VAUXHALL ASTRA GTE MK1 CAR PERFORMANCE SPORTS TURBO
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windowlicker
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Joined: 08 Feb 2012
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Location: north norfolk

PostPosted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:08 pm    Post subject: orps picture diary Reply with quote

i thought it would be a good idea to pay up and be a member so i can have some sort of picture diary and i think the £10 membership fee is well worth the amount of questions im going to be firing at you all!

orp came to us after my wife was looking for a car and couldn't make her and being as fussy as she is i spent days searching the net and showing her pics of different cars only to keep hearing the words no no no no no!
I was at a stage where i had gave up looking when i heard the words "ive found the car i want theres no need to look any further this is the car im having!" and to cut a long story short here i am laughing

First job was to get her home and work out what we are going to do with her and once home my wife spent the next 3 days keep looking at it out the window more excited than a child at xmas which was great as if shes happy i dont get earache sorry i mean if shes happy then im happy
Very Happy

and here she is



















































Last edited by windowlicker on Sun Mar 11, 2012 12:51 pm; edited 1 time in total
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windowlicker
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Any way we came to the conclusion that we will deffo need a garage and spent the next few days scribbling on scrap bits of paper and trying to work out how much wood concrete and money we needed to build a garage big enough to restore a car but not to big that it needed planning permission or building regs.

We ended up with a 30m2 which consisted of £800 worth of wood £320 of concrete and 400 4" screws and nearly 5kg of nails and as ive never built a shed i am quite happy with the end result (if there was a blow your own trumpet face i would of used it here) laughing



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windowlicker
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Whilst i was making the doors for the shed my wife started removing the bumper, skirts, wings, headlight & indicators, ect but it came apparent that the clifford was going to be a problem as with the doors open it kept going off!
so this morning i decided it had to come out and as it was all behind the dash i thought i may aswell start by removing the seats to give me a bit of room and start removing the dash.

To be honest removing the clifford was a lot easier than i thought it was going to be you can see in the pic of it on the roof the amount of wiring involved but it looks a lot worse than it actually is but once removed a quick flick of the key the engine fired straight up. it took me more time to get my head around how the electric windows were wired up as you can see in the pic of where the centre console was!

Ive found a few burnt out wires which need replacing so one of my next jobs is to work out how much of the car loom can be removed as the old engine loom is still entwined with it and there is many years of randomly installed wires so i think i will have to find any unused wire and remove it from the loom.






























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windowlicker
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 10:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

well today ive managed to completely remoe the engine loom and label the car loom plugs ie cooling fans wiper motor etc etc etc and pull it through the bulk head which leaves just the rest of the loom to the rear of the car.

ive also removed the doors and front screen and started to pull the sound deadening out from around the passenger footwell which has exposed some rot through to the front wing/ bulkhead area which i expected as it didnt look good from the otherside but its nothing a grinder and welder cant resolve.

also i have borrowed an engine hoist and an engine holder which i will be putting to some use this week.







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windowlicker
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 10:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

not much to report today but i have managed to:
completely remove car loom
remove rear screen
remove rear seats, carpets, seatbelts, etc
remove tailgate
remove rear bumper and skirt exposing some more rot!

i was going to drop the engine and box but cant find my hub nut socket so thought sod it and called it a night laughing

any way a few more pics



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windowlicker
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 10:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

not a very productive day today i went and got a new 30mm hub nut socket and dropped the engine out and removed the gearbox and its still sitting in the garage swinging on the crane waiting to be mounted to the engine holder.





