Opel Monza GSE Automatic. Rust

[cms206]

If Steve's quite finished I've a Cavalier SRi and a Senator needing finished...

[KruJoe]

If recent posts are anything to go by, I reckon Steve has more welding lined up than he can wave his wand at!

[SambaS]

Many thanks for your enquiry. Assuming the parts to be all steel with no aluminium present the cost to process your Opal Monza would be as follows:

 

To chemically clean the bodyshell including the Boot Lid, Bonnet & Doors - £845.00 + VAT

 

We recommend that you have your shell chemically stripped of all coatings, take it away and do your weld repair work and then return the shell to us for the zinc phosphate primer. If you choose this route you will get surface rust on the shell whilst carrying out your repair work, however, we would then carry out a de-rust process before coating your shell.

 

To de-rust the bodyshell to clean surface rust and contamination - £450.00 + VAT (if you have your shell cleaned and coated all in the same visit you would not need the de-rust process).

 

To electrophoretic coating on bodyshell - £1450.00 + VAT

 

To electrophoretic coating on the panelwork - £300.00 + VAT. This covers standard panelwork on a car i.e. 2 doors, bonnet and boot lid.

[SambaS]

Old clocks:

 

 

New clocks:

 

 

Verdict: £150 well spent.

[Bren]

My royale was like this - a rust scab appeared on the o/s front wing rail which turned into a hole.

 

The top of the wing began to distort due to the strain that it was under.

 

I then noticed that the front tyre was down to the metal on it's inner edge.

 

It got repaired, but the rear of the sills and rear valance were full of fibreglass, it was written off before the next MOT, which was a good job as it would have been scrapped.

 

By far the most rotten car I have ever had, makes the SD1 build quality look teutonic.

 

No wonder there are hardly any left.

[dieselnutjob]

I've always liked the look of Monza.  Impressed.

[SambaS]

Booked in for MOT Monday 1.30PM

 

Driving it there tomorrow (I hope).

 

More to follow.

[sutty2006]

Love a monza

[Split_Pin]

Just clocked the weldathon on this thread, literally epic!

 

Hopefully it will pass!

[fordperv]

Fingers crossed for ya, I've enjoyed reading this and seeing it get love

[spike60]

Good luck with the test, you deserve a break after that lot! I had a manual GSE for a couple of years and at 10 year old a friend chopped the strut tops out and put new ones in, a fabulous  seamless job on an otherwise smart car. Top 3 of 40 odd cars I've owned.

[SambaS]

Thanks guys! The Monza no doubt will fail on a few things, it has been laid up 3 years, Im hoping a good run out before the test will free up the brake calipers a bit, there may be a few electrical gremlins and I expect the headlight aim willbe out a quarter mile when he tests it

[SambaS]

Fast forward to last Friday and it was all jobs a go go at Samba Towers.

 

First I had to get to work, we got a new Transit Connect which is really clean. Wont last!

 

I made it early and went to see if the Monza would start, reconnected the battery and primed the petrol pump, huzzar it worked, so I pulled it out and checked all the tyres, one was totally flat.

 

Did my first part of a split shift and went home to wait for the recovery guy to collect the Cosworth. The whole reason the Monza is going in for MOT prematurely is because the developers have stolen half my car park to build a road so I have lost all my parking spaces. Knew it couldn't last though. Notice they've fenced round my cars, well yesterday a huge excavator came and there's no concrete there any more.

 

 

 

Anyways Cossie was collected and put into my lock up, and we tried to put the Monza on the wagon to take to Kwik Fit for some air but it wouldn't drive up due to the front over hang so I had to drive it the 0.5 mile with a flat tyre as time was pressing.

 

I've probably broke the tyre.

 

Then it decided to break down while I was pulling out onto a busy road from Kwik Fit, I was on my way for fuel. After a lot of turning over and a big rev it seemed okay, I though it had ran out of fuel. By now I wasn't really enjoying myself as the recovery guy was late as was I both for making the garage before it shut and the second part of my split shift, plus I had to collect 2 staff from Northallerton in the Monza.

 

Stuck £20 in and was a little happier knowing that it was no longer running on fumes, picked the staff up who were non the wiser to the car, I did tell them I would be braking hard quite often and doing some strange things in preparation for the MOT.

 

The Monza drives horribly at the minute, it definitely needs drop links and groans and creaks a lot. it is also hugely under power, I think the brakes are well and truly stuck.

 

Made it to the MOT station, went to park it round the back and the brakes suddenly were spongey so I think I've broken a brake pipe or union.

