1989 gte rebuild

[BenH]

Hi all, This would be my 5th mk2 astra and 3rd 8v gte brought this one in 2005, It was run around for in for a year or so with the cage and lsd before being parked up for a little restoration

how it looked when I got it,

gte restoration by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr

Then the start of a little light restoration

gte restoration by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr


gte restoration by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr

[BenH]

Re: 1989 gte rebuild

Then on to removal of the sunroof and welding in the back section of another gte roof



gte restoration by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr


gte restoration by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr


gte restoration by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr

[BenH]

Re: 1989 gte rebuild

Then after a while of welding on 2 new cills one rear section one rear wheel arch and a whole load of little patchs hear there and every where as is the case with an old astra!
It was time for a little paint.


gte restoration by ben a.k.a me, on Flick


gte restoration by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr


gte restoration by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr

And there it sat first topcoat awaiting colour sanding and another coat till now!

[BenH]

Re: 1989 gte rebuild

Wet sanded and another coat of ruby red, with purple pearl added looks much better out in the sun.


gte restoration by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr

Layout for the ghost flame,

gte restoration by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr

With a bit of laquer on top of the purple pearl flames, from some angles you cant see the flames maybe not as ghost like as I wanted but not too bad for a first go. Still needs flating off and polishing.


gte restoration by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr

[BenH]

Re: 1989 gte rebuild

They do stand out a lot more in bright sun light


gte restoration by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr

I'd decided you cant have a gte without the strip on the back, but not wanting a black vinyl one I painted one in the same colour as the wheels and logo's on the side's


gte restoration by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr


gte restoration by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr

A few (9!) wheels all ready for the R888's to be put back on.

gte restoration by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr


gte restoration by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr

[BenH]

Re: 1989 gte rebuild

Next on the list of things to do is paint the suspention in black it's all ready primed just a couple of bits to clean up. Then work out how to get the engine in should be fairly simple, its having an ecotec. I was going to rebuild the 8v but I managed to pick up the ecotec with a rebuilt bottom end lightened and balanced and all new bearing ect with a couple of cylinder heads and a few extra bits for less than sorting out the 8v. The plan is to put a msII on it that has been sat in a box built up and ready to go for a couple of years.. Running on bike ITBS with a 8 injector set up standard cams for now and some sort of exhaust manifold..

[tonka666]

Re: 1989 gte rebuild

Nice car! Pretty extensive rebuild there bud did you do the metalwork yourself? Not to sure about the flames but everything else i like. Engine spec sounds promising and cant be many if any ecotec powered mk2's about.

[BenH]

Re: 1989 gte rebuild

Thanks, yeah all the work has been done by myself it's not quite perfect but I'd get no enjoyment out of paying someone else to do it. I know what you mean about the flames they can be a bit marmite ish but it's somting I've wanted to try for a long while. TBH the engine block is being a bit of a pig somebody decided to modifiy it slightly to fit in a chevette I'd not noticed when I picked it up that one of the alternator mounts on the back of the pump had been cut off, but with a bit of head scratching a large arc set and SS rods it now has a new mount. I'll find out if it worked if the alternator does not drop off
I've got most the bits for the engine now just need to make up an inlet manifold it came with one for bike carbs but I'm thinking a standard one cut up and welded to would be better as I can keep the injectors in the right place and a standard fuel rail, for the exhaust side I should be able to cut the flange of 8v one as I have few to hand and make a new flange and weld it on then attack it with a die grinder which means I can keep my standard 8v exhaust and down pipes for now then worry about somthing better in the future.

