Ok well i got me a new car, Vauxhall Astra SRI which is the MK4 (G) overall i'm really happy so far, ive talked about it in another thread here, so some of you may already be aware ive got it.

All in all i got a great deal on the car, shame it took the majority of my cash, i need more money for more mods

As you can see in the pics, the fogs on the front are full of condensation, i need to dry them out, this apparently happened in the floods we had in the UK last year, so simple enough to sort those out, just need to find abit of time to do them, maybe this weekend.

Other than that, shes a solid car.

Ive already began the modding process by starting out with some FK coil overs, i don't know how much exactlly shes been dropped, but they can do 70mm all round, ive not done on the bank end yet, i just set it up like that as i had a somewhat heavy load to move, so will be dropping the back end alot more soon.

I can get abit lower on the front end, but then it starts scrapping pretty bad on full lock, so ive left it at this hight, still shes slammed, and if your not careful on speed humps, you'd rip the bottom off the car lol.

Anyway heres some pics:





And a few pics for people especially like grim_d to show shes slammed (please excuse the center cap not been on in the pic)







Well thats all ive got for now, more pics will follow as and when i get more stuff etc.

Ive got some stuff on order, a new bigger better spoiler as this one is cracking on where it goes from the up-rights along the spoiler flats if you get what i mean. Gona have to order some paint and get the spray gun out for it though, probably will do this in the near future.

Also ive got some angel headlights on order for it, hopefully they won't take too long.

Future plans are also to get some 18" alloys i know are available, the over-all wheel diamiter with tyre shouldn't be much different to what i have now, as the side wall is much thinner, so i'll get alot more wheel with less side wall, they are also abit wider too.

And hopefully i'm gona strip the engine down within the next few months, do a basic rebuild and check up, and i'm considering some performance cams and chipping the ecu to raise the limiter to 7k, i'd use some ARP bolts on the conrods though just to be safe. This is all only a temp matter though, as in a year or something time, i'm after fitting a Z20LET or simillar (2.0 turbo) and doing some major tuning on that in time to come.

Cheers for looking

nice mate that is low, nice to see it in red too, instead of the common as muck silver.

do you get any scrubbing at the height its at the now? prob have to be carefull no to hit any bumps when turning, though the offset on those allows is pretty deep so i guess youl be ok.

looks good on its arse

looks solid and in good nick, only thing i would say is looks like it needs a good polish? but that might just be the lighting.

nice one and hopefully ill have a new car to show off in the next few months

Cheers mate, nice to hear you like it, i'm dead happy with it at the moment.

By scrubbing do you mean as in the arches with the tyre catching? if so none at the moment, the back end needs winding down a good bit more yet, i can get it a good bit lower on the back end yet i reckon. I had it lower on the front end, but on full lock it was catching then, so had to raise it a few mm to clear better.

The front spliter can catch though if your not too carefull, and i'd guess you could probably rip it off if you got reckless

Yeah i too love the red, i think once its polished up, in summer it'll look smart. I'm considering a carbon fibre bonnet too, i reckon against the red paint work it'd look quite tidy. I agree on the silver aswell, too many of them about and not really my choice of colour. My dad has an Astra GSI in that Arden Blue i think it is, thats a smart looking car when clean and polished up, and is considerably faster than my SRI lol, i'm after a Z20LET either later this year / next year, should be a reasonably simple enough conversion.

All in all shes a solid car in very good condiition, its on a 2001 plate aswell, but as you said, it needs a very good polish up, i reckon it'll take a while, in the pics the lighting is abit bad as it makes the roof look really faded, but its not, its not as shiney as the rest of the car but it doesn't look bad, i'm hoping to hell this weekend brings good weather ive been wanting to wax it since i got it.

Yeah mate, when you get your new car let us know, i'd love to see some pics of it mate.

Cheers

yeah i mean catching the arches, ive seen it a few times, front end too low and catches a bump on a corner, makes a real mess of the wing, but its it aint catching all is good.

defo agree on a carbon bonnet, would look the nuts, shame ya aint up here in scotland, were having sum lovely weather at the moment, good for washing the car, even though i dont do that

put a sr20det in it

Yeah mate ive seen plenty catching on the front end in the arches on corners, luckily most ive seen have only caught the inner plastic guard so haven't come to anything major, however i did see one kid that had seriously buckled all his wing from it, which was much to my ammusement at the time lol.

