Astra Saloon (not a Belmont!) Adventures (now with actual Belmont content)

[bunglebus]

On 1/19/2019 at 9:33 PM, Austin-Rover said:

How odd, these are my mum's previous and current GLS hatchbacks, in the same colours. Red one was getting tatty despite stupidly low mileage and being garaged, so when she decided she'd go to driving an auto I was pleased to find an identical spec, equally low mileage one that a friend wasn't using. She'd bought it from another of my friends and never even driven it in a year of owning it. Turns out the elderly owner who'd had it from new before my friends had it lives in the same village as my mum, and they have met randomly and chatted about the car. Last in a string of tedious coincidences is that I owned L510LTW for a short time, a 1.4 3-door Astra I fixed after it burnt an exhaust valve

[2flags]

We bought my son a Daewoo Nexia. It was basically an Astra with a Daewoo badge. Great car, fully loaded and a years MoT for £500. My son was chuffed to bits. Eventually it died and got turned back into washing machines. 

[Austin-Rover]

We had a weekend off as the arm on the linisher had seized and a new one had to be ordered. Anyway, to bring things up to date; the off side sill is finished. See below.

 

This weekend, work began on the bit that hides behind the rear bumper (and gets to rot away unseen!)

Hopefully, more next weekend!

 

[paulplom]

Brave pills required there I think.

[Andyrew]

Nice one, thats some Very neat work. 

[lisbon_road]

Very impressed with this hard work.  These Astras almost define Autoshite, I have two myself.  I know it was a couple of years back, but I am just so impressed with the AA story.  I know very well that doing a water pump and belt on these isn't hard but at the side of the road is still awesome service.  Gives me faith.  

[NorfolkNWeigh]

On 1/18/2016 at 7:41 PM, Mr_Bo11ox said:

Flippin ace!!!! Anyone got a scan of the article where Russell Bulgin tests one of these by caning it up and down a few busy motorways?

At the beginning of 2016 MrsN asked me to paint the spare room, I’m going to show her this post to prove I’m getting shit done.

[Carlo_Raffo_TDS]

Typical astra driving rep hogging the middle lane.

I expect my mk3 is rotting quietly in the same places ?

[Austin-Rover]

Remember that rusty rear quarter from above? Well, its solid again now. Just a little tidying up to do.

...and for comparison;

[blguy1975]

Holy cow

That's some epic rust 

Great job with the welding ..Once it is painted it will look fantastic

Keep up the good work

[sierraman]

Love to see some good welding. What are you painting it with? 

[Austin-Rover]

Today; closing piece for the rear quarter/wheel arch made and fitted. That's the welding done for the off side.

 

[Austin-Rover]

7 hours ago, sierraman said:

Love to see some good welding. What are you painting it with? 

Just a coat of etch primer at the moment. There's seam sealer to deploy when all the welding is done.

[2flags]

That is fantastic welding. Is that a bought repair panel or do you have amazing fabrication skills and made it yourself? Either way, superb job.

[Austin-Rover]

Astra Bank Holiday weekend update;

There was a little bit more welding to be done on the off-side after all. A couple of small repairs; In the fuel filler neck where a metal tab that supports the filler neck needed replacing, and the jacking point at the front of the sill.

Now it really is finished on that side! Today the driveway was emptied, I vac'd the dust off the Astra and a neighbour was roped in to push the car out the garage, down the drive, on to the road, turn it round and back up the drive and in to the garage. Time to do it all over again on the other side...

[Austin-Rover]

Begun work on the near side today. More of the same...

[Ian_Fearn]

Great to see such love for a mk3 Astra. I had a K plate 1.4 LS estate when I was teen and have such fond memories of it. I lugged mountain bikes all over the country and slept in it. The 1.4 engine felt like a rocket ship compared to my 2cv and 1.3 Fiesta, was great on fuel and utterly reliable. It had been in the family since 6 months old and never really looked after so when I got hold of it at ~8 years old it was well used.

It also felt so well built, i think this was the GM ultimate era for build quality. I know they rust latterly but mine had no rattles and even with high mileage didn’t use oil. I remember thinking mk5 escorts were awful when compared to the Astra. 

 

[Austin-Rover]

End of the near side sill completed. On to the sill itself, next.

 

 

[sutty2006]

Your fabrication skills are great. I wish I could make random panels like that lower rear quarter ! 

[Austin-Rover]

In the past week;

Patch for the sill marked out on the repair panel...

Cut out...

...and welded in...

 

 

[lisbon_road]

Very impressed with the quality of work and dedication.  I've owned about six of these cars, most of which have been pretty much rust free.  I did briefly have a 200K mile one which was a bit bad and had gone through underneath just behind the springs and the rear arches were hanging off.  That was the only German built one I have had, though whether there's any connection I don't know.  Do you have any idea why yours is so rusty?  Appreciate the updates as they really encourage me to get with things - if you can do all this, we can all do something.

 

Edit, just read through and I think this is a C16SE Astra.  Must go quite well. 

[Austin-Rover]

The past few weekends, things have moved on to the nearside rear quarter behind the bumper;

Cutting away the rot...

Here's what it currently looks like after some repairs...

There was also a bit of the back panel on this corner that needed work;

Ta-dah!

 

[blguy1975]

Sweet baby Jesus .that's epic

[Austin-Rover]

On 7/6/2020 at 8:18 AM, lisbon_road said:

Do you have any idea why yours is so rusty?

Yes; its lived on The Wirral all its life, so surrounded by water on three sides!

[Austin-Rover]

Weekend just gone, and work finally got round to the only visible bit of rot on the entire car (everything up to now is either too low down to see, or hidden by the bumper) and that is the nearside rear arch. It was only a small scab, and buying a whole wheelarch repair panel seemed a bit wasteful, so a bit of forming took place. It's not pretty, but it's nothing a bit of filler won't hide.

[bunglebus]

Nothing wrong with that!

[Soundwave]

Excellent work!

[lisbon_road]

This excellent work really encourages me to get on with my two cars, which are similar but haven't lived so close to the sea.  

[sierraman]

Be good if you could do a bit of a lesson on making panels up. Every time I knock something up it looks like I’ve formed it with a brick hammer.

[Austin-Rover]

Today, all the nearside floor pan had anything scabby looking rubbed down and treated. No surprise welding found on this side, thankfully!

So, that's all the welding done! It's back to being a solid and usable shell for the first time in years! There's still the rear panel to straighten out (following being rear-ended on the M62. See further up the thread) as a 'big' job, but other things mean the Astra will have to go on the back burner for now. The day finished by reattaching the front and rear bumpers (They're self-storing that way!), getting it off the axle stands and vacuuming the dust off it.

It's being moved outside next weekend as there's two Rovers that both need attention for the MoT, and they're currently 'bed blocking' on the driveway. So, this is likely to be the last progress report for 2020.