Pauls Astra Mk2 rallying adventures

[RallyMarshal]

Good work Paul, as all you stuff is..

Must admit, I am surprised how similar the MK3 Chassis is to the MK2, the Inner Sill looks exactly the same.

Yup, very similar indeed inside.

My stuff isnt the neatest but its a rallycar so all about the strength for me.

Paul..

[AndyGee]

Good work Paul, as all you stuff is..

Must admit, I am surprised how similar the MK3 Chassis is to the MK2, the Inner Sill looks exactly the same.

[mick g]

I like very much, I'm getting the urge to do some welding again lol

[RallyMarshal]

Been an odd month for us...

The event on March 4th was cancelled due to the snow so the car was converted across to "Gravel spec" for a rough airfield event in April which was then cancelled due to landowner issues so it was then converted back into smooth tarmac spec once again ready for Cadwell Park on the 8th April..

Meanwhile, the Mk3 has moved forward a bit..

Rot cut out



Repair panel made



and welded in.. Not the neatest but didnt want to grind back too much



Passenger side rot..





and a badly fitted / tacked on part of a sill.



which was removed..



showing the extent of the rot inside. Not too bad as the inner sill was still solid but the outer sill and the rear of the sill was a mess





so we decided to remove the entire sill section and fit an almost complete panel.

Spotwelds drilled out



Reinforcing plate to join inside rear jacking point and middle sill welded in



Then everything cleaned up and painted inside. Plus rear quarter panel joggled to help with join to new sill



New sill plug welded in old spotweld position and in joggled section then ends were fully welded and new plate made up for the rear section to infill the arch



Some light flapdisking and some filler later and its getting there..



Then added some rally strengthening with a pair of front strut tops inside the existing ones



and a full sill stand tube kit in the sills all round. These are thickwall tubes fitted between the inner and outer sill to take a sillstand with a strengthening piece on each side. Now has a bit of primer on to protect it a little and time to start on the inside..



Paul..

[RallyMarshal]

Cheers Laurie

Next event is The Imperial Commercials Volkswagen Donington Rally on 4th March at Donington Park.

No damage from the last event so just a few things to do.. Firstly, remade some of the sumpguard mounts that tie the bottom chassis legs into the Sumpguard for rigidity..



Then gave her an(other) oil change.. Gets one every event so was around 50 miles this time..



and then removed the brakes and checked / cleaned the pads and bled the fluid through, full spanner check on everything, and finally started and run up to temp before fitting wheels and loading on the trailer ready to go..



Time to get back on the yellow car this coming weekend.. Then Donington the weekend after.

Paul..

[easytrans]

Denise and I enjoyed that

Thanks Paul

L.

[RallyMarshal]

So on a bright and sunny Friday (albeit still cold) we loaded the car up and headed off to Blyton Park in Lincolnshire for our first event of the season..



Scrutineered OK, then onto Saturday morning which was very cold then it started raining.

First 2 stages were done on winter road tyres and were slippery but OK times albeit punctured a rear tyre on the 2nd stage, 3rd stage wasnt great after a switch to supersoft slicks all round and 4th stage was terrible after putting some wets on the rear which resulted in nearly 30 seconds time loss..



The upside was a huge number of moments captured on camera..including this one..



So I started again with the setup. Changed to a different (older) set of wets on the rear, softened the front and rear suspension on both low speed and rebound, and we also changed the rear brake pads as I was struggling to stop without locking the fronts up and couldnt get more rear bias on. All those changes transformed the car and we went from 40th quickest on stage 4 to 15th quickest on stage 5.

We made up 27 seconds of the deficit to the guy in front and went into the last stage 3 seconds behind him. However, we got stuck behind a much slower Honda Civic who just didnt see us and lost a lot of time meaning we finished 3rd in class.. Still, good positives from the event - like no mechanical issues, superb gear change now and a much better setup for the next event at Donington in March if its damp..

Then Sunday morning was spent cleaning the car properly..



and putting it back in its home ready for a full spanner check and maintenence



Ive put together a compilation of the "action" from the event at

and a quick stage 8. Not bad for a 1600cc :-)

Paul..

[RallyMarshal]

So managed to to do a bit on the Mk3 this week. First job is to replace the parts of the car with rot.. So I started with the A pillars. The drivers side had already been cut out to repair but the passenger side was still untouched. Luckily Id cut up a donor car a few months ago for various parts I would need.

Passenger A pillar rot cut out..



New donor panel trimmed to match



and trial fitted into place



Then a few hours of trim, weld, grind etc later... not perfect but strong enough to do the job..



The drivers side was already cut out around the hinges etc which made it a several hour job to get anything to fit..



but after the same procedure as the passenger side, and some awkward bits to weld, it got fitted..



First "bodywork" repair Ive done and whilst Im happyish with the way its come out, its not the prettiest. Mind you, neither am !.

