Hello from a sunny South Africa (pic heavy)

[Frankensteinworx]

Hello everyone

So wanted to share my little project/toy

It's a Opel Kadett 200is

Basically the same as a Astra but 5 door and we never got the gsi although we got the ts

Saw this advertised on fb for a bargain of R5000 which is about £270



So that night went to collect it
Supposed to be complete just need to be assembled and sprayed

Was only a 600km round trip



But dur to a faulty petrol pump took us almost 26 hours to complete the trip

Almost felt like a sign , previous owners parents called it the curse oh well will be fun

So the "emptying and stripping" starts

 

[Frankensteinworx]

Seats look 100 times better after a good wash

Sanded most of their primer off

But a base layer of paint on

And ofcourse a good wash

 

[Frankensteinworx]

Fitted motor and interior also sprayed calipers and fitted wheels

 

[Frankensteinworx]

Final colour now on wanted to see what all was damaged/missing and so on

 

[Frankensteinworx]

Biggest hold up on the car was wiring just cut wires everywhere ended up redoing the entire harness from scratch and using a corsa bs loom to help with 90% of neatness

 

[Frankensteinworx]

Things done not in photos
All new suspension components including ts suspension which is lower just needs to settle , have a lowering kit but uncertain if I want to fit it right now (it's a 60/60 and our roads are not the greatest)
Serviced motor(don't want to spend to much planning conversion but want to drive abit as 2l 8v just to let suspension settle and test all other items)
All new mountings
New fuel pipes
New aircon pipes
New radiator
New water pipes
New fan
Lots of little trimmings interior and exterior
New alarm and central locking
New wheelbearings

Planned items still to be done
Planning to do everything myself to learn new skills like upholstery work
I am a qualified motorcycle mechanic and ran my own shop since 2013 family has always been in automotive industry

Debadged grill have 2 grills might attempt a diy
Strut braces
Steering wheel , OEM or proper brand (cheap Chinese 1 on now)
Airbrushing (not sure if I want to makes me a irritating person because how i fuss over the car)
Shave engine bay (aircon pipes gonna be difficult part)
Rear wiper delete
Colour code door handles (busy with it)
Shave rear handles
Center of roof black with a blue glitter / pearl
Sunroof ( need to look for either a roof that has had 1 or put a roll cage in to support)
Might do roll cage regardless but will be heavily custom built
Original front bumper , crappy fiberglass aftermarket one on now
Exhaust tip and rear box (already 63mm) just want to change to twin tip
Headlights (not sure stock smoked or angeleye difficult to find locally and have drivers side)
Taillights (don't like the 1s on currently)
Coilovers (battling to find)
Brake upgrade
Recover interior maybe newer seats recaro elec from vxr or even buckets (want to look at suede and leather or plain leather 2 kids 5 months and 2 years )
Flock dash and other interior panels
Roof liner match seats
Custom sound(60% amps and speakers installed finish parcel shelf and custom boot look at how to install 2 din navigation radio)
Electric mirrors for wife to make easier
Electric windows must have in sa
16v conversion keep 8v block seh
Turbo conversion a maybe for now, wife will drive occasionally she didn't enjoy previous big turbo cars
Tint windows (will attempt on 27th will be a first)
Real or skinned Carbon panels interior and exterior
Wheels not 100% sure if I like the rezax wheels on the car worked on other car

Also need to decide on colours was thinking the blue and yellow , loving neon yellow lately, or blue and red 2 colours that are know to go together

 

[Kev_mk3]

fantastic work. I have always hankered for a 180ie or 200ts.

Every time somethings come up i've always been beaten to one. I will own one, one day. Looking forward to the progress.

 

[Justin46SA]

Good project, I take my hat off to you rebuilding the complete car and not just scraping the shell and selling the rest of the parts. Looks like yours could be a 200ise. What year model is your Kadett?

In SA the late 1998 /1999 200is were labeled as 200ise (euro model), they (GM) changed a few bits and pieces probably to reduce the price of the car and/or trying to sell all the remaining Astra and Kadett F's so to make way for the new Astra G that was launched in 2000 is SA
Some of the bits they removed:
* Electric Windows (Some Euro's did have front Electric Windows)
* Front Fog Lights
* Back Brake Disks (but i see yours do have back disks )
* On Board Display
* Back Seat Head Rests
* Different Opel Mags
i think that's about it.

Yes i think its a good idea (if your engine rebuild budget allows it) to upgrade to a 16V Head (using the 20SEH block), try to get a 200ie 16V ecu and loom or are you going to use a different non Opel management system?

I'm also in the process in having my 200is Kadett engine rebuild and I was very tempted to change to 16V but deiced against it due to all the changed that's needed and cost implications.

