As Garry is Merit spec it's about time some upgrades appeared.
Glovebox from the scrappy
The back of the car
Flame red paint
Today involved refurbishing some 14" steels.
So I prepped the shed
Wire brushed the steels and took a wire wheel to them too then washed them and let them dry.
started with the insides of them. Stonechip stuff then used up a couple of cans of random paint
then onto the fronts of them. Don't worry they will be black not purple / blue
Some more progress................
After Ivan (the brother in law) had finished putting Ellie's (the wife) MGZR back together......... yes........ head gasket lmao it was the corsa's turn for some lovin' I bought supersprint springs and shocks off Rick Draper aaagggeeesss ago so we got those fitted.
The spings and shocks and the MIG foot fetish
Getting started (under the gazebo as it was curse word it down)
The front arch. Some rubbing and painting to be done
The finished product. Hoping it will settle further
Also bought a genuine Opel 200iS steering wheel from Drizz ages ago so thought we would get that fitted too
I should have some 256mm discs and relevant calipers coming soon so that will be next on the list. Fingers crossed they fit under the 14's so I can continue the sleeper look when I get round to changing the engine.
Big thanks to Ivan and his battery gun.
It certainly stops well now. Need to get a better pedal feel though.
will have to get a better pic of the clearance between the 14's and these. There aint much lmao
All I need to do now is give them a quick lick of either hammerite silver or black. Red aint very sleeper
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A deal has been done on an engine for my wee Corsa Merit, however, not the usual 20XE / LET route.
I have arranged to buy a C18XE from brad35 on MIGweb.
C18XE as found in the 1.8 mk3 Astra GSi and Astra Cesaro. Known to push out more than the 125bhp (IIRC) they are quoted to have. Kev_G on here had one which was 141bhp with only an exhaust I think.
Got the C18XE Engine, Loom, Ecu , All mounts, Air filter, Coolant hoses and Bottle, Radiator, Drive shafts, Hubs, more valver Calipers, 256mm Discs, gear linkage and dash Clocks for a great price. No box but it should be easy enough to get an F18 or F20. Couldn't really turn it down to be honest.
The drawback - It's in Stevenage just North of Londonshire. However.......
Mum and my step dad stay about 15mis from there so they are handing over the cash and picking it up for me, storing it and taking it up the road when they move back to Scotland.
Good thing about the C18XE is that I have a raft of parts fitted to my C18XEL astra that can be transferred straight over. Lexmaul SS manifold, regal sport cat, magnecor leads. I have a spare Tb at home that I am going to look into modifying and the spare set of Cams I have in the shed might just get sent away for re-profiling at some point in the future.
Probably still going to be the least power at Rolling Road days but who cares.
It's Saturday and I actually got out of my bed at a decent time for a change so I decided to fit the Astra Sport seats that I bought.
I had to use the Corsa subframes. Everything went without issue. I didn't take any during pics but here is a before and after.
Much better!
Seats ended up a little high on the standard subframes so........
Tigra adjustable subframe on the right
Magnecor blues
C18XE, shafts, hubs, ancilaries, etc, etc
I have a tinkered with throttle body coming soon too.
Just need to give it a bit of a clean up. Wire brush the ends and clean up the mating surfaces. That way when the engine is in and the system is being made up the fitters don't have a problem.
Luckily he lexmaul manifold that I had on my 1.8 Astra sport was removed about 6 hrs before this :
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I bought a Tigra scuttle panel from Robert Kassner a wee while ago so that was on my list for today.
before
Xmas present from Mum will come in very handy
13mm nuts off and wiper arms off
school boy error (the washer)
5 phillips screws removed and scuttle prised out
cheers Robert.
Tigra scuttle on top and corsa one underneath (knife was for the parcel tape)
all done
Also fitted the 2nd set of headlight protectors I have bought for the Corsa as I snapped one from the first pair removing it for cleaning. £10 posted as the guy had described them as "Corsa headlight protectErs"
notice the bumper is all to c0ck in this one? Ellie had a little off in the snow so I will have to whip it off, investigate any damage then fit the red post 97 bumper and badgeless grill I have
The eagle eyed readers will have noticed the different wheels in the above pic. The 14" steels were down to about 2 - 2.5mm so I threw on the sport alloys I had in the boot of the Astra when I crashed.
