Mk3 Astra

[seanmooney]

Some more parts arrived yesterday

Nice B204 engine with just over 100k on it.

Got messed around with a guy that had a fully rebuilt stage 3 one for sale which was in a Vectra.

But fund out about this Saab breaker in England and deal was done and thanks to a member on here got it collected for me.

Have to get the hub setup sorted yet though.

I also done a deal for a dark carpet and some more black plastic bits for the rear.

Ive been speaking to a painter and he thinks the bonnet that cam on the Gsi shell is scrap as it will prob blister when painted in a year.

So I need a bonnet as I don't fancy cutting the vents into it. But worst case I will have to.

So just a few more bits to get like what shocks or coilovers to run and the plan is to strip the existing shell, get the B204 in and fitted and everything mounted and hopefully running, then take it back out and off to the painters at some stage this year.

 

[cormac81]

Awesome!

 

[c_rad]

A lot of Saab engine'd stuff appearing on here! Great!

 

[seanmooney]

Got this in the post today after a bit of a with from the master of saab looms Gary Lloyd

So hopefully the wiring end of this will be very straight forward.

Still collecting bits for this and haven't done any actual work yet as I'm more interested in doing work round my house at the min unfortunately.

 

[seanmooney]

So its been a good while since ive updated this.

Ive been collecting bits for the conversion and now have basically everything I need.

Got the scrap gsi shell pulled out on Saturday and rolled it into the garage so hopefully after a few evenings ill have all off it and get it scrapped

 

[southsky sunrise]

Iv a bonnet here if you want it to practice cutting out the vents

 

[seanmooney]

I managed to get another bonnet with a small amount of rust on the inner lip from a guy in omagh that was braking one, also got the windscreen which was a win.

So have a spare set of vents to sell.

 

[seanmooney]

Small progress

Got the white Donor car stripped fully so now have a store full of bits I probably don't need.. lol

So need to get it rolled out and get it away, been looking at it for far too long now.

Next step is to swop the box that came on the Saab engine and get the cable box on and get it shoved into the red car to make sure all runs.

Looking forward to get starting on the red one now.

 

[seanmooney]

Got the scrap shell rolled out and the rust swept up lol now just to get it trailered to the scrap yard.

Also after a while of messing about and getting the battery charged enough to get the base car started, got it moved over near the bench.

Managed to get the lend of an engine crane from a mate so can get the gear box changed over and start getting the standard engine out.

Things should start moving along now that ive freed some space up

 

[seanmooney]

So last night the heart got ripped out of the old girl..

Ready to get the b204 trial fitted now.

 

[AMG]

Vauxhall hot hatch styling was really at its best in the early 90's, love the GSi's especially in red.
Be a good going thing with the SAAB unit, LET just to temperamental in my experience, always a niggly fault somewhere!

 

[seanmooney]

Vauxhall hot hatch styling was really at its best in the early 90's, love the GSi's especially in red.
Be a good going thing with the SAAB unit, LET just to temperamental in my experience, always a niggly fault somewhere!

Its getting a LET that isn't mental money is the problem.

The B204 seemed to be the handiest way out of it.

 

[m00k]

Tbh my cav t is fairly dependable, yeah it’s had niggles over the years but I’ve had it 15 years this year

Cali starts first turn of the way every time even when left for relatively long periods, Altho only covered a grand total of 26k since new in 1995

 

[roonz01]

Awesome man. Can't wait to this this finished. I haven't visited this forum in a long time. Forgot about it tbh.

 

[Gaz86]

Nice build looking forward to the updates

 

[seanmooney]

Didn't get near the car during the week unfortunately.

Had hoped to have the B204 set in place in the bay to see what pipework I need to order.

But was out yesterday evening and I tried the front grill on and realised that the lights that came with the gsi shell were phase 2 headlights and now I need to go find a set of phase 1

I also noticed when I was changing the gearbox over there was a bolt missing, so got onto peter raw in England who does the saab spares who I got the engine from and he posted me a few over and also got a spare rocker cover dirt cheap from him.

It says eco power on it so I might just put this one on the engine and send the other one on the engine to get painted.

Means I can clean and paint the whole engine when all the parts go off to the body shop for paint.

 

[seanmooney]

So got the engine test fitted last night.

Was a tight fit so will be fin when the bay is painted trying not to scratch it.

Just need to fit the rad, intercooer etc, get new pipes made for the power steering etc.

 

[cormac81]

Love it!

 

[roonz01]

Are you going 5 stud set up? You keeping the car red too? You are making great progress man. Love it.

 

[seanmooney]

No im keeping it 4 stud to run the original Gsi rims.

Yeah keeping it red. Its just a lot easier and I do love a red mk3.

 

[bill]

looking forward to watching this progress.

 

[seanmooney]

Done a bit more work last night and had a look at where the pipework is going to go

So after a good bit of messing about of trying to get the saab rad in I got the grinder out.

I slid the intercooler in aswell to see what space I had to work with

Its going to be very tight by the looks of it to get the intercooler pipes on.

I dug out the bumper to see how it all fitted in

So looks live im going to have to make brackets to hold the rad at the bottom in order to have enough room

I pulled out the pipes that I had for the engine to see where it al went as I want to order up some new silicone pipes

I think I have it worked out

The red pipe from the bottom of the rad to the engine is going to be awkward as I'm having to move the rad approx. 2 inches further so the Saab pipe is kinked a bit.

The rest of the pipes should be straight forward.

 

[Creaney]

nice one sean. getting stuck in!!

 

[Stu Beck]

I feel sorry for the little red Astra. Personally I would have left it completely standard. In years to come it would have become a collectors item. Now it’s just gonna be another GSI rep. But each to their own.

 

[m00k]

I feel sorry for the little red Astra. Personally I would have left it completely standard. In years to come it would have become a collectors item. Now it’s just gonna be another GSI rep. But each to their own.

Stu you are a resident grump/grouch