DarrenH 1989 astra merit D estate

[DarrenH]

there should be a 5p shaped metal pad for the shoe to sit on, but these are like concave bucket shape

i decided i wasnt happy with the cylinder so ordered a new bosch one from doctorparts, you can see here what i meant about the pads. the new cylinder has 19 cast into it (which is cylinder size in mm) which is 3/4 inch, and EPC says my car should have 3/4 inch so i have bought the right thing, however the dodgy passenger side cylinder has 22 cast into it. further evidence i don't think its even meant for an astra ! the two choices for astra are 11/16ths (17mm) or 3/4 (19mm)

[DarrenH]

couple weeks pondering it seemed nonsense to have to disturb the hydraulics and not just replace both rear cylinders. so i ordered another bosch cylinder, new bosch brake drums and a set of shoes. it was very easily sourced, loads of choice on ebay once the part numbers were sifted through. everything in the box totalled 100 quid which i think is marvellous for a 25 year old car that noone really cares about ? dont you?



also half an hour sifting ebay bagged me these ATE calipers and carriers for 33 quid a side. They are from an early 1.8 4 stud vectra C but are essentially identical to GTE 16v brakes. hopefully by the end of the month i can get it onto the 15 inch steels, these brakes and get meself a fat slice of OEM+

[James C]

Good maintenance going on. Solid foundations for future use or just continued use

Have you got long term plans, does it feature long term with J410 (plus red GTE and some landies)??

[DarrenH]

Good maintenance going on. Solid foundations for future use or just continued use

Have you got long term plans, does it feature long term with J410 (plus red GTE and some landies)??

thanks J

pretty sure i will keep it on as a daily and keep it standard (too many projects as it is) the sole reason for this brake and wheels malarky (other than skin of teeth MOT pass) is that vauxhall in their infinite wisdom appear to have taken the brakes from a car that weighs 855kg then carried them over to a car that weighs a tonne, who's primary purpose is moving another 500 kilos of cargo or people. it just doesn't make sense !?

[DarrenH]

throttle spindle is leaking again. FAAAAARRRK !

[Astra Dan]

FFS. Is there an imperfection on the shaft? (fnar)

[DarrenH]

FFS. Is there an imperfection on the shaft? (fnar)

could be warn as the throttle spindle runs directly in the alloy casting. could also be my off-the-shelf O ring i fitted. whilst it was fuel safe (nitrile) maybe not plump enough for a good long term seal.

ordered a couple of proper (as in correct partfor lucas pump) viton seals and will try that.

[DarrenH]

no pictures but i took the diesel injector pump apart again today, fitted the new throttle shaft O ring. its way plumper than my generic one, hopefully thats cured for good.

also got a man coming on friday to do some paintless dent removal on the front doors. they were there when i bought the car, looks like the old codgers wife slammed it into a wall edge or whatever. lets the car down a bit when its all cleaned and polished so thought i would try get it sorted for billing

[James C]

Be interested to see results of pdr and the cost. While I have limited interest in my Vectra being a car enthusiast it totally annoys me having dents in the boot post x2 fitting of bike racks.

Sure I don't have to tell you but make sure you tell him about the brittleness of door cards and importance of the plastic lining (or are you going to strip doors for him?)

[DarrenH]

Sure I don't have to tell you but make sure you tell him about the brittleness of door cards and importance of the plastic lining (or are you going to strip doors for him?)

yeah, i have asked if he needs access to the back of the panels. he said yes but said he doesn't need me to remove anything. ?

i just asked the question again and said if he needs the door cards off i will be doing it

[DarrenH]

paintless dent removal success !! the guy came on friday, he took about 90 mins to do both doors and to be frank it was so good i had to look at my photos to check where the dents use to be! he admitted he quoted too high (175) partly to put me off, but after doing the work and chatting, was a local bloke, saw i was genuine enthusiast he knocked 60 quid off, nice !



spent the rest of friday washing and polishing it, sorry, i mean "detailing" (20th century slip there) then in the early hours of saturday set off for VBOA rally 2017, aka NotBilling ! here i am entering the new site. if you were wondering what the point of the bike was, none really just some retro accessorising. even the roof bars are period paddy hopkirk. the bike is my 1982 raleigh bomber which used to be my uncles in the 80s. (he died in motorbike accident aged 21) i found it in nans shed in 2012 and restored it from the blob of crippled chrome. Not sure whats happened to my face, its like steve carrell and david walliams had a baby together then passed it through martin clunes digestive tract.



During the journey home from notbilling i had noticed the rear windscreen fogging up a bit, when i got home the entire rear of the car had a fine mist of oily substance all over. sort of watery but didnt smell of anything. weird! then through this week i started noticing dark patches on the drive and block paving at work, thought it was old drips from my accelerator, but didn't really line up with the engine bay though (still hadn't twigged yet) then i had a quick look under the rear wheel arch, aaah bllx



looks slightly more promising, hoses degraded rather than tank! but yeah seen this before on petrol astras, the rubber hardens and cracks then fuel wicks down the cotton braiding



luckily had a meter of 8mm ID in the garage so swapped that in and got the karcher out (these are water drips)

[tonka666]

Nice work D looked good at billing. Glad to see you got some gte calipers. My mk3 has the smaller calipers vented disks and everything but still does not inspire confidence when braking at motorway speeds. Also Because mine is carrying anything between 100-200kg in the back it makes the front end rather light to. Still having issues trying to get it off the line at junctions. Might try some van springs see if they make any difference

[Clive]

Have to say that paintless dent removal looks flawless. Definitely done a top job there.
It was good to catch up with you Darren at VBOA too. The retro Raleigh bike looked good on top of the car.
I'm guessing the fuel economy wasn't as good on the journey home given the extent of the fuel leak you had there !!

[Pigeonrat]

Agreed, perfect job on the dent there. Car looks to have very nice paint.

Another thumbs-down for the cotton-braided fuel hose here, I've had the same on pretty much every old car I've ever faffed about with. In fact I generally change it as a matter of course because you can't see the condition of the rubber - and I've found the cheap stuff only lasts a couple of years anyway. Have had much better luck since sticking to Gates/Goodyear/genuine GM I must admit.

We're just waiting for the whole ethanol in petrol vs. R6/R9 spec hose to rear its head soon enough too...

[DarrenH]

summer + 28 year old astra =



so this happened along with lots of crunching and cracking, i forgot how much the board is like an ice cream wafer. i also added more bitumen pads



picture is deceiving but basically everything outside of the red line is sagging



found this little tag, formhimmel is the german word for roof lining, i think the literal translation is shape in the sky lol