It's badly needing a wash and a polish but that can wait
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more fecking about and no engine progress.
New seats. I forgot to put the side mounts in the car when I picked them up though :doh: Ellie is picking them up on Monday for me so it's all good.
Stuck the pads in the washing machine when I got home and will give them a brush and hoover before fitting.
old clocks Vs New clocks. Pretty bloody close with the mileage.
Big thanks to Owen (C2VXL) for the seats and clocks.
Tonight while Ellie is working at the pub I took the opportunity to strip out the back seats (again), rear seatbelts, some more interior plastics and the headlining. Need to work out what to do with my interior light now though
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Had a fairly productive day today although I don't like what I found. :mad::mad:
Before
And now
and what I didn't want to find. It would seem that 20k miles commuting and one Scottish winter didn't do two of the drain plugs any good. You can see in this pic that
I seperated the pre-tensioners from the Tigra subframes but I am not fitting them or the Cobra seats until I can find someone to do a bit of welding for me.
Eye's for the snap hook harnesses fitted.
So until the holes are welded the cat will be happy............ lmao
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OK. Time for another wee update.
With the headlining out the interior light was just flapping about. Ebay to the rescue. £3 posted for a caravan type light. 2 holes drilled, wired up and screwed in.
Hardly the brightest light in the world but it will do.
£100 each for Cobra specific subframes will have to wait a while so I bolted back in the Astra sport drivers seat and took the harnesses out of the packet.
Went to see a man about a dog this afternoon and I will be getting the holes in the floor welded some evening next week. All cheap, cheap. Thank ****.
Ooh! Forgot about these.......
Free delivery from Murray. They came from his Grandads Astra Merit Auto. Thanks very much John.
Should fit in with the sleeper look rather nicely.
Just need to get my hands on a heat gun now then I can get cracking with removing all that tar curse word with the help of the 3 for £1 decorating knives I scooped up from Tesco.
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OK. Time for another wee update.
With the headlining out the interior light was just flapping about. Ebay to the rescue. £3 posted for a caravan type light. 2 holes drilled, wired up and screwed in.
Hardly the brightest light in the world but it will do.
£100 each for Cobra specific subframes will have to wait a while so I bolted back in the Astra sport drivers seat and took the harnesses out of the packet.
Went to see a man about a dog this afternoon and I will be getting the holes in the floor welded some evening next week. All cheap, cheap. Thank ****.
Ooh! Forgot about these.......
Free delivery from Murray. They came from his Grandads Astra Merit Auto. Thanks very much John.
Should fit in with the sleeper look rather nicely.
Just need to get my hands on a heat gun now then I can get cracking with removing all that tar curse word with the help of the 3 for £1 decorating knives I scooped up from Tesco.
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GAZ Coilovers to fit Nova/Corsa fitted with 2L 300lb springs
Bilstein Yellow rear shocks to fit Corsa/Nova 
-60mm Corsa/Nova Rear Springs[
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Some pics of the post 97 front and rear bumpers. Totally different car now IMO. ;D
Before:
After:
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Picture and story time.......
I picked up Ivan at 8am (ona fu(king Sunday :yuck: ) went and collected his tools from his garage, a jack from Disco Neil and then another Jack from Ivan's shed. Back at the car for 9am.
Removed all the airbox gubbins, disconnedted everything that needed disconnecting and it looked like this
shafts and hubs off
the man himself loosening my nuts
mounts undone and ready to drop out
done
It was then time to remove anything we needed. Whipped off mounts and anything else that looked useful. A new release bearing was fitted to the new F18 and we thought we better get something for lifting the C18XE into place.
Mr Bunch was called as he had what I thought was an engine support. It was a hoist! Fail.
Nipped over to a garage and luckily the main man was there. Hoist borrowed.