Paul..

[RallyMarshal]

In December we finished the mods to the gear level - new stronger mounts, new bulkhead hole to get the correct angle of the gear rod with a Mk3 Astra gaitor and plate on the bulkhead to seal it up



Then got some new springs ordered and fitted - 12" 45nm (260lb) for the front and 14" 35nm (200lb) for the rear. Im learning to use the damper settings rather than the springs to control pitch, roll (to an extent) but improve traction.



and then took the car to AP Racing Engines to have it remapped. We dropped fuel pressure a touch to 2.75 bar to conincide with the much bigger injectors being fitted and the car was remapped to suit on the rollers. Took a fair while to get the part throttle and mid-range sorted but she takes off like a scalded cat now...



Also took the car to get the alignment checked and balanced as best we could and MOTd the car. Then did a "rally trackday" to test the car after the rebuild - pretty quick and stable was the answer but found a sticking rear caliper. So back home, changed those, spanner checked the whole car..



New 2018 rally licence arrived and realised the MSA had changed their rules on fire extinguishers so new system bought and fitted. Big bottle at 4.25 litres just about fitted in footwell, new piping and 6 nozzles on this one. Meant a lot of work to route everything but got it all fitted..



and so it sits, just needing a clean and some wheels and tyres ready for its next event at Blyton on February 10th..



Meanwhile in the main garage, I decided that a year had passed and I needed to make a start on the roadrally car...



Paul..

[mick g]

Excellent

[RallyMarshal]

So its been a while again.. Will try to be better this year..

Due to various issues, decided to knock last season on the head and save the money whilst finishing the car properly ready for 2018 season.

Found a small crack in the gearbox casing so that got repaired..



and the cluster inspected and box reassembled.



New paddle clutch arrived..



and new pressure regulator..



Head came back from machineshop after skimming 20 thou to remove marks and was rebuilt / reshimmed for the solid lifters..a very timeconsuming job without a shim grinder!



Clutch fitted nicely..



Box refitted after a massive effort to line her up



and all refitted in the car. Swapped to c20let yellow injectors as we think we were at the flow limit of the c20xe creams used previously



More updates tomorrow!!

[RallyMarshal]

I had hoped to show more progress but machine shop holding up things at the moment so will be a big rush for the next 10 days to get the car ready for the 3rd September..

Front suspension all checked and balljoints / trackrod ends changed, brakes cleaned and refitted too.

Essentially, once the engine is built and fitted, the car will be going to be re-setup suspension wise and the gearbox linkage tweaked and then we are good to go..

Paul..

[DarrenH]

i ran a standard cover on a paddle clutch for a while, worked fine and made the clutch cables last more than 6 months !

this is really mundane question out of all the cool stuff, but the boots over the cables on the fuel pumps. did they come with the pump? tried to buy some a while back but came up blank

[RallyMarshal]

and into August we go..

Gearbox stripped, cluster out for inspection.



Diff out and stripped, cleaned and reassembled. We discovered that the GKN inner CVs we use are bottoming out on the outer edge of the Tranx casing, meaning the snap-rings arent locking the shafts into place properly. So we have modified the outer casing by a few mm to allow it to hopefully lock in properly now.



Head was skimmed..



Lots of expensive new parts arrived - head stud kit, new pisto, 4 x new ring sets and a cometic 1.7mm



Started work on the fuel system changes to add a better filter system and a swirl pot. Started with this..



and a pile of existing bits..



Added some new bits..



and ended up with this!! Still waiting on a couple of adapters to finish off but hard work is done.



Ive also ordered a new Helix clutch but been told its on backorder so picked up a spare LUK cover to use if we need to. If not then its in the spares box anyway.



Paul..

[RallyMarshal]

At the end of July, I took a few days holiday which allowed me to sort a few more bits.

Started with a Nexia radiator and a Mk3 lower crossmember.. The Nexia rad is the same width as a 2.0 8v GTE but the same height as a 2.0 16v so more capacity for cooling.



Got jiggy with the angle grinder and cut off the standard 8v type lower crossmember then mocked up the radiator, Mk3 crossmember, towing eye etc



Tied the box section into the chassis leg and lower rail but also tied another piece into the substantial front sumpguard mount too. Nice and strong.



and painted it up in glacier white



Also cleared the garage out and moved stuff to fit some vinyl floortiles. The concrete was breaking up, getting very dusty and needed redoing properly. These were a better option I think. Theyre 495mm x 14mm thick coin top interlocking floor tiles from the likes of bigdug and the photo was taken 3/4 way through.. Its now finished and 10x nicer to work on under the car.



Also continued with engine stuff. Block stripped to check bearings - all fine but replacing anyway whilst its stripped.



Piston #3 shows severe detonation though so new one was ordered..



Paul..