I suppose its only fair I share my 16v GTE part restoration with you all

[easytrans]

Well lets start at the beginning ... 15 or so years ago and turning 40, I mounted the gravy-train having worked hard studying and building up my skills as an IT contracting programmer. Previously having been a motor engineer/mechanic from the age of 15, though to my early 30's and then a long distance HGV Class1 driver and horse riding instructor. .... anyway I digress .......

So always being a Ford man I somehow fell in love with the Mk2 Astra, I spent some time looking around for a genuine bargain and found a mint 8v belonging to a farm worker and viewed it where it was stored in a large dry barn. Well I almost bought it but then found another GTE (this time a 16v) locally in the local paper "East Anglian".

It was probably £800 more than the one I viewed a day or so before but the owner of this one cherished the car but had the usual problem of a new baby and the wife having problems with child seat and 2 doors! so was reluctantly selling the car with 45k on the clock, and even let me photo copy his sales pamphlet as long as I returned it back to him to keep.

Ok so anyway having driven it for 2 miles I was hooked and bought it 2 days later (kacking myself all the way home for having spent so much of my newly earned dosh!).

Well the car served me well and I never climbed out of it without a smile on my face. A few minor issues over the 5 or so years daily driving (short distances mostly) plus a few trips to Scotland for that rare holiday ... Oh and the one major breakdown on the way to Silverstone stage of the RAC rally water pump failed and had to call AA and hire a car for the rest of the (bloody freezing cold and windy) day. ......

Here I go again off on a wild memory trip .........

So at some point as the rust started showing on the wings and arches I stood the car up on the 4 poster ramp that I recovered from our old local garage and squeezed into the barn, and was intending to tidy it up. Well I really forget now why I stalled but it was probably something to do with the phase I went through collecting motorbikes and rebuilding the bike workshop and 101 other commitments in parallel with a busy work diary

Anyway, having bumped my head on the ramp almost weekly for the past 7 or so years I had the urge to kickstart the repairs (ah yes now I remember! having web scraped the old Astrasylum forum and launching a copy on one of my own servers and having bought a new set of valve tappets from Garry (Poole) I was going to fit them and do the paint work at the same time ... yes then the 1970's Honda's took priority).

Hell this is becoming a life story. I'll have us all crying soon ....

So lets get to the list:

Car:
1989 (according to the VIN translator tool it's a 1990)
16v GTE (G567 WRT)
Miles, genuine 88k
Mods = NONE (I love it 100% original)

Work Done:

stripped off wings
removed sill and arch skirt trims
cut out and replaced O/S sill (fabricated inner jacking point brace)
cut out O/S rear arch
fabricated and rebuilt O/S inner wheel arch
welded in O/S rear arch section
cut out, re-fabricated and welded in O/S rear lower corner
fabricate and weld front O/S lower corner section ahead of sill

pause for 7 or so years

Fitted new battery and started on 2nd twist of the key (but feck don't that stale petrol reak!!)

kick-start again last Tuesday (a whole days work to):

Cut off N/S sill
fabricate and weld in inner jacking point brace
stitch weld on N/S outer sill (inner sill drilled for spot pool welding, and may seam weld like I did on O/S)
fabricate and weld front N/S lower corner section ahead of sill


Work ToDo:
Cut out N/S outer arch
fabricate (repair) N/S inner arch lip
cut out and fit N/S lower corner repair section
trim and weld in N/S outer arch panel
remove and fit new rear section (across back above exhaust) the new panel has been floating around the garage walls for a few years now ..
shot/grit blast O/S welds
ceramic flap disk all the old and new welds (be interesting to see if these disks are as good as they say they are 40, 60 and 80 grit).
grit blast front inner wings (to remove surface rust)
run around with rust inhibitor/juice
seal all new seams (not sure if I should use silicone base sealer or dum-dum ??? )
treat all new underside repairs with the white Upol Gravitex (got 5ltr)
prep and Gravitex inside of new front wings (may try them on first for fit).
fit new wings
"depending on metal sanding results" base fill and rough prime any bare metal bodywork

Mechanical:

fit new petrol hose from pump regulator to tank
probably replace the short section of steel pipe from tank towards front (I think I replaced side section with plastic some years back)
strip and service breaks
pre-MOT checks by myself (I'm sure a list will emerge although following a quick look over nothing obvious sticks out)

Then its book in for MOT

I approached a fairly local paint shop with an oven and will take the car for an estimate for a full prep and repaint (I'm so old I only ever used Glasurit cellulose paint when I was in the business and never got the hang of synthetic paints so twin-pac is best left to the experts)

Well time for some pictures ? just some I took last week, will try to follow up with more as I progress ....

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gte_DSCN0630.JPG

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gte_DSCN0623.JPG

gte_DSCN0628.JPG

Well that will do for tonight

Laurie.

[James C]

Re: I suppose its only fair I share my 16v GTE part restoration with you all

Looks like it can easily be made good again.

Good luck with the build part 2!

[cal let]

Re: I suppose its only fair I share my 16v GTE part restoration with you all

your old enough to be my dad and share the same job as my dad haha but im the same im a ford man at heart but love mk2s!

