Restoration of a Vectra A 1.6S 1989

[George Vec]

Hello guys, I would like to introduce you to my current project. I would like to apologize for any grammatical or spelling mistakes and for using metric units as I am from Greece.

It is an Opel Vectra A 1989 model year with the 1.6 carburated 16sv engine. In this first post I will show you some bodywork pictures. In the following posts I will upload interior, electrical and engine work. Note that it is still work in progress.

The car has about 600.000 kilometers on the clock and it is still going strong and reliable without any rebuilds so far, just a couple head gasket replacements and the full necessary maintenance.

The story begins with a small frontal collision and besides going to the scrapper i decided to fully restore the car to its former glory.



After the necessary "massage" from a skilled mechanic these where the results.



Then we started taking the smaller dents an the rust in the rear arches. Luckily there was rust just there and under the trunk seal.



We were committed to use the least amount of filler and use metalwork for straightening the body. Here it was a really big dent from a broken tree brunch.



The next fase after a lot of sanding was priming and even more sanding!




The first result was pleasing and worthy of the money and time invested.



The rear emblems were also restored because they were pretty worn out by the sun and the countless washes through a 30 year lifespan.



Finally a good set of 14 inch astra f gt alloys were added an the final result is this.







I hope you like this first post of the vectra odyssey. Thanks for reading this long post and if anyone has a question I would be more than happy to answer!
I hope the following posts will come in a few days!

Best regards to all of you!!

[Cavalier342]

Looks very nice. Being an older car, it's probably easier to find spare bodywork parts for it. They last a long time, these cars if looked after. Good rebuild.

[Robsey]

Hi Giorgos,

Excellent work on the bodywork.
It is good to see another Vectra-A being saved from the scrap yard.

Looking forward to reading your next few posts.

[iangsi]

Nice work on the rebuild, I love the colour as well,

[ilovedmymantas]

Hi George,

looks good, reminds me of my first mk3, a grey 1990 gl.
I have two questions;

How were you're rear emblems restored, are they the chrome?
Are you replacing the side trim-strips?

p.s.
you're English is excellent

[Envoy CDX]

That's a great recovery. Looking forward to seeing more.

[Mk3alan]

Looking good, can't wait for the follow up articles!
Has it always lived in Greece?

Alan

[George Vec]

Hi George,

looks good, reminds me of my first mk3, a grey 1990 gl.
I have two questions;

How were you're rear emblems restored, are they the chrome?
Are you replacing the side trim-strips?

p.s.
you're English is excellent

Hi ilovemymantas,
Yes the are the chrome type. I fix them using aluminum tape. First you clean them thoroughly with alcohol, then you stick a strip of the tape and using a sharp pointy blade you cut the letters one by one. If you look closely there is a very small ridge around the face of the letters and you can use it to guide the blade. I don't know if it is going to last a long time but even if it starts to peel off you can always remove it and reapply again. I fixed mine about 6 months ago and they are still intact.

As for the side trim-strips, mine were warped from the sun and age and the edges had broken off. Eventually I will replace them but they are not top priority at the moment.

P.s. thanks for the compliment!

[George Vec]

Looking good, can't wait for the follow up articles!
Has it always lived in Greece?

Alan

Hi Alan, yes it was all of it's life in Greece. It was purchased brand new from my grandfather. Supposedly it was one of the first that came here. He was going to buy a mk2 cav (Ascona c here) but eventually he waited a few months for this.

[George Vec]

I would like to thank everyone for the great feedback!! The project is still going on and one of these days I will follow up with the next update about Electrical updates and repairs.

[iangsi]

A set of GSI rear lights would finish off the rear end just nice as you all ready have the black boot panel fitted.

[ilovedmymantas]

Thanks for the tip George.
I've got five different foil types to try on a couple of old spare badges, if it ever gets into the top ten of the things to do list

matt

[George Vec]

Time for the second post of this thread. First of all I had to fix some minor electrical issues. The easiest was a slight misfire. The culprit was a damaged ignition rotor.



The second problem was a little more confusing. The cooling fan was not engaging properly and some times it would shut off with the temperature high. I saw almost 100 degrees some times. he problem seemed to come and go if you jigle the wires of the sensor. After unwrapping the electrical tape i discovered this hack job.