Tell you what mate if it wasn't for the fact it'd get alot more complicated and time taking to fit a different engine in the car from another make, i'd deffinatly consider a skyline engine or something, you seem em go through on eBay, but it would take alot of time and custom fabrication.

I can however get a kit to fit a C20LET in for a few hundred quid, they are solid machines to start with, and there are a ton of parts out there for these engines, but i wouldn't know if its best to go with this, or up-rate a Z20LET, the only reason i'm really considering a Z20 is because it should be all reasonably simple to fit.

I wish i were in Scotland if the weather is that good, its been bloody crap here for ages, at the moment it keeps getting bright, but there are so many dark clouds it could rain any time so i'm not even gona risk it. I'm hoping at the weekend the weather will be good, then my fiancee can give me a hand too lol.

Maybe i'll give essex racing a ring in abit and ask em about their carbon bonnets, they are charging £350 for them, which don't seem mega bad considering its supposed to be all carbon, but i'm abit curious as to the structure of them etc so i wana talk to them first before ordering one.

Hopefully i'll have my black angel headlights soon, and i intend to order a different grill in the near future, those plus a carbon bonnet i think would look real tidy from the front end.

Oh also, i'm considering a different exhaust, oval DTM i think it would quite suit the back end.


Cheers mate

Damn got some crappy news about that carbon bonnet i phoned essex racing and they have recently discontinued it and are removing it from their site soon. They were the cheapest aswell, so don't know what i'm gona do now, just have to keep looking around i guess.

Ok well some good and some bad news today, firstly the bad news is ive got my angel headlights, but to fit them i really have to take off the whole front bumper, what a pain this is. The only other way i can think of is to remove the inner plastic arch guard and try this way, but none the less its still going to be a pain. Also my spoiler didn't turn up today, and ive been told it'll probably be next wednesday when i'm not even here...

Anyway, as the angels have turned up ive snapped a couple of pics for those interested in having a look, personally i think they look smart and will look great on the car.

Heres the pics:





Please note, you can still see the plastic protective film on them, i'll probably leave it on till ive got them fitted!

Cheers

i dont know what there is in the way of astra Owners club but you should see what you can find and see if there are any group buys on for bonnets. For instance there was a guy on one of the pulsar OC's doing pulsar bonnets with the cheesegrater and the 2 small vents for £425!! bargain.

i found this http://forum.astraownersnetwork.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3339 which you have probably seen, looks like group buy prices, maybe join up and send him a pm see what he can do. Was a few years ago though. Even if you can find someone who does custom carbon and the can make a copy of your bonnet, that way you can even chooe thickness etc.

edit : £449 here http://www.carbon-designs.co.uk/index.php?...d=80&pid=16

angel eyes look good mate should look ace on the motor.

Cheers mate, ive found another site or two that are selling the carbon bonnets too, but i'm abit unsure about them. I think most of them don't have the cut out for the front grill, so i'm abit unsure as to wether or not it'll look right. I'd guess it'll look nice and smooth, but the grill cools the top portion of the radiator when on the move so i don't know how much it'll effect cooling performance, i guess i'd have to look at it more.

Thanks for the link to that bulk type buy thread too, i might message the guy on there and see if he has anything to offer.

I'm still gutted about essex racing, they was only wanting £350 for a complete carbon bonnet, i was going to ask them some questions as to the build and quality before i orded though as it seemed an extremely good price for what you were getting, but sadly they no longer sell them..

Anyway, i managed to get the front end of the car stripped down so i could swap the headlights, i think its real stupid you have to remove the front bumper to actually swap them, but it all went well and was quite an easy job.

Heres the car with the front end stripped down ready for the front headlights to be swapped:



And heres the finished piece, the side lights and dip lights are on in this pic, without the dip being on it has two angel rings, which i think look great.





I'll try and snap a few more pics with just the side lights on etc so you can all get a good idea as to what it looks like.

All in all i'm very happy with them, i think it makes a real difference to how the car looks.

I also took the oppertunity to buy some of those ultra bright bulbs with the blue tint to them, i got 80watt bulbs for high beam, and 55watt bulbs for dip, and they are a serious ammount brighter than the standard bulbs.

Oh also, i repaired the air con radiator when i had it in pieces, i realised the bottom right portion was falling apart, luckily it hadn't leaked so the air con still works.

Cheers everyone

Ok well productivity hadn't stopped on the mods, but its been a little while since i last posted, ive not done huge ammounts, but still i thought i'd better post some stuff up.

