Flatout's Mk4 astra LET

[flatout]

I bought the car in april 06 for £600 its an 1.8 sport that had been hit down both sides and up the rear end aswell and repaired quite badly, luckily it was nothing structural and nothing i couldn't sort out.



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you can see the paint's flat as **** on the rear 1/4's and boot, very ironic lol

[flatout]

Initial thoughts for the astra was to just tidy up the paint and stick some decent wheels on it and use it while i looked about for a decent mk2 escort to do.
But when i started to really look around the car i decided that it was too far gone to use as a daily runner as the whole interior was basically ****ed and covered in crap plus it stank of skunk and it all had a green tint to it so i stripped it all out, the exterior wasn't much better tbh and the car needed a respray. so i thought **** it and decided that the astra was my next project so i got stuck in to the strip down.

tailgate was ****ed so made this instead, all metal no filler


should help with cold air lol

smoothed off the rear bumper no.plate light

new door with rub strips removed


rear quarter

front bumper grill and foglights removed

raised the bonnet to let the heat out when sittng in traffic

old door off

new door on

got rid of the tab on the fuel cap


random bodywork shots:









chucked a new wing on it aswell


off to the paintshop to be painted orange!!! **** knows why

bodywork finished and in primer





painted and home, ran out of paint tho so the bumpers and sideskirts needed re-painting at a later date


also picked up some new mirrors as the originals where battered.

After a few evenings it was all back together minus interior but with the alloys powdercoated gloss black.
also bonnet pins are on, opel grill fitted and 03 coupe turbo headlights chucked on




had some terry hooks to fit so after a bit of thinking decided that since the rear bumper needs repainting so i'll chop it up abit lol


The interior consisted of some cav turbo leather front seats with vectra subframes welded on and some 4 point harnesses also added an omp steering wheel and binned the glovebox out of the dash with plans for a bolt in cage in the future.

few pics of the interior, the side panels where getting painted when the outside bits get done so mixed up some hammerite and painted the floor.














Also had a brief flirtation with a gsi front bumper but decided it looked gayer than spanishfly

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[spanishfly]

gay stuff

[flatout]

you gay!!

[flatout]

work stopped on the astra about october 06 as work was really busy and i had to go to Edinburgh and do an insurance job, which left no time at all for the car.
i eventually got back to working in london around mid april 07 and thoughts turned back to the astra. Now plans were to fit a bolt-in cage like an omp or safety devices but after looking around at them i just thought they was pants and that a fully welded proper mans cage was what i really needed. At this time i was recomended an ex andy robinson employee who was branching out on his own and would do the cage at a discount if he could advertise on my car and put some work his way from my friends, couldn't really say no now could i

so plans were to get the floor stripped of paint and sound deadening, get all the windows out and the car stripped down again, managed to get the bonded windscreen out without breaking it only to trip over it a week later and smash it , while i was stripping it, it occured to me that now would be the time to respray it and as i'd never really liked the orange i decided to get the body prepp'd and then painted once the cage was in i just had to pick a colour. this was all a month before pv and i really wanted it on the stand so whatever had to be done had to be done fookin quickly.














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[flatout]

And a sly pic of a colour i was thinking about




i managed to get it stripped down in 2 evenings working from 5 pm till 2am on a thursday and friday, then saturday i chucked the car on my uncle's flat bed and took it over to epsom where stuart (SPA WELDING SERVICES) was waiting to fit the cage.

