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Mk2 Vauxhall Astra - SRI rep?

Apocalypse day no...? Fuck knows?

I think i did pretty much a week solid work on the Astra, after last update it was my fav of tasks the skim of filler to try and make it body shaped again. its such a shit job, amazed how body guys can do it day in day out.

anyway bit of juju on the outside and left to go off, mean while coated inner arch tubs with paint to tidy up/finish off

Later flatted back the filler, a second skim and the same again, primed up before the end of the day.

next day spend applying colour and top coat over the course of the day, bit of a wash out of a day to be honest as car had to be in the garage and lots of waiting about.
That was finished up with final top coat the next day and has been left since Wednesday to harden.

All just a rattle can special job but now it’s hardened up a bit Thw game plan is to go over the whole car with g3 compound, then a run round with poor boys and probs a top coat of wax.
hopefully that will bring all the red/pink together and get it to stay like that for... a month? Maybe lol
Red would be fine, but to be honest I’m also fine with it looking like a shed at the moment.
it needs a wing, new they are £100 bucks. I’m not ready for that yet.

rear tub still needs finishing, might try and weld the wing up at that time. I need gas and the quarantine situation makes that tricky.

few photos to look at. Should get the service bits for it soonso over this week it should probs be both shiney and running a bit better.

cheers,

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Been a week or so since it was painted so hardened up enough to take a cut back and polish.

I’ve ended up wet sanding the entire panels before compounding and then polishing. really I need tools for the job, machine polisher anyway as the truth is I’m too lazy to buff it up as much as it needs.
The transfer between repairs and original isn’t amazing, mainly because the faded pink colour is under some clear coat, and I’m not brave enough to take it further back.

I’m happy enough with the results. Going to lay on another round of polish atleast, I’ve got a tub of wax there I’ve never used might give that a go too.

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I bought some bits from euros as they had a stupid cheap sale on, 60 ish delivered for a service kit and front discs and pads.

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the car took a bit to start and ran like a bag of nails after that, always has done since I’ve had iseemed like a fuel issue.
there was also a lack of liquid in the expansion tank replaced with mud/clay 🤙🏾

air box off and carb looked at, couple split pipes replaced those with new vaccume line
Auto choke is a coolant Temp controlled type job and there was no water at that point in the system. I took the expansion tank off and cleaned it out, refilled with water and bled up to auto choke.

Took the top off and checked carb bowl for crud as there’s no filter fitted in these (euros listed an inline filter, so that’s what I bought and it’s here) Nice and clean happily but the fuel wasn’t great looking. I fitted the filter in the bay as it was easy, I’ll bracket or secure it soon.

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Oil and filter, new plugs, and an air filter filled also.

there was a nasty bit of fuel pipe coming from the tank, I replaced that with a bit of braided pipe I had bought for the R5 but never used. While doing that I drained half the fuel in the tank out and replaced it with fresh v power.

started the car and immediately running much better, kept the revs up a bit to work some fresh fuel through the system, and the car idled fine right up to temp till the fan kicked in. Happy days.
tried starting it from cold today and again much better, bit ropey still but nothing an Italian tune up won’t sort i don’t think.

polished up the other side of the car today after spending the morning doing the front brakes. if there are callipers seal kits dirt cheap somewhere I’ll buy them but weighing up at the moment money spent on standard parts against parts bin upgrades, it needs front suspension too.

And typically I have been offered a 2.0 8v c20ne engine with an f16 box, for pretty agreeable money. Hard to say no really...

Cheers,
 
Looks sound that mate, easily presentable. Vauxhall red is a nightmare to match due to fade without painting the full side
 
Yea man the fade of flame red is what knackers any paint match really, the camera is generous but like you say @Brigsy it is presentable. So it’ll do me haha I’ve never claimed to be an expert in anything, and definitely not bodywork/paint!

your new kangoo looks to have come up well, looking forward to seeing you get stuck into that mate 😁
 
So eBay did turn up some caliper seal kits cheap with missing end caps also, so I bought those.

The front shocks were shot, and a snapped rear spring. I looked about for some second hand suspension, but nothing came up and in this current situation collecting obviously a no go.
So between that and me wanting to keep cracking on with this and having something to spend my time doing I bought some cheap German suspension kit from ebay. Which turned up yesterday, gas shocks and 40mm springs all round. I don’t doubt these will ride somehwhat terribly but they will do for now, who knows how long I’ll have this anyway 🤷🏼‍♂️

I had a set of tyres and I’ve got a set of tsw’s in the shed I’ve had for a long time now. Went for some isolation in someone else’s shed for a couple of hours and swapped some tyres/wheels over manually, it was a hot day, I was knackered. Haha

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I bought some bottom ball joints on eBay for 10.20 delivered, the caliper seat kits, I had these wheels sitting now, and the suspension kit was here.
So today now at a loose end with other stuff I brought the Astra into the shed and set about the above jobs.

it’s been sat for about 2 weeks I think after I serviced it, stuck a battery on it, wound over a good bit to get some fuel up. But cracked into life took a couple of revs and then settled to a nice idle. Which is a huge improvement compared to how it was. Happy days.

jacked it up and set about the front suspension first. Front legs off, calipers off, realised the bal joints had the stupid Vauxhall’s riveted on fitting. Pish. Complete units are like 100 a pair and the arms are actually in pretty good shape. the ball joints are changeable it’s just a pain in the arse.

