M Plate 1.8LS Saloon

[3cav3]

Hi Sean

Thanks, appreciate the comments. I've just dug around in various places and sourced most of them, for this one I got one from Norway, a couple from Germany and Anthony Drosos on facebook. The front slam panel was a difficult one to find on usual places as well as the little light panel strip that goes along under the headlights, so Anthony came to the rescue.

Be interesting to see what your doing on the read end of yours, is is patching/welding you got to do?

Cheers

Andy

I really need that panel for under the headlights too, I can't find one anywhere?

Mines needing a lot of welding on passenger side boot floor, rear cross member and chassis leg. The rear arches on mine were not holed yet but I've started replacing them as well whilst I was doing the rest.

I personally have found MM Opelparts in Holland very good for most hard to source panels- the only 2 I've failed on to date is inner sills and genuine front wings for my Astra van. Well worth a look at his site, plus as a bonus, the owner speaks good English.

[cavalier1990]

Hi Sean

Thanks, appreciate the comments. I've just dug around in various places and sourced most of them, for this one I got one from Norway, a couple from Germany and Anthony Drosos on facebook. The front slam panel was a difficult one to find on usual places as well as the little light panel strip that goes along under the headlights, so Anthony came to the rescue.

Be interesting to see what your doing on the read end of yours, is is patching/welding you got to do?

Cheers

Andy

I really need that panel for under the headlights too, I can't find one anywhere?

Mines needing a lot of welding on passenger side boot floor, rear cross member and chassis leg. The rear arches on mine were not holed yet but I've started replacing them as well whilst I was doing the rest.

I personally have found MM Opelparts in Holland very good for most hard to source panels- the only 2 I've failed on to date is inner sills and genuine front wings for my Astra van. Well worth a look at his site, plus as a bonus, the owner speaks good English.

Those and cope parts are quite good, based in Netherlands as well. I do keep an eye out for those wings for the astra on my part forages!

[cavalier1990]

Hi Sean

Thanks, appreciate the comments. I've just dug around in various places and sourced most of them, for this one I got one from Norway, a couple from Germany and Anthony Drosos on facebook. The front slam panel was a difficult one to find on usual places as well as the little light panel strip that goes along under the headlights, so Anthony came to the rescue.

Be interesting to see what your doing on the read end of yours, is is patching/welding you got to do?

Cheers

Andy

I really need that panel for under the headlights too, I can't find one anywhere?

Mines needing a lot of welding on passenger side boot floor, rear cross member and chassis leg. The rear arches on mine were not holed yet but I've started replacing them as well whilst I was doing the rest.

I got mine off of Anthony Drosos, not sure if he would have any others he can source. I do see copy ones listed in places like latvia on ebay etc. not sure where they are made and if they are any good, but didn't want to find out.

Cheers

Andy

[cavalier1990]

Today's job started making more templates up and also deal with thr N/S inner wheelarch bit that had a suspicious small hole. As per the small hole turned into a bottomless pit, well not quite, but you get the anology!

As I had fixed the jacking bit here a couple of Years ago, I hoped that I wouldn't have too much to repair. The bit inside the outer facing panel was starting to hole, I don't think I replaced this bit as I can see a bit where I welded up to was ok. So the actual outer facing bit only had a small hole, but I had to cut a big chunk off it off to get inside the box section bit and cut of the old rusty tin.
The jacking point bit was ok, so carefully worked my way round it with a mix of grinder and mole grips to "wiggle" off the rusty / frilly edges. I had to use a brand new disc to get into the back to cut that off as a smaller disc wouldn't reach due to the grinder head hitting the ceiling of the box section.

I also cut out that silly expanding foam/plastic bit vx put in there, anyones guess why they done that!

So after much fettling I got it to this state.



Tof fix this properly you'd need to pull the whole jacking point and most of the front corner off the floor back to renew all the metal. I'm not going to be doing that, but I will patch it as best I can. There must have been water getting into there as you could poke up through the jacking point plate to it. Jacking plate is still ok and the metal at the back of the box section, the curve bit you see on the floor side, is pretty thick, bit crusty but still quite firm, so should take a couple of welds ok. I hit it was a chisel a few times to break the crust and it never went through.