Just a quick summary of what ive done:

Swapped out the center console and rest of the black trim down the center of the dash to the genuine Irmscher gun metal grey one that came out of a coupe turbo, also ive fitted some nice chrome Irmscher heater rings too, it makes a huge difference to the over-all look.

Ive also fitted my pipercross induction kit and blue silicon pipe, it looks good and makes a real difference to the sound, and does seem more responsive!

Oh ive also swapped the electric mirror switch as mine was broken, i didn't photo this though.

Also, ive spent alot of time running wires virtually everywhere in the car! removing trim, laying wires and re-fitting the trim is never much fun in my opinion though. Due to the ammount of wire my Avic requires to be just about everywhere, ive spent alot of time doing this and making sure its a good job, sadly i didn't really think there was much point taking pics of the wiring, but now i kind of wish i had. Ive still got some more wires to run down one side of the car for the power wire and remote signal for the amp.

Anyway, i'll just get on with posting the pics.

Oh also note, the original black trim was broke either side of the radio, but i didn't care cause i never had any intention of keeping the original black one.

- Also note i almost took it all apart without taking any pics, i'd already started then remembered!















Thats all for now people, however i will be doing more soon enough.

Ive also got the leather sporty type steering wheel from a GSI turbo, but i need to fit that yet, also i should hopefully soon have the rest of the bits so i can finish off fitting my Pioneer Avic-X1. Ive also got the CD Changer etc for this in the boot, however i need to figgure out exactlly how i'm going to mount it as its currently loose on the floor!

Cheers

Nice mod moving the steering wheel to the wrong side of the car.

lol, yeah i guess thats going to look abit odd to the majority of people on this forum.

Oh and just to put it straight, its on the right side of the car to begin with, get it right hand side is right? lol

that arguement dosent work because the converse would also have to be true, and left hand != wrong side

most of the world is left why do you have to be different? (for once its not the US)

That is a sweet car. I love the Console and headlights

Lovin the centre console mate, looks about one million times better.

We brits drive on the correct side I couldn't imagine changing gear with my right hand.

I don't know much about those cars since they don't make Vauxhalls here state side though it looks to be about equivalent to a Focus, which isn't bad at all.

the US has a severe shortage of sporty hatch-backs.

I love what you've done to the center console and the projector headlighs... projectors are always an awesome addition to any car IMO.

I'm a bit confused as to why you spent the money on coilovers when you could have spent much less on simply new springs for the same lowered effect? And if you're going to go coils you'd be best served to take it to a pro to have it at least weight balanced and at most setup for whatever kind of driving you intend to do.


I think a cheap mod that would work wonders for the look would be to get some longer & stronger lug nuts and wheel spacers to give it a wider stance... while you're in there you could probably pull the brakes and spray them with some oven paint to sharpen up the look a bit. That is unless you've got the coin for new wheels and brakes

Also I'd replace the grill with something badgeless and less flashy

if you value youre life get REAL wheel spacers with that bolt to the axle, dont get the cheapos! hehe

Lol now thats confusing, all i know is right hand drive = correct



Thanks for the feedback, appreciate the comments, and i must be going the right direction as others are liking it Hopefully you'll check back every now and again as i slowly make more progress.



Cheers mate, yeah the centre console looks great compaired to the original black one, which due to the cracks i had to swap anyway, things like that annoy me and make me loose sleep untill i sort them out lol.

Oh and i too couldn't imagine changing gear with my right hand either, i guess due to the fact we are used to it the other way round it would take some serious adjusting to.

Yeah i guess if you don't have many sporty hatch backs, i guess in some respects you could compaire it to the Focus for a rough comparison of a sporty hatch. Though in my opinion the Astra is much better in many respects (model dependant of course)

Thanks for the feedback on the centre console and headlights mate, glad you like them I couldn't agree more either, the 'Angel Eye' projector headlights make a huge impact to the look of any car, and i'd go for them any day of the week.

As for the coilovers, i got these because springs on standard shocks just don't do it for me, i agree its a much cheaper option and you could lower the car pretty much to the same degree, but the handling performance in my opinion is no where near a coilover setup. Ive been in a few cars that have just had new springs fitted, and while it does deffinatly improove the handling of the car, there is no comparison between just springs and a complete adjustable coilover setup in my opinion.

In the future i may take it somewhere and have the coils adjusted, though in all honesty at this moment in time i'm very happy with them, the handling is amazing vs the majority of cars on the roads here in the UK, considering its a front wheel drive car i think the handling is well and truly stunning considering the road conditions were currently facing. Ideally i'd need the coils setting up if they can be improoved much for what we call 'fast road use' and potential track day use, as in the future i'd love to take her on the track when i get the Z20LET in with a few other mods.