We'd decided that as escort cossies are a similiar size to a mk 4 that we'd use a fia design for one and just custom fit it in the astra, the main cage is 45mm and the rest is 37mm iirc to keep weight down to a minimum. And a week later it was done on time just like stuart said it would, how many people can stick to a deadline in the car trade aye from experience not many imho
Pics:


































now it was time to sort out the final prep work so i rubbed down the roof and bonnet and had a think about a colour to paint it over dinner.
only 3 weeks till pv

[spanishfly]

I see Rob the dog, I want him! The lil mincer dog

[flatout]

while the cage was being fitted i'd decided on 3 colours that i wanted


Porsche Riviera blue





mint green





matt black


in the end i couldn't decide and my mum talked me in to doing it matt black, like the old hot rods that used to be about when her and dad were kids. the thing with matt is that it can look shocking if not done right it HAS to be mint, not to look like your a lazy cheap ****

So i took myself down to all the local halfords and on the sunday and bought every can of matt black in the croydon area........... 53!!!
all small cans as they have more pressure than large cans, i practiced on a wing for most of the day untill i had it perfected with no lines visible it looked as if it came straight from a gun.......perfect

i don't have any pictures of this as i painted the car every evening after work for a week and didn't have time to mess about.

i also painted the opel badge gloss black on the front grill and had a new front screen fitted aswell as buying some cobra recliners and a set of bbs RX 17s wheels and a scorpion 6x9 oval backbox.

2 weeks till pv lol

[flatout]

the next week or so was spent getting the car back together and running now i'de had the car 13mths upto this point and had only had it running once or twice so i gambled and gave it a full service and a new battery and she started straight up anyways i chucked new discs and pads on it all round, fitted the exhaust and the coilovers &wheels and waited for the subframes to turn up for the cobra's.

while waiting for the cobra's i re fitted the cav turbo drivers seat and booked an mot now i was expecting a failure sheet aslong as my arm but she sailed through with only an advisory on headlight alignment, to say i was happy was an understatement. this was the friday before Pv lol so
first thing saturday morning i went and got some tax, got 2 crates of kronemberg and some food for the bbq and gave the car a wash then headed to santa pod.



everything was plain sailing untill i reached the hatfield tunnel on the m25, outside lane, 110mph, smoking a ciggy when the engine cuts out, so i manage to get across 3 lanes and stop on the hard shoulder when my mate who was behind starts shouting at me to get the **** out the car so i did

it turns out that i'd split a fuel line above the petrol tank and had emptied the fuel tank all over the m25 luckily for me tho i'd broken down in a free recovery zone so got a tow to there compound where i had to bribe the manager there with a case of the kronnies so he'd let me fix the car there and then, normally they cant let you do anything on there property because of no insurance but i wasn't taking no for an answer that day lol
anyway i got it repaired and got back on the road and at 530pm after leaving my house at half 9 in the morning i finally got to the pod and was greeted by a skin head **** called chip and the gay brotherhood of rich j williams, hacket, and ernie the postman after the night's piss up da da the astra gets on the stand.









this was first thing in the morning and quiet but the car had a crowd around it for most of the day and i was well chuffed with what i had achieved from getting the car back from spa welding to rebuilt i had done it on my own in 2 weeks of evenings and was knackered


sorry about the novel and just hope its not as boring to read as i think it is.

i'll crack on and get it upto date tommorow

[flatout]

here's a few pics of the ace cafe meet last summer, got its first picture in total vauxhall aswell as a nice write up in the report of the meet.

had to keep telling people not to touch the paint with there greasy fingers as i was getting bored of having to keep washing them off.





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[flatout]

heres a few pics from the day AL came down to london and spanishgay detailed his car. pics where taken on the old racetrack at crystal palace.






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[flatout]

Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 3:22 pm Post subject: long story made short..............

Chip rang me one saturday and asked if i'd be interested in letting chris astley motorsport use my car as a development mule for a c20let and F28 gearbox fitting kit, how could i refuse lol.


the deadline was eurofest which was 6 weeks away, 10 months later me and chip take a trailer upto chorley to pick up the car now sporting a 4 paddle clutch, new cambelt and rollers, and a fmic and hard chrome boost pipes and a few silicone hoses.









rear gearbox mount



intercooler








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[flatout]

got it home on a friday and on the saturday i chucked my new wheels and vauxsport livery on.