[tonka666]

Re: 1989 gte rebuild

Fair play i am the same i like to do it all myself not paid anyone to work on my own cars for 12 years now and saved myself a small fortune in labour

[BenH]

Re: 1989 gte rebuild

Had a good couple of days on it
Managed to get the block painted and prepped crank installed just need to counter sink the big ends for the arp's and finish baffling the sump. I ended up using the 20seh block in the end as the ecotec one has had to many bits cut off it around the engine mounting.

astra gte by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr

All the suspention ect bits painted in zinc rich red oxide then a good coat of black 2k direct gloss.


gte by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr

I'd cleaned up and sorted the rust out and painted the underneth some time ago with zinc phosphate then 2k gloss black, today was the less fun part spraying on a good coat of black waxoyl and injecting all the box sections and cills ect. 7 ltrs later a good proportion of which was all over me.

gte by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr

[DarrenH]

Re: 1989 gte rebuild

i missed this thread ! lovely motor and work gone into it.

as its remaining as a track car i think its ok for little flamboyant touches (like the flames) it would look odd on an otherwise clean standard car.

gonna admit i am far from the worlds biggest ecotec fan, but then all my experience of them are dragging round 1400 kilo vectra B's, it will be very interesting in a 900-1000 kilo astra i bet.

what are your long term plans ? doing it up for the the project, or do you aim to keep and use it ?

[BenH]

Re: 1989 gte rebuild

Cheers, there is no way I'm selling this. I've had it though thick and thin a few times I've been tempted to get shot of it but could never bring myself to sell it or some of the many parts I've collected over the years on this and other gte's. I'm really looking forward to doing some more trackdays, top of the list would be cadwell park again
The ecotec was a last minute buy to be honest I was going to put the 8v back in then turbo it (already made the manifold) but this came up locally with new bearings lightend and balanced bottom end with a load of bits for £100 too good to pass over really and more potential than the 8v. Main goal at the moment is just to get it useable and back on the road for now and enjoy having a car to drive again as I've just had vans for a few years now, I'm doing some research into proper front splitters and rear diffusers I will have to make some kind of engine undertray to go with the splitter to get a venturi effect and make the splitter easy to remove so I dont rip it off on the road but thats long term at the moment.

[tonka666]

Re: 1989 gte rebuild

Only real prob with the ecotecs is they are strangled by the inlet and exhaust manifold and you are already spending money to get it to the levels of a good condition standard xe. But as darren said in a light car it wont be slow What goodies did you get with the eco apart from the bottom end? bit of a bargain thou just for that. Keep up the good work!

[BenH]

Re: 1989 gte rebuild

Only real prob with the ecotecs is they are strangled by the inlet and exhaust manifold and you are already spending money to get it to the levels of a good condition standard xe. But as darren said in a light car it wont be slow What goodies did you get with the eco apart from the bottom end? bit of a bargain thou just for that. Keep up the good work!

True but mine with have a different exhaust induction and management and I wont need a cat I'm not after lots of pony's just a snappy engine with a good spread of torque. All the others goodies were a couple of heads with cams in good condition, bike carbs and custom manifold for them to fit the eco (I wont be using these) air filter for the carbs, a few ford dispacks and edis's with a 30 tooth trigger and mounting ect. Rwd vauxhall box probley a R20 but hard to tell as it has been sanded to clean it up? Some custom made rwd engine mount and most strangley a early flat type xe flywheel and round tooth bottom cam pulley

[BenH]

Re: 1989 gte rebuild

I got a little bit done this weekend, but it was fighting me all the way. Fitted the lights back in but had a mare with one of the rear ones the rear panel I had replaced did not fit the light too well if at all should of checked before painting it really! But with a soft mallet and slide hammer it now fits, not perfectly but as good as it's going to get.

Managed to get the axle built up and front struts semi built, just waiting on some new bolts and my springs to be sand blasted by a friend.

gte by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr

It took a bit of thinking but managed to get the rack / bulkhead brace sorted. Should really of welded somting in before when I was doing the body work but should do the job and at least I can unbolt it. Still needs to come off for paint.

gte by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr

Started to clean up the inside to get all the muck from wet sanding off and over spray of waxoil, even had some help today but I dont think he really did a lot other than make more mess.

gte by ben a.k.a me, on Flickr