I'm hoping to swap the grill out in the future too mate, i'm not all too keen on the standard grill, so will hopefully be swapping it for an OPC one in the future, infact i'll try and post an internet pic here soon so you can see which one i'm considering, i thought with a carbon bonnet it would suit very well.

As for the brakes and wheels, i should be getting some second hand wheels from someone in the near future, they are hardly amazing, but i think will look nice on the car, and will last me till i decide which ones i'd like as a more permanent choice. The brakes i'm getting some of those light weight racing 4pot willwood calipers for the front with some big disks and bells to suit, for the back i'm going to leave those standard for the time being, and will hopefully decide what to do with those in the future.

Cheers for coming into comment aswell though, i appreciate your input



Lol yeah cheap wheel spacers = a big no no in my opinion, my intentions with the car are always to never cheap out on anything, so anything i'm going to do i'll hopefully do right with the best choice.

just to add, with the roads and sheer amount of speedbumps here now, for long term use, lowered springs on standard shocks just wrecks the shocks.

So ya might aswell get the extra handling for the extra cash than having to replace your shocks down the line.

Looking good really like the headlights. Twisted are they called Opel in the USA? In Europe Vauxhall's are called Opel's and in the UK it's Vauxhall, never understood why, I think it's so they can tell weather you imported them or not.

no opel or vauxhall in the US

and as for the US not having many sport hatches, Im waiting on this one that my dad showed me they are producing in the near future (he works for ford)


^ford verve concept


Lookin really good, the center console made a huge difference in the look. Keep up the good work

Yeah mate, the speed bumps around now days are unreal, its pretty crazy just how many there is now days. Ive had a few friends run standard shocks and different springs and i agree, they don't really last amazingly well.

However the coils have great reputation for the durability, and the handling improovement is enough for me, even if they only last as long as standard shocks with different springs lol.



Thanks for the feedback mate, glad you like the headlights, i too think they make a nice difference to the appearence of the car in general



Considering its going to be a new car, i think thats a reasonable looking new hatch i think what my mind is set on more than anything when i look at it is that nice looking big front mount grill, to be fair i don't like the majority of new cars due to the look and shape of them, i think they are horrible, going back a few years to the likes of my Astra i think cars looked great in general then. I could have bought a good bit newer car if i wanted, but ive always had a heart for the MK4 Astra, so finding a good example for this age isn't always too easy, however i was lucky with this one and am very happy with it

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Oh and for those interested ie Twisted and others, the grill i was thinking of getting was this:

http://www.lmfvauxhall.co.uk/store/image.p...pe=P&id=551

Its about £80 + delivery, pretty expensive just for a grill, but i think this would look cracking on a carbon bonnet. Input on this is welcome and appreciated.

that will look "ace" or as we say in the north east USA "wicked awesome"

as for the carbon-fiber hood IMO they look best with at least a gloss coat, natural CF looks rather trashy IMO.

Glad to hear your putting proper wheels and brakes on in the near future...

Thanks for the input mate, glad you like my idea of using that grill, i thought it was different to what you usually see modified grill wise, and should make a nice difference to the front of the car.

Yeah i was hoping to get a 'glossed' type carbon bonnet so it has a nice shiny finish, its just a pain finding some one who still produces these where you can fit a normal fitment grill in the front, ive found a company that will make me one without a grill at all, but when i upgrade to the Z20LET i'm going to need all the airflow i can get through that grill so cutting air-flow is a no go for me sadly.

Hopefully i'll be putting the new brakes on in the near future, maybe a month or so and they'll be on, i'll see how things go, ive got the calipers on their way, but i need to get some 5 stood bells that will suit my car.

Cheers

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Ok time for a little update, ive finally finished installing the head unit, all the wiring you have to do on this thing is crazy, its taken me a while to remove alot of trim, fit wires, re-fit the trim etc so all in all its taken a good while start to finish, wish i'd have taken some pics along the way... Oh well.

Ive also got the 6CD changer mounted in the boot, there was already a little space for putting stuff in, so i decided mounting the changer there would be reasonable. Although it still sticks out a little, its a good fit as ive bolted it in place and made a surround of my own, at least this keeps it from rolling around in the boot and getting hammered etc. Please also note, the little door wasn't on the picture, and the boot and changer need a good clean now!

