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This is going to be long so go make a brew, grab a beer you'll need it!
Back in 2015 I was going all out on a saab engined mk3 astra estate to a very high show standard. The car was at the body shop about to be painted Switch (a rare vx220 colour) and it had been sat for 12 months with them at least just going no where. I went on holiday only for it to be cut short, I rushed to France and my dad sadly passed away meaning i was stuck over in France for nearly 2 months sorting things out.
My plan was, once I was home from my holiday to set to getting the car back take it elsewhere and paint it white again to speed things up and rebuild it with my dad as he wanted a project and thought be nice to do it together. This was now gone as he had passed away.
Once home I went down to see WTF they where up to and basically got told they didn't want to do it anymore. I stripped the car of what was left on it (hardly anything TBH) and scrapped it, sold all estate specific gear like shocks, etc along with big fancy turbo as I wouldn't need it. I also got rid of the gf so took my house on myself and sat back enjoying life, looking at it from a different perspective.
Now 12 months later now September 2016 I took my mum away for the anniversary of my dads passing & one drunken night I was sat on the wifi in the hotel browsing ebay. Now we all know this never ends well. It didn't. I woke up the next day to find I had won the below.
The car -
I got back from my holiday and the following weekend I made plans to get the train down to Vauxhall in London (how Ironic!) to drive the car home. Now this is where the fun began!
Strange place this -
I knew the car had a clutch issue so would be fun getting it back but factored this into my budget (yeah never give yourself a budget - you wont stick to it) So several trains later and a short car ride to the owners house I handed over some cash and was now the owner of a Mk3 Astra that worked again! I got on the road feathering the throttle as any force it just slipped, I had over 200 miles to go so had to go easy. First I stopped and filled the car with fuel, checked the oil and tyres off I went.
Slowly got onto the motorway and once In 5th I could just cruise on the inside late doing about 50/60 mph letting everything pass me as I was just trying to get home, not set a land speed record. After a hour I pulled into some services to have a pee & then got to look around the car properly.
First inspection -
- Someone had super glued a matt to the dash with this being pulled it ripped the dash apart ( I have a spare dash just a pain )
- Floor matt super glued in. Again pain in the arse as hole in the carpet ( I had spare black carpets just more hassle)
- Another aerial had been put on the roof for some reason rather than fixing the rear wing mounted one oh well cant do much about it
- Front door speakers or lack of. Looked behind the covers and someone had mashed the door speaker holes you'll see below and currently had nothing in it.
- Random holes in the boot like it had something stuck in the floor
- Radio had been cut out so that was going to be a mission of a job
- Air con didn't work. No big issue wasn't going to be used anyway.
- Passenger wing mirror hanging off
- Interior light housing cut to shreds for no reason
- Drivers seat was ripped and no support at all
- Last of all no sunroof. I thought it had one and had the last sun roof deflector in the UK waiting to go on. This really really annoyed me and still does! This was sold at a later date to help solve the issue.
At the services I removed the pollen filter as it was horrible and stank then I carried on anyway clutch getting worse finally got home in about 5 hours parked it up and thought what the hell am i bloody doing with another......................
This is going to be my FINAL one that I am telling you now.
Also worth giving my page a cheeky follow as I update all about the Astra, Swift and trips on it -
Soul Developments
Back in 2015 I was going all out on a saab engined mk3 astra estate to a very high show standard. The car was at the body shop about to be painted Switch (a rare vx220 colour) and it had been sat for 12 months with them at least just going no where. I went on holiday only for it to be cut short, I rushed to France and my dad sadly passed away meaning i was stuck over in France for nearly 2 months sorting things out.
My plan was, once I was home from my holiday to set to getting the car back take it elsewhere and paint it white again to speed things up and rebuild it with my dad as he wanted a project and thought be nice to do it together. This was now gone as he had passed away.
Once home I went down to see WTF they where up to and basically got told they didn't want to do it anymore. I stripped the car of what was left on it (hardly anything TBH) and scrapped it, sold all estate specific gear like shocks, etc along with big fancy turbo as I wouldn't need it. I also got rid of the gf so took my house on myself and sat back enjoying life, looking at it from a different perspective.
Now 12 months later now September 2016 I took my mum away for the anniversary of my dads passing & one drunken night I was sat on the wifi in the hotel browsing ebay. Now we all know this never ends well. It didn't. I woke up the next day to find I had won the below.
The car -
- Last of the line 08/1997 Astra Arctic 1.6 16v in Champagne Gold
- 55k on the clock
- Full Service History
- Old guy owner from new who then passed it onto his son who was also very old.
I got back from my holiday and the following weekend I made plans to get the train down to Vauxhall in London (how Ironic!) to drive the car home. Now this is where the fun began!
Strange place this -
I knew the car had a clutch issue so would be fun getting it back but factored this into my budget (yeah never give yourself a budget - you wont stick to it) So several trains later and a short car ride to the owners house I handed over some cash and was now the owner of a Mk3 Astra that worked again! I got on the road feathering the throttle as any force it just slipped, I had over 200 miles to go so had to go easy. First I stopped and filled the car with fuel, checked the oil and tyres off I went.
Slowly got onto the motorway and once In 5th I could just cruise on the inside late doing about 50/60 mph letting everything pass me as I was just trying to get home, not set a land speed record. After a hour I pulled into some services to have a pee & then got to look around the car properly.
First inspection -
- Someone had super glued a matt to the dash with this being pulled it ripped the dash apart ( I have a spare dash just a pain )
- Floor matt super glued in. Again pain in the arse as hole in the carpet ( I had spare black carpets just more hassle)
- Another aerial had been put on the roof for some reason rather than fixing the rear wing mounted one oh well cant do much about it
- Front door speakers or lack of. Looked behind the covers and someone had mashed the door speaker holes you'll see below and currently had nothing in it.
- Random holes in the boot like it had something stuck in the floor
- Radio had been cut out so that was going to be a mission of a job
- Air con didn't work. No big issue wasn't going to be used anyway.
- Passenger wing mirror hanging off
- Interior light housing cut to shreds for no reason
- Drivers seat was ripped and no support at all
- Last of all no sunroof. I thought it had one and had the last sun roof deflector in the UK waiting to go on. This really really annoyed me and still does! This was sold at a later date to help solve the issue.
At the services I removed the pollen filter as it was horrible and stank then I carried on anyway clutch getting worse finally got home in about 5 hours parked it up and thought what the hell am i bloody doing with another......................
This is going to be my FINAL one that I am telling you now.
Also worth giving my page a cheeky follow as I update all about the Astra, Swift and trips on it -
Soul Developments