After properly replacing the hole connector the problem went away and the temperature never climbed above 95 again.



The final electrical issue was that the A/C fan was not engaging at all. At first I thought it was a stuck motor but after taking out the resistor, the problem was obvious. I think that a part in this condition should belong to the titanic not a functional car. Anyway after using a dremel tool to clean all the contacts and a metal brush for the connector I had my A/C back!



And this concludes the little fixes. Next we have finally the upgrades! Cheers everyone!!

[George Vec]

Additional note. Because of the rusty resistor and not having a blower the hole summer was a nightmare without A/C. After the fix a new charge with fresh R134 and the cabin was just like a fridge!

[Robsey]

Excellent work Giorgios,

I am always telling people to solder and heat-shrink sleeve their wiring joints.
Nice tidy work.
---------------------------
Nice easy fixes for the rotor arm and the blower-motor resistor-pack.
It will be well worth the effort next summer.
---------------------------
Looking forward to seeing your upgrades and modifications.

[George Vec]

Here we have the first set of upgrades.

Because this is a carburated engine it has no way to raise automatically the idle speed when the A/C is turned on.
To do this when it was new there was a valve that raised the throttle a little bit so the car could maintain a good idle speed despite the heavy load. This valve was deleted for unknown reasons from some mechanic. I assume it was done during the exchange from the factory pierburg 2e3 carb to a weber 32/34. The bracket could not mount on the new carb without modification so he went the easy way and tossed it all together in the garbage can.
Anyway I managed to obtain one such valve and after the necessary modifications I installed it behind the carb. Smooth and steady idle and almost no noticeable transition from A/C off to on.

The valve


Here it is behind the carb.
free ssl image hosting

Next are a couple of easy things. I bought a pair of electricaly adjustable headlights with the motors installed. They were almost brand new condition. Also an ebay roller switch was bought and the installation was dead easy as the wiring was already there and I just replaced the old units and pop the switch in place of the blank cover.

One of the headlights


The switch
mobile pic upload

The switch assembly.

Does anyone know what is going on the last blank button?

Finally an omega wiper stalk with its relay so I can have variable wiper speed.

[Robsey]

Excellent modifications.
Being a much cooler country than Greece, very few Vauxhalls were fitted with air conditioning in the UK.
Only the higher specification cars.

So I would not expect many early carburettor cars to have this control valve fitted.

That extra switch blank is for a retro-fit alarm.
One of the "System 90" alarms.
The switch housed the controls for enabling / disabling the ultrasonic sensors.

Strangely Vauxhall / Opel named it the "Status Monitor"





The alarm unit and it's huge square siren.



The '901' alarm was controlled by the ignition voltage and door dip-switches.
(Turn on the ignition within 20 seconds of opening a door prevented the alarm sounding).

The '902' alarm had remote control key fobs to switch the alarm on and off.

As for the wiper switch modification.
I have done that modification too.

[George Vec]

Next a fellow calibra sadly passed away and some of it's electrical gadgets are going to live on inside this vectra. I took all the wiring harness and the plan is to install fuel computer, heated seats, check control, abs, driver airbag, electric mirrors and electric windows. Quite a big job as it seems!!

Calibra dash wiring


Here i added the rear door loom (one on each side) on the calibra door wiring.

Also if you want to be 100% accurate you have to add also 2 wires from the central locking module to the black rectangular connector under the left side of the dash. It is used to lock and unlock the hole car from the boot.

Fuel computer testing


This is the abs, fuel computer, and check control wiring removed from the rest calibra loom. (Heated seats and airbag removed another day and I forgot to photograph them all together).


And this is the state that the car is right now. I have to clean 30 years of dust start routing wires and plugin them to the main connector.


A lot of work to do next so wish me good luck!!

[George Vec]

Thanks Robsey for the info. I think I will put a switch there so I can lower the radio antenna manually before entering a garage without having to shut off the hole radio.

[ilovedmymantas]

What a leap, from a bad rotor arm to the totally unexpected stripped out interior
You're a bit of a dark horse George

I look forward to seeing your progress, I like the mantra of 'if you're going to do it, do it right' and you seem more than capable

…That extra switch blank is for a retro-fit alarm.
One of the "System 90" alarms.
The switch housed the controls for enabling / disabling the ultrasonic sensors.

