Andy's awful autos: Vanden-blah

[davehedgehog31]

Is your Astra the 1.7 CDTI lump? Mine was incredible on fuel. 

Don't know why I got rid of it really, its now with BlackBoilerSuit of this parish who has done good work with it. 

Great cars at just being cars, thought it was just a really nice relaxing thing to drive. 

[Sausage5000]

Great work on all the cars!

[Andyrew]

6 minutes ago, davehedgehog31 said:

Is your Astra the 1.7 CDTI lump? 

Great cars at just being cars, thought it was just a really nice relaxing thing to drive. 

Mine is the earlier DTi lump, fitted with an F18 gearbox apparently to drop the revs for the eco4 side of things. 

My friend drove it the other day he was really surprised at how deceptive 70+ mph felt  At 2250rpm It's very quite on the motorway (inside!, outside sounds like an old van) 

It does indeed do car very well, 

[Andyrew]

Whilst not the most exciting of design I don't think the Astra is a bad looking car but one thing that bothers me is the fog light blanks in the front bumper. It always looks out of place.

I'd like to fit fogs at some point but wanted to try something first with a bit of black. I think it looks better even tho the grill wants dressing to make it darker to match. 

 

[Craig the Princess]

14 minutes ago, Andyrew said:

I'd like to fit fogs at some point but wanted to try something first with a bit of black. I think it looks better even tho the grill wants dressing to make it darker to match. 

Agreed, that looks much better.

[pauldoubleyou]

On 5/6/2019 at 10:23 PM, Andyrew said:

With the success of yesterday still high I jump In ecto4 this morning and she churned to a click of a starter so one dead battery. It looks ancient so tomorow I'll have a rummage in work for a reasonable one in the scrap pile, because cheap ass.  

Quick buff of the headlights tonight, only a quick buff just to get the worst off. Will give them another buff then a coat of sealer.

Flung an air filter in, will do an oil change tomorow night. 

 

 

obviously well behind the curve but what did you use to achieve this>?

[pauldoubleyou]

Loved this thread - got a quick question as you look like you know what youre on about. 

 

I have a mop and the last time i used it was on a red combo van. I think i used G3 and although the van came up quite well, i found it very difficult to not get g3 everywhere (including black plastics) and also i found it very difficult to get off the paint. I remember the most of the work being once the g3 stuff had dried - it took some serious hand buffing to get it glossy. 

 

Any advice? Id like to do the 307 soon but didnt want the hassle of last time

[Andyrew]

Have a picture of What kind of mop head are you using? 

Which g3 did you use? 

 

[Andyrew]

It's that time, two Vauxhalls two mots back to back.  

[Andyrew]

[Andyrew]

And we have two passes. 

Brake pipe advisory on the Corsa and the two back tyres are getting on so priced up a new pair at 42 quid each. But as it only does about 3k a year there's a little while left in them.

Due to previous emissions fails/advisorie in the history of the Astra. A dam good thrashing prior to going in for the test saw it through. Front shocks are getting tired aswell. 

So a good day all in, untill seeing my other halfs car has been key'd down to the metal /primer on the door and quarter on one side whilst parked outside the hospital she works at. It's a knocked about Jimny with not a straight panel on it (previous owner) but still pisses me off. 

Cunts. 

 

[Dan302]

2 hours ago, Andyrew said:

And we have two passes. 

Brake pipe advisory on the Corsa and the two back tyres are getting on so priced up a new pair at 42 quid e

So a good day all in, untill seeing my other halfs car has been key'd down to the metal /primer on the door and quarter on one side whilst parked outside the hospital she works at. It's a knocked about Jimny with not a straight panel on it (previous owner) but still pisses me off. 

Cunts. 

 

Good news on the MOT front.

[Andyrew]

When I was cleaning the Corsa last weekend before the MOT I twinged my back, must have be scrubbing a bit at a funny angle and it just went. I then continued to work with said bad back changing hand brake cables and fixing the heater cable under the dash. Not fun.

This was painful but I wanted to get it done so stupidly carried on hobbling around like an old cowboy. In turn I had done my self no favours and continued to be in discomfort most of this week. Back was normal by about friday. So this week's been a bit of a write off for tinkering.  

This has had me looking at mid rise scissor lifts. I can't two post as the work shop floor is all caddywampus.  But it's alot of money for something I don't "earn" from.  

May take a trip to strongman tools and have a look at one in person. 

[Andyrew]

Arriving at the farm gate today saw the trusty ecto4 clock a milestone down the driveway to the workshop. Well done old dolop. Have a drink and a new strut mount on me. 

[Andyrew]

 Ahhh bum rubbish. 

Stripped the suspected side causing the knocking. Shock removed and Safety squints put on with the spring compressors deployed. Strut bearing seems okay to me. Didn't bother trying the new one on as the shock is shot.  Can push it in with one finger. 

This doesn't explain the knock but does explain the sudden wallowly feel when the car is chucked into a bend in a spirited manor. 

Will bite the bullet and put a matching pair of new shocks and springs on with the new top mounts. May go for the slightly lower and marginally stiffer sxi/Sri springs all 

[Andyrew]

Well the knock continued to get a bit louder and more consistent but it would do it at random and was difficult to get the car to make the noise strangely. Checked everything and it all seemed fine. Going with it being a possibly top mount and having already bought a pair I ordered new shocks and springs in sxi/Sri lowered spec and some cheapy shocks too.  

Kilen springs , ashika shocks and some CD squeakers for the rear.  I try to give the car a bit of a hoon most weeks so I figured it would be good to get some fresh stuff on there to make the handling a bit nicer.  