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windowlicker
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 10:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

managed a few jobs today

mounted engine on stand
removed brake servo cables and pedal
removed clutch cable and pedal
removed wiper motor mechanism and arms

i was going to remove the the steering rack but it was getting to late to start banging as my neighbours work unusual hours and im never quite sure when they sleep.

ive had a little poke about and exposed some more rust in the drivers footwell and there is a little bit on the driver side rear floor pan just behind the crossmember and a little underneath it as well.

on the upside if you look at the pic of the engine it looks as if i scored a spanner so if any of you previous owners remember losing a spanner you can now put your mind at rest as to where it went laughing





















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PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 11:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

been trying to have a bit of a sort out ive had to clear my other shed out and get all the bits of astra out the garage into the shed and anything tool related from the shed to the garage but im still a bit cluttered so i think im in need of a few shelves (added to mental list of jobs)....

also i need to really sort the electrics to the garage as keep having to plug an extension lead in the kitchen through the cat flap! ive also got 8 twin 6ft strip lights coming as the ones i have in there are not going to give off enough light when it comes to spraying.

but getting back to the car ive removed the steering rack which took a bit of effort as ive never had balljoints that were such a bitch to remove that ive had to use a ball joint splitter and a sledge hammer!
ive also started to remove the paint from under the bonnet to see how much steel orp actually has left and was a good job i did as there are a few small spots of rust that can be nipped in the bud before they progress to anythng worse i also started stripping the under seal from inside the arches.

my tool of choice for today was a small blowtorch to soften the paint and a wire wheel on a drill but its still time consuming but worked quite well so unless i find a better way i will stick with it for the awkward bits.

there was somthing else i was going to say but im having a mental brain fart and cant remember oh well it will come to me when im doing somthing totally unrelated like brushing my teeth laughing















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windowlicker
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 12:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

i started today with trying to make the roll over jig which i didnt want to start as i worked out im a couple of metres of box section short and i hate starting everywhere and finishing nowhere but i may aswell do one stand then i know exactly what im going to need for the other one.

its the first time ive welding anything heavyish with it and to me the welds look ok but if there are any experts out there that can see any obvious errors please speak now before i kill myself lol

i will stick a few pics up now as ive stopped to eat a giant egg my wife lovingly cooked for me big grin








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PostPosted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 9:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ive finished the jig for the front and its going to mount where the bumper bolts up through the chassis legs however im not sure if it may be to high but i could easily chop a bit off the bottom if it is.

The only other thing of unsure of is where to have the pivot point on the rear as the rear chassis rail is lower than the front so if anyone has any experiance with roll over jigs it would be nice to hear from you.













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PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 11:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

been a busy few days so have not got up to much i went to see a guy that does shot blasting and get a price to do under the bonnet and the floor inside and underneath but he wanted £300+ which i thought was a bit excessive.

so instead i went with a different approach and purchased a couple of wire brushes to fit the angle grinder. one is a knotted and the other is just a normal softer one with the gold colour bristles but i went straight in with the knotted one which does a fairly decent job.
however i am toying with the idea of buying one of those cheap £20 shot blasting guns to get in the awkward bits but i cant find a lot of info about them and as you get what you pay for i expect they may be a load of tosh i guess i will have to buy one and see.

the roll over jig is at a bit of a standstill as i had a visitor come look at it and he reckons that as i was using a 50mm solid steel pin as a pivot it would need v notching to get a decent weld so hes took them away to sort them out.

anyway today i though i better start somewhere and decided to attack the drivers footwell and start cutting back the rust to see if there was any metal left and to my suprise it turned out there is but how much remains to be seen.
i cant believe the amount of dodgy repairs this car has had in that one rusty area and what has not been plated has been covered up with seem sealer and painted! its even been used to fill holes which is a shame as if these were done right first time around i dont think the car would be in this condition.

anyway i will stop moaning and post some pics up laughing









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PostPosted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

had a chance to get in the garage for a couple of hours earlier and had a go at chopping away a bit more from around near the bonnet hinge and as there was a plate welded in underneath the scuttle i thought it would be a good idea to remove it.

it looks like i have a little bit more digging to do to get rid of the worst of the rot i just hope i dont forget how to put it back together eek










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PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 10:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote







































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PostPosted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 10:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

i had a couple of hours earlier and finally got the rest of the bolt on bits off and uncovered the best repair so far duct tape!












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PostPosted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 8:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

i thought i would take the drivers side wishbone mount off to see what lurks beneath and what a pain in the ass it turned out to be!





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