Strangely Vauxhall / Opel named it the "Status Monitor"

[ Image ]

[ Image ]

The alarm unit and it's huge square siren.

[ Image ]

The '901' alarm was controlled by the ignition voltage and door dip-switches.
(Turn on the ignition within 20 seconds of opening a door prevented the alarm sounding)…

I can't believe what I'm seeing

The diagram shows it in a mk3 but the switch style looks alien, It wouldn't have looked out of place in my old mk1 though.
Apart from that, who would want to buy an alarm that came with a switch to show the thieves if you'd remembered to put it back on after you'd had the dog in the car

[George Vec]

A little interior work for today.
The plastic vents are brittle and of course were already broken before removing. Thankfully I have all the parts in hand for the repair.

The middle vent was the easy part.
From this


To this


Now for the big challenge. The screen vent. Of course it was not so broken when it was on the dash but it exploded in pieces when trying to remove it.


After a lot of super glue for the initial puzzling and even more two component polyurethane adhesive on the back for strength this is the almost final result.

The plan is to use plastic filler for the cracks on top, then sand it and finally prime and paint it.

Would it be a lot easier to buy new ones? Yes it would but where is the fun on that??!!

For the end I replaced all the foam pads on all the interior plastics.

For a nice squeak and rattle free ride.

[cavalier1990]

Hi George

THat is quite a lot of bits you had to glue back, that's devotion for you.

I want to ask how did you remove that plastic trim, as most people swear it's part of the dashboard, from what I can see from a spare I have it certainly looks to be moulded in to it.

Amazing work you're doing all that other stuff, luckliy you shouldn't have too much problem with rust out there. I seen a few vectras recently in Portugal, old Corsas as well in daily use, no rust. On the flip side though, you do see cars out in the med with totally rotten interiors due to sun damage.

Andrew

[George Vec]

Hi George

THat is quite a lot of bits you had to glue back, that's devotion for you.

I want to ask how did you remove that plastic trim, as most people swear it's part of the dashboard, from what I can see from a spare I have it certainly looks to be moulded in to it.

Amazing work you're doing all that other stuff, luckliy you shouldn't have too much problem with rust out there. I seen a few vectras recently in Portugal, old Corsas as well in daily use, no rust. On the flip side though, you do see cars out in the med with totally rotten interiors due to sun damage.

Andrew

Hi Andrew

The plastic trim is a separate piece and is sold as a replacement part. Here is a screenshot of a parts catalog.


Mine was stuck as well. That's why I manage to collect all the pieces (and break it in even more). I inserted a sharp blade in the edge and using a hammer I manage to cut them apart. I looks like the two plastics fused together somehow. I thought the extreme heat from the sun hitting the windscreen was responsible for that but I can't be sure.

Yes you are right unfortunately under the sun for so many years the plastic parts get brittle and the vinyl in the door cards shrinks and tears apart. The rubber trims suffer too. Also we have problems with the roof liners as they often collapse prematurely.

[Robsey]

The cool weather here can cause the plastic parts to become stiff, which makes them brittle. I only work on plastic parts in the warm weather between May and September, when the plastic is more flexible.

As for the head lining... a lot of Cavaliers suffer from sagging head liners.
I re-trimmed mine in May / June this year.
So again - heat is not a huge issue.
The foam backing becomes dry and turns to powder with age.

I would not have the patience to rebuild that plastic strip.
I would not call that fun at my age.
Maybe when I was much younger.

[George Vec]

The cool weather here can cause the plastic parts to become stiff, which makes them brittle. I only work on plastic parts in the warm weather between May and September, when the plastic is more flexible.

As for the head lining... a lot of Cavaliers suffer from sagging head liners.
I re-trimmed mine in May / June this year.
So again - heat is not a huge issue.
The foam backing becomes dry and turns to powder with age.

I would not have the patience to rebuild that plastic strip.
I would not call that fun at my age.
Maybe when I was much younger.

My head liner is already replaced more than 10 years ago. It not only cavalier problem. Almost every car from 5 to 10 years from new will suffer from it. Here in Greece almost every car related shop offers headliner replacement. Not only upholstery shops but audio shops, glass and tint shops even many car wash shops. Of course the quality is dependant to the individual who does the job.