I was unsure if they only had US Cars. Turns out you can change the region and it all shows up.

[Cobalt]

Wiring was a mission. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm going to go into some detail about the wiring as it may help those wanting to play around with it in future. So stop reading now if it's not your thing.

My research has found there are 2 possibly 3 different main wiring harnesses.. 1 for the evoke/sv6 and 1 for SSV/CalaisV there may be a third SS/Calais variant. This is in the wagons I have looked at. I have no idea about sedans. The GTS wiring does not have the Calais extras. The SSV Wagon has all the Calais wiring in it so if you wanted to add extras like the heated mirrors and seat memory you could. I suspect, but have not confirmed, that the outer harnesses like doors etc do not have the extras but it would be trivial to add the extra wires/change harnesses to facilitate this. The seat memory would require the seat bases and controller from a Calais. If I find a smacked Calais I will have a play. The low end harness has nothing except the wiring for the blind spot led's in the mirrors as this was available/standard on sv6's. This project has changed direction and if I had time over I would have left the SS Harness and added the GTS stuff to the evoke but I had completed the Harness for the GTS before I bought the evoke.

I added to the evoke harness the keyless go wiring out of the GTS as it was already in the SSV harness, heads up display wiring, the wiring for Lane departure warning and forward collision avoidance as well as rain sensing wipers, the lights in the sunvisors, the interior under dash lights and puddle lights for the doors. I also added the wiring for powered passenger seat. If I find one and decide to change it down the track I wont need to pull the car apart to add it. I also included the seat warmer wiring but doubt ill ever use that.. I'm still investigating the American seat cooling/blower fan option and will add the wiring for that just in case the moment strikes in the future. I added the extra wiring for the tap up and down shift from the steering wheel which may or may not work with the bcm but it is there for when that may happen but it a way down the list esp for a daily for the mrs and it require a new steering wheel.. Much easier to add it now than when the car is together and it is only extra wires which will remain dormant even if it never gets used

I will use the HSV dash loom for the GTS with added tap shift and rear wiper/washer signals wire and the a Heavily Modified Evoke Dash Loom for the SS.

I have cross checked both with each other and the sedan harnesses to ensure they are identical and have all the extras save for the HSV extras for the SS (the edi, gauges and mrc suspension) and the v6 versus v8 differences so hopefully we have few issues.. Is there a fingers crossed emoji?

The keyless go was a bear and, unlike the other options, it requires changes to the harness as some pins are used by the different systems in different ways. I have left the non keyless wiring connected and will get the car running in test mode with the evoke computers before I change to the SS gear and test the keyless go. This will eliminate chasing my tail with multiple issues during the assembly process and allow me to validate the assembly before mucking with things I should leave alone.

I have to modify the evoke ecm to loose the security/immo so that it will operate without the evoke bcm but that should be a trivial thing to do with hp tuners (Touch Wood). I'm sure I can get it running even If I have to get a VIN from a v6 Calais V Wagon and reprogram all the modules. We will try the easy way first, as not having immo on the ecm is no probs if you don't have an ignition barrel to hot wire and that's what insurance is for anyway.

Unlike earlier conversions I have done there is a fuel controller and it is different between the v6 and v8 varients. There are also changes to where the pins are routed in the main harness between v6 and v8. I have an excel spredsheed documenting all the differences. It would NOT be a trivial thing to convert the vehicle to a V8 if the mood stikes in the future but you never know. You could build an adapter harness but it would require a lot of work and If I ever decide to do that I will just get another ss wagon harness and replace it. Not really a question with the SS build as the point is luxury and options with fuel economy, the learning experience and using up the parts that would go to waste otherwise.

The wagon has an extra keyless go antenna in the rear bumper. The sedan has no boot opening button on the actual boot lid and you have to use the remote button which uses a different system. The wagon needs to see the key to allow the liftgate button to open it. I have spare antennas and plugs so it was just a matter of tracking down what I needed. Two wires from the control unit into the rear. I have used the ss rear bumper which already has this on this car as i'm modifying the rear bumper on the GTS to which I will add this antenna.

I have blindspot warning mirrors and sensors so wanted to integrate that. The blind spot sensors are in the rear bar and just run off power and send their signal to the led's in the mirrors via two wires. As the SV6 has this, most of the wiring is there. I haven't checked the door harnesses as I will be using the SS ones and I'm sick of the sight of wires. These are in the SS bar and I will use the GTS ones in the modded bar for the GTS.

