Astra Mk1 in glorious poo-brown. SOLD

[Lord Sterling]

That is one lovely car Louise, I really am in awe. I do sometimes long for something as simple as an early mk1 Astra or something as equally simple.

 

Its not a car you see alot these days, in fact, I dont think I've seen one since the early 90s when I was a kid, some young couple on my estate had one. Saw one on that TV programme Deals on Wheels where some dude from Scotland traded one in for a newer Astra I think. His was some sort of rare spec I think.

 

The local exhaust dude says it'll be £70 as long as it's straight forward and none of those 6 studs cause him any bother.

 

Eh? I thought exaust people were supposed to be professional, now it seems to be - If iots too hard for us to do, we'll charge extra?

[dollywobbler]

To be fair, how many times has a job you've been doing taken longer than you planned? Happens to me a lot. Imagine trying to run a business that way. A garage typically charged by the hour, so if they encounter unpleasantness, you can't really expect them to not charge any more.

 

Good luck getting it sorted Louise. Nowt wrong with an effective bodge!

[Louise2cv]

Just fixed the hazzards. It seems a wire from the back of the switch is spliced into the radio wires A fuse had gone... I got the hazzards and the radio on with a new fuse then after switching the ig on and off no radio? Ho hum it'll do. I think the radio will be coming out when I've worked out which wires are which.

 

The rear wiper doesn't work and now the front wipers don't park... maybe I've disturbed somethingbecause they did yesterday

 

It seems I'm creating work in the way I always do. And it's raining YAY

[dollywobbler]

Meh. Any new shite purchase will have issues. At least you haven't had to rebuild the entire braking system yet...

 

Wonder if the wiper switch is duff?

[Louise2cv]

Re. Blowing Exhaust:

 

This'll probably be it then...

 

 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Its certainly worth eliminating that from your enquiries at least.

[dollywobbler]

Oooh, is that a previous hoseclip bodge?

[Louise2cv]

It was under a mount, there was a fair amount of white stuff, but no metal. Maybe some exhaust bandage had been put on under the mount.

 

I've ordered pipe, it's just fitting it. I've soaked everything I can get to in Plusgas in the hope it'll make it easier for whoever ends up doing it.

 

What I need to do is make it drivable so I can get it to a garage

[gricer]

Fantastic cars. I had a red 2-door (non-hatchnack) W-reg 1200 Astra Mk1 in the '80s. Mingebag spec with the round headlamps. Regularly communted (!) from Preston to Colchester in it. Lovely little car that I wish I'd kept.

[dollywobbler]

That looks like the coke can and hoseclip bodge should at least hold it long enough to get to a garage?

[Louise2cv]

Hope so!

[dollywobbler]

Only one way to find out! You could always send Megan in under the car? Start 'em young!

[trigger]

I'd be questioning this mot that was done yesterday...

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Exhausts are horrible, if I ran a fast fit exhaust garage I'd charge £1000 labour on each exhaust and then have a party when I went out of business.

 

The Mini's exhaust fell off in its entirety a while ago, and I had to drive it about 15 miles to get it fixed. If you like being the centre of attention, driving an exhaustless car through a town centre will do the trick.

[Guest]

Where are you based? Mebee someone can point you in the direction of a Shite Friendly garagiste.

 

Oh and plus 1 on the childish / schoolboy comments

[Louise2cv]

I'm in Caernarfon. Actually you make a very good point, there are about 3 active members of the MK1OC forum who live within 20 miles and I never thought to ask them I'll do that now!

 

I let the comment go over my head really, I'm sure it was meant in the best way, but thanks for those pointing it out. Nothing will shock me after meeting someone in real life who I'd "known" on the 2cvGB forum. About 2 days later I got a PM which read:

 

"Hi nice to meet you at last, not the fat lefty lesbian I was expecting."

 

I was like "erm, Thanks?"

[MrDuke]

When I was running shitey motors back in the good old days, I used London garage in Cwm Y Glo - it's a bit out of the way, but they were reasonable with labour charges and never tried to rip me off, they came highly recommended from a variety of people. They dealt with my old Stanza and 205 diesel heap very efficiently, anyway. IIRC there's a fairly decent bus service through there too, as it's en route to Llanberis.

