Astra GTE 16V

[tiff_lee]

Ok so it's not a Renault Turbo but it's a project nonetheless and some may enjoy reading, it is ported from my astramk2.com thread so it may seem a little disjointed as i've tried to copy paste the relevant parts.

Welcome all to "Project Runabout".

Ok ill try and keep this brief, car was purchased as a toy/runabout to tide me over in the interim until my calibra was roadworthy however it has now eaten deep enough into my wallet and taken up enough time it has achieved project status while meanwhile the poor old cally remains neglected

I never actually intended to have a project thread and quite a few jobs I have already done however this way it helps me keep track on things and maybe at some point or another help others out.

I think I have a little ocd or something as I just can't leave things be and have to do something about it anyhow less text more pictures, here we go....

Car was picked up few months ago about 30 odd miles away from a chap who used to be a member (not sure if he is still active on the boards)





I thought the car looked pretty tidy so couldn't resist really, I justified the purchase by telling myself I could sell it on for the same money.



a little wear on drivers bolster however I was supplied a replacement seat cover so that will be fun to tackle sometime, not



everyones favourite dampers on the rear (G-Max eurgh)



not sure if you can see but appears to be almost like garden hose going from tank to fuel pump.

Interior shot, momo steering wheel was fitted but I now finally have an OE one in there


Unfortunately the car is back home and I live/work 350 miles away in the week (navy). At previous establishments i've been able to take stuff back to base with me and work on it there (Twitch knows all about that) but unfortunately the one i'm now at has no facilities for that so it hinders progress quite a bit. Tasks which could of been worked on during the week and finished at the weekend (like painting parts then refitting) is now drawn out over 2 weeks, no big deal just irritating.

/Update
Ok first day driving the GTE home I noticed the back end was a little twitchy as in it would randomly 'pinch' and step out so I pulled over a couple of times but couldn't really see or feel anything.

Just as I was arriving home a familiar noise started to come from the rear and I suspected it was the rear wheel bearing (after having one fail before on last GTE), after getting out and checking the rear wheels again one was very very hot.

After removing the rear disc it was pretty obvious and shocking




As you can see one of the taper roller bearings had completely collapsed and only the smaller of the two was supporting the wheel, the pinching I felt I put down to the brake disc straying inside the caliper which is rather worrying to think that was holding the wheel on.

Anyhow motor factors picked up a new bearing and drifted out old races and fitted new ones (using the old outer race to tap new one in) very easy job and fortunately there was no damage to the stub axle.


/Update
Some of you may recognise this from my recent thread on mig (link at bottom of post) but thought it was relevant here considering it's this car.

The airbox on my car had been butchered at some point in favour of some maxpower style drilling, well not drilled more like just cut the bottom off. Also in conjunction with that the original oe resonator inlet setup had been ditched and just a skanking air inlet pipe remained (few pics below).


There was also a K&N panel filter fitted however as you can imagine it was just caked in crap considering it is exposed right above one of the driving wheels, just soaking the filter in warm hot water turned it black.

Now with some inspiration from Darren and a little bit of bodge I repaired the 'modified' airbox and fitted a much better inlet.

Took some leftover carbon fibre sheet from another ongoing project and cut to size

Bonded on with some stikaflex



voilà now have a modified carbonfibre airbox!

Now time for the "Darren H airbox mod"

take one 80mm-70mm silicone reducer, one 10.5 inch length of plastic pipe (2.75 inch dia) and cut the end at a 45 degree angle. Then using a heat gun soften the end and use something suitable to trumpet the end (funnel or something similar).

You should end up with something that resembles this


comparison between new inlet and what was fitted, eurgh


After initial fitting the white pipe was too obvious behind the grill (GTE upper grill), it may of looked better if the car was white but on mine it looked a bit naff. Although it is effectively a bit of drainpipe I didn't want it to actually look like I had stuck one on my inlet if that makes sense.

Fortunately I had some grey plastikote left over from a previous project so sprayed the pipe

and fitted



Quick disclaimer, the inlet pipe is Darren's idea so kudos to him, there are a few more details/pictures he posted up on my other thread which can be found here
http://www.migweb.co.uk/forums/engin...-drilling.html


/Update
Blowing exhaust-

An ongoing problem I currently have is the exhaust manifold blowing from where the 4 pipes all join into 1, somewhere on the inside of all 4 pipes.

The manifold itself I was told is a janspeed stainless and the bore of the runners do seem a little larger than the standard manifold I received.

I was just going to swap back to the standard manifold I received with the car however there seems to be a part missing on it (Darren pointed it out) and that is where the gasket seal sits.


and on the janspeed


I went to a local exhaust place and enquired about getting the janspeed repaired and they quoted £60-80, after they 'attempted' a repair which set me back £40 cash it is still the same. I spoke with the chap and he reckoned one of the runners is cracked and the only way to do it properly would be to basically disassemble the pipe find the crack and weld back together.

For what they was going to charge I said don't bother I may as well source a replacement manifold which I did, sort of....
I asked on the forum regarding the ebay china made one size fits nothing stainless manifold, i'm sure you all know the one to which I refer and I bet some of you have been tempted to buy it yourselves.

No pictures of mine at the moment but here is a stock photo


as some have already found out they are not a good fit at all and I was advised about this, however I picked one up for £70 and didn't mind spending a little bit more getting it modified to leave me with a nice stainless manifold.

I found where the manifold passes under the sump there is a massive gap and it would near enough be on the floor at all times! the end where it joins with the system is also slightly at the wrong angle and too long. More pictures on this to follow next time it is on the ramp.

With all the exhaust shenanigans going on I noticed the offside engine mount looked a little ropey and had a quick poke around and as suspected it was non existant

funny as my last GTE was exactly the same when I picked it up, makes me wonder do people get to a point when they just give up and sack off maintenance altogether.

Picked up a replacement mount and with the aid of some sikaflex and an old exhaust rubber ended up with this mess

the main thing is to stop the mount self destructing and crumbling away although may well make it a little firmer.

I did come across some very gucci polyurethane inserts which slot straight inside the mount unfortunately they don't do them for mk2's the oldest model is mk3.

[tiff_lee]

/Update
haha it's ok I know some people have no love for the cally! the problem with too many motors is finding somewhere to stash them!