[astravanmk2]

Re: I suppose its only fair I share my 16v GTE part restoration with you all

Welcome from Otley Yorkshire , good luck with it

[quaidpinder]

Re: I suppose its only fair I share my 16v GTE part restoration with you all

Looking like a good project good luck with it !

[easytrans]

Re: I suppose its only fair I share my 16v GTE part restoration with you all

Thanks guys for the comments ....

So a bit of progress this morning, I wish now I had ordered an inner wing panel as wire-worm has been feeding its family down in there.. but hey-ho lots of bashing of a donor "spare outer" panel and I think we mad some progress.. more wire-worm found behind the bottom 1/4 section too .......

So anyway I started by completing the spot "pool" welding on the bottom of the N/S sill (plus a bit of stitch welding in places between the spots) ...

gte_DSCN0667.JPG

Lots of mindless banging against the anvil .... and what a mess !!!!

gte_DSCN0672.JPG

Not sure why I bothered but better make sure it fits the arch .... ("fast forward a bit" and you will see once it's on I find it will need quite a bit or re-reshape and I will need to trim again to save shaving the tyre when driving around the squiggly bits!!

gte_DSCN0673.JPG

So ("rewind") trimming off the old arch this is what I find ..

gte_DSCN0670.JPG

Closer shot shows as I peel it away there is still lots of good metal as you get away from the edge

gte_DSCN0668.JPG

Ok so its a good impression of a seagull toilet but needs must or I'll get nowhere this weekend ... oh and I added a plate at bottom rear 1/4

gte_DSCN0674.JPG

I'll not change the rear panel "below the hatch" now as its quite good and only a small weld needed on the N/S lip and I'll correct the bend I made when lifting it by the towing loop with the digger enough to crawl under and make a temporary fix to the fuel pipe week before last

Anyway ... time to brush this rust and grinder dust from my hair (what hair you may ask?) and it will be time to walk the dogs and sort out the ponies .. (well her-in-doors deserves a bit of my time too) then another session on the car tomorrow.

[easytrans]

Re: I suppose its only fair I share my 16v GTE part restoration with you all

Well it's a sunny Sunday here in Otley (Suffolk) and I've been back in the barn from 09:00 till 14:00 and made some more good progress.

My auto darkening mask is playing up and the MIG is not really playing ball so some of that progress has been painful. (Note: never store your welding helmet in the dark for too long as mine is not holding the solar charge for long and becomes erratic) "but you know what they say about a poor workman allway's blames his tools".

So some more pictures and a few words (someone tell me if / when you've all had enough, I know there's not much too exciting here but it may be a hint on how "not" to do some things).

So after a bit of work to reshape the lower rearward part of the inner wing repair from yesterday I managed to insert the outer arch under the skin to mock up and mark what I needed to cut off.....

gte_mock1.JPG

Oh and I may have a couple (well 3) of spare panels for sale later if they are useful to someone local?

gte_panels_spare.JPG

Almost forgot about my joggler and even more surprised that I managed to find it after not using it for about 7 years!

gte_joggler2.JPG

Just mocking up to see if its all somewhere in-line (will cut lots of that 1/4 panel in a bit)

gte_mock3.JPG

Quite a lot to trim off the arch but need to trim just enough and leave about 10mm so I can run the joggler around.

gte_markup.JPG

Fast forward through some rude words, a neck full of sparks and some annoying welder and helmet issues and it's on!

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Just a bit of a tidy and final fixing of the bottom rear 1/4 and that's 99% of the welding done (I hope).

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The issues with the MIG (too much heat) caused a a bit if distortion above the welds but nothing that will not either come out with a sucker or get lost once it's skimmed over later.

So what will I tackle tomorrow? .. probably wheel it out onto a tarpaulin and grit blast a few parts, test fit the wings and then under-seal (UPOL) them when they are off.

QUESTION: What is best to use for sealing around all the seams? I assume that the general silicone sealants would just cause a water trap? and not sure if the Gravitex will be thick enough to fill those little gaps and weld pinholes?

Suggestions anyone?

[BlackBox]

Re: I suppose its only fair I share my 16v GTE part restoration with you all

Very nice, I must get myself a joggler next time I do this type of work, far better result.

Try not to leave any pin holes, they can trap air and cause the paint to bubble in the sun. Seam sealer is what you want.

[easytrans]

Re: I suppose its only fair I share my 16v GTE part restoration with you all

Thanks, Yes just ordered some seam sealer and I might plan a quick trip out to Halfords on the bike tomorrow and get a small amount to start me off before nextweek ;-) (as if I really need an excuse to get the VFR out ).

Yes I hear what your saying about pin holes

[BlackBox]

Re: I suppose its only fair I share my 16v GTE part restoration with you all

You sound like you have it sussed, even so you may enjoy the read of my build thread .... it's very long but covers what you are doing and you never know you may pick up a tip or two .... ?

I warn you it's a long thread, so make sure you have an evening spare !!

http://www.astra-mk2.com/forum/showthread.php?28791-Introduction-....-Got-my-Baby-back-!!&highlight=

[easytrans]

Re: I suppose its only fair I share my 16v GTE part restoration with you all

Bugger ! closed browser before posting a update .. can't write all that again so bullet points only ....