[Louise2cv]

Ideal, that's not far at all. Thanks Mr Duke

[ruffgeezer]

That is unquestionably cool,

 

even to this day when I know far more about cars than I did then, I regret abandoning my Mk1 Astra Coupe in metallic dogshit in the carpark behind the Monkhams pub in Woodford.

 

[greengartside]

I have access to a scrap Mk1 Astra estate at my local friendly scrapyard if you ever get stuck for any parts. Top quality purchase though! I LOVE Mk1's

[Lankytim]

What an awesome motor, doesn't look rusty either!

 

Try not to worry too much about the various bits that need doing, it has to be expected with old motors I suppose, plus you get the satisfaction of making sure the jobs are done properly!

[Louise2cv]

plus you get the satisfaction of making sure the jobs are done properly!

LOL

 

I quite enjoyed fiddling with it actually, I've missed old cars I think. We paid way too much but hey ho, live and learn!

 

Found a front pipe in ebay for £3, hopefully it's right and somewhere will fit it for me. I'm soaking all the studs in penetrating fluid every day in the hope it might help things along. But I kind of thought exhaust shops expect exhausts to be b*stards to get off

 

Got a few ideas from the Mk1OC about the wipers, as long as I get the front ones parking I'll be happy.

 

Mostly (I think/hope) it's lots of little jobs that we can live with for a while. Some of the dash is missing, the door lock falls out when you take the key out some window trim is missing etc.

 

The steering lock doesn't work afterall. Does that matter?

[M'coli]

the door lock falls out when you take the key out

Falls out how? if it's the same way as my old Cav GLI, it's because someone has had a go at the door lock and the metal tabs on the doorskin surrounding the doorlock need bending back to the original shape - or the clip behind it is in the bottom of the door somewhere.

[Louise2cv]

Someone has defo had a go at the lock. In fact I'm trying to ignore how "obviously stolen once or twice" it is. Rear quarter window in perspex, mullered door lock, no plastic round the ignition barrel, no steering lock...

 

We do havekeys and a V5 though...

[M'coli]

There's nowt like the feeling of "getting away with it" when returning to your 1980s Vauxhall after leaving it overnight than finding that the thieves were disturbed, leaving the passenger door lock missing, other than returning to it 35 minutes after you'd locked it up in St. Neots (Church Walk car-park, before it became a pay car-park) to find that the driver's lock had been fucked with too, the tea-leaves had also been disturbed, leaving you the car and also missing out on the SLR camera equipment under the passenger seat. Soon after, the GLi badge was removed from the tailgate...

[dollywobbler]

That's a good point actually. I'd invest in a steering wheel lock at the very least, possibly an ignition cut-out switch too.

[Louise2cv]

Been tinkering again, only very low level stuff while Megan was asleep.

 

1) Got a gas strut and fitted that, so the rear hatch is a much easier beast to open (I had no idea they were that heavy!).

 

2) Got the rear wiper going: just cleaned up the contacts on the hatch and slam panel thing.

 

And as it seems I'm unable to touch a car without creating at least as many problems as I fix...

 

1) The drivers door is now impossible to open with the key.

 

2) The front wipers don't work intermittently, just the same as the first speed, and the rear wipers come on with the fronts and change speed with them too.

[dollywobbler]

That deffo sounds like a switch issue then. Shouldn't be too tricky to find a replacement - or you could always change it to random toggle switches on the dashboard for a truly shite 'fix.'

[Louise2cv]

This might be a bit stupid but you mean the switch on the steering column, yes? Not some kind of switch in the motor?

 

I eagerly awaiting my 1p Haynes Manual.

[dollywobbler]

Aye - the stalk itself.

 

You're right about tailgates though. It isn't until the struts fail or you remove them that you discover how heavy they are, and how powerful those struts are. The tailgate on the BX is epically heavy. Makes you wonder how much weight they actually saved by making it out of plastic.