2003 Vauxhall VX220 2.2

pablo

RMS Moderator
OP
pablo
Messages
66,994
Location
Glengrimley
Surgery time

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svensktoppen

RMS Regular
Messages
32,749
Drives
FK2 CTR
You need to try one with the roof up, that's the clincher. Once inside they're fine if you're not ridiculously tall like @big_pete 😇

It's getting in and out that breaks most people, lol. Especially roof up.
 

m00k

RMS Regular
Messages
14,266
Location
Disney Land
Drives
Vauxhalls/Holden
Yeah I was in one when they were new in hursts showroom back in the day... 6ft 3 and mind I was pretty much looking at the top of the screen lol
 

pablo

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pablo
Messages
66,994
Location
Glengrimley
So I wanted a set of track wheels for a few reasons:

1. the std fronts are 5.5" wide and understeery. a 175 tyre just doesnt cut it
2. I wanted a staggered 16" front / 17" rear setup (195/55/16 fronts, 235/45/17 rears)
3. I could paint them a silly colour
4. having a spare set of wheels means I can move to track focussed tyres down the line (R888s or whatever)

So I tracked down a couple of single astra SXI front wheels in a breakers in Downpatrick (top tip, dont go to the address on the ebay listing as its likely the guys house and not the yard, ask me how I know).

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I already had a set of turbo wheels so used the rears for this set

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Clearly silver fronts and black rears wasnt going to work, and with the car being silver I didnt really want black. So found a nice looking colour on the halfords shelf and tried it out

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pic looks ok but it was WAYYY too brown and not the nice bronze I was looking for. So some internet searching found me BMW Sepang Bronze. The fronts were fine but the rears reacted badly with the primer (Im guessing whatever black was used was no good so had to get thinners and rub all the primer AND black paint underneath off. joy

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Ready for round 2:

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much better, time for the colour:

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pablo

RMS Moderator
OP
pablo
Messages
66,994
Location
Glengrimley
And laquered up

2019-08-27 17.28.41.jpg


Fitted on the car (awful pic sorry)

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Also painted my door cards as they were gash. They were silver but scuffed and cracked at the grab part so fixed up and epoxied etc and sprayed in Porsche Polar silver (guess what I had lying around)

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pablo

RMS Moderator
OP
pablo
Messages
66,994
Location
Glengrimley
I did consider getting satin laquer but I had regular laquer sitting on the bench so.......
 

pablo

RMS Moderator
OP
pablo
Messages
66,994
Location
Glengrimley
they are ok, because they are track wheels they didnt get the full amount of attention but the astra fronts were in bad shape so needed the most work
 

pablo

RMS Moderator
OP
pablo
Messages
66,994
Location
Glengrimley
Small world, nice meeting you.

Ballyclare radiator services should be able to repair your rad if you don’t want to have to replace it

Have used them before to good effect but being a track car I’m happy to upgrade to an alloy one with a new fan too. It’s 16 years old now so worth refreshing I think. Need to figure out why the hinge was rubbing too. Might be time for latches as the bonnet release is a curse too.
 
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