 

So we all piled out of the Monza into the Polonez and I dropped the staff off for work, went home and had time for a much needed brew before work.

 

Monday gone it hadn't moved thankfully and today was Wednesday and I don't dare ring them up to see the bad news. One thing is for sure, whatever he fails it on he will be fixing. I dont intend lifting a finger to this one either, too many cars too many jobs to do and its no longer enjoyable so I'm just throwing money at everything and hoping I get my mojo back soon as it's getting expensive!

[SambaS]

By this photo took some extracting from the archaic Nokia C1 01 I am using at the moment!

 

 

Reasons for refusal of a test certificate:

001 Horn not working
002 Offside Stop lamp adversely affected by the operation of another lamp
003 Offside rear position lamp adversely affected by the operation of another lamp
004 Offside rear fog lamp not working
005 Nearside front Anti roll bar attachment bracket/mounting nut missing (drop link needs tightening)
006 Offside front brake binding
007 Nearside rear brake binding
008 Parking brake efficiency below requirements (reading 13%)
009 Brakes imbalanced across an axel

 

It's booked in for the work, basically the brakes need stripping and reassembling, possibly 4 new callipers. And the electrical gremlins want sorting and the drop link tightening. Gonna be in the £300 region methinks.

[vulgalour]

That's not too bad though, all things considered.  Sounds like you have things much more under control lately.

[cort16]

Hey that's not bad. I totally agree with your logic of paying to get some of these roadworthy more quickly rather than months of tinkering and not making much progress,

[Morgan84]

Sounds like a weekends worth of stripping and freeing up the brakes and some cleaning of electrical connections perhaps plus a little pinch on a bolt; not a bad result really. Your brakes possibly went spongy due to binding brakes heating up your brake fluid so fresh fluid will be a good idea.

 

Really enjoyed reading this topic

 

[SambaS]

Possibly the slowest progress evar! But some news finally. I paid a man £80 to fix the car, the garage I use wont do any work on my cars after the MG was a PITA. He stripped and cleaned all calipers, NSR had to be sent off for recon. That was another £80, and I got a new set of pads for the back at £20. The guy fixed all lights, tightened up the anti roll bar drop link, then ran out of time and didn't do the horn. Also while away the petrol tank sprung a leak. I've replaced the tank to pump pipe as it was perished. One leak sorted. The filler neck pipe is still leaking so will need addressing, but that wasn't the problem. There is a pin hole in the bottom of tank. Leak Fix seems to have sorted that. Couldn't believe it worked! But the best thing:

 

 

My guy fixed the bloody clocks. Bad connection in fuse box. So I now have two fully functioning sets of very expensive clocks! And I've just mended the horn, dodgy connection in the steering wheel. Still is a bit. So ready for retest.

[dollywobbler]

Brilliant! Sounds like you've found a good bloke. Gorgeous car.

[Brooklands]

Sweet moses! Incredible work here. Mucho kudos to you getting this back on the road!

[SambaS]

Back to the MOT station for retest. February 7th 2014 this failed it's MOT, 194 days ago!

 

[Skizzer]

Good luck!  Love these.

[DSdriver]

Fingers crossed!

[SambaS]

Absolutely fuming today. Failed on Nearside front antiroll bar prescribed area excessively corroded. 2 nsf tyre wrong way fucking round.3 osf tyre wrong way fucking round. 4. Number plate insecure. 5. Fuel tank leaking.

 

I feel sick thinking about it. Been so angry all day in suprised i never crashed the work van, infact i nearly did.

 

What a shower of shit.

[mat_the_cat]

Fuck. Same MOT station/tester? At least 3 things are easily sorted, but that's of little comfort I know.

[SambaS]

Same tester. Why oh why oh why, he couldn't have told me this last time he failed it. COs like. I fixed everything he fucking failed it on, so would have had these sorted

[SambaS]

I advised someone in a similar situation to never use the garage again. Shame because I really though Id found a garage I could rely on.

[twosmoke300]

Bloody hell it's 194 days since you took it in !

 

Rust never sleeps. I'm so glad I'm not a tester anymore having to deal with stuff like this.

It doesn't apply in your case but mot rules get updated and changed over a month sometimes .

[SambaS]

Whinge

[mat_the_cat]

We're all human and miss things from time to time - shouldn't do, but we do. Was there not even an advisory for the corrosion on the previous test? If I was a tester and spotted it but didn't think it a fail, at least if I'd put it down as an advisory it would be proof that I hadn't missed it completely.

 

Sorry, that's not helping is it