Ok another backlog item to post up - DIY rosejointed short/quick shift

A few years ago I fitted a B&M quickshift to my RS Turbo and it massively transformed it, what felt like neutral when in gear was then solid and rigid like one of those old arcade machines when the shifter couldn't deviate from the steel plate.

Anyhow I searched around for something similar for the GTE and came across various quick shifts some being rose jointed. I didn't fancy shelling out for something I was confident I could make myself however at the time I couldn't find a decent guide (not until I finished mine!) so by trial and error with some added fail this is what I did.

Take one standard linkage, I removed mine with mount as the top of the pivot pin retaining clip sheared off


these were just a couple of reference pictures in case I forgot how it was meant to go back together (which funnily enough I didn't reference as you see later), they are a little misleading as the linkage bars are 180 degrees out, I must of popped the x-link one back on after messing about with it.



The x-link bar is held on by a plastic socket joint and that just prys off


the main fore and aft bars are held on by a circlip, remove the circlip lift the bar off the plastic cup which can then be pryed off the metal balls.



I ground off the back of all four metal balls then punched them out


The plan was four the bolts to run through where the metals balls were and the rosejoint to be on the appropriate bar like so




now some of you may want to stop at the x-link bar and just replace the bushes on the two main bars as I dare say the difference is negligible however you now have pub bragging rights of "fully rosejointed quickshift" along with that "250bhp courtney sticker".

I tried to keep the distance from all hole centres the same, probably not all that critical but at least it makes me think i'm doing a proper job. Also I made a mark indicating the orientation of the end with respect to the bar so that way I could line up the rosejoint the same way (is that clear?)


Then cut off sufficient material and centre punch


and start to drill keeping as central an level as possible, final hole size wants to be 8.5mm for m10 tap.



tapped and fitted


and some paint, hammerite copper which I have a 1l tin of and will never ever use again ever


just for reference those taps you see in the background are garbage, do not use cheap taps as the linkage will just chew it up! I went and bought a good HSS one to do the job, in fact I just bought a sealey set for £60 as getting fed up of the material i'm trying to cut being harder than that with which i'm cutting.

When assembling the linkage the rosejoints would foul on the spacers/bolt heads so I fitted some of these, misalignment spacers


Assembling


looking good


At this point I fitted the linkage and discovered that there wasn't enough side to side movement for the rosejoints even with misalignment spacers so I swapped the bolts and rosejoints around.


spot the fail yet?


After rectifying the small fail above and trial fitting again I came across another problem.


as you can see it catches on the top of the nut, now ideally you would want a nut on the top and bottom to lock it off but there is just not enough room, by bring the rosejoint down further (to allow for a nut) it then brings the top part down on top of the nut.

The way I have fitted it at the moment is a bit of a bodge, I have the rosejoint going through the linkage and then just tightened the nut from the top holding it there, it can't go anywhere but had I realised from the start I would of actually tapped the linkage bar itself to m10 (rather then just drill it out) that way you can screw the rosejoint into it and then lock it off with the nut on top.

Perhaps alternative solutions would be using half nuts, or perhaps even bending the top part back out of the way ever so slightly and compensating with an additional spacer/washer hhmm yes....

Right that's the rose joint part now for the quick shift!
The point of the quick shift is obviously to make shifting quicker although this is at the expense of effort required. This works by moving the pivot point of the linkage giving more leverage on the gearbox side with less movement required on the drivers side hence why it is more difficult.

Ok standard linkage hole distance


now from what I found on the net you reduce the distance by 15mm on one side and increase 15mm on the other (shifting the pivot point by 15mm), obviously you could use less but as to how much more you could increase before it is unusable I don't know, judging by mine not alot!

Ok so we want to go from 65mm and 80mm to 50mm and 95mm. Using a spare linkage from a scrappy this is how I did it.

I marked a reference centre line from the pivot point to outer hole centres, for the short side I merely marked 15mm in from the current hole and drilled from there, on the long side I cut the end off and cut the end off my spare linkage +15mm.

I ground the edge of linkage and part to be welded on it a v shape before welding and grinding up.



Right I didn't mention at the start but the linkage centre pivot bushes just pry out, I replaced them with nylon bushes from lmf and well worthwhile, should reduce any wobble around the pivot pin and up and down the pivot pin as they are slightly thicker and a snug fit into the mounting point.



Ok credit where it is due, references

although it is actually quoted from mk3oc I found the details regarding distance for the linkage holes on mig
http://www.migweb.co.uk/forums/engin...t-linkage.html

just a couple of threads I came across inspiring the idea
http://www.migweb.co.uk/forums/engin...-linkages.html
http://www.migweb.co.uk/forums/engin...r-linkage.html

and a how to I came across after I had done mine, although it is for a nova linkage it's similar thing
http://www.pngclub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=93294

[tiff_lee]

/Update
Ok some updates from the weekend before it all adds to my ever increasing backlog of entries to make.

Had an expensive saturday morning at vauxhall and last few weeks in general ordering bits and bobs.

Some new inner & outer cv boots for the GTE along with a pair of the illusive front wishbone pivot bolts!



New vaux panel filter to replace the bogging K&N which was exposed right above the front wheel, pair of pattern shock mounts, delphi track rod ends and a pattern clutch cable (still having some snags selecting reverse).



Picked these up from John, pair of oe front wishbone bushes, door handle surrounds and a SFI box gasket to replace the silicone sealer in there!



Oh and a new tap & die set to replace the £10 ebay job which is feckin useless



Ok so what started off as a simple lower balljoint replacement has quickly escalated to changing dampers as well, to a full overhaul.

So minging struts on the car



Gradually striped down the struts and wishbones to give them a good cleaning prior to hammerite treatment







after





some hammerite action



I realise I could do with some new springs but after all the money I recently spent they will have to wait, in the mean time I just painted some hammerite on whether it will last or not (probably not)


the flash on the camera is actually making that look a little pink but its hammerite red.

