VXOC Astra-J/GTC

Looks great! I'm unsure if they mske b1's in 20' i liked those!

Well I've been relatively quiet over the last few weeks. Had a bit of a nightmare working with arnold clark for a few weeks before being left with no job, but im working again so ive managed to make a little bit more progress.

Some custom parts came from overseas





And it works, no limp mode, jumpy idle or fault lights. Sounds pretty decent to. Car has lost a little bit of power but im thinking the ECU's holding back because of the change and no doubt a little bit of heat soak. gonna stick with this just now and see if any issues arise. Been working on the car most of the day.

Bought new DRLs as one of my old ones had started to fail. Wish I had bought the same ones again as the ones I bought have been a  nightmare.

This happened after I went a drive after fitting them.




As you can see both broke off and  fell inside the lights.tried using double sided tape that is now stuck inside the light, so im gonna need to split it 

This had to happen as a result of that



After they were out I soldered the bases back on and again the bulbs were crap haha, wouldnt have minded going to all the effort if they were bright but they are garbage. I need a MOT, new wipers, an oil change and also need new tyres :( and possibly a new offside headlight so aye having a good time, but the turbo singing is making up for it.   end of rant haha

Looking good mate.

To make sure the bulbs don't fall out carefully close the gap between the metal contacts so it will hold the bulb tight

I seen on the Facebook page you got the pipe for the air filter.

Its coming along very nicely look forward to seeing it at a Scottish meet at some point.

nice intake set up i like it

(27:th-Apr-2016, 20:03:00)tucpal Wrote: [ -> ]nice intake set up i like it

Still needs a little bit of work but at least the car hasn't gone into limp mode. I had a eml come on after a short run with  P0172 running rich so I'll need to look at a better cold air feed and a heatshield, or even better if I can make an enclosed cover for the filter. Ideally I would Like to take it out on a few runs with the computer plugged in to check the airflow and see if the filter is a little bit restrictive or if in fact the temperature is a bit high and thats why its dumping in the extra fuel (hoping its air temp related) Ive got it off the car just now as I dont want to be running rich all the time, even when the running rich issue is sorted I think the car will still need remapped for the kit and engine to work in harmony which is a bummer but im guessing vauxhall have made it hard to modify this engine given its previous history for piston failures.

Well I start a new job as of Monday, so back to full time mon - fri.  Took the opportunity today to have a mess around with a few bits of the car



Just used tint spray and some lacquer on the lenses, wanted to try it but I think i'll buy the LED indicators to go with the black surrounds.

Done some more painting to



Turned out well, just leaving the lacquer to cure overnight before I fit everything back on.

Much better

Looks very nice indeed.

It I where you I would be doing something like pin stripe vinyl down the creases on the bonnet and the curves on the doors.

I am planning black roof, wing mirrors and some black following the cease in the doors.

I might look into it or even just one decal down one side of the bonnet and roof maybe. I dunno if I want bonnet vents and have them colour coded white. Just been doing odd bits the now until Ive got a decent wage coming back in. Still looking at rims and lowering first

Yeah I like the idea of bonnet vents but I think the same of all bonnets I don't know if it stems from the Scoobies or Celica GT4 I used to own but just think you could make them more practice like they did.

I like a nice low car but with the way the roads are in and around Aberdeen at the moment I would break my spine.

What size and style of rims you going for or just looking till something catches your eye?

I have 2 sets off my fto to get rid of before I'm allowed anything well anything she can see anyway lol

Still a bit unsure on the vents ill shop around.

The plan was to get air ride, but after a long think about it I think im just wanting to lower it a little bit without compramising to much. I dont really want to spend 4500 grand on a custom kit, even at that its not really that different its following the stance trend thats all over the car scene at the moment. I want to make the car quick. I keep telling my mate that I'll make it kill his vxr haha.

I'm looking for 20 inch rims, the hardest thing is finding ones that are the right size but also have the same fitment as the gtc. Ive seen these but I want to get the centres painted white and keep the polished lip

http://www.lkperformance.co.uk/wheels/ts...hicle=1365

Worst case scenario will be I get wheel adapters made up.

Think vents can be a bit of a hit or miss.

I've seen some corsa's with them and some are nice but I have seen some that have long vents and I think it looks like they are trying too overcompensate for something lol.

Those are nice looks alloys but for me and the road round me and my driving style I think it would take a week before one hit a pothole and broke the alloy. I damaged the 19s I have on my fto and that only even done short journeys.

