Ronnie's New Family Car - Vectra Gsi Estate

[rc]

good good, lets hope it stays that way and doesnt end up on a downward spiral like the van did

[rc]

so then the weekends progress nothing like leaving things to the last minute.

saturday i decided i would getting the plenums done for billing, so got them back out



must of came off a great runner lmao



so first thing was to give them a good wheel acid inside and out



and a pressure wash out



you can see how **** the standard castings and plenums





started sanding it all down





while i was there sanding i decided to get the power file inside and do the 'courtenay sport reworking' mod that ive seen a few people talk about, basically knife edging the devider inside as its a massive blob of casting, didnt get a pic before, but here it is done





also had to drill and tap an extra fitting for the lpg ecu



pressure wased all the **** out, dried off and primed up



left that in the sun to bake, then flatted it down



and re did them in white



much better finish than standard



while i was waiting for them to dry i set about a wash and polish on the car





then was time for tea so back with a full belly and got the car in



stripped it all down



the centre bit was a bit rank too



but a pain to get out as it has 12 injectors attached to it lol, so masked it up
and painted it in situ



cleaned up the hoses too as they were really oily inside



had to swap all the bits to the new plenum centre



few more pics of the 'courtenay mod'





and started re assemberly



at a spare of the moment thing i decided this would be a good time to fit the cruise control, as if i didnt have enough to do lol

with the lpg evaperator where the cruise control should go i had to put it somewhere else, as id removed the SAI pump i decided that was a nice space



the wiring would reach so had to make an extension



but then realised there was two black and yellows and no way of telling which was which as id already stripped the ends

so had to get the wiring diagrams out and fins what does what to what pin and get the muli meter out and see what does what, found one was the brake switch, so turned my attention to getting the 4 pin brake switch and clutch swith in, bit fiddely as they're right up under the dash





the plugs were already there waiting so just plugged in, then could get my multi meter out to check whaich one of the black/yellows was effected by the brake switch, done and could solder it all in



fixed it all in whith an 'adjustable plactic bracket' for now



and could get the bay back together











looked at the time and had a shock



still hadnt cleaned the inside yet

was about 1.30am by the time i got home, and up again at 6 for the voiage to Billing

[rc]

got there without a hitch, empty roads all the way, love having cruise control again, had missed it, for the journet i stay on one road for over 50miles so its a god send

and i have to say its gained a bit of oooomph from somewhere too, now i live in the real world and not one of these people who expect +10bhp from removing the mesh in the AFM, but you know i think knife edgeing that plenum devider has made a difference, or could just be my plenums were full of crud and these are nice and clean, who knows but runs smooth as silk

i have still got this horrible vibration at 60-70mph, major wheel shaker need to sort it

anyway, lovely day at billing sunday and got loads of attention



























fantastic day, spoke to loads of people, nice weather, and plenty of icecreams



and to top it all off, i was almighty suprised to be awarded 3rd in the show and shine competition in the mig stand, and there was alot of very valeted cars too really was pleased and didnt even know there was a competition untill it was announced the awards are being given out in 5 mins so finished of a fantastic day





and beleive it or not, though all my cars and features, this is my first ever trophy

[bigron1988]

'adjustable plactic bracket'


took a while for that to regester with me lol , top job as ever

[M Beirne]

Seen this at Billing sweet Vectra took a few pics will load them up when i find the camera lead.

[rc]

Cheers lads wil be good to see some more pic's of it

[humbucker]

saw you giving it a good wipe down as i drove past yesterday morning. did come over and have a good look around under the bonnet, was showing my pal your lpg install. sadly you weren't about (unless you were one of the guys helping a rather tidy looking red mk2 gte on to a trailer). next time gadget, next time...

[Benn]

The car did look great dude.

[humbucker]

The car did look great dude.

heheh as did yours benn; i did chuckle when one guy looking over it shouted "jeeesus he's even polished the fackin driveshafts" hahaha!

[rc]

Cheers that is the only problem with only going to the shows for the day, if you stay by the car greeting everyone you don't see any of the show, and if you just park up and leave the car noone new knows who you are lmao

but yea i was around loading spankees mk2 at the time lmao

[M Beirne]

[rc]

very nice mate, thats us having a bite to eat on the chairs behind lmao

[M Beirne]

very nice mate, thats us having a bite to eat on the chairs behind lmao

My son took this pic as i was looking at the Mk2 Cavaliers

[rc]

well ive got the MOT on friday and something that the car has never had since i got it is front fog lights, just the lenses. so in a bit of an emergency last min surge i decided i better get some in case they get the arse about them being fitted and not working, Jason78 off vvoc came to my rescue and sent me a pair of mint fog lights in record time and got they came today



mine are both snapped off where at that join in the middle so have no bulb holders



will get them on tomorrow and ready for friday

[benthompson_109]

could well be, i'm just going to have to keep an eye on it, not sure what t could be, but its wierd ive heard so many f23 diffs going pop lately lmao if it knocks out another cv then i'll have to look into it further.

did you have any vibration problems? as ive got a proper 60-70mph wheel wobble like a buckled wheel that i just cant get tot he bottom of

i had similar problem with my astra on my 1st track day. after a day of abuse the steering wheel started wobbling side to side loads and i had to come off track.. on drive home it would wobble like mad between 30-60mph but would stop at 70mph... when i got home and inspected you could grab the inner cv joint and move the diff up and down about half an inch or so.. probably could replace bearings but i changed box for quickness... sounds like yours is on its way just not as bad as mine was yet lol

[Spinbitch]

saw you giving it a good wipe down as i drove past yesterday morning. did come over and have a good look around under the bonnet, was showing my pal your lpg install. sadly you weren't about (unless you were one of the guys helping a rather tidy looking red mk2 gte on to a trailer). next time gadget, next time...