Pics are a bit lacking now but the engine is in the bay and the gearbox is nearly connected. We were having issues so we called it a day with the plan to start again at 8am tomorrow. Hangover permitting lmao
On Saturday I painted the boot floor and where the rear seats should be.
More pics and progress tomorrow. Maybe even a vid of it running if we get the connectors to the fuel rail worked out. Corsa had push on ones and the C18XE had threaded ones.
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After a hell of a night out last night we started the corsa rather late today...... 5pm lmao
With my head still pounding we decided to drop the engine down again to get the box fitted up
all done and sitting on its mounts now.
Never got any more pics because it was dark by the time we finished. Wiring is all connected up, rad, fan, 4 branch, etc all connected up too. I had to cut off the old exhaust as it was pretty ****ed.
Only things that are needed will be 2 track rod ends, an exhaust of some sort, 1 screw in fuel rail fitting and that's it.
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Wired up
Old and new front suspension
old
new
Gears found, fluids in and back on the deck
Just need to pick up the exhaust from Ivan tomorrow after he modifies it slightly, bung on the battery then it's out for a test drive.
Insured it with Flux for £404. All mods declared, 5 k mile limited policy, drive any other car, like for like mods.
MASSIVE thanks to Ivan for all the work he has put in.
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Spent an hour yesterday evening fitting my Billing bargains.
Red tow eye cover for £1 and a cat back stainless powerflow exhaust for £50. Fingers crossed the exhaust aint too loud but I guess I can always get a bigger silencer put in if it is.
Tow eye cover fitted and old exhaust that belongs to Ivan
New exhaust after a good clean up with petrol, autosol then some polish
Front pipe that I have is now about 20mm too short so Ivan is taking it to his work to a) weld on a better flange and b) increase it's length slightly.
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progress................
The Corsa has just been delivered to Custom Craft in Elgin to have the exhaust sorted out. It will soon all be stainless from the engine to the tail pipe. Only problem that I encountered was a small one. No reverse lmao Once it comes back the to do list is
Welding
tracking
getting all gears
change the "custom" fuel pump for the Corsa GSi one I bought
MOT + tax
additional extras if I have time before my deadline are
fit the groved discs
refurb and fit the Astra GSi twinspokes
polish it lmao
I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I've just not decided if it's a train coming or the way out............
Some exhaust pics as promised.
The passenger side tail light had a bit missing from the top and was letting in water so I wend down to the scrappy and bought another
Old
New
Maiden voyage. I'm like a fat kid with cake
Welding. Just need to tidy up the insides as a very kind sole undersealed all the underside for me.
The cert
Wee leak
Leak vid
Should have it home fairly soon. Then it's a case of borrowing an engine support bar, belt kit and water pump. I'm also going to change the bluey/green belt and cam covers for plain ones while we are in there.
few bits and bobs to do before it sees a track but I will be there.
OK, fairly productive afternoon.
Whipped the drivers seat out again to clean up the welded patches where the 2 drain plugs had rotted out then gave them a quick skim of body filler ready for painting the rest of the inside. No pics of this yet though.
Noticed a puddle in the boot. Seems that changing the rear cluster didn't help the leak so I whipped it off, gave the surfaces a clean up and ran some silicone round it. Hopefully that cures it.
Bought a pair of flame pink mirrors from ArchieFrew so decided I'd get those fitted. After putting the glass back into the casing I whipped off the old ones and fitted them
The GSi rear ARB was next for some love. Out came the cordless grinder I bought from Aldi and it was given a clean up then a lick of red hammerite.
Tomorrow will involve a second application of paint to the GSi ARB, a spruce up will be the Cav ARB and a second application of underseal for the welded bits on the underside.
Away to get some scran then head out to the pub for a few beers I think.
Timing belt and water pump were on the agenda today.
Woke up after dozing off watching the Auzzie V8's on TV this afternoon and woke up to find this
Ivan had pitched and started rather than knocking at the door lmao Good lad!