Talking off welding I'm going to plum and get a new welder I think, the one I've got is 30+ years old and is struggling it give me a good weld now, it's mainly the roller feed things, the clamping bit is old and worn, the torch end is burnt, and the buttons that set the amps are a bit shoogly. I've replaced the circuit board on it a good few times and the actual transformer on the latest circuit board, as they are famous for going short circuit.

Thinking of going for the same model, SIP 130, but still having a think about it.

Cheers

Andy

[cavalier1990]

It's been a seriously busy couple of weeks, I've been trying to take advantage of the kind of ok weather to get on top of all the welding and time-gobbling prep before hand. I was wanting to get the bulkhead bit totally fixed and watertight before I done anything else, since I'm going away for a week and so it's bound to rain at some point soon.

Had a bit of a boo boo with my new welder, it was going great then the wee spool of wire I got with it ran out, no problem I thought just change it over with the new spool I have. It's called super 6 welding wire and been using it for Years. As soon as I set it back up the welding performance was terrible, the tip was flaming and spitting back blobs of metal into the gun, the wire was melting up the tip and all sorts of other shenanigans.

Turns out that wire isn't highly rated, well at least someone said they noticed issues with it as well on the mig forum. So I plummed and went and bought some genuine SIP wire instead. That's maybe why I was thinking my welder wasn't working quite right as I have been using this wire for as long as I can remember. I did manage to finish the bulkhead fix with the original wire but had to do it mainly with spot welds as the metal is paper thin.

I did manage to get before and afters this time, this is it being prepped for putting the repair panels. Both sides of the trunk bit were done. You can see how much was taken out of the O/S of the bulkhead apron bit:



This is it after I had gave it a complete wirebrush down to get rid of all the flux, then grind down all the welds, then plenty of tiger upol sealant along the line where the water runs and round the welds. I used a torch behind the bulkhead to fill in (search and destroy) any wee pinholes.



I've also built up some of the jacking support bit and have now got the actual jack support panel repair in from carz2 so can look at fitting that next. There is still a wee bit left on the N/S to do, mainly a chassis leg repair plate and on the O/S, the jacking bit and the floor section and I think it is safe to say the welding i.e. the actual bits I had to repair with template panels, is done; just the whole front end panels to put on now! I am waiting for the spray painter guy to get back, I had to send him the pics of the panels.

Talking of holes in the floor, I didn't think to cover it over and a wee visitor popped in for a heat lol. I had to do a double take when I saw this:





Cheers

Andy

[thomas]

It is the with-cat model.

I've heard tale of putting the wire spools in a cool oven (careful of plastic part) to chase the damp out.
You could pop it in once the dinner is finished cooking.
Even of installing a small lamp/light-bulb under the spool permanently on, even when not in use, to keep it warm and dry in there.

Excellent work, btw.

Did see one of those under-headlamp panels for sale quite recently somewhere.
See ( 175687580042 and 143541028167 ).
Both sellers other items, filtered on "Vectra A" worth a look.
The seller of the aerial seal, also had the complete (manual) aerial, with seal included for £11-odds.

[cavalier1990]

Well some early Winter shenanigans to report, all being said and done, not much has been happening with the actual car and welding due to the rotten weather and I think my old bones are starting to complain more about the cold these days . Despite all this while I was otherwise unable to work outside I had a pass to work in a guy I know's garage to get some work done on the front struts no less. Always been meaning to clean these up, give em a lick of paint and replace the shocks and springs with new ones.

I did try in my own garage with a free standing vice to remove the shocker top nut but it was solid as a solid thing, so I ordered the tool from kent impex in Hungary, here is a link in case anyone is looking for one:

https://kentimpex.hu/en/termek/km-563-nut-wrench-2/

While in said workshop I had available a bench mounted vice so that made removing the shocks much easier, I used a 3/4" drive strongbar with the tool and it still took quite a bit of force to remove. Even better, as this guy is an ex mechanic he had the proper vice mounted spring compressor tool, which again made the compression of the springs much easier - but with me still standing in a "ready to run and hide" type pose next to it. Don't imagine I could outrun a stray spring but you can at least try!

Done a wee video when cleaning up the 2nd strut, link below on youtube channel and will try and do a wee pic or video of the finished item

https://youtu.be/aJGFaVNgByU

On top of all this I dropped off the front panels for painting and have now picked those up. Got this video below of the finished product:

https://youtu.be/_fzMh7PkC7Q

Everything's coming together but I don't think I'll be doing much more now until at least after the new year and beyond, I think it's time to take a break from it all

Andy

[Robsey]

Whilst the strut is out, and for the cost of a bearing, it would be daft not to replace the hub bearing now.