The balljoint that started it all

moved up and down a good few mil

The knackered boots I found upon inspection


and one ready to go anyday now


removed one cv joint and one shaft to fit new boots


Vaux old outer boot on left and new style inner on the right, outer is very hard plastic


the inside seems to have a weird shiny coating



Old strut top mounts, rubber looks perished and bearings don't look too clever either


Strut upper and lower damper rings, think I may as well replace these after all this effort


and why not to use a cheap vice as a press

[tiff_lee]

/Update

just an observation on mine, all the parts on the drivers side of car are rustier than passenger side.

hhmm random wonder why that is, if it were the passenger side I could sort of see a reason water collecting at the side of the road so its exposed alot more? I dunno a bit thin perhaps but meh.

Small update from today, finished painting the other strut and cleaned the cv joints ready for fitting the new boots and grease. Picture of the elusive circlip for anyone who hasn't tackled this before, just prise apart (screw drivers, criclip removal tool or anything you deem suitable) and tap the cv joint off.



Went to remove the track rod ends which were seized big time gave them a soak with plus gas and still no good, the only way it was going to come off was with some stilson action but the problem with that was the whole tie bar was twisting pulling at where it mounted to the steering rack. Not happy with this I just removed the whole lot.




one of the old rod ends and nice new delphi one


I was trying to find some replacement bushes for the inner tie bar where it mounts to the rack but couldn't find anything on the epc, the bushes do have a part number on but can't really make it out. During my search I did come across some poly ones but they were for the mk3/calibra any ideas if they would be compatible?

Also removed the anti roll bar may as well get new bushes for that as well (poly), this really is spinning out of control now just doing everything!


Going to have an expensive phonecall with Garry at motorsport world tomorrow! was a waste of time painting those old springs as well...

/update
Ok just a wee update on this for now as the boat is due back soon so no more time off and i'm awaiting polybushes and dampers before I can reassemble everything anyhow.

After breaking my last vice and as some of you know I picked up my Record monster on thursday



i've accidentally managed to squash a couple of things out of shape in it already, opps.

Removed my SFI box to fit a proper seal as it had been stuck on with instant gasket, yuck

after alot of scraping the proper seal fitted, much better


While the SFI bolts were out I decided to bodge them to get a little extra life out off them, i'm sure this is a familiar sight


So I cut the end of and drill/tapped to m8


or perhaps button head


After reading through Blackbox's thread (RIP Ver.1) I noticed he made a 10mm spacer for the engine mount, after a bit more reading I saw this is necessary with pattern mounts to stop the insides effectively being pulled out when tightening up on the bracket bolts. It makes a lot of sense and was pretty obvious really as when I replaced my mount I could see the engine and mount being physically pulled together as I tightened the bolts up.

Unfortunately no milling machine for me though so it was the old fashioned way



standard bolt alongside a cap head 12.9 I had in my box of bolts, notice not enough thread towards end

so using my new tap & die set cut some additional thread

fitted


After umming and arring I decided to go all the way so picked up some new eibach springs (thundercats Hoooo!)


also another trip to vauxhall for some new upper and lower spring dampers

turns out the lower dampers come in pairs so when I ordered 2 I actually received 2 pairs.

Seeing as there wasn't alot else for me to be getting on with I spent some time on my other money pit (cover your eyes)



/update
Ok not alot of progress on the runabout as i'm still waiting on my bush inserts being knocked up before I can fit the wishbones and also need to source some dampers before I can re-assemble the struts.

Also currently have some braided hoses on order along with a new omp strut brace.

Received my full powerflex polybush set along with some bushes for the track rod arms



I did order new pattern arb links originally but now I have gone the whole hog with powerflex i'll just use the new tube part from them.

Front arb bush fits first time I had read some people had snags with these



Track rod bush fitted



and some hammerite on the what appeared to be new calipers even though they had already started to rust.

[tiff_lee]

/update
Another minor update while I wait for my wishbone bush 'inserts' which are holding me up.

After being unable to find a used red strut brace anywhere I decided to stop being tight and buy one


Some new braided brake lines


Typically enough the old lines were corroded to the o.e hose's so I just cut the pipe and will replace with new cunifer piper


Finally got some front B8 shocks




fitting, no 'c' spanner so stilsons had to suffice


and strut re-assembled with new top and bottom damper rings, new eibach spring and new top mount/bearing



Fitted the track rod/steering arms along with powerflex anti roll bar bushes.

had to scavenge some parts from my old ARB link bars as the powerflex ones don't come with enough washers or a tube spacer


/update
Another minor update, still unable to refit wishbones until I go back to scotland and get the inserts next week so I cracked on doing some calibra bits along with two front brake lines for the GTE.

I had a couple of attempts at flaring the pipes with those cheap kits (ebay one which is basically same as clarke etc) but was not happy at all with the flares I was getting, rather then continue faffing about and given the fact i'm going to be doing at least two cars worth of brake line flaring I decided to buy a decent tool which came in at just over £100.

Looks like a standard design very similar to many I looked at


makes a change from china I suppose


First attempt


My DIN flare alongside the oe steel pipe


By the looks of it someone has already replaced the front to rear lines with copper so hopefully when I come to fitting the rear braided hoses it should be fairly straight forward, should......

/update
Ok update time, finally got the front end of the car re-assembled and almost ready for road use again...

Although there is no real pics of it I made two new front brake lines complete with new unions and also fitted the braided hoses (rears to be done when rear beam comes off...when), having the hydraulic flaring tool made it so much easier.

For those of you that haven't seen my main thread regarding front wishbone bushes you can find it here http://www.astra-mk2.com/forum/showt...poly-bush-idea

Basically I have done away with the standard powerflex stainless insert which can be seen on the left and replaced it with a custom one seen on the right, this is all because as documented by Darren over time the insert can bind and start sawing its way into the chassis leg however hopefully the flanged base will avert this (Blackbox has confirmed it did with his own custom ones).




Fitted


Using an M14 penny washer on the end


Suspension , brakes everything all refitted








New strut brace fitted


How typical after searching for ages for a used red strut brace I gave up and bought a new one only for two to appear in the classifieds, typical!

I do plan to remove the rear beam so I can give it the hammerite treatment along with fitting powerflex bushes however in the immediate future I am just going to adjust the handbrake for the MOT and sort this fuel line out.....

which appears to be hose pipe??


/update

its 12mm ID from the tank to pump inlet. i did it with a normal straight length of gates fuel hose, you can just about get a nice swoop without kinking it, or rubbing on the beam.

Decided to go for that now rather than get an oe pipe just for the sake of it.

