Mace
16-08-2004, 10:58 AM
to bring up to date.....
From humble beginnings here it is a bog standard H reg astra GTE 2.0 8v bought in late november 2003. I originaly bought the car as scrap/ an engine donor but on further inspection it was a good car . I bought it from FAB BMW storage place in Cinderford, they had it for about a year in storage so no tax or Mot, (wish i had pics now but i didnt know i was gonna keep it) looked a sorry state dust all over it, they got it going (the battery was flat), got home the battery was dead and needed replacing for a start.. looking through the glove box i found all the original manuals and the original service book, the damn thing had FSH, unusual for this type of car.
I took it down the garage an after a full check over, he said its a damn good car needs little work, no rust on body underneath or in sills etc, small amount to rear arches but could be rubbed down/ no filler or welding ... so on with the repair.. 1st was the battery and also he found the steering rack was leaking but he said he had one in a gte that had been stripped out the front. i checked it over and asked how much he wanted, his reply 'dont worry about it' .. so with a free steering rack all it cost me inc fitting and battery was 55 quid..
So on to MOT. The mot station guy said it was a good one most are ready for scrap, it failed on an incorrectly adjusted headlamp, front top strut mount and the two front tyres, the strut mount was 50 quid fitted and two toyo proxie tyres were fitted and the tracking done for good measure.
So the car was finally ready for the road.. but the car was completely standard apart from a couple of things: twin exhaust, a bee sting ariel single wiper and some oval side repeaters. So first thing was to sort out the handling. To keep costs down i sourced some strut braces off mig web second hand, both front an rear, cost me around 30 quid for the both of them. This didnt make a great deal of difference as the car still steered like a boat. after looking through demon tweeks etc spax suspension kits were dear, around 400 pounds which was no good, i found a guy after much looking on the internet who decided he didnt like the feel of his 400 pound spax adjustable PSX suspension kit, so i stole them for 60 quid and my mate charged 45 quid to fit. bargin!.
Next came the K&n induction kit this was taken from my previous car, i gave it a service for a tenner and it was like new.. easy. it was all going well on the outside but the inside had no speakers or radio, the best i could afford was a JVC cd player and i bought Alpine 6x9 etc for speakers, which wasent the best setup but its good enough for now.
After getting bored of the outside i decided on some Crystal lights to go on, these were 125 pounds. they were not quite right for the car i think......(pics to follow).
rear brace -18
front brace -20
steering rack + battery -55
top strut mount-50
Toyo tyres -68 fitted
6x9s- 50 quid on sale
JVC cd payer- 100
chrome filler cap - 20
tracking -20
disks and pads -70
service inc leads, plugs, distributer cap, oil and filter- 55
k&n service pack- 10.50
new wiper- 15
Spax PSX suspension kit- 105 fitted
http://web1.uh-hosting.co.uk/~swcc/forums/uploads/garage_gallery-84-1087221949.jpg
http://web1.uh-hosting.co.uk/~swcc/forums/uploads/garage_gallery-84-1088336250.jpg
http://web1.uh-hosting.co.uk/~swcc/forums/uploads/post-33-1088160418.jpg
From humble beginnings here it is a bog standard H reg astra GTE 2.0 8v bought in late november 2003. I originaly bought the car as scrap/ an engine donor but on further inspection it was a good car . I bought it from FAB BMW storage place in Cinderford, they had it for about a year in storage so no tax or Mot, (wish i had pics now but i didnt know i was gonna keep it) looked a sorry state dust all over it, they got it going (the battery was flat), got home the battery was dead and needed replacing for a start.. looking through the glove box i found all the original manuals and the original service book, the damn thing had FSH, unusual for this type of car.
I took it down the garage an after a full check over, he said its a damn good car needs little work, no rust on body underneath or in sills etc, small amount to rear arches but could be rubbed down/ no filler or welding ... so on with the repair.. 1st was the battery and also he found the steering rack was leaking but he said he had one in a gte that had been stripped out the front. i checked it over and asked how much he wanted, his reply 'dont worry about it' .. so with a free steering rack all it cost me inc fitting and battery was 55 quid..
So on to MOT. The mot station guy said it was a good one most are ready for scrap, it failed on an incorrectly adjusted headlamp, front top strut mount and the two front tyres, the strut mount was 50 quid fitted and two toyo proxie tyres were fitted and the tracking done for good measure.
So the car was finally ready for the road.. but the car was completely standard apart from a couple of things: twin exhaust, a bee sting ariel single wiper and some oval side repeaters. So first thing was to sort out the handling. To keep costs down i sourced some strut braces off mig web second hand, both front an rear, cost me around 30 quid for the both of them. This didnt make a great deal of difference as the car still steered like a boat. after looking through demon tweeks etc spax suspension kits were dear, around 400 pounds which was no good, i found a guy after much looking on the internet who decided he didnt like the feel of his 400 pound spax adjustable PSX suspension kit, so i stole them for 60 quid and my mate charged 45 quid to fit. bargin!.
Next came the K&n induction kit this was taken from my previous car, i gave it a service for a tenner and it was like new.. easy. it was all going well on the outside but the inside had no speakers or radio, the best i could afford was a JVC cd player and i bought Alpine 6x9 etc for speakers, which wasent the best setup but its good enough for now.
After getting bored of the outside i decided on some Crystal lights to go on, these were 125 pounds. they were not quite right for the car i think......(pics to follow).
rear brace -18
front brace -20
steering rack + battery -55
top strut mount-50
Toyo tyres -68 fitted
6x9s- 50 quid on sale
JVC cd payer- 100
chrome filler cap - 20
tracking -20
disks and pads -70
service inc leads, plugs, distributer cap, oil and filter- 55
k&n service pack- 10.50
new wiper- 15
Spax PSX suspension kit- 105 fitted
http://web1.uh-hosting.co.uk/~swcc/forums/uploads/garage_gallery-84-1087221949.jpg
http://web1.uh-hosting.co.uk/~swcc/forums/uploads/garage_gallery-84-1088336250.jpg
http://web1.uh-hosting.co.uk/~swcc/forums/uploads/post-33-1088160418.jpg