Never mind the MK2, you see the beast that was towing it? Proper minter that!

[c19bby]

excellant moter,pure dedication there. i had a ph1 myself. awesome! keep up the good work

[rc]

progress of yesterday, got the car in



old fog lights



was a night mare to get them out with the bumper on so had to release it



broken bulb holders



new ones in nicely, but had a problem with the wiring, the plugs were different and mine had a little mini loom extension in



and when i took that extension off i was left with two indetical male plugs which wasnt going to work either they were from a 2000 gsi as well so i'm well confused?



so had to chop the plugs off and solder in a new set of plugs so i can still take them bumper off.

and on



gave it a quick wash before the mot





and flew through never had any doubts the brakes performed fantastically on the brake tester too

and emisions on lpg, well i'll let the test do the talking i think the air going out is cleaner than going in lmao

[Ted_CDTi]

Spot on as always mate. And they are awesome results on the emissions.

[rc]

not much of an update but a couple of new bits, had a bit of a problem with the brake light warning notice not going out since fitting the cruise control, all bulbs were fine so must of been a faulty cc brake switch meaning sometimes not having brake lights

got a new cc switch



swapped over, the old one wasnt off a vec, must of been an omega or something??



all fixed now

also spotted a bargin from lmf on ebay a pair of genuine gm astra vxr discs, 168quid from vaux and they were pushing them out for 100quid i need to replace them as they should be 28mm wide and the ones i have been re ground by a hero to 24.9mm, and the min thickness should be 25mm so will get those on when i have a chance. will just need to file a bit out of the corsa vxr calipers as they are ment for 25mm discs, but i had 321mm x28mm on my cav with 288 calipers so will be fine



real deal



and gave it a wash and polish for my boys party at the weekend

[rc]

bit of a late update built up over the last few weeks, first of all it was time to replace the front vxr discs i fitted a while ago, the reason for this the vxr discs are 322mm x 28mm, i got the setup second hand and the discs had just be reground, nice and fresh, the problem they had been reground down to 24.7mm as they were intednded to use with calipers designed for 25mm discs, all ok in theory, but the min disc thickness for vxr discs is 25mm, so these were effectivly scrap, and even with them on for just this short thime they had become warped as they were just too thin, so as per the last update LMF were having a stock clearout and got some genuine gm/opc vxr 322mm discs cheap.

so was time to fit them, the old reground discs really did have a shake on like a buckled wheel





quite alarmingly there is a big visual difference between new and old



im using 288/308 calipers which are designed for 25mm wide discs, but as per my cavalier set up you can squeeze 28mm discs in, just a bit of fileing on the side, cleaning up the casting marks really





and on



then gave it wash, as once again the bird patrol had struck again



cleaned





this was in preperation for a 500 plus mile round trip to dorset to pick up a car for my bro as his old astra runaround was dying a sorry death to rust





and he's joined the vectra crew picked up a stunning vectra cdx estate 2.0 manual







first of the facelifts, 111k miles, full main dealer service history, owned by a elderly woman for the last 11 years, every repipt from new, fully loaded, 4x electric windows, electric sunroof, climate control, cruise control the lot, £700.

he chose the x20xev over the v6 as its a runaround and didnt want the horendous mpg of the v6, and will be fine as if he wants to go fast he has this



very comfy car, i'd like it as a runaround

anyway its sadly pushed my gsi over another milestone just clocked over 140k as we got back done 12k in it now.



as i use the car for work, unit, everything the seats were filthy, my bro borrowed a wet vax to do his interior so i used it too on my seats, didnt get any before pics, but you couldnt really even make out the pattern. now much nicer





smells a bit better now too lmao

[rc]

well vectra update today, backtracking a bit, my brother wants me to fit a tow bar to his new vectra, had a look around and a company on ebay was having a 'old stock' clearout and had a brand new Brink quick release detachable tow bar, RRP£250, clearout price £75



now, ive already got a tow bar on mine, but a traditional type, and i do unbolt it after each time as i dont like the look of tow bars on really, but do use my car trailer alot.





and then have to bolt it all together each time



so the obvious solution was for me to have the new one and fit my old one to my bro's car as he wont bother 'detaching' it anyway.

so started stripping mine down, boot stripped and the gas tank in all its glory



disconnected the gas to the filler



and off



started fitting the new one



but ran in to a problem, the instructions did say not suitable for sri/gsi, couldnt work out why....... and the reason for this is now apparent the massive backboxes,



so had a measure up where the box should sit and took it back off



and got the grinder out



had a chop around and tacked the gusset back in rotated round a bit



loads of clearence



while it was there i made up a bracket for the lpg filler as this tow bar beam is totally different , used a exhaust clamp around the tube, perfect



and welded up



strong enough?



and all painted up



and all bolted up





and detached



lots of room above now



a bit tight on to the tail pipe but thats just the design, i glued on a buffer just incase it does rattle round corners or anything.



also whilst refitting the interior i found out what the little cap is for on the turret top, i did think it was for access to the turret top or something, bt its a bonnet stay :lol:



just got to fit the old tow bar to my brothers now

[bigsyko75]

Excellent read,i just love your skills man

[rc]

with the new tow bar and it not being right for the gsi's exhaust it had to be pushed right over, and i dont know about anyone elses but my exhaust system has a hell of alot of side to side swing on the rubbers?!

i had to get it a fine balence between the tow bar arm



and the tyre



and on hard cornering it was knocking on both

so decided to put a stabalizer in,

found a cotton reel kicking about



lucky there was a hole close by on the subframe



made a little bracket



and buzzed on



jobs a goodern

[big e]

Spot on Ron..