But then, it is a matter of where do you stop, replacing parts.?
It is too easy to replace good parts when you do not need to.

I had my struts bead blasted and powder coated. They came up almost like new.

--‐----------

The painted parts look awesome. I do like freshly painted shiny panels.

I fully sympathise with the theory of leaving for a wee while. It is too cold wet and windy.
It isn't fun when the weather is naff.
Although I am lucky not to be affected too much by aches and pains, I find I use my age a lot as an excuse not to crawl around on the car park floor.
Even during nice weather.

[3cav3]

I totally emphasise with you over the aches and pains. I find the older I get the harder it becomes to motivate yourself to work in the cold.

Thanks for the link for the top nut tool, never knew it existed, I've always used a 4ft pair of Stilsons and a scaffold pipe, not the ideal tool as it tends to chew the nut up.

Loving the shinny panels, I find getting something in paint is always a good morale booster.

[cavalier1990]

Whilst the strut is out, and for the cost of a bearing, it would be daft not to replace the hub bearing now.

But then, it is a matter of where do you stop, replacing parts.?
It is too easy to replace good parts when you do not need to.

I had my struts bead blasted and powder coated. They came up almost like new.

--‐----------

The painted parts look awesome. I do like freshly painted shiny panels.

I fully sympathise with the theory of leaving for a wee while. It is too cold wet and windy.
It isn't fun when the weather is naff.
Although I am lucky not to be affected too much by aches and pains, I find I use my age a lot as an excuse not to crawl around on the car park floor.
Even during nice weather.

Totally agree Robsey and this is it where do you stop replacing parts. Ideally it would have been good to get the bearings out and get the struts bead blasted.

Regarding the painted panels, it had to happen didn't it, the under light panel was stored in my back room along with the other bits, I ended up moving the panel and it fell sideways and clattered the other panel leaving a chip on the front of the light panel lol, luckily it's only one small chip in the middle and not a big scratch. I'm not looking forward to welding them on, will need to be ultra cautious with my big shovel hands!

Cheers

Andy

[cavalier1990]

I totally emphasise with you over the aches and pains. I find the older I get the harder it becomes to motivate yourself to work in the cold.

Thanks for the link for the top nut tool, never knew it existed, I've always used a 4ft pair of Stilsons and a scaffold pipe, not the ideal tool as it tends to chew the nut up.

Loving the shinny panels, I find getting something in paint is always a good morale booster.

when I was in the garage it was about 0 degrees and the ground outside was icy, when it's like that my fingertips tend to go numb and my back aches mainly from tensing up in when it's cold; chipping off rust with a chisel screwdriver and a heavy hammer didn't help, but I got there!

Aye regarding the shocker top nut tool, I was trying to get one of those from this crowd linked below but had to have a business account and all that pulava, so found I could get it from the kentimpex, I had got an omega crank locking tool from kentimpex previously so glad they had this tool as well.

https://opel.service-solutions.com/en-U ... /home.aspx

Cheers

Andy

[cavalier1990]

I promised myself in December, actually more like November, that I am not going to do any more outside work until at least March and I'm glad I did, or did not, as it seems like we've had either force 10 gales or sideways rain/sleet/snow with a day or two of respite inbetween since then. One of the bins got caught with the wind and somehow managed to work its way down my driveway, then tip over and put a big scuff right down the newly painted passenger door, so all in all a good start to the New Year!

That can wait though, but will probably need the bottom half re-doing at least. The good thing is it will match in ok with the top bit.

Otherwise itching for a bit of dry weather into March so I can get this and the million and one other things done.

Cheers

Andy

[Envoy CDX]

Ouch, that doesn't sound fun, no dents though hopefully.

[3cav3]

Gutted for you. In the last but one storm I had a bit of concrete blow off the roof, across the garden and somehow landed on my volvos roof! Fortunately only a small ripple. As already stated, hopefully you haven't got any dents appear in yours?

[cavalier1990]

No dents to report, the hard plastic edge of the bin just slid down the bottom side of the door, looking at it closer it's just a scuff, and probably with some hard graft could maybe be polished out.

Cheers

Andy