New belt
New water pump, rollers and tensioners
All done with a new (to me) K+N filter. Just need to extend it down the inside of the wing a bit.
Notice I removed the blue rocker cover and timing belt cover? Fitted a new rocker gasket and O rings round the bolt holes at the same time.
Also changed the front dics to the red dot grooved ones that I bought from Murray.
Before
After
Errr.......... kind of forgot a picture lmao Will get one at some point though.
Other things that I have no pics of are ;
- Filler and subsequent sanding of said filler on the inside where the rotten drain plugs were welded.
- Found the leak that was letting water into the passenger side rear quarter. The grommet at the top of the boot wasn't in right for some reason so I sorted that and clarted silicone sealer round it to make sure.
- Car rear ARB. Ground off the rust and started painting it with red hammerite
Sent the docs off to the DVLA last week too so it's properly legal when it goes on the road. None of this unregistered, shonky, half assed, faffing about for me.
Not much has happened recently.
Original letter from Vauxhall stating the engine size and number has been sent to the DVLA
Another backbox has found it's way into the garage. Slightly more subtle. Cheers Ivan
I'm contemplating more of an interior (getting old)
Irmscher twin spokes are getting refurbed
I keep looking for Astra GTE alloys in white.
Can't wait to drive the bloody thing on the road.
Brown envelope received from the DVLA this morning.
It's been a long time in the making however,I now officially own............... a 1.8 Corsa Merit. Tax at the start of next month and it's on the road.
Hmm. Quite possibly. I'm sure the fuel pump, rear ARB and other wee things can be done for then.
After all the sitting about since it's MOT I went out to have a wee check over the Corsa today. Drained a some coolant out of it as it must have had about 300ml too much in the bottle, sat in, turned the key
and .........................
it started first time! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Fairly productive day today. Serviced Ellie's (Mrs Melv) mk4 Astra SXi. New Denso plugs, GM 10w40 oil, Gm oil filter and a fuel filter. Burnt my finger on the exhaust manifold and chipped a tooth in the process but that's another story lmao
Opened the boot on the Corsa and found that the leak is back. Could possibly have something to do with all the snow that was on the roof recently but I will keep an eye on it.
Cleared out the garage to make space for the Corsa. Really should have done this before all the snow but at least it's done now incase the snow comes back.
Will need to get a new plates made up at some point as the front one is a bit discoloured.
Loaded three 14" peugeot steels into the bac ready for taking it up to the tyre place. They have really good hankook tyres on them so one will be a spare meaning I will only need to purchase two tyres once it's taxed.
Still need to fit my rear ARB and GSi fuel pump. Never got round to that today as I had a lie in plus clearing out the garage took longer than I expected.
Did a wee bit more today after a scrappy hunt with Ivan.
Replaced the split ecotec pipe
Extended the pipe for the airfilter so that it isn't rubbing on the airbox bracket
Not ideal bit it will do until I get something custom made up to tuck it down behind the headlight and get a cold air feed put in.
I also bought a second astra sport steel wheel so that I have a pair for when I am on the 1/4 mile.
Decided that it will be March that I tax it as I need to also purchase two tyres when it hits the road. This month is a little tight after the holiday to Abu Dhabi. Speaking of Abu Dhabi. I noticed this on one of the old F1 cars in Ferrari world. If cable ties are good enough for them to hold together the rain light then I feel better about using them. lmao
Only things I need to do now are:
Get two tyres swapped from the pug steels onto two of the vauxhall steels and buy two new tyres.
Change the home brew fuel pump for the Gsi one.
Fit the GSI and Cavalier rear ARB's
Put rubbers in the front ARB
Wash, Polish
Weld in rails for the buckets and fit them
Paint the front half of the inside
Possibly refit some of the interior
Free the wiring for the cigarette lighter and fit the ashtray so I can use my Satnav
Fit the stereo
Obviously I will not need to do every single bit before taking it out for a good drive!
In a freak occurrence it actually stayed dry today meaning I cracked on with some things.
Did some undersealing. No pics as the spray on curse word get's everywhere when you are painting upside down.
