C20XE Corsa B 1997 Trip

[BROOMY]

I`ve been on mig for a few years now soaking up inspiration from some of the top notch projects on here to give me some encouragement to do something myself.
In October 2008 I attended a track day with my best mate at Donnington and even though i never got do drive a few passenger laps in his 260bhp Mini Cooper s was enough to make me decide to build something for tracking but on a moderate budget.
So upon returning from Donnington i proclaimed to the wife that i was going to build a project car to which she mumbled something about "waste of money". However being a bloke i wasn`t listening to her any way and started searching for a cheap car in earnest.
Being an ex vauxhall technician and doing a few foreigners here and there the owner of a Corsa B got in touch with me worried his head gasket had gone, so i looked at it for him and upon hearing the bad news he decided to off load the car as it wasnt economical to repair.
A plan was hatched and i haggled. Eventually bought it for £175 with tax and test. So now i had a base car i needed to decide on an engine to transplant. It had to be a C20XE i know its been done hundreds of times but i just love that engine.






So the base car was a 1997 3door non sunroof Trip with 100k on the clock 2 0wners full history no leccy windows or mirrors no mfd no nothing and a blown headgasket.
She has a few war wounds and at some point in a previous life has had an osr quarter panel fitted but as it is going to get abused i wasnt really that fussed.
First things first all the door mouldings and excess interior was removed.




All seat brackets and any unwanted metal from the rear was removed with a spot weld drill bit any exposed metal was treated as a temporary measure.
So i had the base car but needed an engine to allow me to crack on. So i was trawling ebay and kept looking over the same things overpriced engines with ancilaries missing miles away and i`m far too cautious to buy an engine without knowing it can run.
Whilst at work one day i was talking to a lad off of MIG "peachperformance" of Calibra 4wd retrofit fame and he mentioned needing a few parts for his interior and that he would really like a new drivers door to perfect his car. So another plan was hatched, find a donor car buy it together and break it ourselves and sell anything on we can to get some money back. So i started trawling the small ads and classifieds to eventually find on mig a pretty leggy Calibra C20xe in the same blue as peachperformance`s Calibra. A phone call was made and haggling was done. The car was ours subject to inspection. A sunday road trip to Bournemouth from Worcester ensued and later that day we returned with a half decent car for the princely sum of £290.






Upon closer inspection on our return we started to notice a few more defects. She drove a treat and pulled well with no smoke or rattles and considering the rear exhaust had dropped off was nice at motorway speeds even if it felt a bit vague and floaty.
Once home we noticed that the strut tops and inner wings had seen better days and the dreaded tin worm was having it wicked way and would need attention. The front wishbones and ball joints were shot and the rear subframe bushes were well past there best.
She was by no means tidy and we were both happy that we weren`t breaking a minter, she also looked like she had had some paint on the passenger side so it was back to mine with the car to begin strip down.









After she was stripped of all her best parts she was waved off to be weighed in and to our suprise we sold a few bits and bobs and got back all we spent on her.
So now i was in possession of a standard healthy if leaky engine box driveshafts unmolested loom and all the other parts i could think i`d need.
The strip and clean up job started in earnest and everything removed was cleaned and painted silver or black depending on where it was going.

[BROOMY]

Managed to find a multi v belt to fit, bit tight to get on but works a treat.







Need to have a tidy up couldn`t swing a cat in here!!







Now all this was done it was ready to go into the car but the car wasn`t ready for the engine yet so the C20xe was tucked in the corner with its new belts pumps and gaskets. The gearbox was treated to a lick of paint and some new seals and a new clutch plate was slipped in.
So with the wifes car relagated to the road i started stripping the corsa of its wheezy lump.










So with the engine now out i needed to pull my finger out of my butt because the wife wanted her parking space back especially as our neighbour is a bit slap dash when it comes to putting his handbrake on.
Steam cleaned the engine bay.









Now the bay was clean i removed the battery tray and brackets as the battery is going in the boot. Then i started grinding up all the seams to give her a quick weld, not the best welding in the world but thank heavens for seam sealer to cover it up.















