My 1.3L Mk2 Astra Diary

[Paul]

No new pics?

[davie_slim]

i love the older astras. i really miss my old mk3 gsi, did own a mint 3 door mk2 astra but at the time i didnt understand what i was doing and scrapped it after taking the wheels off it for a corsa

yours looks really good bit different it being a nice and subtle 5 door rather than the typical 3 door hatch, good work

[Ian T]

Thoroughly enjoyed reading that Dan.

Ian.

[Astra Dan]

Thanks everyone. Might give the old girl a scrub and take some pics soon. Sharon still alternates between this and her Nova for work use so it only tends to sit still on a Sunday.

[Astra Dan]

Been a bit eventful in the poor old Mk2's life recently. Running fine as always, clocking up 210k miles now. Pre-MOT checks, particularly around the passenger floor where the big repair had been done before, revealed it had all rotted out again Panic, depression and annoyance were aplenty until I was introduced to a guy who restores Marinas! He lives local too. A quick look around and he didn't seemed phased at all. I even managed to get a repair panel from eBay! Also the boot floor, which has had a small hole there since I bought it 12 years ago had progressed to the point that the MOT man was not impressed with it any longer. With my wallet over £600 lighter, and with a slight feeling I really should be throwing in the towel by now, I set to find the reason the floor had rotted out again. I soon found that the scuttle drain under the windscreen, where it has a large channel to drain behind th front wings, had a tiny split in the seam sealer. The tiniest bit of water could seep in behind the kick panel and under the carpet and happily sit there, keeping the metal in the floor almost permanently wet. Cleaned it up and smeared some sealant in the gaps. Checked the drivers side which appeared fine, but whacked some sealant in and around the join anyway for good measure.

This is the passenger floor. I like the way the ridges in the repair panel line up with the original floor:



Underneath looks pretty good too:



And the boot floor, now with metal!



Now it's just the area behind the rear shocks, next to the n/s engine mount and under the battery tray that are playing on my mind. Damn you rust!

To cheer me up, I thought I'd attend to another 'problem' that I could actually solve myself. the space between the front calipers over 288mm discs and the inside of the Turbo rims was just too damn large. A few more clicks on eBay, and I had an email telling me the one hour time slot to expect this:



Which contained two of these:



Ooh shiny. Next we remove, clean and fit to these the caliper pins from the old carriers:



Fit our old discs from the Mk4 that have loads of life left in them, and admire that caliper to rim interface:



I hope 308s can cope with 72 rampaging horses.
Also I've noticed the handy ticket holder that the bigger Citroens have in their windscreens. As I tend to visit places that require a pass in the window quite a bit, I removed a few and went about trial fitting it. Simply sliding it behind the pillar trim at the top and then down towards the dash provides a nice tight fit against the windscreen. Took seconds. Amusingly a guy at work who's got a miserable Picasso which has one fitted as standard, has to jam a bit of paper in his to stop it vibrating.



Quite handy little mod. So far I've seen them in Citroen Xsara Picassos and C5s.

[Pitstoppete]

loving it.

[Ian T]

Nice one Dan... I ought to get one of those clips from a miserable car as well...

Glad you didn't throw the towel in, I bet the rest of it is fit for a few more years service yet. Your outlay for this year's maintenance still exceeds most people's depreciation so it's a good proposition really.

Keep it up. I'm down your way in the morning. Found out the canteen does a fat boys for less than £3 so Fleet Services can keep their beans on toast.

Ian.

[Benn]

Good work, patch in the boot in very nicely done.

[Joe]

Don't throw in the towel! Not costing as much as you think. If you bought a new car just think how much you would be losing month on month in depreciation alone!

Great thread

[Astra Dan]

Thanks for the positive comments. It's like a new car today, no brake judder and we rotated the tyres front/ back so there's very little wheel wobble now, just a bit when passing through 50mph.
I annihilated lots of losers on the way into work this morning, and even had some +7k revs for nearly a minute; I was in a silly mood. It just laps it up and keeps purring away.

There may be a plan next year to strip it to a rolling shell, really get the rusty bits sorted, and fit new brake and fuel lines etc. In time for it's 25th birthday!

[Jack]

Love this car Dan, I'm glad you still have it and you're still looking after it.

[Benn]

Thanks for the positive comments. It's like a new car today, no brake judder and we rotated the tyres front/ back so there's very little wheel wobble now, just a bit when passing through 50mph.
I annihilated lots of losers on the way into work this morning, and even had some +7k revs for nearly a minute; I was in a silly mood. It just laps it up and keeps purring away.

There may be a plan next year to strip it to a rolling shell, really get the rusty bits sorted, and fit new brake and fuel lines etc. In time for it's 25th birthday!

Yay no brake judder! Awesome work on skudding the losers.. And oooo a full rebuild, nice.