Also, ive been running some more wiring, snapped a picture of some of it while ive still got the glove box out, its the power wire for the amplified which runs right down into the boot, as you can see its a good gauge wire, hopefully it'll help keep the voltage up better than some thinner stuff. Maybe i'll add a cap in the near future too. I'm having a small-ish removeable box in the boot with 2x subs, as sometimes i need to use my boot, so sadly at the moment i can't have a build i can't remove at least some of!

Anyway, heres the pics:











All in all, i'm very happy with how everything has gone, everything is currently wired and working, ie GPS, DVD, Radio, and the CD changer. Just need to finish wiring for the amp now!

Cheers everyone

nice grill, only problem is it's an opel badge on it, and youve got a vauxhall, one of those things that grind on me, but if your ok with it then it's all good

Tell me i'm confused but Vauxhall and Opel = same company? ie you can buy an astra in the UK with Vauxhall badges, or else where you can buy the Astra with Opel badges, they are both the same, other than in the UK, northen ireland etc we get them with Vauxhall badges instead, as Opel is vauxhall, it makes it 'different' to see a vauxhall car with opel badges on over here, so its of course abit different.

But yeah i think its fine, as in my opinion its the same brand, so it matches the car fine

I love the look of the grill, i think thats the one i'm going to go for, hopefully i won't be dissapointed if i order that one.

Cheers

I'm looking at that picture with the power wire and thinking "wow he has a lot of space under the steering wheel" duh...

I've got to say I love your center console so much I'm tempted to do something similar in my 240sx (aka 200sx in your neck of the woods) I'm thinking of buying a 2nd set of center console trim pieces smoothing them out and painting them a glossy silver

I've also been looking at similar DVD/GPS units as well, I'm leaning towards a double-din Kenwood unit. I was originally going to go Alpine because you can eject the GPS bit and make it a stand alone unit for use in another car... but that was until every review I read said that their unit was just over priced garbage.

that pioneer unit you've got doesn't look like anything I've seen here state side, but it does look slick

Man I've got to get working on my car, at least I got around to pulling some panels to judge fitment of the new speakers I'm ordering

Lol, yeah i can guess it would have been confusing, as your steering wheel would be on the left. As i'm sure youve figgured, its just the glove box i had removed for fitting the wiring.

Ive also got some 6x9 Vibe speakers that i'm going to mount in the rear 'parcel shelf' i was originally considering cutting the wiring half way down the car for the rear speakers and running it from there to the rear shelf, though ive figgured if i'm going to the trouble i might aswell just run new cables from the head unit up to the back with some up-rated wiring, i'll obviously benefit more with some thicker wire, so this is what i intend to do.

I'm going to have to pull the panels on the front doors and measure up to see what speakers i can fit there too, considering what i currently have there are the originalls, they actually sound pretty good and are capable of producing reasonable bass for standard speakers, they obviously can't take the power though when you start turning it up loud, so i'm going to look into replacing those shortly too

I'd say go for it Twisted mate, i think a silver console would look great in your car, be sure to take some pics and post them up if and when you do it. In my opinion a nice neat silver console would make a huge impact on any car that has originally got a black centre such as mine had.

Maybe i'm wrong, but i thought the pioneer unit i had, was out in the US etc? its the Avic-X1 there is also the X1R and the X1BT, its a cracking unit, personally the best one ive ever got to play around with by far. Its got some great features on it, the sound setup is nice and simple to use, but yet very effective. Also the GPS seems pretty good so far too, so all in all i'm really pleased with it

In my car ive got 2x single DIN slots, so double DIN was out of the question without some serious modding, the other din slot has got my CD holder fitted at the moment. There are some great double DIN units though, i think Pioneer also have some pretty high spec double DIN units, might be worth while looking to see what they offer round your end.

Thanks for the feedback aswell mate, glad to hear you like what ive done so far and be sure to post us all some pics when you get round to doing some work, it'll be nice to see how you get on, oh and nice choice of car aswell by the way

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EDIT:

Forgot to mention ive got my new brakes today, well they are second hand, but new to me.
They are a nice pair of wilwood 4 pot calipers, need a good rub down and re-paint, but all in all seem great. I'll post some pics sometime soon.
I need to order a pair of 5 stood bells to suit yet, going to cost yet another small fortune!

well they are all owned by GM and ya wouldnt put saab badges on it would ya?

just me being picky, i have a unique taste with cars and i don't like seeing cars badged up as something they are not.

hey at least it's not chav as fook with a big TURBO badge on the back of a N/A car

its a nice grill though, cant ya get a de-badged one or are you not into de-badging?

