1990 Opel Kadett 16v

[willie]

I think it's time I stuck up a post about the latest edition to the fleet.
This used to belong to my cousin but he hadn't used it in years so I told him I wanted first refusal on it, and here it is!


It started out life as a 1.2 OHV Opel Kadett but was fitted with the bodykit and interior of an Astra GTE 16v. The bootlid, bonnet, doors and bumpers were all taken from the Astra which happened to be the same colour.
While in my cousins possession, the little 1.2 was replaced with something slightly more in keeping with its appearance.


This engine was removed from a 93' Astra F CDX. It is a C18XE which is basically a pre-Ecotec Ecotec engine. GM rate the engine at 127bhp but in reality, any of these engines which were also fitted to the early Astra F GSI's were found to produce over 140bhp in standard trim. A de-cat and 4 branch exhaust will give you over 160bhp. That's in the pipeline! :-)

The first job was to remove all of the Vauxhall decals from the car as it was fully badged as a GTE but the car is an Opel so naturally it will be rebadged as a GSI.


I managed to find a brand new GSI gril badge for it too on eBay.


Here's a few more shots of it...




It was sent to the bodyshop for some paint to both sides as they needed to be tidied up.
The car came back from the bodyshop 2 weeks ago so it was full steam ahead to get it ready for its debut at Kadettfest. The paint turned out really well on it in fairness.

I got the side skirts back onto it and fitted the new decals.





I also fitted this race type fuel filler cap. I wanted the car to have a kind of 'DTM' theme to it which is why I chose the Champion edition decals for it as they use the GM colours from the 80's of yellow, red and blue.


I have new Opel badges and GSI badges fitted...


The rear got a little make over also. Here it is before ...


And here it is afterwards...


The Irmscher lights are a nice touch but I have to re-fit them because water is leaking into the boot from around them.

Then it was on to the wheels. The 15" diamond wheels were swapped for some 15" Irmscher Softstars.


I wasn't sure about these wheels but now that they are on it, I like them. It looks fairly good now.




I had it in for its NCT (MOT) yesterday morning and it passed with flying colours! I couldn't believe it.
There are plenty of jobs left to be done to it now. It needs a lot of work done to the wiring. It's a complete mess after the engine conversion. Some of the gauges aren't working, so they'll have to be fixed. Some of the interior trim is not fitted correxctly so that will have to be fixed too.
That's it for now.

[PhoenixCapri]

Looks nice, always had a soft spot for these having watched them blast around town in the late 1990's

[grifterkid]

That is very nice indeed...

The Mk2 Astra (or Kadett of course!) is quite a lovely thing to look at! It still looks fresh...

Please keep us posted... What's the interior like?!

[darrenh]

brilliant ! those C18's are absolute gems

[willie]

Cheers lads.
The interior is very good but needs a little tidying, mostly to the centre console and dash.
The rear door cards are poorly fitted as are the rear seats.
Who ever fitted the split rear seats never fitted the extra hinge to the floor for the seat backs to sit in or extended the hinges for the base of the seats. I'll stick up a few pictures of it tomorrow.

[willie]

I got a few more jobs done to this over the past week.
I fitted a front ARB from a Kadett GSI.


There is no ARB on the 1.2 Kadetts so this made a big difference to the handling. It doesn't understeer as much as it used to now.

I also fitted 4 new Bilstein shocks and front top mounts.


The ride was very harsh with the old TA Techniks shocks and springs. The springs were fine and are actually very good quality for the money.
The Bilsteins made a huge difference to the ride and comfort of the car. It's still quite hard but but it doesn't rattle the fillings out of my teeth anymore.

I also sorted some of the dash wiring. I now have a working temperature gauge and oil pressure gauge. The odometer still doesn't work but I'm going to strip the clocks and have a look to see if there's anything obvious wrong with it. If I can't sort it I'll try the clocks from the GSI to see if they work.
Next on the list is the front foglamp wiring and to straighten the wiper and indicator stalk mount as it's a bit twisted.

The interior is coming out so that I can tidy up a few bits that are annoying me but nothing too serious.
More to follow.

[Speedle]

You've done a lovely job putting that back into service chap, looks brilliant! Loving the new wheels too.

[willie]

I had a go at fixing the odometer on the clocks but I couldn't find a whole lot wrong with it. The motor was free and the digits counted up when it was turned by hand so the problem isn't mechanical. I cleaned the electrical contact pins for the motor but still no go.
I know this is a very common problem with these Digi-clocks so I must investigate it a bit further. Someone may have already gotten to the bottom of this issue.
The clocks are all working now ayway.


