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Dave b's VXR Powered Gsi Diary

Take it you'll have to have it on its side to clean / paint it fully to make it easier to do?
 
That's amazing lol :)

I would defo be nervous about that on them bolts! But like you say it's the clamping force, plus bolts have absolutely massive shear strength too. Will certainly make life easier on the underside.
 
I have always been told you can hang a ton on a M6 screw, whether it's true or not is a different story haha you can get cracking now for sure though
 
I have always been told you can hang a ton on a M6 screw, whether it's true or not is a different story haha you can get cracking now for sure though

I'm actually at work at the moment, I'm gonna try it
 
Take it you'll have to have it on its side to clean / paint it fully to make it easier to do?

Yea I'll have it on its side for alot of it I think, including the spraying because it's hard to spray downwards with a gravity fed guns. Gonna be 2 PAC spraying the underside red for the mint mint look lol. I wanna do mirrors at vboa, then rage the arse out of it everywhere
 
Yea I'll have it on its side for alot of it I think, including the spraying because it's hard to spray downwards with a gravity fed guns. Gonna be 2 PAC spraying the underside red for the mint mint look lol. I wanna do mirrors at vboa, then rage the arse out of it everywhere
going to be fun cleaning under the car after giving it beans lol
 
Thats awesome mate, makes every job so much easier with the shell on a spit, wish Id of had access to one when I was doing the repairs on mine!
 
More progress today! Decided to take some bit for powder coating, there is bound to be a delay on gettin stuff coated so why not!

So i grabbed the fuel tank and stuck it in the back of the car. Now it is pretty rusty..... but i never even looked at it properly.
Bloke took one look at it and said ' If i shot blast that, there will be a hole there'

He wasn't wrong... I should of inspected it first really!

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That dark brown is mega soft.... and the pipe outlets wobble with pressure.... the tank is dead lol.

Luckily a few years back i bought a pattern part tank which was a really good copy, Has all the right holes and a swirl pot in the bottom aswell. Made in canada by some company.... must be good!

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Stripped down the front subframe and rear axle aswell, still in pretty good nick from powdercoating!

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old gsi ARB off, Irmcher item going on :cool:

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bit of surface rust on the axle, but not bad really. I reckon this was powdercoated at least 6 years ago! Not really sure how long it should last, but as you all know, this thing isn't a trailer queen ;)

Gonna take this all down there when I can. Staying the same colours for everything as I like the matt grey/silver colour. It makes things just look fresh. I need to take the lower arms and rear axle to work though to get the old bushes out. The lower arms are just rubber bushes (will be replaced for poly) But the axle is already poly bushed so if it is possible, I want to try and get the poly bushes out and reuse them!

More to come! No excuses, I'm cracking on with this!
 
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This is rare stuff guys, I have been so busy working on the car, I haven't had time to update the thread haha.

I'll do it tomorrow I promise..... Maybe lol.

Even in my night shift I was working on bits of my astra :lol:
 
Been working on this every night this week! thanks to my roll over spit. I am loving it!
With the car upside down everything is a dream to do. So i spent a good few hours with the grinder and the flappy disc rubbing crusty bits back, check other stuff and getting lot of bare metal on show which needed to be, to be able to treat it with Jenolite

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Inside the chassis rear box section is bone dry, just a bit crusty. So i got as much of the loose stuff off and out and covered that too

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You can get jenolite in an aerosol can, so the plan is when i'm done, spray jenolite in there using a long straw with holes, that treats the surface rust, then use the same tube to spray epoxy primer in there, seal it as much as possible. Then wax oil in everywhere at the end. Should keep it going for another 20 years lol

more stuff splashed around

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Started prepping the rear axle mounts for seam welding, extra strength everywhere I can!

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And finally sorted that bloody hole in the floor passenger side...

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Lot more to update still!
 
More progress, more seam welding for more strength and less flex.
Axle mounts are only spot welded from factory, so they are gettin welded. cleaned it up ready

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bit brown here.....