So I stripped the front shocks down to the hubs. Gave them a scuff back and a lick of POR15, my mate has been banging on about this stuff and to be fair is does seem pretty good.
However it’s fucking dear as fuck!! When I ordered it I thought I was paying for about 10x the amount.

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so wishbones are a fuck about but in we go, removed them from the car and got them in the vice.
10x recommendations for Milwaukee cobalt? I think drill bits. Absolutely shit hot.!

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ball joints off and decided I’d be as well buffing these arms back and giving them a coat too.
I didn’t get to use my new spring compressor on the shocks today because I haven’t bought a new fork for it, but I did get some use out of it.

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finally I took the callipers apart again and wrestled the pistons and sliders out. The pistons themselves were fine, just a rough lip stopping them from moving freely, sliders now reemed out and cleaned up. With new seals and caps will work fine I hope, I didn’t bother cleaning these up just incase they do shotnthemselves

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That stuff should be dry tomorrow so should be able to get it back together and on to the rears.
I do need front drop links as they were rotten through.

cheers,
 
10x recommendations for Milwaukee cobalt? I think drill bits. Absolutely shit hot.!

Aren't they just!!! Once you've gone Cobalt, you wonder why you've been p1ssing around with those chocolate drill bits for so long!?

Loving the TSO (EVO I think) wheels... Project RS Kicker wore a set of them well in the early days of Max Power....
 
Aren't they just!!! Once you've gone Cobalt, you wonder why you've been p1ssing around with those chocolate drill bits for so long!?

Loving the TSO (EVO I think) wheels... Project RS Kicker wore a set of them well in the early days of Max Power....
They are evo’s yes. I like them a lot, and have had them on many cars over the years but they are bang on period correct pretty much for this so seemed silly not to
 
My spare set of tyres are too fat.
so I’ll have to find another set and put these tyres on something else again. 🙄 would have been too easy.

so yesterday I assembled the front legs again with new shocks and springs. New ball joints fitted. and a cv boot re clipped.
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brakes fitted back on and gravity bled for the time being as my pressure bleeder bottle is cracked.
But releasing and working fine as far as I can tell

moved on to the rears, half an hour, job done
Red and yellow means performance right?

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surprisingly they actually feel alright front and back. Not solid like I thought they were bound to be. Be good to see what they are like on the road.
but it looks a heap better. Just the scrubbage on the rear arches to address there.

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😎

front wings are £100 a go, to dear for me, for this

Had a go this morning at the front of the wing. my gas reg. was reading empty but still a wee bit left so decided to see how far I got with that.
started cutting out as little as poss to keep the shape and make up a patch.

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started running out of gas pretty early on so just rattled on with little concern for warping the panel. Pointless really because i need to sort the lower bit out before I can paint it anyway.

gas needed but lockdown makes that tricky.
Hopefully can get a cylinder on monday.
Cheers,
 
Managed to get gas on Monday so that meant I had a bit of work to do on the Astra.

first thing I did was finish that front wing so I could get some primer on it and put some filler on.

roughed out a bottom lip for it, trimmed it down to meet and welded it up. Primer on followed by 2 layers of filler and some paint thrown at it.

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I stress again that I’m fine with this car not looking great. Rough and ready is fine.
I’ve decided that any chance of this car looking good in it’s current paint (or me polishing a full car in one day ever) I’m going to have to buy both a da sander and a machine polisher.

the bonnet on this car was the worst, It was pink white orange all sorts, and to be fair it’s not brilliant now. But I wet sanded cut back and polished both the bonnet and the NS wing yesterday.

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the rear tub was the main bit of welding still needing done to the shell so I got that done. With bits from the off cut bin so it’s got a funny shape in it but it’s there, and it’s hidden by the bumper so it’s all good. Welded and sealed up. Got some paint on it the following day.
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the tyres on the tsws were catching the arch on the rear OS, I was keeping an eye out for a set of 45 profile to see if that would be enough difference. And luckily enough the ideal solution, gumtree, “4 bolt alloys with tyres” £40 6 miles away, spot on.

went and picked them up, different offset wheel, I’m not sure if the tsws would fit with the 45’s even tbh looking at it all now.
but these don’t scrub, and they look alright 🤷🏼‍♂️
I mean.. they need a rub back and a paint.
But they are round and spokey and hold air and don’t scrub so what more could I want?

wheels that aren’t black.. I suppose would be nice
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final bit of welding, very small patch needed on the front inner arch. No photo just a half hour job.
did that and then fitted the new drop links and track rod ends I got for it. Ball joints, track rod ends and links comes to about £26 all in I think. Front end is in pretty good shape now, mechanically anyway

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once I had fitted those today I set about mounting the rear bumper and compounding the boot ready for polish. It was while doing this really, comparing the rear arch/side and how faded that had become after I think 2 weeks since the same treatment, that I decided I really needed a machine polisher etc. For it to have a chance.
Ah well, it’s good enough for me just now.

I fixed my compressor so I might paint it who knows.

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only panel left is the roof and that wing I’ve repaired, I’ll probs have a go at those tomorrow and see if I can get the front end back together.

I need maybe a ft. Of suitable pipe and I can fit a twin exit backbox I’ve got laying about.

then hoover it haha it needs a good clean

cheers,

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Spot on mate, I like this car more and more every day to be honest.
Hoping to get it somewhat back together today.

Recent progress sponsored by HMRC 😂
 
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