Black GTE 16v Restoration

[boybutler]

Hi All

For my sins ive just bought a rather tired Black Astra GTE 16v. All vin numbers seem to be in order and the engine number. Rust around the rear arches. Been sat in a garage for 19 years apparently. Evidence it’s been on track at some point with residue of adhesive from tape on headlights . owned 2 of these in my youth and have so many fond memories. The first one I had was black and I polished it every week and loved it.

Main things this car needs are:

Rear seats beige rainbow
rear parcel shelf beige
headlining beige
glove box beige

think the unnecessary mass was removed for track days hence the missing bits

if any of the experts have advice and news on parts that would be great as I’m finding it difficult to find some stuff.

1st Bodyshop quote coming back at over ?5k, this is really expensive and was hoping closer to 2

Look forward to your feedback

[The Griffin]

Good luck with the resto, looks a good base to start with but make sure you check all the known rust areas.
Post plenty of updates and pictures of your progress. I'm sure people on here can help throughout the process.

[DarrenH]

I think KE makes it my neck of the woods (Maidstone registration area)

black ones are quite rare now, it's a nice colour when it catches the light, kind of flips to green / red

2k is definitely optimistic!

[Pigeonrat]

Was this the one on Ebay? Saw this and hoped it would be restored, as Darren says the black ones are quite rare now. In fact, I think they always were, you didn't see many even back in the 1990s.

Bodywork is expensive unfortunately - 5k is strong money for a professional bodyshop to repair unless they are doing a full respray. As with most cars of this era, the rust is usually worse than you'd hoped once all stripped back and investigated, and the bodyshop is likely well aware of this and have factored it in. Unless you know somebody in the trade, I would be surprised if you could get it below 4k including respray, and if you did I would wonder how good it would be. There was a Champion on Ebay which I found on Copart ages ago having had a "professional respray", but anyone who gets overspray all over the wheels, tyres and seals doesn't strike me as that professional.

For replacement arches, sills, rear corners (it will almost certainly need them) and painting/blending both sides of the car I would hope it closer to 3k really, but probably not less. The same job on my grey 16V cost me about ?1150 all told in 2008 including painting the bonnet as I remember, and that was the lowest quote (albeit London pricing) from a friendly bodyshop I'd used several times before. Everything's a lot dearer now!

[boybutler]

Thanks for the info guys, will keep getting quotes. Trying to come up with a bit of a system at the moment when stripping down I.e lots of photos, keeping fixings screwed to the bits that it fixed and boxing bits up in easily identifyiable packages! I’m not very organised but I know I’m gonna swear a lot if I’m putting stuff back together and not knowing what goes where! Haynes manuals are not brilliant in this regard.

any ideas on getting the bits I’m missing?

actually my trim code says grey but looks a bit beige but when I check the trim part numbers they do actually say grey not beige

can you tell what colour my interior is from the pictures?

[boybutler]

Sorry Pigeonrat , yes it’s the one off eBay but since seen another black one in there now and a burgundy one, both look better than mine and at same price but hey, be even better feeling when it’s mint again!

[Pigeonrat]

There was a beige-grey interior and a charcoal-grey interior. From what I can see on those photos you have the beige interior, which is sometimes called grey - the dashtop is the biggest giveaway (would be black on a charcoal-interior car). It is a bit of an odd one - I have never owned a black Mk2, although I know the pre-facelift cars definitely had a darker grey interior. My feeling would be that yours should have the beige-grey especially if that's what your VIN tag says. As said, the dashtop colour will narrow it down.


There was a fad for fitting the charcoal grey interior about a decade ago when the cars were cheap, so it could have been swapped and yours was the donor. Personally I quite like the black and beige. If it were a GTV6 or 164 that colour scheme would be sought after!!

[boybutler]

Yeah think my old black one was the same colour. Funny because the Opel catalogues have Biege and grey options to add to the confusion!!

Just got Engine stand and replacement rear arch panels

Thanks All

[boybutler]

Just got another quote on body, ?2800 + VAT, not bad but need to check their other projects

[DarrenH]

tend to agree with paul, while an expensive paint job doesn't guarantee you a thorough and quality job. a cheap one deffo guarantees an average/bad job

with regards to inteior colours, of this age (post facelift) there was grey and anthracite, where grey is actually that thorny/taupe/beige colour. (dont ask why as i dont know lol)

[boybutler]

Ok cool, just the info I needed on the colour scheme. I certainly remember the same colour with my first black gte 16v.

by the way, I’m sure you already know but I bought the epc Vauxhall CD for 15 quid but it’s a bit clunky but since then I’ve found 7zapp Opel which is the same parts list as the disc but online instead and much slicker.

however , I’ve still not managed to match some part numbers from the car to the same numbers on the Opel database .....

The adventure continues......

[DarrenH]

i use that 7zapp when i am at work and away from proper version of EPC, it does ok but i miss the search function and also the detail is stripped right back as you say. important stuff like vin number break points are missing and item descriptions are simpler (in real EPC for example it will say which vehicle or engine type that the part is applicable to, next to the part description)

[boybutler]

Ok , I bought the epc cd but don think it works very well? Maybe I’m not using it right? Does it link to the internet or is it all stored on disc?

[DarrenH]

Ok , I bought the epc cd but don think it works very well? Maybe I’m not using it right? Does it link to the internet or is it all stored on disc?

not sure really, what did you buy? mine is an original version of the software from 1996, the newest car on it is the omega ! (i.e what would have been installed on the terminals at a vauxhall dealership) unfortunately only runs in windows XP /2000/95

[boybutler]

Think that’s the problem , I’ve got it loaded on windows 7