Rusty Monza shite

[motorpunk]

I love these threads, thanks for sharing so many pics, it’s fascinating to see how these are put together (and how they fall apart).

These are awesome cars, am following with interest.

[JMotor]

Top work. Glad to see the fresh steel going back in.

As motorpunk said. It's interesting seeing the inner panels. They didn't change much in pressing style between the different models. 

[Six-cylinder]

Driving the Monza 18 months ago when you kindly loaned it to me, it never felt it had that amount of rust in it. It was  a very enjoyable experience.

I am going to start a campaign to compel you to replace the Alloy wheels with standard GSE wheels!

 

[ianbmw]

Well with the new arch on, as soon as the lower arm is back, we will find out if it’s staying as a chav car or back to standard

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Is that the standard GSE interior? Those seats are sublime. I'm guessing Recaro like so many Vauxhalls at the time. The Recaro seats in my old Cavalier GSis were lovely too - decent bolsters and held you like glue around the twisties. Whatever fabric they were using to make their seats at the time was pretty much bombproof, apart from the very edge of the driver's bolster.

I'm going out on a limb to say that the old girl looks fit on that set of deep dish rims, rather than standard. 

[outlaw118]

20 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

I am going to start a campaign to compel you to replace the Alloy wheels with standard GSE wheels!

And I will campaign to keep them Sir Chris; 95% of aftermarket alloys look a bit shite. 

Those are the exception IMHO.

[Six-cylinder]

2 hours ago, outlaw118 said:

And I will campaign to keep them Sir Chris; 95% of aftermarket alloys look a bit shite. 

Those are the exception IMHO.

This was my non Autoshite friend's old one, just perfect with factory wheels.

[spike60]

On 11/03/2025 at 09:53, Six-cylinder said:

This was my non Autoshite friend's old one, just perfect with factory wheels.

Exactly the same as the manual I had back in the mid 90's. I have couple of pics somewhere.

[Six-cylinder]

34 minutes ago, spike60 said:

Exactly the same as the manual I had back in the mid 90's. I have couple of pics somewhere.

This was a manual.

It replaced an Opel Manta GTE in white.

[ianbmw]

It’s must be rust, rust, rust…..dum dum….nothing more, nothing less…..solid metal is best.

now it’s warmed up, I’m more enthusiastic to be in the garage…..plus my wife left me unattended.

 

 

[Six-cylinder]

That's enough to give me nightmares! 

It took me a long time to get over my own rusty experience!

[ianbmw]

7 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

That's enough to give me nightmares! 

It took me a long time to get over my own rusty experience!

So wait, this bit which is actually fairly straight forward gives you nightmares.

 

but when when whole rear ended fell off, you were fine about it!

[sutty2006]

On 11/03/2025 at 07:25, Dick Cheeseburger said:

Is that the standard GSE interior? Those seats are sublime. I'm guessing Recaro like so many Vauxhalls at the time. The Recaro seats in my old Cavalier GSis were lovely too - decent bolsters and held you like glue around the twisties. Whatever fabric they were using to make their seats at the time was pretty much bombproof, apart from the very edge of the driver's bolster.

I'm going out on a limb to say that the old girl looks fit on that set of deep dish rims, rather than standard. 

The monza recaros are so comfy I fitted a set in my 16 valve manta! 🥰

[Six-cylinder]

3 hours ago, ianbmw said:

So wait, this bit which is actually fairly straight forward gives you nightmares.

but when when whole rear ended fell off, you were fine about it!

I do have experience of my rear end falling off, but think the bulkhead/windscreen surround is much worse to deal with.

[ianbmw]

8 hours ago, sutty2006 said:

The monza recaros are so comfy I fitted a set in my 16 valve manta! 🥰

I do feel we should sieze a photo opportunity at the NEC of two rusty bag of bolts together 

[ianbmw]

@Six-cylinder screen out, unpick the scuttle panel and spot weld the new one in.

 

its not one of those outdated Jaguars, this is a superior Opel!

[sutty2006]

16 hours ago, ianbmw said:

I do feel we should sieze a photo opportunity at the NEC of two rusty bag of bolts together 

I’m happy with that! 

[ianbmw]

Cars on the table, what a $$$$y day and one that made me wish I had another „passion „.

anyhow, inner sill now stripped back and cleaned, mor rot found on the inner frames, so that will need to be addressed.

Anyhow, target for tomorrow is to get the outer sill on and start on the A pillar.

[ianbmw]

Bit of an update , sill tacked into place , rear suspension back on, brakes back on, Wheel back on!

looks like it’s going to the NEC

[ianbmw]

I hope the NEX folk appreciate the hours I e spent detailing this

[ianbmw]

So then, 3 and a bit days free indoor storage begins……. Oh yes, it drives!

[ianbmw]

So then, some of the paints fallen off……but the drivers side is now all solid…..onto the passenger side

[ianbmw]

I keep forgetting to add to this.

We’ve stuck some metal on the back in the shape of a rear quarter, then found we need to make up some new metal to stick in the front.

[ianbmw]

[ianbmw]

[Bren]

There's a guy on youtube just started doing this on his royale coupe. Previous plates welded over each other made things worse. The inner wing in front of the tower looks like a double skin. I remember our Royale got so bad the front wings deformed and the front tyres wore out on the inner edges - very quickly one went down to the wire despite having legal amount of tread on the rest of the tyre.

[Wibble]

Epic restoration, loving every instalment.

[Marina door handles]

I am getting Monza envy again! Nice work.

[ianbmw]

10 hours ago, Bren said:

There's a guy on youtube just started doing this on his royale coupe. Previous plates welded over each other made things worse. The inner wing in front of the tower looks like a double skin. I remember our Royale got so bad the front wings deformed and the front tyres wore out on the inner edges - very quickly one went down to the wire despite having legal amount of tread on the rest of the tyre.

GM6 published the measurements of the strut tower positions, thankfully mine are still true!

 

oh yes, it’s booked in for paint!

[SambaS]

Good God that thing was rusty! 😳