lisbon_road

In other news, I've bought another one. Yes, another Mk3 Astra. I have no idea why but this is Autoshite. It is a 52K mile special edition (yeah right) one which has not moved in 12 years. It looks basically very sound, though the headlining is very mouldy. The bonnet is rusty and the bulkhead at the bottom, but the wings, doors and arches look immaculate. It is the same Titanium Silver as mine. I will either (1) clean it up, white room it and sell for a fortune. Or (2) find it is rotten underneath and use the clean panels on mine, save the engine, gearbox, cat, steering rack and other stuff and weigh the rest in. Further news later this week. Including what her indoors thinks.

Thread resurrection. Well I still have 'em both but it seems the silver one has got hairy exhaust syndrome. Can anyone recommend where to get a better exhaust than this not very old ECP Kalrius one? I can get EuroFlo off ebay, which I've never heard of, and GSF list Walker but seem to be listing only limited stock at certain branches, though commendably cheap.

The door is open for the Chinese companies to fill the market for smaller more sensible cars. We're just holding up a white flag and saying come on and take the market. History says, if they get that end of the market, they'll soon attack the more expensive end too.

It is back together again and I've washed it since this picture was taken. It has new number plates, some better wheel trims, a new steering wheel, better gas struts. The last stages of getting it all to line up properly and getting all the plastics clipped back take a while but thankfully when I stripped the scrap car I also took every possible spare plastic clip - never regret that. It also has a couple of almost new part work Falken tyres which are supposed to be very quiet and do seem to be. It is also running on gas again as I repaired a broken plastic part and have leak tested the whole thing. I may yet need to do the head gasket as it was driven back with no water in it - and it really had just a trickle in it. I really don't like cheap head gasket sets so I have bought the cheapest on ebay, an old stock QH one so I'm ready and some old stock Payen bolts. Need to align the headlights which I will probably get done at my MOT garage 'between MOTs' for a bit of cash. The cars ok but I'm exhausted.

I didn't really like it when we first got it, but I have sort of got used to it. I appreciate that it doesn't seem to go rusty at all. I've done work on it, as it has been in two accidents, and the water pump failed when the shaft simply snapped just after we'd got it - made of cheese I guess, plus it eats mass air flow sensors. But of course being petrol/LPG, there's been no real expensive stuff. I change the ATF now and then and haven't really changed any ancilliaries. Trouble is, down south, lpg is soon going to be more or less gone. That combined with very expensive tax isn't great. Though it is ULEZ compliant so I reckon I could sell it. I haven't run the engine up since the accident, so may yet have a little to learn as it was driven back with no water in it and the EML on.

Got the panels back. They're ok, definitely good enough for the car, but not exactly perfect. Hoping to get it all finished on Sunday. Might be optimistic!

Then cleaned it up and today painted it. Zinc primer on the bare bits, aerosol primer all over two coats, two coats of top and two coats of lacquer. I was amazed how well the top coat went on. I got it from a paint specialist on an industrial estate so I don't know if it is different to Halfords type stuff. It also looked as if it didn't need the lacquer but I had it so used it. Makes me wonder what else I could do with an aerosol. That's the ex Rob_T Astra in the background. I kinda don't mind doing this - but these jobs soak up so much time.

Then the slam panel welded on using my old SIP spot welder that I bought in about 1997. Don't get to use that everyday. It does trip the electrics rather a lot. If I needed to use it much more, perhaps I'd have to do something about that.

Here's a picture of the panels under the slam panel once the old bent one is cut away. They got a bit mangled but were ok to straighten out.

This is autoshite.com after all. Friend told me one of his neighbours scrapped a slightly younger Zaf because they couldn't open one of the doors.

That last picture is a dry run. I use a spot welder which is really drawing too much current for the domestic circuit but anyway, this is a small job and I soon got it done. Now after a load of trial alignments, I've taken the bonnet and wing to be painted, which is costing me £250 cash which seems high to me but perhaps I've got out of touch? I've bought an aerosol to do the slam panel myself to keep the cost down; the bodyshop always prefers not to have a car I find.

