Mk2 Astra Rallycar - from bare shell upwards

[RallyMarshal]

As anyone who has seen the pictures of my rallycar will know, its done a lot of work and is fairly tatty as a shell so I had bought a Merit S to use as a base for a reshell of the rallycar. However a couple of months ago, I was offered a brand new unregistered 8v GTE shell which had already had a cage fitted and been seam-welded but hadnt progressed further than that by a member on here.

It had unfortunately been left outside and had gathered a lot of surface rust but a price was agreed upon from the pictures provided and it was duly delivered to a mates compound as I was away on holiday.

Came back from holiday and went to see it. Its scary buying something unseen and especially when it looks as "bad" as this did. However I was fairly confident it was only surface rust rather than rot so took the plunge. A couple of pictures of it after being delivered and stored at the compound...









Paul..

[mick g]

Re: New Rallycar Shell Build...

Would it be worth having it dipped Paul, or maybe media blasted? It looks fine to me and a great base for a new car....

[RallyMarshal]

Re: New Rallycar Shell Build...

So a plan was formulated.. As it was a new shell I decided that we should do a "proper" job on it so it would be strong, safe and hopefully last a long time. I cant weld and if I was doing the work it would take years rather than months or weeks so the friend who was storing it is doing the work for me. Obviously costs more than doing it myself but he has the correct equipment, skills and most importantly will do it a lot quicker so the project wont stall.

First job was to get it inside, drained and take a proper look. Id decided that I wasnt at all happy with a plated roof so that was taken off at the spotwelds and I wanted sill stands to make it safer when working on the car so they were duly cut out and sill tubes welded in. The car was then shotblasted and etch primed and I went over to take a look at progress so far.











The sill tubes are left long for the moment until we fit side skirts so we can profile them to suit.

Unfortunately as I cant seem to find a car with documents and/or a non-sunroof roof panel to use as a donor, Im resigned to having to use the Merit for the roof. Pity really as its a good shell, but hey ho.

Paul..

[RallyMarshal]

Re: New Rallycar Shell Build...

Would it be worth having it dipped Paul, or maybe media blasted? It looks fine to me and a great base for a new car....

I guess Im a step ahead there as the post after yours shows...!

The next step now is to get an extra doorbar fitted to give an X as Im not happy the fitted ones are suitable for a side impact in that area as theyre so low at the front. Then the front strut extensions will be triangulated to the bottom of the cage so it gives extra strength there and the rack mounts are going to be triangulated to the inner wings with strengthening plates.

Then its time to remove the roof from the Merit and transfer the id across so it becomes the Merit and can then be built up.

Paul..

[RallyMarshal]

Re: New Rallycar Shell Build...

Thought an update was in order..

Managed to source a front end damaged 1.3L 3 door without a sunroof. Its a pity its damaged because the rest of the shell itself is otherwise in fantastic condition - no rust anywhere! We will be cutting the roof off this one (drilling out the spotwelds in the gutter as we did with the other one) and fitting it to the new shell and reshelling this car into the new shell. The rest of the panels (rear quarters, floorpan, bulkhead etc) will then be cut off and stored as spares.



Also sourced a few other parts...

Nice extremely light alloy strut brace



Full polybush kit



Fairly new dimpled disks and calipers in good condition. Will bin the Greenstuff pads though!



Also managed to source some spare gears for my Quaife box and 2 spare F10 gearboxes to use for baulk rings. Both the gears and the boxes are second-hand but should be fine to build the cluster back up from.

Main job at the moment is to get B570CMH stripped down completely so we can weigh in the shell and create space to refurbish all the parts we will be reusing..

Paul..

[Dannyc]

Re: New Rallycar Shell Build...

That shells a great find, Paul.

At least there's no panels for the rot to hide behind so you know what you're getting!

The pictures are also really helpful too for those restoring a Mk2.

Good diary this. I'll be keeping an eye on it.

[_SBD16v]

Re: New Rallycar Shell Build...

hi

where did the blasting and etc primmer get done and how mush did it cost ??

[RallyMarshal]

Re: New Rallycar Shell Build...

Actually got done at a friends unit as hes doing the rest of the work too..

If your interested I could get a price to blast and prime a shell

Paul..

[Harvey]

Re: New Rallycar Shell Build...

Nice one Paul, lets see plenty of pics of the strip and build.

[gteperv]

Re: New Rallycar Shell Build...

only just noticed you have started another thread paul, that shell is looking nice now its been blasted and primed ,looks a good very good start to a interesting build .
now that you have 2 threads i think its about time i start one of my own lol

[RallyMarshal]

Re: New Rallycar Shell Build...

Bought this from Ebay last week... Has a few marks from being layed up but should be easy enough to get those out.



Paul..

[RallyMarshal]

Re: New Rallycar Shell Build...

Been a while..

Matty (who is doing the various bits on the car) has been busy lately so hadnt been much progress since May on the shell itself. When he started work on the cage mods, it became apparent that the cage wasnt all it was supposed to be. We found different thickness tubes used for each of the doorbars and other little bits I wasnt happy about with the cage itself.

So the decision was made to put a brand new weld-in CDS rollcage into the shell. After a few recommendations, I spoke to Dave at Tornado Motorsport and a spec and price was agreed upon.
The old rollcage was cut out of the shell and the donor car bits made the shell rolling and Ive dropped it off at Tornado today. A few pics of the shell as it stands..













Paul..

[DarrenH]

Re: New Rallycar Shell Build...

tidy thread this ! asside from the build quality, what were your thoughts on the old cage design ? i like some of it, although the tubes to the back seats above the fuel tank, theres no load through there?

i've not yet seen a cage that picks up the rear beam mounts, i thought this would be primary concern ?

[RallyMarshal]

Re: New Rallycar Shell Build...

tidy thread this ! asside from the build quality, what were your thoughts on the old cage design ? i like some of it, although the tubes to the back seats above the fuel tank, theres no load through there?

i've not yet seen a cage that picks up the rear beam mounts, i thought this would be primary concern ?

I liked the X bars, rear brace and the B pillar to rear stays. However it lacked proper triangulation to the front struts, the central (behind the seats) brace was a little high and could have been an issue in a side impact as was made of 2 bars. As you say, the tubes to the back seat searved no purpose at all!

The rear beam mounts are relatively forward and I dont think youd be able to easily pick them up within the structure of the cage..? They arent particularly a weak point as far as Im am aware as the beam effectively has 4 mounting points (2 beam pivot mounts and 2 damper mounts) and the majority of force (after a jump etc) goes into the dampers and turrets.. Obviously hitting something side-on can twist the pivot mounts but then Id expect the stub axle to bend anyway if we hit a kerb side-on.

On the new cage, he is trangulating a box structure around the rear turrets to build the cage mounts from so should be pretty strong for that part.

He reckons it'll be ready by the end of next week. I then have to sort paint..

Paul..

[ant]

Re: New Rallycar Shell Build...

Nice job... that donor car looks way too good to cut up lol.

That front bumper is fiberglass isnt it? what does it weigh?

... just looking at the main cage Hoop before you removed it... you may need to move that back a little if you are tall... I am 6' and my fiberglass seat is not far off the cage.