Right back on page 1 of this thread I talked about the problem I was having with a blowing exhaust manifold and a chinamade stainless replacement like this


Basically my old stainless manifold had impacted against a speed bump pretty hard and fractured one of the runners making a repair difficult and not really cost effective to fix. I picked up one of those stainless manifolds from ebay for £80 reduced from nigh on £200 and lo and behold like I was warned the fit was terrible, the exhaust must of been about 2 inches if that clear of the ground.

Anyhow took it to local engineering place who pretty much took it apart completely and remade it in situ (well tacked in situ)



As you can see all the runners were removed along with the collector, it's a shame really as it was a nice well built manifold just completely unsuitable for a mk2. It would of even been unsuitable for a mk3 as it swung so low under the sump, anyway.

Few more pics of it



Will take a better picture of it when I remove it shortly so I can heatwrap and put the fan back on.

While the car was on the ramp I took the opportunity for a few other pics, overall I thought the car looked pretty good considering the state of some i've seen.










Some ropey fuel lines


The beast


The arches were done by the previous owner not sure if I should be worried by these images or not...



and no old school workshop would be complete without some smut (I censored the boobies sorry guys!)


Decided i'm now going to remove the rear beam and give it a paint while I still have motivation, while i'm it I may well remove the tank as there are some scabby areas which could do with some TLC. With the beam removed i'll also be changing the rear brake lines (flexible and solid), fitting powerflex bushes and the eibach springs.

[tiff_lee]

/update
Couple more pics of the manifold removed, where the headers were cut to make them shorter


Collector was also removed so pipes could be manipulated and rotated slightly


A picture for Darren with regards to the OMP strut brace and throttle cable clearance, mine seems ok I can wiggle the cable underneath with no problems?


Was just investigating a belt/bearing noise coming from the engine bay, suspected alternator bearing however after removing the drive belt it is as I feared coming from the cam cover! Will remove that tonight/tomorrow for further investigation.

I'm guessing either the belt is slack or idle roller knackered however according to my receipts the car had a timing kit fitted only 8K ago or something like that (receipts are in Scotland and i'm now home), either way it's certainly not due a replacement for quite a while to come.

/update

I'd be a little concerned with that small clearance as it will vary somewhat with engine torque both on acceleration and heavy engine breaking. As for a hump-back-bridge jump who knows what it will do to the cable

Laurie.

If i'm jumping bridges that cable will be the last of my worries!

As per my thread in the main forum I had some noise coming from the engine which sounded like a dodgy bearing or something the cause of which was found to be the waterpump. Having removed the timing belt and pulleys to check them I could see grease had been thrown out of them (is this normal?) and although the tensioner seemed fine the idle roller had the smallest amount of axial play, literally next to nothing however I guess that is a sign of things to come so I have ordered a new waterpump and timing kit which i'll be fitting tomorrow.





Unfortunately when removing the cam inner cover the previous person had put back in completely rounded out allen screws (why oh why) and when trying to fit a spline/torx into the lower one the actual casting of the oil pump broke!


When trying to get the waterpump bolts out I found the oil cooler lines quite an inconvenience however like everything else they were seized, the unions turned fine but the whole line turned as well.



I have contemplated replacing them purely because well they are knackered, in the end I just made do and left them where they were.

While the rocker cover was off I gave it a jet wash and carried out the breather mod


Also gave the cover a touch up as was a bit scabby


it's by no means perfect but to be honest I didn't have the enthusiasm to spend hours rubbing it down and repainting it from scratch.

/update
Got my new water pump and cambelt kit today so spent most of the afternoon fitting them, also took the opportunity to replace the worn out waterpump bolts (shocker) and inner cam cover bolts.



The crank drive pulley has been replaced for one of those TX autosport (or whoever it is) alloy ones and was fastened with stainless steel bolts (are they suitable to be used there?), one had been sheared by a previous owner and left so had to drill that out and replaced them all with some new HT steel bolts.

When trying to refit the airbox and rocker cover I decided taking the strut brace off would make things easier but was I wrong!
The new top mounts I fitted were a pattern part and the bolts on them are terrible quality, well I say that perhaps I am blaming the bolts for my mistake as it would seem I pretty much stripped the threads on all of them although I'm not sure how as I dont have a habbit of swinging on everything to achieve scaffold bar levels of torque. One nut wouldn't even come off it just spun where it was so I ground that off in situ then punched all of them out which I will replace with some HT steel ones, it is a pain as that means they will have to be held underneath while tightening but still its a solution.

Anyhow if the bearing is as good quality as the '10.9' bolts they will probably need replacing shortly anyhow.

Punched out top mount bolts


It would also appear that the radiator fan switch has died, I tested the fan and it works, simulated the fan switch making by shorting/earthing the plug and fan starts so looks like a new switch. I only fitted the current one in march when I bought the new alloy rad however I guess being laid up just buggered it, probably came from the same factory my top mounts did...

/update
Removed the rear beam yesterday so I could give it a clean up, while its off i'll be cleaning the surrounding area under the car.

When it comes to refitting the beam i'll be fitting the eibach springs, powerflex bushes and braided brake lines.



beam removed


I cut part away on the dreaded rear bush so I could put the leg of the bearing puller over it


used a puller to drive out the rubber part


the rest was done with some brute force (cut through with a hacksaw as per Darrens thread)


wire wheeled the beam


painted








and made some new rear brake lines



/update
Started cleaning the underside today although I can't say i'm all that keen! this is the bit I hate most about cars bodywork and 'restoration' probably because it requires the most effort....

Started on the spare wheel well, not bad at all really and still solid round the drain holes which is a good sign. After doing the main bulk of it access was limited all round the top part by the backbox, fuel pump and fuel tank so after much umming and arring and trying to convince myself I would come back to that at a later date I decided to go all the way.



So fuel tank off along with the exhaust and fuel pump to follow shortly.






Unfortunately although not entirely surprising one of the fuel tank restraining strap bolts sheared



Hopefully I can punch it out other wise ill just cut the top off, drill and put a new bolt through it.

/.update
Well this hot weather is certainly helping to keep me motivated be a shame when it ends...

Took a break from under the car as I was getting bored so decided to blitz the tank. On the top side of the tank the worst bits were the lowest points i'm guessing this is due to water collecting there.



