dewismotorsport
Senior Member
Decided to buy myself another daily, I have a mk5 astra sri+ diesel for main motorway munching but with far too many astra coupes getting broken up or scrapped I knew I had to get another before it was too late or prices got stupid.
Fellow forum member Dan Kemp put his coupe up for sale for a fair price so knowing a rough history of it bought it blind whilst on holiday in Tenerife.
Car had done just over 100K miles and is an auto (won't be auto forever as I have a long term plan for this car) but MOT had expired in 2018.
On return collected the car and got it back to the workshop.
Dan used the car as a daily driver for a long time and also did a fair few track days so it had some bits on that I would of added anyway, things like turbo brakes, braided lines, coilovers and some half decent tyres.
Car was stripped of rear interior so I just bundled that lot in the van and loaded the car in the trailer.
Back at work and with some air in the tyres here's how she stands, I say "she" as the car is now known as "Katie" due to the registration plate.
[URL=https://imgbox.com/MecaMMet]
[/URL]
Dan is mostly wheelchair bound so the car was converted to hand controls and is an auto. Obviously had to have a drive round work just using the hand controls and it takes some serious getting used too, so fair play to him for taking it out on track!
Quick clean up and I could see what I was working with
Overall it's a straight tidy ish car, few scratches and parking dents but solid and straight.
First job on the list was to sort the sheared boot hinge, quick blast with the mig and some paint and that was back working as it should.
\
Fuel filter had started to leak so changed that out.
With the interior stripped out I decided to update the inside, bought some Halfords interior paint and gave all the plastics a couple of coats black, I've never been a fan of the creamy grey.
Next was onto the saggy headliner, pulled the material off and was left with the horrible foamy glue resin left so scrapped all that off and dug out some old acoustic carpet I had, unfortunately I had to do it in two bits as the carpet was long enough but not wide enough, isn't really noticeable once in the car as its behind your head.
Next job was to replace the cut carpet with a good used one and buy some rear cards as somehow the originals got lost. Replaced the glove box as it had a big scatch on the outside. Put all the interior back in with some new floor mats, new handbrake gaiter and an arm rest as I'm getting old and like some luxuries.
With the interior complete I started on the outside, removed the Opel grill and put a standard vauxhall one back on, that lasted a few weeks before I put a de badged one on.
Rear bumper is tatty where its been touch parked into the back of the garage so drove up to stoke on Trent to pick up a recently repainted one, guy was adamant it was europa blue, its defo not its the 100 edition colour ffs, was up there so had it anyway and got a drivers door handle as one side of the plastic mechanism is broke on mine, will drop them to my mates body shop at some point to be painted.
Got underneath it to do the wheel alignment and noticed the garage has fitted both sets of bump stops, so once lowered it was basically just sat on the bump stops so I removed the top gm one. This then meant the tyres hit the arch where the bumper fits so out came the lump hammer and grinder to clearance, quick squirt of paint and she was sorted.
Tracking done and she's nice and square really to say the FK coilovers are non adjustable and the rear beam isn't shimmed.
Got the car through an MOT with no advisories so was happy about that, drove it around for a few days and just couldn't live with a straight through exhaust with only a small rear sportex rear silencer so ordered the biggest boxes I could fit for the space 24" centre box and 18" rear box and welded them on and its night and day better for my old ears.
Got given a rear anti roll bar off a friend so fitted that up, these cars should never have left the factory without one imo.
Didn't like the brake feel from the mintex pads so put some EBC yellow stuff pads in and now I can lean on the brakes like I like to.
Changed the front speakers to some Bose ones I had from a car I'd stripped so modded them to fit (amazing quality now, noticeably better bass) and while the door cards were off I tinted the windows in light smoke film, doesn't look stupid just like a factory tint almost, obviously did the rears as well.
Thats this up to date, bought the car mid February and I've done 1500 miles in it so far and it's enjoyable to drive even as a lazy auto, still have a list of jobs I want to do but it's a work in progress as least.
Fellow forum member Dan Kemp put his coupe up for sale for a fair price so knowing a rough history of it bought it blind whilst on holiday in Tenerife.
Car had done just over 100K miles and is an auto (won't be auto forever as I have a long term plan for this car) but MOT had expired in 2018.
On return collected the car and got it back to the workshop.
Dan used the car as a daily driver for a long time and also did a fair few track days so it had some bits on that I would of added anyway, things like turbo brakes, braided lines, coilovers and some half decent tyres.
Car was stripped of rear interior so I just bundled that lot in the van and loaded the car in the trailer.
Back at work and with some air in the tyres here's how she stands, I say "she" as the car is now known as "Katie" due to the registration plate.
[URL=https://imgbox.com/MecaMMet]
[/URL]Dan is mostly wheelchair bound so the car was converted to hand controls and is an auto. Obviously had to have a drive round work just using the hand controls and it takes some serious getting used too, so fair play to him for taking it out on track!
Quick clean up and I could see what I was working with
Overall it's a straight tidy ish car, few scratches and parking dents but solid and straight.
First job on the list was to sort the sheared boot hinge, quick blast with the mig and some paint and that was back working as it should.
\
Fuel filter had started to leak so changed that out.
With the interior stripped out I decided to update the inside, bought some Halfords interior paint and gave all the plastics a couple of coats black, I've never been a fan of the creamy grey.
Next was onto the saggy headliner, pulled the material off and was left with the horrible foamy glue resin left so scrapped all that off and dug out some old acoustic carpet I had, unfortunately I had to do it in two bits as the carpet was long enough but not wide enough, isn't really noticeable once in the car as its behind your head.
Next job was to replace the cut carpet with a good used one and buy some rear cards as somehow the originals got lost. Replaced the glove box as it had a big scatch on the outside. Put all the interior back in with some new floor mats, new handbrake gaiter and an arm rest as I'm getting old and like some luxuries.
With the interior complete I started on the outside, removed the Opel grill and put a standard vauxhall one back on, that lasted a few weeks before I put a de badged one on.
Rear bumper is tatty where its been touch parked into the back of the garage so drove up to stoke on Trent to pick up a recently repainted one, guy was adamant it was europa blue, its defo not its the 100 edition colour ffs, was up there so had it anyway and got a drivers door handle as one side of the plastic mechanism is broke on mine, will drop them to my mates body shop at some point to be painted.
Got underneath it to do the wheel alignment and noticed the garage has fitted both sets of bump stops, so once lowered it was basically just sat on the bump stops so I removed the top gm one. This then meant the tyres hit the arch where the bumper fits so out came the lump hammer and grinder to clearance, quick squirt of paint and she was sorted.
Tracking done and she's nice and square really to say the FK coilovers are non adjustable and the rear beam isn't shimmed.
Got the car through an MOT with no advisories so was happy about that, drove it around for a few days and just couldn't live with a straight through exhaust with only a small rear sportex rear silencer so ordered the biggest boxes I could fit for the space 24" centre box and 18" rear box and welded them on and its night and day better for my old ears.
Got given a rear anti roll bar off a friend so fitted that up, these cars should never have left the factory without one imo.
Didn't like the brake feel from the mintex pads so put some EBC yellow stuff pads in and now I can lean on the brakes like I like to.
Changed the front speakers to some Bose ones I had from a car I'd stripped so modded them to fit (amazing quality now, noticeably better bass) and while the door cards were off I tinted the windows in light smoke film, doesn't look stupid just like a factory tint almost, obviously did the rears as well.
Thats this up to date, bought the car mid February and I've done 1500 miles in it so far and it's enjoyable to drive even as a lazy auto, still have a list of jobs I want to do but it's a work in progress as least.