Looking forward

 

[Frankensteinworx]

Thanks guys , it is a ise surprise surprise really thought it was just a is but now after you mentioned it went and had a proper look (vin decoder) and comes up as ise , unfortunately no electric windows yet just found a second hand set that I will hopefully get monday
Yup got back brake discs , abit of a nightmare to find pads for them
On board I only have the clock even though there is about 20 wires that connect to it
Fog lights , assume it came out with them as there is a switch on the dash and wires are there for them

Motor wise I may change that plan to fitting a z20let there is one I just found out about going for a good price

Going to go with a management system actually looking at doing that soon battling way to much with the wiring keep getting a intermittent bad connection, could be a connector aswell but looking at management and from there custom built harness for the rest of the car

Have been busy the whole day on it just trying to get it to the point where I can take it for a longish drive to see exactly what needs to be done

But ran into a nice surprise when pulling into the workshop earlier
Front wheel shifted back , at first thought maybe I didn't tighten something but after triple checking everything was tight found that subframe shifted tried to tighten it up and no luck seems bolts are stripped busy heating them now to see if that will help them grip to come out

Also going to look at the lowering kit or coils very soon its almost as high as a 4x4

 

[DavebGsi]

good progress mate, i alway love to see an astra be saved!

 

[Frankensteinworx]

So today is a good and a bad day

The good finally got a set of angel eyes now to open them repair lenses and smoke them , not a big fan of the chrome look

Then 2 bad things first while flatting the car my missus used 150 paper instead of 1500 and went through on the rear quarter, I touched up but made a massive mistake and used the wrong thinners

And then to top it off my other toy broke

 

[Justin46SA]

ouch

 

[**GSI-16V**]

What thinners did you use? Looks like its bitten into original paint underneath, bugger when that happens as your going to have to bare metal that now. I had it wrinkle on me before, trying to put it down to thick on uncured fresh paint.

 

[Frankensteinworx]

What thinners did you use? Looks like its bitten into original paint underneath, bugger when that happens as your going to have to bare metal that now. I had it wrinkle on me before, trying to put it down to thick on uncured fresh paint.

It was a grade lacquer thinners same brand as the paint , looks like was something either that contaminated my primer or some oil in the metal that side I did take down to bare metal to fix a dent have taken down again cleaned and baked the area reprimed and base and cleared

 

[DavebGsi]

What thinners did you use? Looks like its bitten into original paint underneath, bugger when that happens as your going to have to bare metal that now. I had it wrinkle on me before, trying to put it down to thick on uncured fresh paint.

Yea that happened to me on the first panel of the megane!

 

[Frankensteinworx]

Hey guys sorry been quiet it's been a crazy 2 months didnt get half as much done as I wanted but on day 1 of lockdown I started to get really far so the update before today is
Then the fun had bought a harness from another astra f with elec window and mirrors got everything besides 1 .mechanism drivers side of course
Removed seats all top plastic panels
Removed door panels recovered sound proofed and installed dd mids
Custom back board
2 amplifiers 1 monoblock 9600w pmpo
1 4ch 10000w pmpo
1x12 semi custom box ,actually want to put it in spare wheel bay as a hidden band pass firing out under back seat
Customized another damaged center consol
redid roof liner
Made all panels darker
Took material of the seats and started on the new covers
Found a second hand lsd for a good price so grabbed it with both hands lol
Right now we have say 1 of lockdown been busy with small nitty gritty things and now is 1 of the worst caliper painting
Please excuse horrible pics damaged my phones camera lense so doesnt want to focus
Before


Cleaned

Sand paper how I saw it

What it was

Central console

Rear badge

Interior stripped again

Backboard

Then went and decided on the 2l16v turbo , then thought about 2.2 turbo so now building a "2.4" 2.0 stroked crank , shrick cams Mahle pistons Carrillo rods now waiting in cometic headgasket also using all arp bolts so decided I'm going 2 have some fun with the 2l8v while waiting for those parts doing a how long will it last conversion leaving motor bone stock , I just replaced bearings and ring throwing in a set of 440cc injector and a polo1.4 gtis turbo
On the stock compression getting 9.7:1 stock is supposed to be 9.8 obvious all supporting hardware piping and exhaust already wired in stand alone management got a adjustable vernier/cam pulley to retard timing to try avoid pinging
So just to make a exhaust manifold adapter plate
Want to lift boost at 0.2 increments hoping to about 0.5 to 0.8 safeish and then start pushing boost up

 

[joycey]

Good work, i like the wheels

 

[Andy_Mk3]

Nice work, glad to see an astra being saved, especially a TS!

 

[nuno_gt]

Nice work and effort put on it. Congrats!

Although this is not the correct section but, if possible, can you arrange some 200is or ts 5 door side skirts complete set?

(Admin, sorry for this part...