White GTE restoration

[mrdezzer]

Re: White GTE restoration

I also forgot to mention the new electric aerial and the new original mk2 mudflaps I managed to track down

[1800turbogte]

Re: White GTE restoration

I also forgot to mention the new electric aerial and the new original mk2 mudflaps I managed to track down

Looking good Mr D. I'd love a set of mudflaps. Mine had them when I 1st got it but I managed to lose them when she was restored.

[mrdezzer]

Re: White GTE restoration

Thanks Chris, I will keep my eye out for some and let you know when I come across a set. I sold a set not to long back if I had of know I would have gave you first refusal

[matty0785]

Re: White GTE restoration

i may have a set of new mudflaps in the shed i will have a look tomorrow

[mrdezzer]

Re: White GTE restoration

Re: CO setting GTE
Well today was the big day for the Astra It had a full health check plugged the car in to read the ECU nothing came up every thing was reading as it should be. Checked for air leaks, none a slight crack in the hose to the throttle but not all the way through. After 2 hours of messing around trying everything we decided to remove the throttle body to check the gasket and the throttle flap was performing as it should. Any way last resort after checking the idle valve and running perfect was the throttle stop. I think it was Darren who mentioned this so I decided to investigate. Anyway we adjusted the throttle stop down and put some slack in the really tight throttle cable. Plugged the car back in and the car was reading at 850rpm, happy days. But the car started to run a little lump when we investigated the dash was not lighting up so first stop was the battery. Battery running low checked the alternator not charging the battery at all less than 10amps I think so the next mission is an alternator!! But everything else was ok



First time out of the garage in ages and on the code reader

[mrdezzer]

Re: White GTE restoration

So I thought it was time for an update. I am slowly restoring the engine bay which is very time consuming either that or I'm really slow at what I'm doing. I decided the head, the manifold and oil cooler pipe together with the block looked in a really sorry state. So bank holiday was the perfect time to start



I have polished the head and removed the old crappy paint!



As you can see the manifold and oil cooler pipe look a real mess



I carefully removed the manifold as I didn't want to have to drill the studs out. I then carried polishing the head and used a wire brush on the block



Next job was get the manifold ready for paint



Once this was complete I painted the manifold in 2000 degree UHT fire resistant paint



The paint went on excellent



I then followed by painting the block in the original black



I purchased some new studs and copper nuts from vauxhall and started to fit went in easier than I thought

[mrdezzer]

Re: White GTE restoration





I removed the oil cooler pipe which as you can see is quite corroded!

[mrdezzer]

Re: White GTE restoration

Next job was to fit the nice freshly painted oil cooler I prepared earlier and treat it to a new hose as the old one was well past it!





Looks a lot cleaner with this fitted



I couldn't fit the old dipstick so I bought a nice new one

[mrdezzer]

Re: White GTE restoration

I then fitted the manifold and new cooper nuts checked everything was fitted correctly and added the new dipstick



Bit of a rubbish photo but I had, had enough by this time! I will add some more tomorrow. Next job is to fit the highly polished rocker cover, new radiator and hoses and new header tank. That should tidy things up a bit. Just need to reattach the exhaust down pipe tomorrow morning and hopefully all will go well!!

Thanks for looking

[RallyMarshal]

Re: White GTE restoration

What was the paint you used for the Manifold. Last one I got which was that high temp came out very grey rather than silver like yours... was it spray on or brush on?

Paul..

[1800turbogte]

Re: White GTE restoration

Thanks Chris, I will keep my eye out for some and let you know when I come across a set. I sold a set not to long back if I had of know I would have gave you first refusal

Thats a shame, i'd definately had them off you. If you find some more i'l have them?
Cars coming on nicely its amazing how much difference a clean up and re-paint can make
Great progress keep the pics coming..

[dancedj]

Re: White GTE restoration

Very nice to see can't wait to see it close up
top marks from me!

[mrdezzer]

Re: White GTE restoration

What was the paint you used for the Manifold. Last one I got which was that high temp came out very grey rather than silver like yours... was it spray on or brush on?

Paul..

Hi Paul the paint I used was UHT fire proof paint. It's from America but one firm on eBay who sell American car parts stock it. I researched it and it's meant to be excellent however I will see how durable it is in real life

Thanks for the comments Chris and John. When you see the finished article it makes you want to crack on with the full car. Problem for me is time and lack of it

[mrdezzer]

Re: White GTE restoration

Well I thought I would finish the job today and reattach the downpipe to the manifold. The jobs seems to have gone fine but I didn't fancy taking the car out in the rubbish weather we had here today

[mrdezzer]

Re: White GTE restoration

I have been polishing this rocker when I have some spare time, the paint was peeling etc. so I thought I would experiment with some polishing drill bits and autosol and this is the outcome should brighten up the bay. Should not dull too much either as I don't take the car out in the wet and it's in a heated garage