As i want to run the SFI box i took the time to trim the bulk head with the engine out.

The borrowed welder

[BROOMY]

Time to get her into primer



Now for the satin black.











So with the bay prepped i gave the steering rack a coat of hammerite and fitted some flo flex bushes and bunged it back in the car.




Whilst the engine and exhaust were off/out i took the fueltank out gave it a coat of hammerite and then undersealed the floor by the tank.

[BROOMY]

With the bay prep complete my attention was turned towards fitting the motor to get it mobile to stop the wife giving me grief as the drive looked a mess.






Stiffened factory mountings the pikey way



Loads of room for multi v honest!







Next job was to relocate header tank to clear sfi box.

[BROOMY]

As i was relocating the battery to the boot i wanted to keep it fairly neat under the bonnet. So i used and amp distribution block. The main cable is from a mini cooper s that had developed a fault on the airbag circuit that fires in the event of a crash so was ideal size for the corsa.








Now the engine was nearly ready to fire up once the loom had been repaired and tidied up.




Coolant temp wire breakage

Bit of chopping required for fan fitment




Low and behold with a squirt of petrol she fired up. Bit loud without exhaust though.


I then modified the factory airbox to fit.

[BROOMY]

Now she runs it was time to sort the gear linkage and driveshaft fitment. Old calibra linkage came in handy here.





Used equal length shaft on o/s with no mods required but had to shorten inner and outer of n/s shaft to fit cvs further onto shafts.







Had a local engineer turn my calibra hubs down to fit the corsa bearings. Did a superb job.



So now i had gears and drive with no selection problems time to get an exhaust on. This is a temporary one as when funds permit i will get one custom made.
Ebay special




So now she could move under her own steam. So my attention was now turned to the interior side of things.

[alistairolsen]

Looking really good so far! Reminds me of mine which I did in '06, similar numbers on the donors and a scabby cally too! Whats the plan from here then?

[BROOMY]

So with the paint dry i set to with fitting my bucket seats. A little fab work and the corsa subframes were mated to the base mount seats and were just about he right height for my liking.







Harnesses and harness eyes off ebay again.






Got some sport clocks so i have rev counter.

Trial and error to find pin assignment in plug.Got a spare plug from scrappys so correct terminal is now used.

Onto making it stop was the next task.New handbrake cables wheel cylinders and rear wheel bearings on the rear.


Paint and tart up of the calibra brakes on the front.



Old pads seen better days

[dearing5]

nice little project

[BROOMY]

So the next task was suspension. I picked up a couple of strut braces off ebay cheap for a tigra but as i was using sfi box none would fit without mods anyway. Set to with hammer and vice.







Slight mod to bonnet needed to clear but otherwise snug fit.
Braided lines front and rear.

Shiny new protec -30mm springs tarmac spec.




Sexy Bilstein B6/8`s








Powerflex bushes front and rear all arms sandblasted and painted

[alistairolsen]

Nice choice on the dampers, same as mine, didnt realise you could still get the big piston units new.

Where did you get the springs and how much for if you dont mind me asking?

Nice attention to detail along the way, always good to see!

Where did you put the harness eyelets? I assume they didnt conveniently screw into the original bosses for the rear seatsbelts?

[BROOMY]

Whilst i was mincing with this, on the colder darker nights i was in the garage prepping some old wheels i had picked up cheap.












Shod with some maxxis 195/50/15 tyres.


Tried on for size.


Whislt suspension was off gave under arches a quick blast with body schutz.





Bonnet trimmage.

Painted arch trims door handles boot release and gutter rails BMW sparkling graphite











Had a good clearout in garage to see if car would fit. (I have the worlds smallest garage known to man,previous owner extended kitchen into garage) Snug fit.


So as it stands i need to get the tracking done, make a bracket to stop my oil cooler pipes fouling roll bar, remove windows before respray then fit my polycarbs. Paint inside doors and boot save for respray and then maybe mince with some gauges inside. Then i can look at putting her on the road.