See the pitting



The underside wasn't too bad at all thanks to years of waxoyl (which i'm not a fan of btw) and leaking engine oil sprayed under the car.




I have treated all the pitted areas which the wire wheel wouldn't totally clear then once that has dried i'll paint the whole tank in my favourite bodge.

Think that is me all wire wheeled out today unfortunately as i'm starting to get a strange sensation in my hands from the angle grinder, I don't envy those who do this sort of thing all day.

[tiff_lee]

/update
Well hopefully all the cleaning is pretty much finished as my 'tea' breaks keep getting longer and more frequent as my interest wanes.

The progress (or lack of)

Tank painted, also painted the fuel pump bracket and associated parts



Underneath




Now i'm not sure if this is an actual rust hole or an intended drain hole (perhaps a combination of both) as there is one in the same place on the corner where the rear footwell ends and meets the fuel tank area






the other side





Excuse the 'cobwebs' its all seam sealer and underseal + wire wheel


/update
Not a massive update as i'm waiting on my rust converter before I can paint all the rear underneath ggrrr

Been trying to weld some patches over the mysterious holes either side and it's a bit of a mare, as per usual my mig is running like crap and finally decided to look into what's wrong with it. Long story short changed the wire and fitted a load of new service parts and now runs like a dream just a shame the operator doesn't.



Towards the front of the car under the front passenger seat there was a suspicious and worrying rust patch, after some scraping and poking it revealed this...



so removed the drivers seat and pulled the carpets back and as expected it was damp there was even some complimentary woodlice, where do they come from in cars!?


The hole it would seem runs underneath the strengthening part the seat bolts to


It seems a bit of a random place to rust away unless there is (was) a seam there? Repair wise i'm a little stuck, ideally I would cut out and patch from above but that can't happen without removing that whole brace where the seat bolts to. I'm thinking remove as much as possible from underneath patch and treat from above?

/update
Well seats out and carpets up, would seem the drivers side has had several repairs already



Passenger side looks ok mind


all soundproofing removed and cleaned up





My plan now is to weld a patch underneath and then do a second patch from above on the front (accessible) part.

Just done a search with regards to soundproofing and it would seem this flashing strip is quite recommended

http://www.wickes.co.uk/Hi-Tack-Flas...ip/invt/243010

is there any alternative to that thick black underlay as that is just a big watertrap once it becomes wet although I suppose eliminating the source of the water would help... but still meh

/update

Passenger side looks ok mind

Ah last famous words


I thought I had been lucky with the drain holes so far but there had to be one....


I believe what i'm looking at is part of the engine mount to chassis bracket or some such? (recall from reading an old thread on here the other night), what would be the appropriate course of action with this?


I just love looking for rust on retro motors they never fail to disappoint you ><

/update

The lone black wire is the side repeater lamp. You may (or may be too young to) know that they were not a requirement in the 70's early 80's and once they became required GM had to do a quick after-thought and that's how they strung them across from the passengers foot-well junction blocks. Also why many genuine replacement GM wings have no repeater lamp holes.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong

Laurie.

Ah would also explain why my R5 replacement wing had no hole then cheers, best leave it well alone.

Been attacking the floorpan today while getting soaked in the process but I refuse to use the weather as an excuse as i've done far too much loafing lately.

Ok so first the drainplug hole


The main part....


Have I removed enough? all the metal is solid although I can't do much with the surface rust on top of the mount due to access apart from rust treat and paint.

On a side note I coated the rear end in some rust treatment that was recommended by Darren and not only do you get alot more for your money it's a paste rather than liquid like kurust so alot easier to apply

/update
Right done both the patches in the passenger side footwell where they overlapped I also did underneath.






Yes i'm no expert welder.... however I must say after changing over to argon/co2 my mig became alot better and compared to my previous welds those are awesome!

Early next week will hopefully get round to painting all the patches and rear end in primer.

/update
Picked up a half decent compressor last week far far better than the glorified tyre inflator I had borrowed. After umming and arring I decided to have a go at spraying underneath supposed to brushing/rolling the paint on so bought some spray guns and a few other bits (mixing cups etc).

Not the best spray job ever but then I am under the car 18" off the ground, primer




I did one coat of primer then covered any welding or seams where I had removed sealer with some new brush on seam sealer (U-Pol grey stripe) and then sprayed over that once gone off.

Top coat, some of it looks patchy ill have to check tomorrow in better light so may give it another coat.



To be honest I wish I got a spray gun ages ago now would of saved so much time and money with all the disposable rattle cans I have gone through. I'll look into doing a second coat tomorrow then i'll be refitting the fuel tank and suspension (finally!).

I also have some underseal like Schutz which i'll be spraying over the paint.

[tiff_lee]

/update
Another small update

Refitted all the fuel pump assembly, new nuts/bolts, filter, fuel hose and even the proper bobbin mounts which I can't see lasting long.


Coated the underside of the fuel tank with some bitumen underbody coat


Coated the rear end with bitumen coating


Started reassembling rear axle which i'll be fitting later once bitumen has gone off


Just waiting on some parts from vauxhall (brake/hose clips) before I refit the fuel tank, hopefully they will be here tomorrow.

/update
Went to vauxhall on saturday to pick up some bits... new upper & lower rear spring dampers and a bundle of underbody brake/fuel line clips.


As I have mentioned previously and in several of the recent "fuel line" threads I have used semi rigid nylon hose and after some advice on here picked up some ferule inserts for the ends.


New fuel line for sections between fuel filter, fuel pump and tank intself.


Some pictures of my new fuel line in place secured to the rubber section by two 'o' clips.


The fuel line run itself



All the other clips have been removed as I intend to wire wheel, paint and bitumen coat the rest of the floorpan when i'm home in a weeks time.

Some random spares I picked up, 2 x front ABS sensors for £5 each


As well as doing the rest of the floorpan I am also considering removing the wings to do behind them and also the front bumper so I can do the lower cross member but where does it end....

/update
Home again and finally emptied my car from the load of 'stuff' I picked up in Bradford last weekend, as per usual i'm starting to hoard parts



Got the entire interior from a 3dr SRI down to every screw/clip/bolt, also got another pair of 3dr SRI seats (minus head rests and frames), a spare fuel tank complete with the main fuel line I was looking for not long ago (typical), carpets, dash and all black plastics. Also picked up 4 cav slabs in black with near new Toyo T1R's which is ideal as they are the exact same wheel and colour I currently have fitted.

