belmont sri
21-09-2007, 04:11 PM
hi folks havnt been on the site to long but found it very helpfull and now the time has come for me to post a thread on my belmont. the story goes back 4 years when after owning many astra variants i decided to take the plunge on ebay and buy a new one having had many gte 16 valves and knowing how much of a capable car they were i knew back then i wanted the performance but with more versatility so looking beyong the gte brand i decided on a blemont sri the right car came up and with a bid of 120 pound it was secured. the following week i found myself traveling back from southend on sea quit suprised at the performance and condition of the car. so anyway i decided to run it round for a few months till the mot run out to give me time to decide what to do! big mistake i made was not having the timing belt changed lol yes you guessed it. so a plan for an xe conversion was hatched i bought all the bits i needed to do the convestion then went out and bought a gte 16 valve with a cracked bulkhead too. started undoing everything that holds the 8 valve in to be let down time and time again by people you know the sort yeah i can do that but never do! anyway i got so fed up of all this i sold all the valver stuff ide aquired off and more or less mothballed the car in the garage............ start of this year i decided to do something with it so off came the head and a cam belt kit and another head aquired i started to rebuild the 8 valve after a few weekends tinkering round the garage it was up and running next step was mot whilst doing the engine i put some new discs on the front as i knew the ones on it had warped and done a cv boot gaiter at the same time took it for mot failed....... patch on outersill what i was aware of but thought ide chance my luck front to rear brake pipes and brake imbalance 1 week later it went through with no problems. anyway i decided to tax it as the end of the month so not to lose any money to the government so it sat in the garage for another few weeks till i taxed it. after getting it taxed it was put into daily use where i had to change the fuel pipes on the tank as they had perished all the problems sorted i finally got to enjoy the belmont again for 2 weeks anyway! going to bed late one friday night after watching a film i was awoke at roughly 3 in the morning by the sound of my belmont starting up as my drives just under my bedroom window i jumped out of bed blurry eyed to get to the window in time to see my car drive off down the road straight on the phone to the law seen that i had my car back the next day allbeit with a trashed drivers door passenger door and passenger wing its a **** that this happens but this has given me the motivation to spur the car on to bigger things. i knew i had a passenger door in the garage of a car ide broken for parts at some time and a call to allvaux in notts seen a good drivers door come my way with the doors refitted it was on the road again now my plans ment something plan is to build the belmont into a useable everyday car with enough power to have some fun with the vts boys and have its very own look so i started searching ebay again for bits that i needed and came across an astra gsi beeing broken for parts so a phone call later i found myself heading over to bedworth for a chat this is where i met daz the guy breaking the gsi nice chap own little workshop and an x vauxhall tech who happens to love them as much as we all do so a deal was done on the disc brake rear beam and why i was at it i put a deposit down on all the running gear to as we exchanged stories and so on into the conversation somewhere along the line i told him he may aswell do the conversion to as hes done a number of corsa turbo conversions and so on.................... so this morning the big day had come over i go turning up at the unit just turned 10 for the rear beam to be fitted i must admitt i was a bit shocked myself to be finding myself heading back home at 11.40 with the beam fully fitted with new brake pipes and pads and at a cost of only 60 pounds which i find very resonable and it certianly is money well spent you can notice the difference in the way it turns in straight away now i have an added anti roll bar and slight camber difference. so next step is the engine conversion which will go ahead in a few weeks again this is beeing done by daz who i can now recommend with confidence some pics of the job done this morning. 2 019.jpg (34.4 KB) 2 023.jpg (35.2 KB) 2 027.jpg (28.4 KB)
2 029.jpg (30.2 KB) 2 032.jpg (37.7 KB)update: after driveing the car over the weekend i cant believe the difference in stability in corners theres deffo a 100% improvement in cornering.
2 029.jpg (30.2 KB) 2 032.jpg (37.7 KB)update: after driveing the car over the weekend i cant believe the difference in stability in corners theres deffo a 100% improvement in cornering.