Rather than wrestle with the naff spring compressors I have my friend John helped me out and pre assembled the new struts using his proper hydraulic spring compressor.  

So today I set too it swapping it all over. The great thing about these era of Vauxhalls is the simplicity. It took about an hour and a half and that's with me taking my time. 

Did it fix the knock? Was the top mount that shot?

 

[Andyrew]

[Andyrew]

That's right, upon taking the shock out the pressure on the drop link was released and thus it became apparent that the bloody nut had come slightly undone. So with A quarter of a turn , Sorted. 

  

Sigh.

[Andyrew]

Having taken the Astra for a ride round some local lanes it drives much  better. It's a little bit bumpy but the springs are meant to be stiffer and the front drivers shock is actually doing something now unlike the old one.  I think it sits about the same as before bit the previous suspension was a mix of 150k springs and shocks at the back and a mix of good and bad up front. 

Wheel/tyre to arch fitment perfect up front. Balloon tyres FTW. 

 

 

[Andyrew]

November sees mother-rews Felicia due for its MOT.The cars used for taking the grandkids to school, pottering about locally and to her weekend job at a local stables. I took the car up to the workshop for a check over and gave it a dam good thrashing  So the cars covered in kids crap and smells of horse poop inside. And outside it's grime, tree sap and moss.  

Today was just to clean the car and give it a quick look over, next week I'll do a service, get the wheels off and give everything a check over. 

Car was washed, clayed, waxed and the rear number plate was taken off and machine polished. You can see in the picture it had gone Matt and made the plate look pale. It's warped and the backing is lifting but I cant bring myself to fit a new one as it's the originals on the car. 

[Andyrew]

After some much needed loving. 

[Six-cylinder]

Reminds me of when we had Red Raspbery.

[Andyrew]

They are good cars, simple to work on. 

Although This one's only still alive because I won't let it die, mother-rews attached to it as it belong to my late grandfather and he gave it to her when he stopped driving.

 

[Dan302]

1 hour ago, Andyrew said:

After some much needed loving. 

That's bloody tidy!

[Andyrew]

1 hour ago, Dan302 said:

That's bloody tidy!

Photos certainly hide the horrific damage to the paint. Not one panel doesn't feature scratches down to the primer. Mother-rew has a habit putting stuff in boxes, when she unlocks or locks the car these boxes are usually slid onto the bonnet or roof. 

The rest of the damage is other people. This little motor gets treated like shite when it's parked in car parks. The bootlid and bumper are from another car aswell after a tailgating knobber walloped it. 

[Andyrew]

Some suzuki progess over the past few weeks. One out, one in. 

With the old lump removed it was robbed of its sump and pick up pipe. The sump was full of almost tar like oil so I'm glad I never bothered with this engine. 

Some more bits bolted to the new engine and the gearbox was given a quick clean up aswell. Suzuki alto aluminium rocker cover and Webber carb bolted up, found a dizzy in the pile and chucked on new leads cap and arm from work. 

Cut out two blanking panels and bonded them too the bulkhead over the old pedal box, and columb holes. (this body was from a LHD Spanish car)  I then painted the bulkhead in black stone chip paint. And shove the engine and box back in. 

[Andyrew]

Fudged Frenchy, 

As some may know I work at a car parts shop. We have a small fleet of rather hanging vans and a now dead smart car. 

One of the vans is a 07 pug partner, after blowing up one lump it's now on a second lump and that's now running a bit shite but still going , One issue that has seen it dumped in the naughty corner is the now Ballsed gearbox. The issue being thus

[Andyrew]

From the video you can see the bias spring has gone keeping the lever over to the right also the reverse lock out from 5th seems to have failed inside the box , a quick Google seems to suggest this is common.

This results in being unable to pull it out of 5th without it jumping back and graunching  INTO reverse, also Selecting from 2nd to 3rd can usually result in jumping into 5th easily aswell so for anyone driving the van who is not mechanically minded this results in people moaning and not using the van.

So having dragged it out of its corner today to use it,  I nipped it to the workshop an engineered a solution.  That's right, this dollop is now a four on the floor, and will probably stay this way untill the engine explodes or the ticket runs out and it becomes a fridge. 

[Andyrew]

Day off today, so time for some some more Suzuki fondling.  Today was cleaning up and refitting the little bits around the engine. 

On this Sami I'm fitting power steering, a common mod on these and is fairly simple if using the Jimny steering box and you already have a vitara engine fitted. I don't have a vitara lump but this very late 1.3 import engine has the bottom pulley for A.C so some rework on the pump bracket will be needed.  for now the focus was the pipework. 

These pipes are from a vitara and don't fit. A common thing to do is get a new flexible h.p line made up and fit that. But I took the cheapskate way and straighten out and re shaped the pipe. Not perfect but it's good enough. 

With that in, I'd need to address the reservoir, but for that id need a rad to put in.  Cheaper on eBay than I can get one through work. But I wanted to get it in today. So . . .

I pinched the fairly new one that was in my other sadly now very rough samurai tin top.

Before putting the rad in I wanted to make a bracket for the N.s brake pipe. These normally have a kind of undertray that gets in the way and the pipe clips to that. Having binned that along time ago a simple bit of angle and some holes for P clips will be the replacement.  Handily I have  the chasis on the floor for my KJA sj. Did I mention I've had too many suzukis?

Fitted to the Sami the bracket it's a tad close to the sump so some angle was added to the angle. 

 

 

[Dan302]

I'm jealous of people with the skill to work on cars, I'm basically a halfwit ?