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[flatout]

when the car came back it was a non runner and PV was fast approaching. jobs left to do was find a home for the ecu, hook up a fuel return line, and have an exhaust made.

after doing this (except the exhaust) the engine would turn over but wouldn't start and it had no fuel or spark??? didn't really trace what the problem was as i changed most of the electrical components for new and moved the earth's on the fuel rail and clamped them under the throttle cable bracket, then with some help from chip we managed to get the lump started but only for 7 seconds at a time after messing about untill 12ish at night it was decided that the fuel pump had **** itself so i needed a new one. sadly this was the wednesday before pv and i didn't have any time left so didn't make the show

anyway ive had few months off of the car now and have decided to crack on and get it done for whats left of the year.

so ive got this coming from Dave Dempsey from Mig

old versus new





aparantly its capable of 500bhp, dave paid £120 for it and done a thousand miles i got it for £60 delivered, bargain if you ask me
that should be here tomorrow or wednesday then i'm gonna replace all the fuel lines for braided hoses and try my luck with getting the engine running.
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[flatout]

Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 2:37 pm Post subject: fuel pump arrived this morning (thanks Dave) apparently you have to modify the basket that the pump sits in because the pump is supposedly longer and fatter than a standard gsi's pump, funnily enough the new pump is a **** load smaller than my standard pump so i had a little play around with it and got it all fitted in without having to mod the basket at all



since ive had the pump in and out and had all the relevant lines off and on about 3 or 4 times i'm not gonna carry on untill i make sure that its all going back together properly as i dont want to have to do this again if i can help it. so im gonna drop the tank and remove all the lines from front to back and start again from the beginning

few pics of some parts ive got


mmmmmmm real carbon



SARD adjustable fuel pressure regulator





Racetech boost gauge


evo 5 software



peterg fannymold, the workmanship is incredible and i havent seen a better manifold on the market imho









this is just an expensive ornament at the moment until i sort out what turbo its getting married to
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[flatout]

found some more pics of before the vs liverie kinda like how it looks without them tbh


ive changed all the bottle's and caps now for mint items got a new scuttle panel and also cleaned up the inner wings



i ****ing love this picture more than any other of the car.






should have tidied the garden before taking this pic i think

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[flatout]

A pic from today Clutch bleed and working Do the whole system tomorrow, the fluid is mank

[Jonny Martin]

nice. not my cup of tea but thumbs up for the work that you've put into it! one thing, thank god you changed the colour!! there's a Mk4 van round my way painted in the same orange and it just looks rank!

[showcorsa]

looks like alot of hard work has gone into that.. nice one

[flatout]

theres a few things left to do on the car atm things like going round the car and sorting out any chips and marks on the paint, i'll get a pic of the interior tommorow as its a absolute mess

might even take it for its maiden voyage up and down my private test track

[flatout]

Originally Posted by Jonny Martin

nice. not my cup of tea but thumbs up for the work that you've put into it! one thing, thank god you changed the colour!! there's a Mk4 van round my way painted in the same orange and it just looks rank!

yeh i know it was a close call that one, at the time i thought it looked ok ish but after a week or so of looking at it i knew it was wrong

[flatout]

Originally Posted by spanishfly

I see Rob the dog, I want him! The lil mincer dog

he's the workshop foreman lol, he's outside guarding your cage right now!!

[LongLiveTheNova]

So you bought 53 cans of Matt black?
At how much a can??


Personally i dont like the matt finish, but at the same time its cool as fook because its unique and stands out

[flatout]

Originally Posted by showcorsa

looks like alot of hard work has gone into that.. nice one

cheers dude

[flatout]

Originally Posted by LongLiveTheNova

So you bought 53 cans of Matt black?
At how much a can??


Personally i dont like the matt finish, but at the same time its cool as fook because its unique and stands out

er £7 a can i think, that was the whole outside 2 coats and the whole interior and cage with 2 coats aswell tho.

the main reason for using the cans was because i only had evenings to work on the car and it was just easier to use them rather than having to set up the compressor and airlines and clean the gun up every night