Andy's Astra

Andy A · 02-01-2008, 15:26

Finally! I've got my pics off my dad and can start a diary.
Right here we go.......

I bought the car in August 2007 for a not so reasonable 1057 qwid. I know that's alot for a '95 LS (understatement of the year) but the dealer would'nt budge on the price, plus he had to tax it before I could leave, so that ****ed me off ever so slightly.

It's got some rust on the rear aches a dent under the near side indicator and now a rather nice scrape down the passenger side, courtesy of a **** who can't park for **** and the radio had no code.

Since then I've given it a good clean, a sevice, a K+N panel filter and derestricted the air box, some 17 inch TSW rims, a Sony CDX-GT710 CD player (yay tunes at last!), and converted the sunroof to electric.

I just need to get me a desent camera, then I can update this more often.

andyj775 · 02-01-2008, 15:36

its got a lot of potential

. at least its a 3 door mate. what are your plans for the exterior then? most people usually go for a full gsi kit or sport bumpers on the mk3. keep up the modding mate

DaveB · 02-01-2008, 16:00

holy christ expensive car batman

Andy A · 03-01-2008, 18:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by andyj775

its got a lot of potential

. at least its a 3 door mate. what are your plans for the exterior then? most people usually go for a full gsi kit or sport bumpers on the mk3. keep up the modding mate

I'm not sure on what route to take, but for now I was going to fit some sport bumpers and sort out the rust.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveB

holy christ expensive car batman

Tell me about it, it was advertised at £995 and the bloke was'nt moving on the price at all ,the wanker.

Andy A · 09-02-2008, 14:26

Sorry I hav'nt updated this for ages, I've now got hold of some more resent pics.

Photos courtesy of Ben aka Balto.

Right! updates. I thought I'd repaint the filler cap, as it had started to flake off. While I was doing that I desided to colour code the dash instrument surround. I tinted the headlights and indies last Friday, and bought a glovebox under tray last year, but frogot to mention it.
Updates as and when (which means, in five years lol).

Rubix_Cube · 09-02-2008, 14:41

Get ahold of that rust before it takes over your arches !!!

Sport bumpers, cheap wing & a set of vectra colour coded door handles would go down a treat.

Fixing a little sport up myself atm - The astra is the easyest car ive ever owned to work on tbh !!

Nice project

tommychimp · 09-02-2008, 20:43

Get onto the rust, i've just missed it on mine, so new arches are the order for this summer.

other wise she looks sweet, remove the rub strips though, it will look so much better

Andy A · 11-02-2008, 14:02

Thanks chaps.

Was a lovely day yesterday, so instead of sitting around I thought I'd de-badge the Astra. I took them off using boiling hot water and an old student card. I've now noticed the paint's faded and I can still see the outline of the words. I've tried Tcut, but with no luck.

Anyway, I won't remove the big round one until I've got some filler to fill the two little holes.

Andy A · 13-03-2008, 19:54

Updates:

Firstly. On friday night I spent 3-4 hours fitting a sports cat and middle section I got off ebay for £5.50. I wanted to fit it before the Ace cafe meet but never had the free time at work. Not having a trolly jack or axle stands I had to bump the car up on the kerb and shimy under. I manged to get the cat seperated from the middle box after shearing a bolt, but could'nt pull the back box off. After ages of pulling, twisting and obsene language, all I ended up doing was levering a hole in the back box so desided to leave it till I get the one I've bought. Long-story-short I finshed at 3.00am and totally ****ed up my fingers.

Secondly. I've just bought some laquer so should have the v in my grille painted black later.

Updates as and when peps.

Andy A · 17-04-2008, 21:06

I've now completed my exhaust system with the addition of a back box. I bought it off Spainishfly (cheers mate) for a tenner. It's a Scorpion DTM style, off a GSI, so has three hangers. At the mo' it's held on with a coat hanger until I can get work to weld on the single hanger from the old box. It does'nt sound too bad, it's a nice, smooth deep note that come in at about two and a half revs.

Paul · 17-04-2008, 22:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveB

holy christ expensive car batman

Indeed

Paul · 17-04-2008, 22:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy A

Tell me about it, it was advertised at £995 and the bloke was'nt moving on the price at all ,the wanker.

Andy A · 18-04-2008, 18:05

Andy A · 19-05-2008, 10:58

Now I've got some time I'll stick up some pics that a mate off MK3OC let me take to bump up the pic count on this diary.
Here we go......

Back end.

Front end.

My amp that will be running my 6x9s (if I ever get the shelf finished).

DTM back box.

Inside.

