1981 Vauxhall Astra saloon (turbo project)

One of the brake callipers had a snapped bleed nipple. After snapping a stud remover many hours of trying to remove it, I gave up and bought some uprated 16v mk2 GTE callipers from eBay, new discs and a spax adjustable suspension kit. I do like playing with clean car bits!

The fuel pump had definitely seen better days.
Before

So I had to repair and tidy up the mounting brackets because I didn’t like the giant tie wrap that held it in place on the last car.
After



The fuel tank needed a clean up and a paint but was in fine working order.

what colour are you gonna do it?,.

I'm keeping the car the original smoke blue colour but it might need a respray just due to small chips on most panels. I've nearly finished the car now (nearly ready for MOT), Just got to catch up with the build thread!

The interior was originally a dirty, nasty light blue coloured, with damaged half door cards. The car came with a load of spare parts including full door cards in very good condition (no speaker hole hacked through them!) and GTE rear ¼ cards. Removing the rear windows to put the rear ¼ cards in was easier than I expected especially when you use silicone spray (bought to use with CV boot cone).
The original front door need more holes drilling in it for the door card retaining clips and I knocked up some need door membranes to help protect them ( Don’t know how they do!).
Fitted the GTE carpet which is a lot thicker and better quality to the council style ribbed carpet that was originally in it.



The recaro sport seats from the donor car got a bit of a clean, replaced the damaged “tip forward” triggers.


GTE steering wheel, clocks with Rev counter and original small GM tape player radio was installed. Although it won’t be wired up, it does finish the dashboard nicely and I prefer to have my modern CD player installed in the glove box, “out of sight, out of mind.”
The rear solid parcel shelf got a make over with a fresh piece of ribbed carpet glued over the old ripped cardboard one, with the vents cut out. When I get round to fitting my stereo, I’ll install some nice speakers but install them under the carpet so they are out of site too but with holes clipped through the carpet to help the sound.

After installing the engine, It wouldn’t start which really put me on a downer after all the hard work I’d put into it so I systematically check for spark, fuel, etc. It ended up being a goosed pump. The local motor factors wanted £90 for a stupid little pump! The local scrap yard, who rips everyone off because you only go there when nowhere else has got it, wanted £45 plus VAT! Thanks to Ebay I got one from a company for £35 brand new and it is almost colour coded!


As soon as it was installed it fired first time! I’d of done cartwheels if my arms could support my belly!

A friend called me up Sunday morning at 10 am to ask me if I wanted to go to a classic bike and car show being held 1/4 mile down the same road that I live on and I never saw the posters ;D. I decided to pop down and ask them if they would like me to bring along my unfinished project. They said yes so I rushed home got it out the garage, put a passenger wing mirror, rear bumper, removed the the rear wheel spacers, give it a quick wash and hose down and was sitting in the field of the model village (tourist attraction) by 11 am.
Since this is my first show I taken a car to, albeit a very small one with only 15 cars and 30 motorbikes , I felt a little nervous because mine was the newest car by far.



That newly sprayed door sticks out a mile!

I sat in it for nearly 1/2 hour with no interest in it. I then opened the bonnet and people started to come up and chat about it. I've been asked to take it to a big show next april because they want to see more modern classics! That suprised me because mine was the baby of the bunch.
My front struts knocked and any little bump made my tires hit the rear arches, The fan was stuck on due to a dodgy rad sensor but I was happy with the last minute car show. I never thought I'd get it in a show this year even the smallest of ones, so it has spurred me on to get it finished by March so I can have many more shows next year.

Car looks sweet mate love the wheel choice and keeping the baby blue paintwork was the right move. nice job mate
whats the name of the wheels?

looks great

thats well nice!