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so i stopped there, and go ready for more jenolite. Cleaned the underside thoroughly... actually looks VERY good for its age!

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then got the wire wheel out, rubbed the metal untill shiny, then jenolite to treat the surface and be sure to stop anymore corrosion!

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Then after that was dry, zinc primed the bits that needed welding, and epoxy others.....

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i'll come back to the zinc primer later.....
 
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So next up, Night shift at work! In between working...... I had to get the last few bits ready for powdercoating which ment bushes out. Rear beam is already poly bushed so i want to save them if i can!

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It actually took ALOT of effort to get the bushes out, cutting up little bits of metal and make a jig thing to hold the axle while we held it in a small press! But in the end, Got them out. It was so much effort, no pictures after lol.

Next the front lower arms. Now if I hadn't of noticed it before i started, I would of thought i did it in the press, but the lower arm is bent!...

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No idea how it could of happened, I have never hit a curb in the car, strange place to be bent aswell on the rear bush, no kinks in the metal either so not sure at all. unless the arm and become weak over time. it was the passenger side so potholes maybe? these arms are probably 8 years old i reckon so possible.
As you can see from the bush, its been like it for years cause the bush on 1 side is a funny angle

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So got the arm and put it in the press.....

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:lol: 200ton hydraulically powered press :lol: made short work of straightening it!

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All done, exact mirror of the other arm

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So got the work welder out and went to town! This will stop them every splitting which I have heard of some arms doing, and take all the flex out of them aswell!

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All done and sent off for powdercoating :cool:
 
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So new goodies turned up.....

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2mm sheet metal to repair the inner sill. The sill is actually 1.6 so this is over spec. Just how i like it!

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Best bit of welding so far :cool: :party:

Back to the thin stuff, fabbed the missing wheel arch, this is bloody thing metal from factory, no corrsion at all, just thin! Hard to weld but got there

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turned the lights off and checked for blow through holes with a torch, there is a couple as u can see!

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so fill them in.... o wait, welder stopped working.....

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10 years, ran out of wire finally :lol:
So ran to halfords, job done, all welded up

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Nice work mate, Have you ordered the lower arm bushes yet ?

These are the SuperPro ones I went for :

Vauxhall Astra MK3 2.0i 16V Suspension Upgrades

But have since seen Whiteline do a caster increasing rear bush:

 
Nice work mate, Have you ordered the lower arm bushes yet ?

These are the SuperPro ones I went for :

Vauxhall Astra MK3 2.0i 16V Suspension Upgrades

But have since seen Whiteline do a caster increasing rear bush:


Yea i got the whole super pro kit, lower arms, anti roll bar, steering arms aswell.
they look interesting!

seeing as you have you car on stands can you do me a favour TomF , i don't know which side the lower arms goes now :lol:

as you can see in my picture, the rear bush part of the arm has an angle to it, and that is the only difference difference in the arms so i have no idea which side they go now! can you see if you can tell on your car?
Unless they aren't even supposed to be bent :lol:
 
Yea i got the whole super pro kit, lower arms, anti roll bar, steering arms aswell.
they look interesting!

seeing as you have you car on stands can you do me a favour TomF , i don't know which side the lower arms goes now :lol:

as you can see in my picture, the rear bush part of the arm has an angle to it, and that is the only difference difference in the arms so i have no idea which side they go now! can you see if you can tell on your car?
Unless they aren't even supposed to be bent :lol:

Good stuff, yeh will have a look for you mate, :thumb:
 
Sooo i carried on, got bored of the plate in the wheel arch, no picture i don't think, but i got bored of it being **** and cut it out and started again, but before I got really bored, i did something fun. The chassis strengthening!

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Check the mounts

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Primer inside

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and wait for that to dry!
While that was drying, i finally finished plylining the roof of the workshop! 9 months after I started :lol:

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Finished the BTCC season with a mega weekend!

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And started making a clock from a BTCC brake rotor at work!

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