Decided to change the backbox for something a little more subtle.
Old
New
Comparison
There is a slight blow at the join so once I'm on the road at the start of next month I will be taking it back over to custom craft in Elgin to get some slight adjustments made to allow a neater fit.
Also decided it was time I fitted the Corsa GSi rear anti roll bar.
Don't worry. I did bolt it in........ lmao I will paint over the scratches when I fit the cavalier rear ARB too. Went to fit it today but forgot that I hadn't finished painting it :doh:
Whipped off the 14" steels ready for getting tyres onto them next weekend. I can finally post a pic of the grooved discs since I forgot to upon fitting them
I'm now rolling on 15" astra sport steels on the front and weenie 13's on the back. Pics for giggles
Since I bought a satnav I really needed to sort something out for power. I bough anashtray a while ago but thought I'd have to wire it in as the merit never came with a fag lighter. I was wrong. Some kind soul at Vauxhall left all the wiring taped up. Result!
Plugged it all in and to test it worked I threw in my phone charger. Win!
Threw in my Pioneer H/U that had been sitting about since the Astra was written off
Bought new plates too. I fell out with the front one when I tial fitted it. It was squint and the screw wouldn't come out. I got a little annoyed and snapped the bloody thing in a rage lmao It's not big and it's not clever! Will have to order a new front one now.
Plates are plates but I added a little bit at the bottom for a laugh.
That's it for today. Next week will see new tyres, Cav rear ARB, the home brew MPi pump swapped to a GSi one and some floor painting in the front.
Today's tasks
Go to the scrappy and pick up a Vauxhall 14" rim - Done
Go up to the tyre fitters and purchase myself two new Maxxis tyres and get the three good Bridgestones I had on Peugeot steels fitted to my Vauxhall rims - done
Head through to Elgine to meet Murray. Pick up black front and rear door cards, black carpet and two sport steels - Done
Oh yeah. Got this bloody thing too. I'd rather buy £112.75 worth of tar and fill some pot holes myself! Needs must I suppose......
Fitted the carpet and the rear cards when I got home then secured the front seats properly and fitted the harnesses again. Looked out the Cav rear ARB ready for fitting tomorrow morning along with the front plate then it's drive time!
Before buftying
After buftying
Another going over with G3 is needed. Then it's getting a polish and some wax and that will be enough faffing.
Also refitted some of the interior plastics today. Just the sill cover ones so that they hold the carpet in a little better. No pics as it was getting dark.
It must have made a hell of a difference. First thing Ellie said when she came back from work was "**** me it's actually red!" ;D
Had a fairly busy and productive weekend.
Saturday - nipped up to the car spares shop in town and picked up a centre section for Ellie's Mk4 SXi along with some assembly paste then headed down to my favourite scrappy again. Picked up another boot lock surround, a load more nuts, bolts and screws and a couple of things that I don't need lmao
Spent the afternoon getting off Ellie's centre section. A hammer, bigger hammer, lever, chisel then grinder eventually got the sleeved joint off. Squirt of paste on all joins, drilling out the captive nuts on the new flange, some swearing and some skinned knuckes saw the exhaust sorted.
Dropped the coolant out too. It was a bit on the diluted side as we didn't have any when doing the last service. Undid the drain at the bottom of the rad, caught the water, closed the tap and bailed in some of Halfords lovely pink "advanced" stuff.
By the time all that was done, all the faffing around, etc, etc it was time to take the wife through to Aberdeen for a night out meaning that the Corsa never got touched on Saturday.
I did manage to put up my two new bit storage drawers and sort out 3 large tubs of random nails, screws, bolts, nuts, washers etc.
Sunday.
Rolled the Corsa out of the garage with the intention of polishing it again. Never actually got round to it as I fitted the Cav rear ARB, my new hose that goes from the bottom of the header tank to the engine and then this
Went through to Halfords again for some coolant. On the way back I decided to take some pics.
Next up will be getting a flexi cut into the exhaust system and the new back box trimmed and fitted properly.
just need to get a heat gun on them plastics! 