On the way home today collected a Bosch Blue professional grinder I won on ebay for £20 in nearly new condition, decided to get one after Ben recommended them due to my hands going 'funny' after all that wire wheel action with my cheap grinder.

Plan this week is to remove the wings and front bumper so I can wire wheel the lower crossmember and areas behind wings as well as the rest of the floor plan. I will also be removing the beige dash as it looks like I may well be getting it flocked.....

May also put the barge through for its MOT as I don't think it requires anything else and is just sat round the back wasting away.

/update
Some progress this morning/lunch time

removed the front bumper and it doesn't look that bad


wings removed..



even though the handbrake cable that was fitted was ok I decided to get a new one anyhow after all that effort, it's a mk3 rear disc beam cable which for reference is 6mm longer than the mk2 one.


Also got half a dozen of the abs sensor cable to brake line clips as all the old ones were perished and broke while trying to remove them


This turned up as well, Argon/CO2 mix from Adams gas, bit late really as i've done the bulk of the welding but will be handy to have seeing as I got through 2 disposable Argon bottles in one day.


Also picked up an air nibbler and shears from ebay after struggling to cut everything with hand shears, wow so much easier, good thing about having a bigger compressor more gadgets.

A random paint question thrown in as well, I think I c*cked up underneath as I just sprayed the black paint straight onto the hi build primer with no sanding or anything as I wasn't concerned about finished (underseal etc) but I get the feeling I should of done some sanding to key the paint?....

Edit: Forgot to add part numbers.

Mk3 Astra disk beam handbrake cable 90373855 £18 tradeclub
ABS sensor to brake line clips 90095094 65p each

/update
Finally decided to get my backside in gear and get the GTE floorpan finished, I cut 9 small discs which I used to weld up the drain holes, purely because I could and I didn't want to put those plugs back in which always trap water and become a rust point.

With all drain holes welded up I started to wirewheel the floorpan underneath, progress so far..




underseal makes such a mess I will be so glad once it's done! providing the weather stays good tomorrow and I can maintain enthusiasm I should have all the floorpan stripped.

/update
Some more progress on the floorpan


The fuel tank vent pot bracket looking pretty minging and the captive nuts have seized/broke so the fixings just spin, brilliant...


Started cleaning up the inner wings, on the top of the inner wings there was some grey paste/sealer where the outer wing sits on top is that normal?


A small hole in the inner wing, unfortunately can't really get to the other side of it as it is behind/below the strut top mounting point


Started to clean up parts of the front panel where it had gone scabby


Hopefully tomorrow i'll be able to get a coat of primer underneath and inside the car, the inner wings and front panel still require some tidying up and will be done when the weather allows.

good work once again

pretty sure the carbon canister is attached to the chassis rail with bayonnett fittings. just need to clock the bolt 90 degrees and pull out. or if you dont know its orientation, keep rotating with a wrench while levering, should line up eventually and pop off.

Ah excellent thanks for the tip, I should be able to get a look at it inside the chassis rail with all the front gubbins off.

Unfortunately have had a bit of a setback, while cleaning underneath the area around the drivers side wishbone mount (where it meets the footwell) was looking rather dodgy and admittedly after giving it a quick clean up I did start to put a patch over it..... however when hitting the patch into shape all sorts of rust and bits fell out! so I decided to cut the area out as I did on the passenger side footwell and i'm glad I did.

As far as I was aware the area had already been sorted previously....


Was I wrong


All that brown crud around top and right hand side is what remains of the original steel

After some more cleaning


Unfortunately it looks like this side won't be as easy to repair

Edit: Referencing Darren's thread again as he had a similar level of corrosion on the passenger side.

Moving on swiftly....




The plate was also welded from the other side and after testing with a lump hammer that isn't going anywhere.

Now time to make a footwell section....

/update
Very little progress as I slowly lose enthusiasm



bit of a mess and I unfortunately caught the nearby brake line with a slim cutting disc, yeap went straight through it ffs


The patch finally on covered in some rust inhibitor


Welding that patch was a nightmare as the floor thickness seemed to vary, one minute I would be welding fine the next it would blow holes, at one point I was on the lowest setting with wire feed turned right down. If I ever have the weld on that floor again I will just get a complete new panel and cut the whole lot out.

/update

It's a pain when the metal gets thin, pulsing the weld really helps there. For the brake line just get a male and female brake pipe union and flair it in place for a easy fix.

I'll look into that but I may just replace the entire line as I have the spare copper pipe and I struggled using those hand flaring tools before.

It's like a never ending job on the mk2, Everytime I start a new job on mine it always ends up leading into another. Suppose thats all the fun

Problem is when it goes from fun to a royal PITA.

i feel your pain, but having said that, if youve welded that good upside down you have my respect.

mine looked worse, but once you get some rust killer, etch prime, bit of paint and some poly seam sealer it looks factory again.

re: hole blowing, as painful and slow as is it, overlapping spot welds is the way to go on thin stuff. blob, let it cool, back up half the weld, blob, rinse and repeat.

Cheers for the tip Darren, I was starting to loose patience as well which was certainly not helping!

Right you are about the paint etc though as I just put some paint on, finally!





Once that has dried i'll be adding some brush on seam sealer followed by another coat of primer.

/update
Arrghhh really starting to regret this now, cleaning the inner wings revealed a small hole underneath the strut top which turned out to be not so small after all




I've got the remainder of this week to do what I can but now considering claiming my car tax back and putting my insurance on hold

Ok so I manned up a bit, I think deep down I wanted an excuse to sack this off so I could play the old republic some more.

Cut a chunk out and then ground back till is was no longer thin (well not thin enough a wire wheel was eating through it).



I'll knock up a patch to wrap around this although to be honest I would say it's engine out and complete front end (bodywork) overhaul time, however there is no way I would attempt that as this time of year meaning it would be parked up round the back of my mum's on the grass! next summer perhaps when I change the engine....

Any recommendations on best way to repair this small holes? (note the large hole is for an expansion plug).