After pulling some panels and taking some measurements last night I ordered up some speakers and a Kenwood GPS/DVD unit

I looked at the Pioneer stuff but all of their Double Din units used Disc based GPS, which I hate. the Kenwood uses built in Garmin GPS with all of the maps stored on the hardware I also got a sweet deal on a brand new one ($600 us Shipped)... so you'll see some work from me yet.

I still need to sell my other car though so I can start working in my garage again

no i deffinatly wouldn't put saab badges on it, but the thing is both Opel and Vauxhall are basically the same company, both of them make the exactlly same car, just one says Opel, the other for the UK and northen ireland says Vauxhall, else where in the world, identically the same car just with Opel badges.

If saab made Astras exactlly the same, i'd expect some people to ride round with saab badges on them, though the thoughts of it do seem quite horrible indeed.

Lol yeah i'm not into the chavvy stuff, when i do drop the Z20LET in i was considering keeping the badges on it to say its only a 1.8 should deffinatly be good for a laugh when people pull up along side and think its something its not, bring on the SRi-T!!

Yeah mate i'm into de-badging deffinatly, ive looked at alot of grills and i think this is the best looking one out of all ive seen (and the most expensive for that matter, not that this comes into it) i just thought the opel badge is nice, and rare to see in the UK, and i love the honey comb mesh and the styling to it. Its got a kind of standard look, but when you look properly its far different, i thought it would give a nice look to the front end

I'm going to give it abit more thought before i order one, i'm really not sure which direction to go with it to be honest, though i do love the look of that grill.



Sounds good mate, looking forward to seeing some pictutres of your stuff

Kenwood is a good brand, so hopefully it'll be a nice bit of kit youve got coming, sounds like it should be nice.

In all honesty, my unit uses disk based GPS, but so far i'm very happy with it, i don't know how you go about updating the hardware stored maps on your unit, but on mine you can just buy the latest disk, let it update and away you go.

Obviously if you didn't have the CD-changer on my unit, i can see it being a real problem, and at this point i'd hate disk based GPS, for the simple reason it'd go into its 'basic GPS mode' if you were to remove the CD and insert a different disk!

I'm guessing your unit probably won't have the need for a hide away unit either? that would be a big bonus to start with, the wiring in my car is unreal at the moment, if you remove the side panels, theres so much wiring that didn't use to be there, routing wires under seats from front to the back of the car isn't the best fun ive had, neither is drilling holes and fitting rubber gromits in the bulk head either to be honest

What car do you have in the garage TS? i remember that Subaru you used to have, i always thought that looked like a great car!

that's what i'm talking about, i love sleepers



yeah you still got that 2nd sx TS, i thought you were giving that to me?

I sold the WRX, I ran out of performance mods to do (short of an STi drive train swap), I always hated the bug-eye 4 door look, and I wanted something sleeker and RWD... hence the 240sx

and now I have two 240SXs

it's a long story and if you're actually interested you can read about it here: http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?sho...95996&st=76

I've also got pictures of all my cars, past and present here: http://solid-orange.com/cars

except my very first car, though I know I have a couple physical photos somewhere that I'll have to hunt down and scan in.

Love the merc mate, proper gangster. Shame you never put an AMG kit on it, they look wicked wit that on.

Yeah mate, sleepers for the way, its always good fun for someone to think your car is alot less powerfull than it is, theres deffinatly some good time to be had in the hopefully not too far away future

Oh and mate, hes giving me that car remember? we agreed if i bought him a pint i could have it, i just need to get around to signing the log book



I always thought the WRX looked quite smart mate, though i do agree the bug eye type aren't my favourite, it was still a nice car none the less, oh and mine is a 5 door car, quite rare really to find a 5 door SRi, i know the normal 'sports hatch' doesn't have 5 doors, but mine is one of a few and i quite like it, excellent for those in the back, saves me getting in and out

I remember having read quite abit now about your hunt for the 240SX, i'll havw to catch up on the last couple of pages or something, but deffinatly looking forward to seeing what you have in store for your car

Also its nice to see youve kept some pics of all your cars, not so many people do that, and its always nice to look back.





Have you replied to the wrong topic? if not please step back to page 1 and take another look

well that's not fair, you just got a new car and i'm stuck with an old beaten up sunny...






i do beleive he's referring to TS's 300e.