And the deadly rust, which I'll hopefully have taken care of before pv.

Andy A · 19-05-2008, 11:01

I've also made arrangements at work, to try and get it looking resectable for PVS.
Hopefully my Irmy bumpers will arrive soon so I can crack on with repairing, fitting and painting them. The rust, dents and stonechips will be getting some long over-due attention, aswell as doing some de-bumpstriping, colour coding and other bit and pieces.

It's gonna look totally different when it's done.

Andy A · 17-08-2008, 02:42

Oops, almost forgot about this

.

Well, since the last update I've made a few changes and improvements.
Here's how she stands now.......

Just quick list of what's been done:

Irmscher f/r bumper add-ons, which were £80. I've de-badged and de-bumpstriped her and almost sorted the rusty arches (they're still in the primer as I type this), and bought some white LED sidelight bulbs amongst other things.

De-bumpstriped.

My Irmscher front and rear bumper add-ons.

The damage to said front bumper.

Completely debadged rear end.

Rust free aches. (Well, I say rust free. But what I mean is rust reappearing though primer.

My unfinished stealf shelf.

Found some RedDot 6 groove discs and pads in the clearence section of the Romford branch of Halfords sometime back. £22 for the discs, and £25 for the pads. Bargain!

I 'acquired' some bits from my semi local scrappy last week aswell.

Breather pipe, leccy mirror switch and covers.

Old breather.

And a pic of my led sidelights. They look blue in that pic, but their white lol.

And finally. I had another impulse buy the other day lol.
Found this in Halfords for the princely sum of £4.90.

I know for that price it's prob gonna be ****e, but for 5 qwid I can't complain.

So there you go lol, I'm gonna make sure to keep this updated more often now lol.

Nimraynn · 15-09-2008, 22:49

Sub for £5? Not too bad :P A whole £355 cheaper than mine was ;-)

You still got Spongebob stuck to your grille from Saturday? I got a few pics sitting on my camera waiting ;-)

Andy A · 17-09-2008, 01:31

Haha, Sponge Bob's gone now. I got tyred of getting odd looks lol.

Nimraynn · 17-09-2008, 21:47

SpongeBob hasn't been gone as long as you thought ;-)

Andy A · 17-09-2008, 22:44

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Andy A · 22-09-2008, 01:44

I downloaded a trial version of photoshop a few weeks ago. I've had a little practice and here is my attempt......

The original.

It's very sloppy and not finished yet, but it gives a rough idea of the look I'm aiming for ultimately. I'd like to add 18" black Lenso RS5s, colour code the mirrors, black two piece angel eyes and mattig grille amongst others.

Andy A · 22-09-2008, 02:27

This week I started to get everything ready to upgrade my brakes. As you may know I've already got the front discs, pads, rear beam with the rear discs, hubs, calipers (with pads) and the beam it's self and a new handbrake cable. I bought some front GSI calipers and hoses off Drizz at Trax. Now all I need to get is some decent fluid and white caliper paint.

While I was buying the cable, I thought I mite as well buy a new pollen filter, as my windows were steaming up quite badly last winter.

Manky old one out.

Then I gave the space underneath the scuttle panel a blow out and wipe down.

New one in.

And all fitted up and finished.

The problem is now, that I seem to have blown a piece of leaf, or whatever in to the blower. So everytime I put it on 2 or 3, I can hear a fluttering sound.

But **** it, it will do.

Andy A · 22-09-2008, 02:31

Just an update to show off my Trax purchases......

I've already fitted the bulbs, and they don't look too bad.

Andy A · 22-09-2008, 02:31

I'm sure some of you guys have, at times thought, "I'll do it next week", or "I'll start once this is finished" and you end up forgetting altogether. Well I finally got round to fitting my other chrome interior handle and door pins today.

Door pins.

The handles, which weren't as hard to change as I last thought.

Andy A · 03-10-2008, 00:45

I'm upgrading my brakes finally (not a moment too soon I might add lol).

First, I layed everything out to make sure I've got everything......

Front calipers, discs, pads and hoses...... check.
Rear beam, hubs, discs, calipers and pads...... check.
White and Black Hammerite...... check.
Handbrake cable...... check.
Unnerving sense that it may be too much for me...... check.

The plan is to strip down the whole rear beam, wire brush and Hammerite the ARBs, hubs, calipers and the beam itself. The rear discs are off a Astra GTE and have some surface rust which will need some attention with a wire brush. I'll then refit the lot together ready to slide straight under and onto the car. I'll fit it all up eventally, all need to find are some more bolts for the hubs and copper pipes.