[tiff_lee]

/update

Quick question about the inside floor pics from previous page, did you find any rust inside the box section/cross members under the front seats? As i have recently found some scabs on mine but only noticed them when i checked with a torch. Quite depressing when you start to REALLY look you start findings problem areas that kinda didnt want to know about lol

I did indeed mate back on page 9 you can see underneath the rust which became a hole, then following on from that I had to cut a massive area out, turns out there is a seam under that box section and is common for rotting out.

I patched it from underneath best I could but I have zero access to part of it from the top (because of that box section), for now I will rust treat and seam seal under the box section with a small brush but if I ever have to do it again i'll use a spot weld drill and remove the entire box section (something I wish I had done initially).


Been cleaning the bottoms of the wings while they are off will rust treat and repaint but just delaying the inevitable?




also wire wheeled back the sills as they were going rusty already


and more hidden surprises!


no seam sealing over this one so time to use my new spot weld drill bit and take a peek




I opted to cut a larger area out seeing as I would patch repair anyway so I could get better access and pull all the crap out.

/.update
Painted the sills and the other areas surrounding the engine bay today, really bit off more than I could chew here with me going back to scotland on sunday and needing it all back together by then!






area behind vapour pot mount


what was left of the vapour pot bracket


/update
Painted the underside of the car and sills in black today this will be followed by some schultz style underseal tomorrow.





I used an aerosol to touch up the front and inside the car, the colour match seems a little off but none of it will be seen anyhow.




/update
Cheers for the comments fellas.

TBH the hardest part of cleaning the underside was removing everything in the way and getting the car high enough, once you have done all that you could smash it out in a few hours providing you can put up with all the crap/dust.

Speaking of the underside I have now sprayed some underbody bitumen coating on, it may not look as nice as a glossy coat of paint but will help protect it




I'm also getting water in my drivers side footwell while my car is sat on the drive, I noticed there is a missing gromet or something above the steering column


Looked at the guide in the member section it mentioned the rubber sock drain, is that underneath the plastic scuttle panel.

/update
Well back to scotland tomorrow but hopefully will be a short week followed by a long weekend prior to the boat returning (boo).

Started today making a new brake line to replace the one I cut through, the line itself had been replaced previously as was copper supposed to steel but it appeared they re-used the old worn out union (why oh why) so I spent the best part of the afternoon trying to find a 'proper' garage supposed to glorified tyre fitters that I could scrounge a union from.

Once I repaired that I fitted the nylon hosing fuel lines, unfortunately i'm missing one of the studs for a retaining clip and one was rusted away so much there isn't enough for the clip to grip onto.



need to find an alternative method to mount the clips, I believe someone drilled the floor and fitted a nut and bolt? bugger really after I just painted everything, doh


Fuel lines through into engine bay


Passenger side cleaned up and refitted


An array of goodies


The main one's being :
90181010 headlamp clip
90047124 rear window fixings
90340497 radiator fan switch

unfortunately something i've been trying to sort for ages turned out to be wrong, 3 screws I ordered for the filler neck where it secures to the rear quarter were pan head (should be countersunk). I have tried my local ironmongers/DIY place but the screws are quite thick/large thread (measured by weight? 12g) and they don't do short ones that are suitable (only 3" plus).

The knackered oil line


no pretty anodised fittings but will suffice for now


new handbrake fitted which just leaves heatshields and exhaust before I can run the car and then finish up the brakes (rear ABS and bleeding).

I've also decided to claim the tax back on the car and put my insurance policy on hold/cancel as I have the calibra as a toy for now, this way I can sort my interior out slow time.

/update
Some pictures I never got round to putting up the other day...

I'm guessing this lot is to do with the bumper washers? the hose going off the the left was not connected to anything and there was a similar hose connected to the bumper


The fuel tank vent pot contraption had one hose just venting to atmosphere, where should it be going?

I used some powerflex exhaust hangers on the powerflow exhaust as the weight of it kept snapping the vauxhall rubber square ones


Picked these up on the way to Scotland on sunday night they will be getting retrimmed in leather for the GTE. For those who don't recognise them they're Series 2 RS Turbo seats (88 spec) and IMO far better then the vauxhall recaro's.


A quick picture of the underside


Initial thinking is that I will trim the existing runner brackets down (to try and maintain seat distance from car floor) and then weld some plate on at 90 degrees so I can bolt them to the escort ones.

/update
Been investigating my water in the footwell problem a little more prior to putting the flashing tape down and it would appear the small amount I would find on a daily basis was caused by the aerial mounting hole as Darren said.

Self tapper and some sealer sorted that


i'm guessing the red & white wires were for the electric aerial?

After doing a hosepipe test to check for anymore leaks I had niagara falls in my footwells so I removed the scuttle panels above the heater motor


see the small puddle to the left? after a quick consultation of the guide in the how to section it would seem the centre drain was blocked so I removed the heater motor for a better look


screwdriver illustrating where the drain is


engine bay side


cleaning it out


it also looks like my heater has been removed previously as the gasket is all crushed where it hasn't been fitted correctly, can these still be picked up new? I tried looking in the EPC but no joy.

2 top ones are the in/out for the tank vent. dog leg on the bottom is just open

That's odd one of the top ones goes to the tank (or filler neck), the bottom one goes into the engine bay and the big top one is open to atmosphere (can see remains of a hose on it).

[tiff_lee]

/update
Final update for today.

A few pages back now I mentioned I was missing the last two fuel/brake line securing clips due to one stud being missing and one having corroded too much for the clip to grip onto. My solution to that was to drill small holes in the floor and use stainless bolts to secure the clips like so


hole drilled

you will notice the area has previously been patched and I dare say that was because the old securing stud had rusted out taking the surrounding floor with it.

The holes were filled with seam sealer before pushing the bolts through


secured underneath


the bolts were slightly large than the clip holes so it worked out nicely as they wound into the clip it became tighter, an alternative way would of been to weld nuts on the floor above and have bolts going through from underneath for ease of removal but I didn't fancy grinding my floor up again after painting it.

I also left the last stud in place, I was going to cut it off with my dremel but the cutting disc bit was fubar and didn't want to risk using a grinder, it is all painted up etc and with the clip no longer attached to it there wont be any risk of trapping water and rusting out.