I re-assembled the dash facia again...


I'm going to sort out the rear seat mounts before I go any further with the wiring.
Only one hinge on each bench is attached to the car floor! The hinges are there, they just need to be bent outwards and the oins put in.


The rear panels on the quarters need to be removed and re-fitted also.


I'll be running in new speaker cables for the rear speakers while I'm at that. I have a good shelf that has cut outs for a pair of 6x9 speakers which just needs one hinge replacing.



The front seats are in very good condition apart from some cigarette burns on the drivers seat. The passengers seat from the LHD GSI I have for parts is like new so I'll be fitting that too.
Plenty to keep me busy for another while!!

[darrenh]

stepper motor for the odometer is driven by the gearbox transducer which also feeds the speedo. if the speedo works then you know its dashboard related.

is it the trip that's not working, or the actual milometer ?

[willie]

It looks like neither of them are working Darren. The speedo is working but the miles don't count up at all.
I have a spare set of clocks from the other GSI which I fitted and they don't work either.

[darrenh]

swapped the whole digidash you mean? or just the odo ?

[willie]

The whole thing. The other set are the later type also, the same as what is in it.

[darrenh]

oh :/ communication breakdown (electrical) then. need to refresh my memory how it gets the speed signal. trip odo is quite common for jamming (by mechanism for the reset plunger) but doesnt usually stop the main milometer.

[ProjectBobcat]

Those digi dashes are awesome, and that's coming from a ford fan.

[willie]

They're pretty cool alright. This is the first car I've had with them and they really do look well. They're very easy to read too.

I had the car out at the weekend and low and behold the Odometer started working again. I think cleaning the connections for the motor did the trick but the trip meter had actually jammed after I had re-fitted the clocks so I had to press the reset button a couple of times and off it went! Happy days!

I removed the back seats and re-fitted the cards on the quarter panel.


I used everything at my disposal to keep the card inside the top trim as I was pushing it back up into position.


The push in fixings were hard to locate because you can't actually see them when the card is in position. I had to use a small mirror to locate the holes for them before pushing them in.





I also discovered that the extra brackets for the split rear seats aren't there. My Dad's 1991 1.2 Kadett had them but this one doesn't. They must have been only fitted to the last of the Kadetts. I'll have to cut them all out of the other car and weld them in. It'll be a few weeks before I get at that though.

[darrenh]

all 3 of mine have the seat brackets, E reg 88 gte, G reg 1990 merit, J reg gte 16v . cant answer why yours doesnt though !?

the only reason it wouldnt is if it didnt have split seats fitted to start with i guess

[willie]

I suppose if a particular model was never going to have split rear seats as an option they wouldn't bother fitting them. The fact that my Dads '91 had them may have been because it was an option to have it with split rear seats where as my car may not have had it as an option.
An hours work with the MIG welder should sort it out anyway.

[darrenh]

yeah you are right, 84 launch brochure shows 60/40 standard fit from L model upwards. base models were solid benches

[willie]

I've been busy with this over the past few weeks. I changed the lock on the drivers door as it was not the same key as the rest of the locks on the car. I found a lock left into the pocket of the drivers door which worked with the ignition and boot lock key so I fitted that instead. It was actually a passengers door key so I had to file the hole in the drivers door slightly to get it to fit. It's great to just have the one key for everything now.

I decided to swap the drivers seat with the passengers seat from the red GSI.
The bottom of the seat had lost its shape and there were a couple of marks on the seat that I wasn't happy with and the seat from the other car was like new.
You can see the difference here.


So out with the seat....


A quick hoover and clean under the seat ......


I had to swap the frames around as the passengers seat from the LHD car didn't have a height adjustable frame like the drivers seat...


and all back together.....


I also secured the centre console to the floor of the car. It was doing a lot of rattling but it's sorted now.
I also changed the curse word front speakers....


to these babies......



The sound is much better now. Next is the rear speakers.

[joffturbonova]

Careful when you put the middle seat bracket on the floor pan - you said you are welding it on with a MIG - you are directly above the fuel tank - red hot metal, petrol and vapour do not give a happy ending !!

You may want to drop the tank when you do it - it will also mean you can paint the underside of the floor pan where the heat will peel the paint off to bare metal.

Joff