Read to page 21 of your build BlackBox loads of useful stuff there .

Limited progress today
Run out of wire and spare spool was empty too
Found a new hole under passenger cross-member so sorted that
2 more holes one in N/S inner wing/bulkhead and one on chassis /inner wing in usual area behind engine mount
Good tool "fencing pliers"

moved to gardening (with digger) a great way to release frustration
Time to walk dogs or I'll get no rest and my arm is going numb from throwing the ball out of the workshop door only to find it at my feet again.


Pictures

[astradaryl]

Re: I suppose its only fair I share my 16v GTE part restoration with you all

more holes than a block of cheese.

reminds me of when i preped mine

looking good though mate!

[easytrans]

Re: I suppose its only fair I share my 16v GTE part restoration with you all

Well, I rearranged my day off as a piece of "real" work was stalled by the environment not being ready for me. So instead I spent all day on the car.

So what progress errrrrr .......

been so busy almost forgot where I started ...

Ah yes, two rolls of MIG wire turned up from Screwfix yesterday so ...

Welded passenger seat cross member to new floor patch


Chopped out the front bottom N/S inner wing section and repaired (hell of a hole there) I also used some M6 rivet-bushes and screwed the plastic inner wing rather than using the plastic pins that I removed while welding, I may do the same for all pins later so I can whip out the inner arch at any time by unscrewing (black cap-head screws eventually)


Same patching to another small section just above in the inner wing.


Chopped out the two small front sections of the N/S inner wing/chassis rail and first
built it up around the small hole in the chassis lip then plated both sections.


Moved around to O/S and repaired a couple of places in the rearward section of the inner wing.

Once that was done I moved off the ramp and out onto a tarpaulin and grit-blasted some of the surface rust sections "warning" grit goes everywhere when you do this but it's a brilliant way to de-rust even the bonnet stone chips!

[easytrans]

Re: I suppose its only fair I share my 16v GTE part restoration with you all

So here we are again been cracking on today but disturbed with a call to say Partco had my top mounts and CV boot in (which is good as I only called them to order Friday afternoon)

So I popped in to Ipswich to pick them up and called at BB's for body filler, primer, cutting compound and a pot of Seam Sealer as the tubes I ordered on eBay are taking longer than expected (sod's law that I get home and they were in today's post).

Anyway I removed the filter box and patched the small hole in the front inner wing that I found following grit-blasting ... Question: what's the big round punch-out plate under the filter box for ?

gte_InnerFrontTidy1.JPG

Tatty section in the boot needs patching .....

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So fabricated something from an off-cut of a panel ....

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Looks rough but strong enough and hidden anyway ....

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Found that the Upol brushing Seam Sealer is more useful than the tubes (that fit in the mastic gun) but it's still a pain getting sealer all around the inner arches even with a smallish brush (especially on the fuel filler side) so I will rely on the Shutz gun later to get at anything I missed .......

gte_Seamsealer1.JPG

Eventually used 3/4 of the 1 litre tin of brushing Seam Sealer around the car on sill seams, wheel arches and all the repaired patches etc, The stuff in the tubes is a bit thicker than that in the brushing tin and may be good for when mountings the wings ...

gte_SEAMSEALER2.JPG

Finally got a litre of UPOL stone guard sprayed on the front wings (inners) ..... Note: you need to be careful not to try and put too much on all in one go especially in mid-day blazing sun, it dries off the top and forms a skin and the shrinks causing crazing, so lots of thin coats and allowing them to dry well in-between works better.

gte_UpolWings.JPG

Got a tube of cutting compound (like T-Cut but milder) and tested it out on the wheels and I think they may clean up OK, (probably with a set of felt wheels on the polisher).
I guess another option is to have them blasted and power coated ....

Anyone here had a set of wheels renovated to the original white ?

So what's to do tomorrow (apart from watching the MotoGP) ?

Maybe start looking at mounting the wings or while they are off could be a good time to do the top strut mounts and CV boot ...

[DarrenH]

Re: I suppose its only fair I share my 16v GTE part restoration with you all

i missed this thread, how rude !

great introduction and updates. you are making it look very easy and professional, especially with all the unidentified tools here and there! not to sound rude but in your pictures there have been a few bits (accumulative) that allot of people might "oh god", then be in the for sale forum the next day breaking for spares!! so i doff my metaphorical cap in your direction for just getting stuck in and dispatching it all, like its a mere inconvenience, like a wasp on your jam sandwhich, tsssk, get off!

you seem to be pretty well set up with your parts supply, but i get brushable, sprayable, high build, various bonding and sealing products from here http://www.waysideadhesives.com/index.php

for the inner rear arches (which were painted) ive been firing waxoyl (just the rattle can versions) through the various openings in the rear cabin and boot space, then wafting a heat gun so it runs down into the panel folds and joins. example pic http://www.astra-mk2.com/0ddball/gte...bodyshop09.jpg

great idea on the wings, i specifically asked for the bodyshop to stone chip inside the front wings too. gives the scarily flimsy panels so much build quality and obviously weather protection.

look forward to further updates