Orange Peels Astra CDi - The road to recovery!

[Orange Peel]

First a brief history of the car.

As some of you may know I own an F Reg MkII Astra CDi. I’ve actually owned this car twice in the past 9 years. The first time round I was 21 and the 1.8i CDi was the biggest cc car I’d owned. She was beautiful, not a scratch or dent in site and drive like a dream, seeming far faster than it should be, but then my previous car was a 1.3 Belmont! After owning the car for 2 years I landed a job that came with a brand new 328 BMW Coupe so I sold the Astra to my brother without a second thought. He kept it for another 2 years and spent most of his free time cleaning and maintaining it, looking after her far better than I did. However he moved on to bigger and better things and sold it to one of my mates. He loved the car too but didn’t take and pride in maintaining or cleaning her so for the 2 years he owned her she started to take a turn for the worse! I managed to buy her back in 2002 for £600, still as she was when I owned her but slightly tatty and rough around the edges. As my brother and I had the facilities to start transforming her into something a bit different we started work late on in 2002. By the end of the second weekend the car had the 1.8 taken out and a 20XE from an Astra GTE installed and all the running gear etc. The car was completely transformed! She looked a lot more at home being 30 odd mm closer to the ground and sat nicely on a set of MkIII GSi wheels.

Here’s a picture of how she looked then.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/NASOP1975/DSCF0004Small.jpg

Besides the GTE make over I left the body styling as standard with the exception of the wheels and a twin stainless back box.

Moving on to the main point of this thread… As you will see from the pictures below the car is in need of some TLC. I kick myself about selling her all the time as she wouldn’t be in the state she is now if I’d have kept ownership.

This is how she looks now. Since the Tax and insurance ran out in November she’s been stored on my drive covered up. First time out and stared in 3 months and fired up first time.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/NASOP1975/DSCF0021Small.jpg

From this picture things don’t look to bad. Just in need of a good polish and some back to black, however if we move closer the problems start to show!!

Probably my main cause for concern are the rear arches. The near side arch looked mint until late last year when the rust burst through in what seemed like a day!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/NASOP1975/DSCF0025Small.jpg

The drivers side isn’t too bad but if one gets done it would be silly not to get the other replaced at the same time.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/NASOP1975/DSCF0026Small.jpg

Moving to the back the rear of the car is OK except some rust on the hatch. This is found along the bottom of the window under the seal.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/NASOP1975/DSCF0027Small.jpg

Going to the driver’s door, which is the worst of the lot you can see the mess made by some chav who wanted to take the car for a spin without using the keys!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/NASOP1975/DSCF0028Small.jpg

At first this wasn’t too bad but within the space of a month this had happened. I think its probably too far gone to fix so a new door will be the best option.

The bottom of the drivers door has started to go too!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/NASOP1975/DSCF0029Small.jpg

In this picture you may notice tiny cracks in the paint on the sill. About 2 years ago my brother replaced both sill skins, however his knowledge doesn’t stretch to bodywork so the signs are starting to show that these will need replacing too.

Another area for concern is the windscreen. Around the edge of the seal small sport of rust are starting to spring up as seen below.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/NASOP1975/DSCF0038Small.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/NASOP1975/DSCF0035Small.jpg

This has been caused (I think) by a repair done many years ago. The car had a slight front end nudge that was repaired via insurance. When the front end was resprayed the new window seal was installed before the paint had hardened causing it to sink into the paint. Now the seal is getting older and changing shape its moved causing the paint to crack!

The last bit that need attention is behind the drivers headlight. This is the only bit of rust that’s behind the scenes. I’ve checked the inside (boot, arches, floorplan etc) and its all solid except this bit.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/NASOP1975/DSCF0034Small.jpg

Hope this hasn’t bored you too much and I assure you as things progress they will be added.

Thanks for reading.
OP :)

[Heathercdi]

:) my sister car

[Dan Gliballs]

Oooh lordy, that's rusting in an awful lot of places Mr Peel :eek:

I love the overall look of the car though :) It's a pity you're not down here as I would entrust your MK2 with my bodyshop chappy :(

MK3 GSi rims?

[Orange Peel]

Oooh lordy, that's rusting in an awful lot of places Mr Peel :eek:

I love the overall look of the car though :) It's a pity you're not down here as I would entrust your MK2 with my bodyshop chappy :(

MK3 GSi rims?

Yeah, spots are poping up all over the place. The underside and inside (under the carpet etc are sound. The car has been undersealed every year for the past 8 years so it really solid. Well all except the arches/sill and around the window lol.

The rims are off a Mk3. I think they look like they belong on the car. If I LET it I'd like to either keep those or get standard LET 16"ers.

If your bodyshop is top notch and not tooooo expensive I'd happily drive down and book it in :)

[Heathercdi]

Thought you'd done some work on her then OP

Can't say the same for mine about it being solid, at the moment it has a lack of floor.

When are you starting work on her then?

[Orange Peel]

Thought you'd done some work on her then OP

Can't say the same for mine about it being solid, at the moment it has a lack of floor.

When are you starting work on her then?

Beside a couple of little things I've not got round to doing anything really substantial :(

I'm trying to get the fence moved at my house so I can stick the astra behind it. Until I do or magic some other room its at the bungalow which I only visit once a month.

I'm wanting to get it here so I can strip and store everythin etc. Then start looking at the rust.

[GazJevs84]

looks like a nice car mate shame about the dude that did not look after it tho but i am sure when you are finished with it will be back to it's glory days mate

[Brett]

come on man!!

did you abd steve ever sort anything out about the doors of his written of Mk2? Im certain they are rot free (and frankly anything that makes him get it out of his garage is a good thing!)