Lol, all for the price of a pint! When i get it from him, you can have that reliant robin i told you about if you want? We can drop a 2.5 V6 in the back and make it RWD, the ultimate sleeper haha.

Ah that explains alot now ive had a look and seen the 300e, it really confused me when he said that before, i thought he'd been posting in the wrong thread or was seeing things lol.

how bouts we drop a hayabusa turbo in the back of it

Deal lol, wheelies for the way down santa pod!!

Honestly, if i'd got the money to spare, i'd love to do a seriously quick 'plastic pig' it would be amazing to make one for straight lines, can you imagine doing some crappy mods to make it stand out, so many people would go for the run with it, it would be amazing to blow everyone off, i can imagine the first few in your area, they wouldn't know what the hell had just happened.

Now doubt, handling would be totally crap, but how quick would straight line dragging be haha, damn i wish i could spare the cash and build something stupid.

take a look at this lol

the proper pictures start on page 5.

http://www.nissangtir.co.uk/forum/forum_po...=14848&PN=1

I've seen a few cool rear engine in the hatch conversions here in the states before, both were VW Golfs (not sure if they call them that in europe)

while it looks cool and the idea of RWD in a squirrelly little car is cool... it's really not cool because you're basically sitting in the engine bay. That bastard starts leaking and you've got hot fluids on you, not to mention you have to listen to it and it's like running a heater 24/7

... no thanks

it would be easy enough to put in a firewall to eliminate the problems but i reckon 99% of people who do these conversions (here anyway) use them for track only, i would imagine getting them through their SVA test would be a nightmare.

ya get some crazy hatchbacks here like twin engined ones and minis with massive engines in them so much so you have to move the dash back and sit on the back seats

Lol thats unreal, i bet thats going to be extreme once its finished. Got to surely be used on track, now that would be funny, some of the fast expensive cars on track getting blown off by this, they'd not know whats happened.



Yeah we have VW Golfs over here too, theres quite alot of them knocking around actually, some of them are alright too.

What could be worse is like a flying piston or bits or rod or something firing straight at you, lol now thats a scary thought if youve got it reving pretty high, doing high speeds under load.

As Grim has said below though, quite alot of people do tend to put a firewall in the back and sometimes some plexi aswell, so it'll keep alot of the noise down, and of course give you much more protection than you just sitting in there with the engine.

Some of the cars we have over here are amazing with their engine conversions, like the saxo with 2.0 honda vtec engine in the back running huge BHP, i'd love to have a drive of one of those



Yeah i agree, a huge ammount of people that have done such conversions have only really done them for track use, i know some of them are road legal though, so i bet there are some fun times to be had in some of those cars.

Ive seen a few minis with big engines in too, one ive seen done a few times is the honda vtec 1.6 in the mini tuned up they can run alot of power for such a small, light car. Wouldn't you just love to take one of those for a drive though?

I'd love a really fast track day car, maybe in the future i'll eventually get myself something really fast for track use

normal tuned pulsar would obliterate alot of the fast and expensive cars around these days so that thing will be crackers, love those little rockets



theres a mini local to me with a 1.8 vtec lump in it, things fuckin mental, spits flames and eats most other cars.

would be a handful in the wet though

Haha yeah, the pulsar is a pretty mean machine, i hope you get one, i'm sure you'll have a load of fun with it.

Not supprised the mini is spitting flames, i bet it has no cat on it, and not much of an exhaust lol, and any tunning mods i bet the flames are pretty big.

Can't comment on the handling in the wet though, i wouldn't really know what to expect from such a machine, i bet with some beefy tyres on it might not be all that bad.

When my brothers Corsa is finished being built up, that should be mental, its almost 2.1, on throttle boddies, got a full forged bottom end including forged crank, hes hoping for approx 250BHP when finished and when tuned on the rolling road.

In such a small light car, with a slip diff it should be like a rocket, i can't see him coming against anything much any time soon thats going to be faster.

All i know is, its going to put the speed of my astra to shame.

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On the plus point however, i decided to snap a few pics for you guys,

Ive got my 6x9s wired up in the parcel shelf, i disconned the rear door speakers and ran complete new wiring from front to back with some uprated wiring to get the best possible from the head unit and 6x9s and the sound difference and volume is great, i just need to upgrade the front door speakers now and i'll be more happy!

Ive also swapped the exhaust, original plan was oval as this one is, but a DTM upswept style, however as this is a temp measure, this one looked good so i bought it and fitted it, personally i'm loving it at the moment, can't go wrong with some good stainless steel system!

