I'm beging to think this project is cursed. I had hoped to have it ready for top coat by now. Unfortunately I'm running behind, firstly last weekend I ended up having 3 trips to the eye hospital, trying to get a piece of metal that had embedded itself into my eye ball when grinding removed. After a few very uncomfortable days and loads of eye drops to soften the eyeball they did manage to extract it.
In the past I admit to often using the safety squint, but this time I had actually put a pair of safety glasses on, but the metal managed to get round the side!
I have now purchased a box of 10 safety googles instead, so hopefully it won't be able to happen again.
The next thing to go wrong was the tailgate. This morning I continued with trial fitting the lights etc. This was where I noticed a problem. The new tailgate wouldn't clear the rear lights! No amount of bending the hinges etc would get it to line up. As I've previously had a lot of trouble getting a replacement door to fit, I wonder if the new panels ive sourced were rejects or was the Astra hand fettled when new with huge tolerances and the assembly line kept trying panels until something lined up?
The otherside was better.
This is gutting to say the least, I've lost count as to how many hours I've put in to it, still I guess it's my fault for not trial fitting it earlier.
The only solution I could come up with is to try fitting the original tailgate.
Yesterday I went on a 275 mile road trip to pick up what has turned into the Holly Grail of this van. - A genuine O/S front wing!
I've been searching for one for nearly 6 years, so when this one turned up on ebay, I bought it immediately, as an added bonus it was only 20quid!
As can be seen it's far from perfect, with a small scrape near the front plus a bit of minor damage on the inside edge near the scuttle, but importantly it is virtually rust free.
When I was with the chap selling the wing he offered me another pair of wings for a tenner each, I wasn't sure if they were genuine but at that price I thought why not?
They arent quite as rust free but are still pretty good. This morning after carefully exaiming them I am almost certain they are actually genuine as they have the numbers stamped into the seem the same as the definite genuine ones I've got.
Talking of ebay purchases, over the last few weeks I've also acquired the following,
Brand new but lightly store sold wheel trims for 30 quid, hopefully I can get away with just flattening off and re laqueering them?
I also got this brand new windscreen for 60 quid, I know I've already got one but as it was cheap I thought I'd keep one as a spare whilst they are still available
This one also comes with a top tint, although not strictly original on this van I am leaning towards fitting it as I've always found the tint does help to reduce glare.
Thanks, got to admit that the 275 mile round trip really took it out of me, must be a sign of getting older. A few years ago I'd do that sort of journey before breakfast. I could regularly leave Hereford in the early hours and be parked up in Bordeux, France for our evening meal. - over 550 miles plus a ferry journey. I guess the problem is my brain keeps telling me that I'm still in my early 20's, but my body knows I'm in my mid 40's lol.
I'm just really aware that its got to be in top coat soon, before the autumn sets in, guess we've yet to have a summer first though, fingers crossed it'll be Carmine Red again in the next few weeks.
Little by little, dunno if age has anything to do with it, rapidly approaching my mid forties and still do 300-500 mile round trips. Mostly as there are no events in the north of England
Envoy CDX wrote: ↑Sun Jul 07, 2024 5:21 pm
Little by little, dunno if age has anything to do with it, rapidly approaching my mid forties and still do 300-500 mile round trips. Mostly as there are no events in the north of England
Perhaps its because I'm no longer used to driving large distances, years ago I'd regularly do 30,000+ miles a year, last year I think I did more like 7,000. I'm fortunate to manage to almost never going through heavy traffic, mainly country roads. Yesterday there was a lot of heavy traffic, plus about 25 speed cameras on route to make sure I didn't accidentally go slightly over, all contributed to being tiring.
The other thing that baffled me was I drove through the centre of Bath and their clean air zone. When I logged in to pay I found my high polluting Diesel Euro5 Volvo was free, yet checking the system if I had gone in my low emission Euro5 Astra Mk5 Van I would of had to of paid?!? Probably some government minister can explain the logic, but I can't work it out?
As for tiring, I get what you mean there, stop start driving kills me, but general long distance is fine. Since 2020 i think alot of peoples general milage has dropped, most of my hauls now are for gigs, car shows and general "why the heck not?"
Here's the wing after prepping, after the first coat of primer was applied a hairline crack appeared by the indicator.
After welding and filling it fortunately has vanished.
Then I applied 2k epoxy to it and the original tailgate.
One annoying thing is I failed to notice a small ding on the edge of the tailgate until after the primer has been applied. Still at least it gives something more to do once dry.
Just reading back in the thread a bit noticed you'd had gpt metal in the eye, done the exact same thing last year, and that was after me becoming more "safety aware" but somehow I managed to get a bit in my eye in August 23, then the next month I done it again. Think I might go back to the squint pose when grinding! To this day I've got a slight glaze in the eye, hardly noticeable unless I'm tired or staring at a screen for long periods. hope it's all good now?
Good find with the wing, always good to haul some more geuine parts to complete the project, more to sand as well I suppose!
cavalier1990 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 23, 2024 11:09 pm
Just reading back in the thread a bit noticed you'd had gpt metal in the eye, done the exact same thing last year, and that was after me becoming more "safety aware" but somehow I managed to get a bit in my eye in August 23, then the next month I done it again. Think I might go back to the squint pose when grinding! To this day I've got a slight glaze in the eye, hardly noticeable unless I'm tired or staring at a screen for long periods. hope it's all good now?
Good find with the wing, always good to haul some more geuine parts to complete the project, more to sand as well I suppose!
Yes eye sight seems to of returned to normal thanks, very sore for about a week. The eye surgeon did say that the other eye had a small scar probably from a piece being stuck in it before but I dont have any recall of it happening. Its probably the reason why my eyesight isn't quite so good in that one. I'm sorry to hear of the damage done to your eye. I guess its the risk we take playing with rotten old Vsuxhalls, lol.
I was very pleased to finally track down the genuine wing, shows that everything does finally turn up on ebay if you look long enough. In this case nearly 6 years.
Well, today was finally P -day. After a foggy start to the morning it brightened up, in the end almost too hot, so I decided to get the old girl in paint.
It will need a cut back and buff, but hopefully after a polish the panels and van should be OK.
