Bhalay207's Progress thread

[bhalay207]

Well considering i've been on this forum since February and have made a few changes to the Astra, i thought it time to do a progress thread. I don't have photos for everything but for what i do, i'll post here.

So 2015 came and i'd grown tired of my old car, so after 4yrs of ownership and 50k miles i wanted a change so the hunt began. At first i'd settled on a 1.6 Titanium X Focus, however the price tag meant that it just wasn't feasible at that time so i started looking elsewhere for something slightly cheaper. This brought me onto the Astra, and me being a fan of Vauxhall wasn't put off by this at all.

I came across a red SRI on Autotrader that was supposedly at my local dealer (Burton). When i got there i was told that it was in Oldham and i couldn't reserve it due to a customer going to look at it that day. The dealer offered be an alternative. It was 6months newer but had 10k miles more for the same price but in silver. The catch was the car was in Nottingham and there were no pictures of it. So against my better judgement i put a £250 deposit down and the car would be brought across to me.

On the 14/02/15 the car landed at the dealer and i immediately knew it was the car for me. Looking around it i clocked that it had a few extra's on it. They were:

19" Wheels in Anthracite
Front and rear mudflaps
Aluminium door pins
Aluminium pedals
Power fold mirrors
Tinted rear windows
Parking sensors front and back

Given that there was some damage to it, the dealer agreed to rectify it all. As the car had a private plate on, i had to wait for the replacement log book to arrive before i could take ownership. This is where all the hassle began, which resulted in me not collecting the vehicle until the 14/03/15.

Anyway, pictures:

My old car - 2007 Ford Focus 18TDCI Sport S



And my Astra when it arrived at the dealer (including the damage)




So Feb 14th came, and after a long wait, i took collection. I also moved house the following month, so it was a busy few weeks all round. He she is at the old mans house and somewhat and cleaner (To dealership standards anyway   )



So as with any new car, you always get the mod bug and the cleaning bug. Seeing as this had a couple of mods on to appease me for the time being, i started doing little things.

22/03/15 - Auto Dim mirror. I had one in my last car, and the last 3 cars before that. I love them and think they're a fantastic idea. Even with tinted windows, its a fantastic addition. (photo's are from present day a i didn't have any from when this was done).




05/04/15 - Flying the club flag



09/04/15 - Next on my list was LED ambient lighting for the front door cards. Again with the help of the sites How to guide i was happy with the outcome, not to mention they were free courtesy of my free parts voucher from Vauxhall Trade club.




09/04/15 - The biggest thing i missed was a BT kit. I had a Parrot in my Focus, but i didn't want an add on in the Astra and wanted to have it all looking as OEM as possible. After some research i settled on a kit from Ray Smith. I fit it, and promptly removed it as the kit itself was shocking. Fortunately the the customer service from Ray Smith was excellent (no pictures of this). So now the only route i'm prepared to go down is the Vauxhall route which will be done soon.

To make myself feel better for the BT incident, i fit LED interior lights




10/04/2015 - This seemed to be a good week for tinkering. You can tell i had a couple of days off work lol. With the help of Tucpals how to guide, i fitted LED DRL's. Now usually i steer away from electrics as they're not my strongest but i thought why not. Very happy with the outcome!



18/04/15 - Time to get some wind deflectors. I've always wanted some so when they came up for a good price on Facebook i thought why not



For a couple of months, not alot happened apart from a snow foam and good scrub



07/08/15 - After much frustration (as documented on here) i finally got DAB programmed and working. I've always wanted DAB especially for the mileage i do, so when Russell was selling his roof aerial a month prior, i knew it was time to  do the retrofit. So the aerial was fitted, cabling ran, and it was eventually programme.





So thats it for now. Not the most exhaustive list or the biggest mods, but they'll do for now. Next on my list will be heated seats and OEM BT.

[Rusty2009]

Looking good mate

[tucpal]

Cars is coming along very nice

[Tonto]

Very nice mate, smart looking car!


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[bhalay207]

Cheers guys. Its very much standard to majority on here but i've got it for the next 5yrs so i have plenty of time to tinker.

[tucpal]

Taken me three and a bit years to get to were I am at keep enjoying the car that's the most important part

[Lewis6317]

coming along nicely fella, looks good. Whats the AS1 about??

[bhalay207]

That's the assist function for the radio station. Does yours not have that?

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[Lewis6317]

Yeah i have it just never use it only use fav


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[bhalay207]

Oh. Do you know anything about the D1 National bit?

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[Lewis6317]

Never heard of it lol


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[cornishtaz]

AS1 is autostore it scans then stores any radio stations picked up
D1 National will be for DAB National radio station frequencies

[bhalay207]

I know what the D1 business means, but what I don't know is how to have the radio text showing like on FM. At the moment all it does is show D1 National or the area in which the signal is locked onto.

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[tucpal]

It may be the after market Arial that is not capable of showing it

[bhalay207]

It does show it but only when I press the info button

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[tucpal]

I never tried it with the cd400 so unsure

[bhalay207]

Travelled a fair distance yesterday. Went from Derby to Coventry to collect the heated seats from Ashley, then went to Stoke for the heater controls and back to Derby, all before a night shift.