Something I forgot to do when I had the rear beam off was clean the rear ABS sensor holes, they were rusted so badly I basically had to bash/chisel the sensors out (so probably knackered now). Using the dremel and a round emery bit I cleaned the holes out like so


also fitted some new ABS/brake line securing clips


Also does anyone have any suggestions as to the best way of removing old 3M/foam tape stuck to the bodywork


/update
Removed the rear seat covers and doorcards which i'll get sent off tomorrow or sometime next week then the guy can get to work on making my new covers up.



I did take a variety of pictures when removing the rear covers I could perhaps compile them into a thread for reference although to be honest there is very little to it once you get involved.

Also trying to decide what to do with my front 'light rainbow' seats, I will be using the runners from them and may just strip the covers off and scrap the seats due to the fact there is very little demand for them and I don't have the space to sit on them for years hoping to make £20.

/update
After having no joy trying to identify the gasket for the heater motor I decided to 'bodge it' somewhat, the problem with the old gasket was that it had been fitted incorrectly and was squashed too thin to be of any use.

I used some double sided foam tape to increase the thickness of the gasket where required


I did consider just doubling up on the foam tape and binning the gasket but I didn't want it sticking to the panel.

I also spent the best part of my saturday trying to get the car to start, eventually sourced the problem to be with the fuel system breathers/vents and removing the fuel cap allowed me to run the car. When I get time i'll check over the breathers and will also remove the carbon canister setup at the same time.

/update

butyl rubber stip might also do it...

http://www.cbsonline.co.uk/product/B...Strip_7M_BUTYL

That stuff looks pretty handy, it strikes me as something which I may have no real need for but once I have some i'll be using it everywhere.

Finally got the flashing tape down might get another roll to finish some bits off and have some spare on the shelf then....


Popped the dark burberry seats in for now as they were getting damp in the garage

think i'm going to strip the covers from my light rainbow seats and fit the burberry covers on them as the seats seem like they're had it and not as solid as my old ones.

While moving the GTE around the back garden the RH indicator fell out and I ran over it doh so need to get a another one of them. Also the new OE fan switch I had got from autovaux turned out to be faulty, it was working last night or so it seemed but the car boiled over this afternoon while I left it idling and nipped into my shed along with all the new antifreeze i'd just put in

/update
Finally got round to putting the bumper and wings back on, was holding off until I got a new y piece for the bumper jets and a new electric aerial (which turned out to be garbage). Since the weather has taken a turn for the worse I decided to just leave the aerial issue for now and resolve it next year when I redo the engine bay.

New Y piece fitted with some new poly hose rather than the reinforced rubber hose that was on before


Also picked up some new headlamp carriers as both off mine had one retaining lug snapped off, another fail there as they were the wrong type >< again i'll leave the old ones on for now and resolve this later.

When running the engine up last week with the new GM fan switch it actually overheated as the new switch failed however the coolant was split from some where round the back of the engine.

After closer inspection I found the source.


The 3 port hose at the rear as a massive split down the centre of it although not the best picture but meh


I wouldn't be content fitting a second hose so I rang up roosemotorsport which aren't far from me and ordered a new silicone 3 port hose which i'll collect on saturday. Oddly enough that hose is part of a 3 hose kit and I already have the other 2 fitted.

While I moved the alternator out of the way to get to the hose I used this opportunity to also replace the alternator mount rubbers


/update
Picked up the new 3 port water hose from roose yesterday and went about fitting it today



the old split hose



20 years of hot/cold cycles obviously took its toll on the old rubber hose.

Also started to 'bodge' up some seat brackets to mount my recaro seats, the idea being the drivers seat can retain the head adjuster while the recaro bolts straight on the top


How well it turns out remains to be seen given the difference in seat mountings


/update
Very minor update, picked up my powdercoated wheels (along with my calibra ones) could do with a clean after having dirty hands all over them and dust from their unit


now I need to sort the bodywork out to complement them


also had a rocker and spark plug cover powder coated and I could swear I asked for a black spark plug cover (was intended for calibra) but it turned out red so i'll use it on the GTE


it is black although the dust is metallic/metal flake, makes me wish I had that done ££

[adscan]

Cool thread. Great work. I like the dash in this, very knightrider!

[Brigsy]

Class! My first car was a 5 door mk2 gte rep with a 1.8 8v on carbs, had so much fun in it. I remember changing the cv joints on a regular basis! Wouldn't mind a mk2 with a let in now.

[tiff_lee]

@adscan I did have a digidash in my 5 for a short time to give me my hit as I had sold my last GTE but then after picking up this one I took it out and opted for standard.

@Brigsy I did toy with idea of putting a LET or Saab turbo lump (cheaper and stronger although slightly more difficult to fit) in this year as i'll need to remove the engine to overhaul the engine bay, however I have a Calibra Turbo LE (i'll get a thread up soon) so no point messing around having another LET motor the XE is still more than enough fun.

[Woznaldo]

Proper fast car back in the day. Suspect handling out of the box though? Looks like you've got it covered.

[gtmatt]

What a great project always had a soft spot for these , they do rot like mad , but fast cars , not many left , hands down to you can you still get parts from gm ???

[Trevhib]

Given me a headache just reading the thread. I can't imagine the effort required to do what you've done. Amazing.

[tiff_lee]

@Woz well after all my work sorting the suspension bushes etc the car has had very little use been running my calibra and I only get the odd weekend here and there to do any work on it. However changing the bilstein dampers to B8's from the tarmac/race ones which were fitted made a hell of a difference (changing springs probably helped to) no longer back breaking stiff suspension.

@matt Yeah I was disappointed with how much rust/rot I found but they are all common areas anyhow, the last thing that needs sorting now is the engine bay around the strut tops and possibly bulkhead repair where the rack bolts to it (another common fault).

@Trev lol I bet it did, apologies as it is a massive wall of text and pictures all backlogged to feb last year! calibra backlog coming soon....

[Brigsy]

The xe is a good engine like, bullet proof if looked after. They used to be a redtop cav sri taxi near me that was almost on 200k on the original lump, went really well too!

Rust round the tca mounts and drain holes was common ten years ago, yours looks pretty solid. I know where theres a nice standard gte 16v in a garage with low miles, has been laid up for at least ten years, one owner car. Same colour as yours too!

[Trevhib]

Don't apologise mate, it's compelling viewing!