General D.I.Y Projects

In this section, I’ll provide some basic instructions, along with some photo’s of the small jobs that I do to my VN SS to keep her in tip top condition.

Not only can you save a little money by doing some work to your own car, you do also get the satisfaction of the end result, so it’s a win-win situation.

Feel free to contact me if you would like to add a D.I.Y project you’ve done to your VN SS.

Rear Boot Seal

As with any part of your car that gathers dirt and water, rust can form. I don’t know about you, but me, I’d rather prevent any chance of rust from forming on my cars.

Cleaning the boot seal is not hard at all.

Simply open your boot and lift the rubber boot seal off. Its that simple. Don’t bother removing it totally from the car, you can easily work around it.

Grab a rag and clean the groove in the boot seal. Seal – done.

Now, take that same rag and clean all around where the boot seal sits. Use either a dry rag or chamois to dry the metal surface. I like to polish the boot before I put the seal back on – Why? Because it makes future cleaning easier!

All up, this D.I.Y should only take you about an hour - at most. You’d probably only need to do it once a year as well. Only one hour per year to do a job that could possibly save you from a costly rust problem.

The photo’s below are self explanatory. Remember though, chamois that boot when you wash the car!

Rear Garnish

I’m completely obsessed with ensuring that my VN SS is rust-free.

The rear gearnish on the VN Commodore is widely known for it’s rust problem. It’s not necessarily the garnish that’s the problem ( it’s plastic ), the perpetrator of this whole problem is usually the nuts and bolts holding it onto the boot itself.

When you open your boot, you’ll see where to unscrew the garnish from the boot. Check the back of the garnish & the nuts and bolts holding it onto the boot and take whatever action needed to repair it – if it needs it, naturally.

As the photo’s below show on my VN SS, I have no rust problem, thankfully. The garnish itself was fine but for whatever reason, I didn’t photograph it.

Whilst the garnish was off the car I took the opportunity to polish the boot, yet another rust prevention measure.

Wheel Arches – Body Deadener

After 18 years, the body deadener in the wheel arches looks a little worse for wear and probably isn’t doing a good job anyway. Some people will advise you to remove the existing deadener if you’re going to replace it, but personally, I don’t think there is any need to.

With your car on a flat level surface, preferably outside, jack the front of the car up and place wheel stands under it ( safety first ).

Remove the wheels and place them away from the car, out of your way.

With a strong cleaning agent, spray your wheel arches and clean them off with a high pressure gurney ( reason for being outside ).

Replace the the front wheels and then do the same to the rear. I’d recommend you let the arches dry overnight before applying the body deadener.

You have 2 options for applying the body deadener to your wheel arches -

• Aerosol Body Deadener
• Brushcote Body Deadener

I prefer to brush it on, rather than spray it. The choice though, is yours.

Applying body deadener to your wheel arches is time consuming, so if you decide to do it, make a day of it.

Rear Seat Cushioning

When I bought this VN SS, I thought I would have to get the seats re-trimmed because the material looked like it had stretched. As it turns out, the material is fine. The problem is the foam cushion used in the seat.

The best way to describe what happens to the foam cushion is ’shrinkage’. Over the years, as it has been used, it loses its’ ’springiness’, causing the material to appear stretched.

Solution ? Very simple really. When you remove the ( lower part ) of the rear seat, you should place it upside down on a suitable surface so you don’t ruin the seat - preferably place it on your lounge room floor, on carpet. 

You will notice the metal frame and the ‘gaps’ between the frame and the foam cushion. When you see these ‘gaps’, you will understand what I mean by the ’shrinkage’ that I referred to earlier.

For this step, you will need some old clothes, or rags. Really though, you can use what you want so long as it does the job. Place the old clothes ( or whatever you are using ) behind the metal frame so as to fill up any ‘gaps’. 

I know that this is a no-frills way of doing this, but it works perfectly.

Once again, the photo’s I’ve provided below are self explanatory.