Anyway, today came and a day off meant I could fit them.

Pics:

Old ones out



'New' ones in:



Thankfully all wiring where it needed to be (even lumbar support wiring on drivers side if ever I want it) resulted in this:




Some people would question what the point is as they are no different. Well I personally am not a massive fan of full leather. I prefer half leather however the SE seats aren't as supportive as the SRI ones, plus I like the standard seats in the SRI, so it was a no brainer for me really.

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[Tonto]

Excellent mate, really jealous haha! I like full leather but my Sri seats are so comfortable! Wonder if I have all wiring there for heated and lumber? Any way to check??


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[tucpal]

its a very good upgrade you will be nice and toasty in the winter
i hardly use the blower heater when the heated seats are on in the winter
well done good upgrade

[WhelanUK]

Glad they all went in ok and you had all the wiring. I'm not aware of anyone else with heated cloth seats.

[bhalay207]

I looked at the plug and saw all it the pins. The only thing I had to do was solder the pretensioner cable as the connector blocks were different. Must be a pre face and facelift thing.

Ashley when I sat in them, there's a massive difference between mine and these. You can tell these are practically new.

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[WhelanUK]

They've only seen about 7000 miles. Glad you like them. Atleast you haven't got to mess with the rear bench.

[bhalay207]

Agreed a sale price of £90 delivered for this fella, just need to pay for it next Saturday.... Ie. Payday!



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[tucpal]

Well done

[bhalay207]

Chuffed with the price. Let's just hope it's worth it haha.

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[tucpal]

Well worth it its so much better

[bhalay207]

Well looks like the deal is falling through. For some strange reason I thought this morning to ask for pictures before paying for the wheel... Turns out the seller was going to be sending me a standard SRI steering wheel. Not impressed!

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[tucpal]

oops glad you checked then

[bhalay207]

I know otherwise I'd have paid £90 for another wheel

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[bhalay207]

Well it's been a while since I've done anything to the car, but an addition of the new euro leave holiday pay entitlement in this month's pay packet meant I could buy myself the private plate I've had my eye on since I was 17!!!

Meet the newly acquired pressed plates sporting the new digits (ignore the fact it's desperate for a clean.... It's up and down the M1 to and from work!)



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[Tonto]

Very nice mate, merry Christmas to yourself


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[bhalay207]

Very nice mate, merry Christmas to yourself


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Cheers mate, same to you too.

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[Rusty2009]

Well it's been a while since I've done anything to the car, but an addition of the new euro leave holiday pay entitlement in this month's pay packet meant I could buy myself the private plate I've had my eye on since I was 17!!!

Meet the newly acquired pressed plates sporting the new digits (ignore the fact it's desperate for a clean.... It's up and down the M1 to and from work!)



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Glad to see I'm not the only one that has a private plate that looks like a normal plate.

[bhalay207]

Having sat and pondered about my grill, I've decided that I don't want a badgeless grill as I quite like the Griffin upfront. Therefore I've decided to plasti dip the chrome strip. Thought I'd get some practice in so it's ready for pvs. I'll let you see my efforts once it arrives



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[tucpal]

have fun

[bhalay207]

have fun

That doesn't fill me with confidence haha

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[tucpal]

its not that hard 4 coats of black and if you want it glossy use glossifier after that
but be patient with peeling around the edges
i have got some coming myself for the front splitter

[bhalay207]

Ahh, sounds easy enough. I want it matt so I should be ok on that front. What do you mean about the peeling? Is it likely to?

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[tucpal]

you will have to peel the bits off that go over the bits where you don't want them.

take a look at this it will help and explain what i mean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otCtkVePX_0

[bhalay207]

That's a really good video, thanks!

What I don't get though is how he can peel it from the body of the car yet it stays attached to the letters/chrome work?

I'm planning on removing the grill strip if it's possible and doing it that way, this way it hopefully reduces the need for peeling

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---

Actually, I've just looked into how to remove the grill.... Looks a pain! Is it possible to remove the Griffin without removing the whole bumper to get the grill out? That way I can do it in the car.

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[Tonto]

Front griffin just twists off clockwise I think it is mate! I'm going to plastidip my front bumper too


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[bhalay207]

Ahh, if that's the case, I'll just do it on my car. Removing the bumper just for the grill looks like a right hassle.

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[Tonto]

Yeah I'm just going to do what @Jonathaneuk done and put paper around and leave it on car!


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[Jerry]

For that reason I took time to well-protected the front end.

[bhalay207]

Protected to an inch of its life Jerry lol

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[bhalay207]

Well it arrived today and I've finished it. I must say it's a very easy product to use.

There's one bit in the corner I'm not happy with but I guess for something that just peels off anyway it's not the end of the world should I have to redo it.






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[Tonto]

Well done mate looks awesome


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[Jerry]

The black grill looks nice mate.

[bhalay207]

Makes a subtle difference to the front of the car. Hopefully it doesn't peel. If it does then I can always redo it. So much easier then painting Haha.

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[tucpal]

much better mate