I keep going quiet and then coming back again :P just been a bit busy. 

I got myself a private plate.



Got pressed plates instead of the flat ones and slapped them on with some velcro.

Old news aswell still messing about with the custom kit and its just about done. all working fine and no issues.  just got 3 parcels to go so hopefully they are here before the weekend.

Spent a little extra and kept the polished metal theme thats going on.

I saw the update on Facebook looking very nice and shiny just like I like my engine bay too

looks very good so far very impressed

Picked the last parts up this morning after missing the postman yesterday. 



Needs cutting down to get it all to fit mind you but it should look good once its in.




looking to start painting my rocker cover and get the engine bay smartened up next. Im pretty pleased with how the kit has come together and hopefully it will be installed permanently soon instead of running tests 

Look very good when it is all in correctly

Looking good chap!

Quick update, nothing exciting.



cut down and fitting snug. might end up cutting some length of the maf housing side to get the cone at a better angle for the cold air feed. but happy that it works and looks the part to

Car looks cracking. Just got my white GTC this month.

How did you remove the grill. Had a play about earlier but couldn't get it off. Hoping it's not a bumper off job.

(28:th-Jun-2016, 21:21:09)gregj Wrote: [ -> ]Car looks cracking. Just got my white GTC this month.

How did you remove the grill. Had a play about earlier but couldn't get it off. Hoping it's not a bumper off job.

It is a bumper off job.


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Very good work

(28:th-Jun-2016, 21:21:09)gregj Wrote: [ -> ]Car looks cracking. Just got my white GTC this month.

How did you remove the grill. Had a play about earlier but couldn't get it off. Hoping it's not a bumper off job.

Cheers again guys!.

Unfortunately it is a bumper off job. seen someone remove the four screws under the bonnet and bend the bumper out but personally I would never want to see that again as it will damage it. do the extra work nd take it off completely its not as bad as it sounds. if you need a hand with it give me a message

(29:th-Jun-2016, 21:35:20)Shorty S91 Wrote: [ -> ]Cheers again guys!.

Unfortunately it is a bumper off job. seen someone remove the four screws under the bonnet and bend the bumper out but personally I would never want to see that again as it will damage it. do the extra work nd take it off completely its not as bad as it sounds. if you need a hand with it give me a message

Nah I'll do it properly some day. Might take you up on your offer. Need to decide on colours first of all.

Not updated in a while. Just been adding a few details over the last few weeks.

i painted my door trims again




I also got some of the pedal covers, wanted rid of the rubber ones.


And I finally found some Opel badges that fit. They just need painted now or do we think I should leave them chrome?
 

liking the blue and white theme very original

Well you all know that I disappear off the face of the earth and then re appear with more mods so here we go. Just been working like mad the now and poping on and off the forum and not really had time for an update.

so last time we had new pedal covers and opel badges.

well The front grill got repainted again in gloss black



The mirror covers also got a cheeky colour change to match.

Fitted a gear knob from another astra j. Think its from a vx-line model, am I right?



I have also been looking at alloys for months and I still cant decide if I want to go down a sightly stanced approach or make it racecar ''ish'' haha so I ended up with these for the time being.



love the wheels I think it just sets the car off nicely. I have a new alloy wheel cleaner that is a white foam and its kinda thrown me the wheels also looked really good white haha so we will wait and see for now. Loving the new look on it and heres a wee cheeky pic after some tlc today. Also nearly forgot I tinted my front fog lights but I dont have a decent pic so this will need to do . 

Looking very nice mate!


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Alloys look mint mate 

Nice, I too like the look of white alloys on a white car but you would need to clean them twice a week.

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(11:th-Sep-2016, 08:52:51)J1ODYA Wrote: [ -> ]Nice, I too like the look of white alloys on a white car but you would need to clean them twice a week.

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the black ones aren't any better to be honest everything shows up so they are still getting cleaned at least twice haha

very nice looking car mate

The only colour which masks brake dust is grey, even then it's noticeable

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Oh my black ones where a sod too but white is way more obvious as the whole wheel goes a kind of grey overtime

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Update time: 

Its been a little while since the threads been updated with pics.

Some of you's have probably seen most of them if your on the Facebook page but for those of you  who haven't here's whats been happening over the last few weeks.



After going back and forward for a while I decided that I want to do a green and white conversion. The blue was nice but it was getting a bit much and i was getting bored of it. As it stands just now I've only done the speedo and gear surround to see if the green would grow on me (which it has). I will get round to doing the rest at some point. 



