Ronnie's project RWD :D - mk3 astra gsi turbo rear wheel drive ;)

[rc]

? Does it safty bar out in to the doors then?

the door bars would hit the sticky out bit of the door card, the pockets and handle



very doubtfull to be able to fit rear quater cards



and rear seats look like to be a no chance



even dash is going to be debateable lmao

[shanger]

looks like a good shell, getting all that sound deadening off is loads of fun

[philip2]

i found a hair dryer awesome to get the deadening out of my corsa gsi, warmed it up just enough to peel off, and didnt leave much mess


fair do's if you get ya shell as well prepper as that astra your onto a winner.

id have a look at using mk2 escort struts/steering column for the front or have a look atleast

[Big_Chap]

Cool project, have read it but I have missed something, are you using the silver shell as a "1st draft" before hacking up the red or you taking bits off the red one and selling it on or de-spec-ing it?

[Melv]

Cool project, have read it but I have missed something, are you using the silver shell as a "1st draft" before hacking up the red or you taking bits off the red one and selling it on or de-spec-ing it?

red shell = fu**ed, silver shell = good. Chuck engine from the red one into the silver one sideways and make it RWD.

Looking forward to the updates Ron. Best of luck with it

[rc]

yea unfortunatly the red one's not too healthy underneith, so got this mint silver shell to 're-shell' it into! so still gonna look exactly the same from the outside, still be j61 rbm, and still be a performance red gsi, but yea like u say underneith everything will be despeced inside, a stripped out race car

[Viewer1]

Just wish I had the garage to do it in.

Can't wait to see how this progresses `

[chris and lee]

Hi mate, Good to see the project started

We were fitting a "custom cage" last weekend just like a BIG mcarno set .
Wasnt impressed at all with there delivery times BUT...... a QUALITY piece of kit!
Make sure youve a spare pair of hands (probably not something even YOU lmao can do on your own) and a decent ratchet strap!

Best of luck Ron.

Lee.

[rc]

had another few hours for some more stripping tonight!

carried on getting the whole loom out, very heavy



then engine bay



another pile of bits



and a bare engine bay



and for the people thinking about steering suggestions, heres the space i have to play with, see what i mean now!! i recon the flywheel is going to be about there the bottom of the bulkhead is



got tomorrow off so will prob loose all its suspension, then all that really will be left is a bare shell.

[Steve!]

More space than an E30 BMW mate...

Have a look see here!!

[Brian Stirrup]

Have you had a word with Jamie about the steering options? He brought my Senator steering setup for his V6 Mk2 Astra but I think he is using another solution.

[rc]

hmmmm there maybe a steering development

need to source a cossie box and adapter belhousing!

[Roachy Vxr]

Hi Ronnie, it's looking to be a good project. For the steering could you just swap the front legs left to right so the trak rod end mounts are facing forwards? as your using vectra legs the mount will be low enough to clear the chassis leg, then use the vaux steering rack mounted to the subframe just far enough forward to clear the engine, shouldnt be a problem to make some slightly offset track rods, then just need to extend the steering column with an extra UJ. It all sounds easier writing it than it will be in practice but thats the lines i'd be thinking along.
Anyway you dont want to add to many ford parts, you might get more rust/reliability issues, lol.

[Viewer1]

What motors have a front mounted rack and pinion setup? The steering rod will be quite long granted, but at least you'll be able to mess about with your exhaust setup a bit easier.

Got the time to space frame it?

[rc]

after a heads up from TomF to a project on astra-mk2.com in the making i went off for a very intresting read last night. a guy has put a sierra cossie engine and running gear in a mk2 astra. and cept his standard steering rack












now the reason i was so convinced the steering is going to be such a problem is on MONTY-D's RWD cav the back of the engine is right up against (and in) the bulkhead. not allowing room for a track rod, let alone a rack!

the position of the engine is determined by one point, the gearstick, that has to be in the exact same place as the standard astra one, this is the datum for where the engine will sit. now, what im assuming is that cavs have alot bigger foot wells than an astra, i.e the bulkhead is further forward in relationship with the gearstick, meaning bringing it alot closer to the engine. so if the mk3 astra is the same as the mk2 astra, then that would mean the bulkhead is further back, in relationship to the gearstick, meaning there 'should' be room for the standard steering rack to stay

[rc]

anyways, today was time to strip the rest of the underneith



another pile of bits



and totally stripped from the bulkhead back with only the subframe, legs and pedals left on the front



so the shells ready for the conversion

next major to do is get a T5 gearbox and a-frame custom bellhousing, to see where my engine is actually going to fit!

so time to get the turbo off to go to andiman for exchange for some nice moneys



and heres my piece of engineering thats stopped my so called 'thats such a cheap **** 200sx bodgejob thats gonna crack the first time you start the engine you should just go to nortec' manifold thats done me well no cracks no problems!



and all the work i did moving the actuator around

[jav786]

Keep the good work up Ron

[Steve!]

It's moving faster than expected

[rc]

might get bored tomorrow and cut the floor out!

[Steve!]

good good

[leesturbo]

never doubted the manifold with brasing

[rc]

never doubted the manifold with brasing

you must of been the only one then lmao

dont ya think Steve!

[leesturbo]

you must of been the only one then lmao

dont ya think Steve!

paided £99 for mine . did 3 years not one issue

[Bean]

Excelent thread and project will be keeping an eyeon this one

[steveturbocal]

nice work ron glad to see ya still at it