Warning modern curse word ! The grottiest Zafira in the World.

[steveg]

The latest addition to my ever expanding fleet is possibly the most horrible. My Mum, in an effort to see more of her Grandchildren, has offered to take us all on Holiday to Devon this year again. We ended up driving round in two cars last time and it would be sensible to hire a nice reliable 7 seater so we can all go together.

My warped sense of logic suggested that it would be far better to buy something cheap, fix it and then go on holiday with it. At the end I either sell it or leave it to fester on the drive like my other cars.

So after looking on ebay for at least a week I came up with this.

It was described as a running fault which turned out to be a pipe that had fallen off but they had forgotten to mention the brakes were a bit lacking as well. Another small point was that it was 'a bit hairy' inside. A bit hairy isn't a fair description really it was horrible but seeing as it was £150 and getting it recovered was another £40 I had to buy it.

Some lovely pictures of the interior.



Before


After


Getting it to look like that took a couple of days and almost killed our George wet vac in the process. The running issues were furthur improved by cleaning out the throttle body and replacing the plugs. One of the pipe outlets on the throttle body was split so I made a new one up and stuck it in with suitable Loctite.

The brake problem was first though to be the master cylinder as nothing seemed to work. Furthur investigation found it was one of the rear calipers that was leaking. I bought a repair kit and pistons for the back brakes from Bigg Red Bigg Red.
For those who haven't tried to get caliper repair kits recently they are one of the few places you can still get parts from. They are also very helpful. I stripped my leaky caliper down and found what I thought was a problem with the repair kit. After speaking to the lady who assembles their rebuilt calipers it would seem someone has had a go at mine in the past and fitted a standard O ring to the self adjusting mechanism where there should be a proper lip seal. With everything assembled and bled I now have brakes again. I think I might strip down the rest just in case someone has been at those as well !

I think once the rest of the brakes have been looked at the only thing I might need for the MOT is one new tyre. Once it's got an MOT I can concentrate on doing a few more interesting things with it although I don't think Granny will approve of me dropping it as low as it will go, painting it an interesting colour will go down too well either, that can wait.
Hotwire put a thread on here about MPV's a while back so that might be a direction to go with it but it's a bit new really.

[Phil H]

A bit hairy? It looked like a poodle exploded!

[Dr.AK]

Dear Lord, that looked disgusting. Nice turnaround. Remimds me of a Ford Explorer I once went to look at... interior was described as "a bit run down" - turns out the owner's dog lived in there for about a year and a half and did his business in there too!

[frazzly]

Apr 13, 2016 12:55:33 GMT Dr.AK said:

 Nice turnaround. Remimds me of a Ford Explorer I once went to look at... interior was described as "a bit run down" - turns out the owner's dog lived in there for about a year and a half and did his business in there too!

Did you buy it? 

[Bibbles]

I am actually wanting a Zafira as I currently have an Astra Bertone Coupe so very interested to see what you do.

[steveg]

The interior is cleaner now but I want to take the seats out and really do it properly. If it goes through a MOT OK I might treat it to some better seats and bit's of trim to tidy it up inside. I've got some special de-oderising stuff which I am going to try out but it isn't to stinky despite the appearance. It does make you wonder what state the previous owner was in though.

I looked around to see what I could have got with 7 seats and apart from a Japanese import there are only really Espace's and a couple of others I could think of with 7 seats that are a bit older. Zafiras like this are at their lowest in terms of price, probably for a good reason, anything older is starting to go up.

[gazzab1978]

mate if it came with the gsi alloys already fitted £150 is a bargain, the alloys are worth more than that on there own.
i like your thinking on buying this rather than hiring a 7 seater too, much better idea.
good luck with it

[peewee]

needs a saab turbo lump in the engine bay

[steveg]

Apr 13, 2016 15:38:07 GMT gazzab1978 said:

mate if it came with the gsi alloys already fitted £150 is a bargain, the alloys are worth more than that on there own.
i like your thinking on buying this rather than hiring a 7 seater too, much better idea.
good luck with it

I think the wheels were all the dealer thought would sell. They were going to scrap the car and sell the wheels on their own. They are in a bit of a mess really and the passenger front one has been rubbed hard on a kerb, I dare say it could be fixed though. If I am honest I quite like them on it, certainly better then steel wheels with narrow tyres.

A bigger engine would be fun but if I can get some miles out of the 1.8 that would be good. It's done a few miles but doesn't sound too bad. Part of the plan was that I could use either the 1.6 engine I have in our Mk3 Astra or the old Cav Mk2 engine I have, fitting that would be a bit of a pain though.