Plan was to cut the slam panel off and weld a new one on. Seemed a bit odd to me that when I looked at new panels on ebay, there's plenty but they come with a load of other panels attached. Well the reason is probably because when removing the slam panel, I have to remove quite a strong panel from some pretty weak ones underneath. The result of that is that the ones under get a bit bent. In hindsight it might have been simpler to cut across under the slam panel, overlap and join but never mind, I've done it this way and it is done.

Better get some parts then. Not as easy to find a Zafira A in a scrapyard now. Tried Silverlake, GR Harris, Harry Buckland - nothing. But Richard Noon did have one and that's not far away. Wrong colour but I'd reached the point that colour isn't an issue - previously I'd always got the right colour because paint is expensive. Anyway - a clean enough doom blue Zafira gave me two headlights, bonnet, offside wing (old one rusty), front cross panel, cut the slam panel off, and also a steering wheel (old one manky and delaminating), two gas struts (old ones a bit short ebay specials), air bag (old one has new cover, not very good, might just use the cover), endless little bits, and I think that's it for £140 cash no returns.

When I dug a bit deeper, the lpg system has been damaged. Looks like one of the plastic elbows on the vapouriser has broken off.

It is a few years since my wife dunched the Zafira. This time, the bonnet and slam panel are well bent but surprisingly, the front bumper was ok. The front cross member is a bit bent and could easily be straightened out - it sort of peeled back when the bonnet was pushed in. Seen worse. The slam panel is worse than it looks.

Winchester bus running day last Monday. Surprise to see this. An early Olympian, was with Ribble I think, then Stagecoach in Basingstoke and Chepstow Classic who apparently still own it. Very smooth ride, someone know how to set these up.

Sorry. Really. Self indulgent comment. I'm looking at the last three or four pictures shared on here, and really, this keeps me sane. I mean look at them. But I can't just leave this message without a picture of my own...........

Sounds like you fixed it. Hope so. If it happens again, that sounds like classic coil failure.

Small point on replacement fuel tanks. I fitted one to a Sierra a few years back. It went staggeringly rusty in a very short period, such that the fuel in it was full of rusty particles. I think the problem was that the pattern tank wasn't treated at all inside. Just bare steel. When I replaced it - again - I used a tank sealant. The sealants get some criticism for becoming like a loose bladder, but I reckon with a really clean new tank, they should work well. Seemed a bit odd to be sealing a tank that didn't need it, but I am sure that it was the right thing to do. I still have a few Sierra bits, including a junk box of fixings, so if you find you need any by all means ask.

My son wants a car. Vaguely looked in Autotrader and there was a Corsa, three cylinder - ideal for insurance - 65K miles, 09 plate, and no compression due to recent timing chain change - so they got the timing wrong. £550. For a £2K car, I could fix that for a few hundred. He wasn't so interested - I should have just bought it, sorted it and sold it if he didn't want it. There's plenty of them so I can find another, but just two miles away was kinda convenient!

CCG30K Wartburg is taxed until November this year. DVLA think it is white. There can't be many Wartburgs around.

Testing positive here for the first time. I'm out too. Next time!

About two years ago, my wife's Zafira A failed the MOT on shredded steering rack gaiters. They were shocking. My MOT examiner, who is very good to me, sighed and said that he just couldn't pass them. Fair enough. When I replaced them - awkward or what - I thought that at 160K miles, I should do the track rod ends. Why not. Only a few quid. Got them from ECP, can't remember the brand but I normally don't go for the cheapest. (But in this instance, I can't remember). Now about a year ago, I noticed some tyre wear. Then the last MOT, he didn't fail it but advised verbally that there was wear. Actually I thought he meant that the wear was the inner joint on the nearside, but it was the track rod end. After such a short time. Looks like my great idea of changing the parts wasn't so great, was it? Fitted a new one which is Delphi, so should be a decent one. I hope?

OK I am now saying prefer the 26th - thanks Huw!

Would like to, both dates possible currently. Thanks for thinking of it.