I ordered a DBilas flowmaster as an early Christmas present and it arrived on the Friday. I have fully installed it now and it did require a little bit of modifying to get the whole system sealed. This is what came in the kit.



Also messed about with the griffin and some candy green wrap, it might make a comeback but i'm not sure at this point.



Today I got straight to work installing the whole setup for the DBilas. Bumper off, wheel and the rest of the air intake had to come out to.



The kit is pretty well made, Definitely purpose built over aesthetics. installing the top part was probably the easiest part but I did have to adjust some of the brackets so it sat better.



The guide that came with the kit showed that the pipe should have just been cut and then stuffed down into the airbox water collection box/resonator. It didnt really make any sense to me so I have removed both parts and then fed the pipework down through were it used to be.



The next part was a little tricky and I ideally wanted to avoid modifying any of the existing parts. There was a part of the kit that is supposed to act as the initial entering point for the cold air but it wouldn't fit without further modifying so I decided to use the standard one.

The first problem was that the standard pipe was to large for the black tubing provided so it kept on falling down. I ended up cutting the mating flange on the standard intake so that it would all fit.




Like a Glove




End result and a fully closed and upgraded system. You'll see that I've added some green conduit on some of the cables and there is also a green hose on the return to the expansion tank. Engine bay will slowly be getting tarted up, just finding the correct parts that's a nuisance sometimes.



Been out on a drive with the kit on and there definitely is an improvement. Its not massive but it is noticeable. More than I was expecting to be fair from an induction kit. The noise is also a little louder than I anticipated and you can hear the recirc valve more when you lift off the throttle which is a little bonus and I haven't lost any low end torque. Need to do some motorway runs to see how it does up top end in sixth gear. In my eyes it is worth the money, it  was never bought with the expectations of giving big gains but more of an overall improvement in airflow and driveability.

Really like the white light on the instrument cluster, looks so much nicer and crisp imho.

some top work there well done i agree the speedo looks very good

There any hints and tips for doing the speedo leds? I'm gonna have a go at mine later I think as I have the side LEDs but never swapped them before...

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there the same as every other led except they are n the side. I use a plcc 2 3528 instead of the side led. i just turn it and it does the job mate. take your time with it and use a delicate hand when your soldering and you'll be fine

(16:th-Dec-2016, 21:33:27)Shorty S91 Wrote: [ -> ]there the same as every other led except they are n the side. I use a plcc 2 3528 instead of the side led. i just turn it and it does the job mate. take your time with it and use a delicate hand when your soldering and you'll be fine

Ha nice one! I was lucky enough to get some side leds from Russell [WINKING FACE] okay that's good then as I only have a soldering iron! Thought it may be a lot harder with one rather than using a heat gun. Will give it a shot tomorrow! [SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES]

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Looks nice mate, very fresh. Does the cone filter/induction kit make a smidge of a difference, or make it sound any more grunty?

When I had the cone filter there wasn't any difference in power and it was infact a little down in power up the top of lthe rev range. The noise that came off it was really good. You could hear the turbo spooling when I was inside the car and when the throttle got snapped shut you could hear the excess pressure being dumped. With the DBilas kit the dump noise was a little quieter but there was a little bit more power from gained when it was installed. Not lots but enough to notice. Still got a decent amount of induction noise with the DBilas kit and all round its a good bit of kit. Ive noticed now since installing my cat back exhaust you can hear the dump noise more.

Just realised how long its been since I updated this thread  sorry guys!

Well here we go.

Eventually got round to painting my engine cover and giving the bay a general clean up.




And the end result after a few coats of lacquer and some blue accessories and decals.




I had been wanting to paint the rear diffuser for some time but I was unsure about how the finish would look because it's textured. I initially sprayed it black and put some clear coat on top of it and when it dried you could still see it was really textured. Bearing in mind this was after I sanded it down for about 2 hours. Eventually took it back off and wet sanded it with 2000 grit paper then gave it a cut and polish and it turned out really well.



I might end up painting it again just to sort out a few areas but at least its smooth and will be a lot easier now.

erm what else?... I tinted a second set of rear lights   as I got bored with the red ones again



I Ordered my cat back just after christmas and that's me just got round to fitting it at the weekend there.



As you can see the door strips are back off for painting.

Old system VS New system.






pleased with the exhaust, it's getting louder as time goes n so it will be interesting to see how loud it goes.