[austinpowers]

When you said it was a little hairy last Saturday you weren't kidding. But I have to admit with those alloys, the car looks a lot better than I was expecting.

[recarouk]

Apr 13, 2016 12:55:33 GMT Dr.AK said:

Dear Lord, that looked disgusting. Nice turnaround. Remimds me of a Ford Explorer I once went to look at... interior was described as "a bit run down" - turns out the owner's dog lived in there for about a year and a half and did his business in there too!

 made me lol

[steveg]

Even the bits of crackers and the odd Maltezer I found were hairy but not dog hair. The McDonalds chips looked almost good enough to eat though, wonder how they last make them last so well !

I'm quite happy with the state of the outside, I can happily park it anywhere while on holiday and really not care if it gets knocked about.

[steveg]

Apr 13, 2016 19:10:22 GMT recarouk said:

Apr 13, 2016 12:55:33 GMT Dr.AK said:

Dear Lord, that looked disgusting. Nice turnaround. Remimds me of a Ford Explorer I once went to look at... interior was described as "a bit run down" - turns out the owner's dog lived in there for about a year and a half and did his business in there too!

 made me lol

I had to put a cover on the seat for the poor guy who recovered it for me.

[loudandproud205]

I had the 2.2 petrol went well was tragic on fuel. In hindsight I should have got a diesel but I was young and foolish and refused to get a diesel version and the 1.6 and 1.8 felt gutless so it was a GSI but massively out my budget or 2.2 which were very rare, which worked in my favour as I wanted a P38 Range Rover but she kept on about the Zafira and found a 2.2 across the other side of the country am pleased I did get it as it was fantastic it did everything you want it to everything from the ferry kids about to running 1/4 mile at York or chucking parts in one day laps at Cadwell the next.

[kevins]

Did the wet vac work to get the hairs out? my range rover has loads of short dog hairs stuck in the headlining, I have tried upholsteery cleaner and sticky tape but there are still quite a few left.

[steveg]

Apr 13, 2016 21:00:40 GMT kevins said:

Did the wet vac work to get the hairs out? my range rover has loads of short dog hairs stuck in the headlining, I have tried upholsteery cleaner and sticky tape but there are still quite a few left.

I think the action of sucking the water up did a bit but I had to go back to it again. I got a lot with a stiff handbrush and also tried tape. I went looking for ideas online and spotted a special rubber brush. Our local Range shop had them for a pound. That got a few more out of the seats, could be worth a try on headlining or possibly one of those lint rollers. Trouble is you need to pull the hairs out in the direction they went in. After trying everything I resorted to tweezers.
I general I found using the just the metal extension tube rather then any of the plastic ends when hoovering pulled a lot out but you need to be a bit careful.

One thing I did just remember was the time I cleaned the headlining on an old Astra of ours. I used a foaming upholstery cleaner and it looked great afterwards. It was only the next time I got in the car and felt something on my head I realised there was a problem. All of the glue had let go and the fabric was hanging loose. I drove it around for ages without it fitted but it was horrible in the winter.

[MonzaPhil]

I remember "needing" a seven seater and not buying a Renault 21 estate then doing the 2 car thing. My car threw it's cam belt at the furthest point of the trip.

Renault was £150, recovery charge for me was £250 and I still ended up with a dead car except it was at home and not a long way away.

I salute your logic.

Sent from my legs using proboards

[steveg]

I think the first thing it gets after an MOT is a cam belt and water pump. I will have to see how things go.

[peter96]

I thought I had bought some filthy cars in the past but that's absolutely boggin. Well done for sticking at it.

[woodenspatulas]

Apr 13, 2016 18:49:45 GMT steveg said:

Apr 13, 2016 15:38:07 GMT gazzab1978 said:

mate if it came with the gsi alloys already fitted £150 is a bargain, the alloys are worth more than that on there own.
i like your thinking on buying this rather than hiring a 7 seater too, much better idea.
good luck with it

I think the wheels were all the dealer thought would sell. They were going to scrap the car and sell the wheels on their own. They are in a bit of a mess really and the passenger front one has been rubbed hard on a kerb, I dare say it could be fixed though. If I am honest I quite like them on it, certainly better then steel wheels with narrow tyres.

A bigger engine would be fun but if I can get some miles out of the 1.8 that would be good. It's done a few miles but doesn't sound too bad. Part of the plan was that I could use either the 1.6 engine I have in our Mk3 Astra or the old Cav Mk2 engine I have, fitting that would be a bit of a pain though.

Good save! Amazing what a bit of cleaning can do. Our mk4 golf was minging and after a clean up looked pretty fresh.

Those wheels, they are Vectra GSI phase ones. They are very soft, so tend to bend rather than crack, so should be saveable.