I got the extra options from another smashed GTS that I found at a local wreckers. HUD and associated controls, cluster cover and hud bezel, forward looking camera and wiring etc. These parts are pretty much useless to them as no one is crazy enough to try this stuff so I got it all cheap. I also managed to salvage the HUD screen out of that vehicle also saving $1200. I actually caught this car as it was about to go to scrap and he just sent it to me complete including all wiring and a spare mrc ecu I rekon he forgot about. A Bargain at $500.... My SS steering wheel does not have the buttons for the Lane departure and collision avoidance but $55.00 and Haley at Motorama hooked me up.

The dash is different for the hud and will require some surgery to get it to fit. They were king enough to put a lin on the non hud one to show me where to cut it out. Wiring the heads up display is quite simple. Just connect to power and the slow gmlan. The hud controller on the dash is directly wired into the projector and it appears to be a totally separate system which I doubt will require any programming to get working. The collision avoidance camera is the unknown as there appears to be some interaction with the BCM. This is only to beep the sound indicator and we know that can be done with just sending can signals. There is also a dash indicator which may or may not work. I'm hoping that the heads up display will pick up the slack if the dash indicators don't work. I can live without the activation led on the dash for lane change as long as it beeps.. I will pull the SS Cluster apart to see if it has the LED or not. I'm hoping it does as SSV Redline has this feature. I have investigated reprogramming the BCM and this seems an option however I will either have to develop that myself or wait till it happens with another contact who is else where engaged atm. He has confirmed he can do it but is not developing the vf system and is not prepared to share.... Hopefully he will soon. If I can hack the modules to appear to holden as it is a vin from a v6 Calais then I may be able to get holden to do a full update and get all the correct rpo codes programmed. It sux because in the US Chev will create a custom VIN with the RPO codes you want and you can program it that way.

The GTS runs BOSE stereo and I have added the low level signal wires to the harness as well as re-routing the speaker wires. It also runs the tweeters and front doors combined so I have split them out as I plan to install a stereo later when I recover from all this they then join at the rear of the car. The SS runs wiring direct doors to speakers. I have added/modified the wiring for the SS stereo so that it runs from the head unit to the rear of the vehicle and then back to the doors with split feeds for the tweeters I also added a center channel speaker wire but will probably never use it.. I can then add aftermarket amp and speakers at a later date by simply using the high level outputs from the head unit and piping the sound back to the speakers.

The fuse box in the front of the vehicle is the same with all models but the rear fuse box is different. I intend to mod that. I had not yet done the GTS one so I will use the Evoke and modify it for the GTS and use the SS one in the SS. #clearasmud It is simply disassemble and add the missing pins and a relay as all the tracks are there. Haven't traced the tracks but I reckon the relay is just for boot open.

The evoke had no satnav so I have added the antenna wiring. The VF has the GPS antenna in the base of the Main antenna so that was changed for the correct unit as well. There is a bit of fettling with the plugs but it seems you can eliminate an extension harness that goes to the liftgate which is simply there for ease of assembly at the plant rather that actual function.

The headliner harness required extensive modifications and I basically built a new harness for them. Adding the wiring for the sunshade lights, the forward looing camera and rain sense wipers as neither cars had wagons had that.

Both wagons I have and a mates sv6 sedan use a 16way plug for the front bar harness and the documents and the GTS use a 20pin. Pinouts do not correspond so I documented the 16 way and converted the both harnesses to the 20way plug.

I have no way of knowing whether the GTS BCM will work the rear wiper and washer. There is an extra wire run from the wagon stalk to the BCM but whether the code is in there and just inactive in the sedan is the question of whether programming will be required. I'm hoping that it would not interfere with anything so it is just there. I will just have to try. I'm also unsure whether there will be issues with the rear liftgate. It is also unlikely that the rain sense wipers will work on the ss without modification to the bcm programming but the sensor will be there and should work as standard intermittent if the sensor doesn't work. #crossthatbridgewhenwegettoit

Just as a not removing pins from these holden plugs can be a pita and I have deftroyed a few plugs to see what is oing on in there. Luckily on a harness I don't need. Once you get a technique for each connector it is pretty simple. I bought 3 pin extractor sets of different varities as most of the pins have tiny holes and require twin prongs to dislodge them. All the plugs have secondary retention mechanisms to keep the pins in and working out how some of them worked was fun.. NOT.

Cheers

Chad

[Micks]

Chad you certainly have made huge progress & learnt heaps too I bet. Thanks for sharing I'm sure this will be of interest.

[dgp]

Holy crap, you da man

[Woodchukka]

Talk about dedication. The write up was a great read.