dewismotorsport's Astra coupe

[Sjdickso]

Where about's does the steering rack bushes go?

 

[dewismotorsport]

Where about's does the steering rack bushes go?

If you look at the rack in the parts washer you can see the bushes on the ends by the green ties on the steering arm gaiters

 

[dewismotorsport]

Slowly chipping away at it, mainly tarting up jobs but tbh they need doing. Drilled the spot welds and removed any soon to be un used brackets and studs.


Not much but saved nearly 0.5kg, it all adds up


Removed the plastic loom tidy as that will foul the catch tank I need to make. Gave the bay a good degrease and primed



Then a quick dust of paint to tidy it up again



Filled all the mounts with sikaflex to stiffen them up


Also stripped down all the old knuckles and hubs, decided to give them a sandblast to tidy them up a bit


Gave them a quick blast of paint ready to have the new bearings and studs fitted


And finally my pipe bender has turned up so I can get on with the cage soon

 

[dewismotorsport]

New hubs built up


Brakes re fitted


And test fit of wheels and no clearance issues with the caliper so no spacers needed thankfully

 

[corsaZ22se]

good progress

 

[dewismotorsport]

good progress

Slowly does it mate

 

[dewismotorsport]

Today's job was to make some brake cooling ducts, used some 3" alloy tube, crushed one end and made up some lugs then put a swage on to stop the ducting pipe from popping off


Fitted up


Got it pointing at the centre of the disc which will cool the bell and push air up the curved vein discs

 

[dewismotorsport]

Needed to move the horns to allow space for the brake ducting so drilled out and rivnutted a new mount hole


Had to mod the horn brackets and one of the horns but all fitted up and nicely out of the way now



Also made a start on a removable slam panel, always annoyed me being fixed, my old track corsa b was made to be removable and it makes life so much easier getting at the engine and getting it in and out.

 

[Dave Gilbert]

Race cars dont need horns

 

[dewismotorsport]

Race cars dont need horns

That's true but I want to keep it so it could potentially pass a mot if need be, and tbh they don't weigh hardly anything

 

[Dave Gilbert]

Ever gram counts lol.

 

[dewismotorsport]

Ever gram counts lol.

I'll just add more boost

 

[dewismotorsport]

Finished off the removable slam panel mounts and gave them a quick dust of paint


Removed the old tailgate, not the lightest at 16kg vs the lightened version of 11.3kg


New boot lid on, almost a shame to add aero catches


However my BTCC carbon spoiler has arrived so that's going on once I've made the adjustable mounts up



Finished item will look like this fitted

 

[Dave Gilbert]

I like the removeable slam panel idea.

Have u got instructions on how u did that. Will probably be helping to do something similar on a astra cab

 

[dewismotorsport]

Cut it right by where the uprights join so the headlights don't loose any strength, then made up 4 tabs in 2mm by 1"x1" and drilled a 8mm hole in them and welded a nut to the back, then just welded them on the panel. The removed bit then just has some 8mm holes in so the bolts go through. Mega simple but once bolted up is 90% as string as the original. Once the bonnet pins go I won't need the original lock.

 

[evocarlos]

Also made a start on a removable slam panel, always annoyed me being fixed, my old track corsa b was made to be removable and it makes life so much easier getting at the engine and getting it in and out.

i also hate that its not removable ive got a whole shut with light surrounds ready for when i get to mine lol

all looks like top work bud

 

[identiti66]

Loving this!!..

Never even heard of a removable slam panel before, can think of many times over the last few decades that would have been most welcome

 

[dewismotorsport]

Made a start in stripping the interior, pulled all un needed wires from the rear loom to the front ready for trimming. Started drilling out the spot welds for the original seat mounts but soon got bored so got the heat gun and scraper out and whipped up all the tar sound deadening.


Bagged it all up and got 15.3kg's worth with a tiny bit left under the dash so I reckon 15.5kg total which of a decent weight saving.


I'd ordered some 3" bass ports to modify as brake duct feeds


Trimmed the bumper trim down and cut the tabs off the ports and siliconed them in


Trimmed the spot light brackets off and removed the factory brake duct feeds


And re fitted


Fitted and balanced up the dry track tyres to my other pro race 1.2's


Marked up which brackets I wanted to trim off the radiator which aren't used


So that I could fit my corsa's old forge intercooler


Fits nicely behind the bumper bar, I'll trim a bit more out of the bar to add flow




Bumper will have a couple more holes added where the Velcro tape currently is


I've decided to go for a intercooler because on track the standard charge cooler doesn't keep the intake temps down low enough and for a 40 minute race which I will be doing I will struggle as i've hit the map cut before and it saps about 50bhp once the intake temps get to around 63 degrees C. With the intercooler it will never get that high. I will be modding the inlet soon to change it to run air to air.

 

[evocarlos]

mine never gets to 63 sensor is tucked up the side of the head light

 

[dewismotorsport]

mine never gets to 63 sensor is tucked up the side of the head light

Intake temp sensor won't be much use there