Also, ive bought and fitted the OPC grill i had shown you all before, i know Grim, your not too keen on the opel side of things, but i couldn't resist

All in all, i'm very happy all round, the car is looking great i think so everything is on track so far.

Oh and the sub box in the boot is wired along with the amp and working fine, i need to tidy it up abit aswell, along with the 6x9s really, then i'll take some pics for you all to see, though you may catch a slight bit of the sub box in the pic with the 6x9s.

Moving on heres the pics:

New exhaust, please also note i need to cut a little bit out of the under side of the bumper to make it fit abit better, i'll do this when i replace the exhaust bolts as the ones i'm using at the moment aren't much use!

Oh and its a 6x4 inch tail pipe by the way





Next up the 6x9s in the parcel shelf, please excuse the mess, i'll give it a good clean when ive finished off mounting them in 100%



Lastly, heres the new grill fitted, personally i love it, really transforms the look of the front end.







Thats all for now everyone, i'll try and take some more pics as i go along and finish up a few more bits.

Cheers

grill looks great man, but now you got to de-badge the boot

Interesting car. I saw loads of them around the UK and Europe. Good to see GM is doing well overseas. Would be an interesting car to have here in America if they would release it with a diesel. I can imagine the mileage now, probably give a Jetta a good run for its money.

Looks nice man...

I've been playing catch-up with my 240... hopefully once I get my truck crap settled I can start gearing up for the engine swap.

so what's next for you?

Haha yeah i do, i think i'll eventually remove the vauxhall badge, not sure if theres a small hole behind it or not though. In the event there is it'll have to wait for abit as ive got more important things to do before that.

Thanks for the feedback on the grill though, glad you like it. I'm very pleased with it at the moment.




GM is doing extremelly well over here, in England there is a ton of Astras, you see them everywhere lol. In general Vauxhall does well here.



Cheers mate, glad you like it. Yeah ive been reading your truck issues. Hope you get that sorted out soon mate.

I think the engine swap should go quite well for you, if youve got an engine crane etc all should be good I'll be joining you too in the near future when i come to fit the Z20LET, theres not much point in tuning the engine ive got in much at the moment, i figgured i might aswell wait for the bigger better turbo engine and tune that, i'll get much better value for money in general.

Whats next? i don't know lol. Ive got a GSI spoiler on the way, infact it'll probably be here tomorrow, then ive got to go and get some paint mixed to spray the spoiler with and get the time to paint it up. I got a good buy on the spoiler though, and it'll be much better than just any cheap fiberglass replacements. I just want to make sure its right when its done so i spent the bit extra.

Ive also got some wheels in the pipe line that i'll be getting second hand. I'll need to give them abit of a refurb though as Grim did, though i'll be doing mine in a dark metalic grey. With the big wilwood calipers in red behind them on a red car i think it should look spot on.

Also ive still got to finish the refurb job on the Wilwood calipers, they were second hand and in crappy condition when i bought them, hence the price i paid, but i got a good buy. Theres nothing wrong with them as such other than they looked crappy. Someone decided it was a good idea to paint them gold, and all the paint is chipped and rubbish so ive been sorting one of them out and been spraying it with red temp paint. Infact i'll do a little update below with some pics and details for everyone to see.

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As i was just saying to TS above, ive been working on one of the Wilwood 4pot calipers, they are the superlite calipers and weigh very little!

When i originally got these, i got them second hand and some fool decided it was a good idea to paint them (doing a crappy job aswell) in gold, they have been kicked around abit and alot of the gold had chipped off etc.

So what ive been doing is refurbing them, ive been giving them a really good sand down, clean and spraying up in a red heat proof paint. I'm not 100% sure on the exact tone of colour though, but i think if i paint the text back in, using some black paint then they'll be looking good.

When i do get my wheels sorted and paint them in the dark metalic grey, these should look amazing behind the wheels!

Anyway heres some pics, you can see the one ive been working on thats now red. Ive photographed the other so you can get an idea as to what they originally looked like.







Oh and heres a shot of one of the bells and rotar, other than the sheer size of these things, they don't look too impressive so i'm really considering getting some new rotars aswell, i was hoping for some drilled ones or something as i think they'd look stunning with the rest of the setup.



You can see from the picture these things are big.

I'll hopefully be doing some more work on these shortly, and i'm hoping soon i'll have the wheels sorted and these sorted aswell so i can get them straight on the car.

Cheers everyone