[BROOMY]

Nice choice on the dampers, same as mine, didnt realise you could still get the big piston units new.

Where did you get the springs and how much for if you dont mind me asking?

Nice attention to detail along the way, always good to see!

Where did you put the harness eyelets? I assume they didnt conveniently screw into the original bosses for the rear seatsbelts?

With regards to the harness eyes i have used all of the original seat belt mounting points on the body (under rear bench and sills) and have used the pre tensioner mounts on the factory subframes. The harnesses are 4 point.
The springs were from protec motor sport and cost 65 plus vat plus delivery and come in standard heght or -30mm. Welcome to Pro-Tec Motorsport Corsa
Thanks for comments. Things slow at the mo due to funds. Stu

[dearing5]

wheels come out well, rattle can??

[alistairolsen]

I dont suppose you can remember the thread off the top of your head? I need some eyebolts to fit standard seatbelt bosses!

[BROOMY]

wheels come out well, rattle can??

BMW alpine white for the base from Halfords rattle can and laquered with RFU from a gun. Think the camera flatters them a bit.

[BROOMY]

I dont suppose you can remember the thread off the top of your head? I need some eyebolts to fit standard seatbelt bosses!

They are like the ones listed on ebay and they state 7/16 unf i`m sure mine were the same but now you mention that im suprised Vauxhall used unf?

[alistairolsen]

Standard 7/16 unf is 20TPI.....

That means 11.11mm diameter and 1.27mm pitch. Shouldnt have been possible to screw them into a metric boss, so vauxhall must have..... (some metric/imperial screws are VERY Similar, 1" x12tpi and 25mmx2 for instance!)

Will have to get a thread guage on mine when Im near the car again!

Cheers

[Jack]

I dont suppose you can remember the thread off the top of your head? I need some eyebolts to fit standard seatbelt bosses!

7/16 UNF, I've just bought a load.

Screw straight into standard subframes, as well as floor mounting points.



Sorry for the hi-jack!

[alistairolsen]

Interesting, vauxhall must have used 7/16. Wonder if there is some universal standard for seatbelt fixings.......

Cheers guys and sorry for the hijack, look forward to seeing the rest of the build!!

[BROOMY]

Very small update.
Whilst i was refurbing my wheels i sold my two remaining 15" softstars (only had 3 to start with). This left me with a predicament as i had already fitted the 256mm Calibra brakes and the original 13" wheels wouldn`t fit over them.
Solution= Find some cheap stells to fit so i could move the car off the drive. Luckily i had some new shape mini wheels at the back of the garage a mate had given me. The pcds were the same so after ten minutes with the die grinder the centre bore was machined out slightly and the car was now mobile again.

[corsacraig55]

how much did you move the recess on the ns shaft btw nice build

[BROOMY]

Well woke up on New years day with a banging headache so i thought some fresh air would fix me. Wrong!!! Managed to mince for a bit and make a bracket to re route the oil cooler lines as they fouled the anti roll bar. This was about all i could manage before i needed a lie down in a dark room.

Bracket shaped to fit block


P clips to secure pipes.


Some pics of the bracket painted and in place.

[BROOMY]

Managed to grab five minutes in the week and cut the rear windows out. N/s rear came out easy enough but the o/s rear and rear screen had been out and had been re glued at some point, so they took a bit longer owing to the hideous amount of window bonding used.

[BROOMY]

Small update from last weekend. Having run my battery cable down the n/s sill i was struggling to find a convenient place to add the battery cut out that i had bought. So a small change of route was in order. Now the cable runs down the centre tunnel allowing placement of the switch within reach of the drivers seat.






Next up was to sort out my start switch panel and wiring. Made a small trim to allow panel fitment as it was slightly bigger than the Din slot.


Trimmed it with some carbon look film.



The other switch will be used as a cooling fan overide when i get round to wiring the relay up at the weekend.
Also need to fit my Nortech oil level blank when i get five as its dribbling on the garage floor.

Broomy.